fortune--2020-01-09--Fortune Poll: Investors See a 2020 Recession Coming—But Think They’ll Make Money

Amazon ’ s Ring Fired at Least Four Staffers Who Tried to Access Customer Data

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It’s hard to lose money when the S&P 500 jumps 28.9%, like it did in 2019. But coming off that big year, how will investors tackle 2020? Will fears of a recession convince investors to cash in their winnings, or will they chase the bull and keep piling money into stocks?
To better understand investors’ plans for 2020 and what’s keeping them up at night, Fortune and Civis Analytics teamed up to survey more than 1,300 investors between December 19-20.
The big numbers you should know:
51%
… of non-retired investors plan to increase their stock holdings in 2020, while 25% plan to decrease their stock holdings.
76%
… of investors think the stock market will rise in 2020, including 19% who think it will rise more than 10%. Only 5% expect a decline in the stock market.
58%
… of investors say a recession is likely in 2020, compared to 42% who say it’s unlikely.
40%
… of investors foresee the presidential election increasing volatility in financial markets in 2020.
7%
… of investors say they own cryptocurrencies.
Big picture takeaway:
Investors are sending a contradictory message. They’re optimistic about financial markets in 2020, but think the economy is likely to enter a recession. Among investors, 58% say a recession is likely in 2020, while only 5% expect a decline in the stock market. But history tell us it’s unlikely stocks would move upward if the economy contracts.
And investors plan to act on that optimism. The majority of investors are planning to buy more stocks and boost their retirement savings in 2020. In fact, those planning to increase their stock holdings outnumber those who plan to shrink them by 2-to-1.
Three deeper takeaways:
1. Investors aren’t shying away from stocks
In August, when the yield curve inverted—an event that often is a forewarning of a recession—the fear on Wall Street was that investors would start to turn away from riskier assets and towards conservative holdings. The experts appear to have been wrong. More than half of investors plan to increase their net stock holdings in 2020.
Not only are investors continuing to turn to stocks, but they’re confident in their short-term returns. Among investors, 49% see stocks growing by more than 5% in 2020. Only 2.3% see stocks declining by more than 5%.
And American investors expect the biggest stock gains to come from home: 78% think the U.S. stock market will outperform international stocks in 2020.
2. Investors plan to jack up retirement savings
Investors are planning to take advantage of the economic good times and increase their nest eggs this year. A total of 52% of non-retired investors plan to up their contributions to their retirement savings in 2020, compared to only 3% who plan to decrease them. That’s great news for firms like Fidelity and Vanguard, which administer millions of retirement accounts.
And 72% of investors are confident they’ll have a comfortable life in retirement, while 10% are unconfident.
3. Investors are bullish on 2020 returns
Only 4% of investors expect their personal investment returns to decline in 2020. That is an incredibly low number give that more than half of investors say a 2020 recession is likely. Remember, during the last two U.S. recessions the S&P 500 dropped 13% (in 2001) and 38.5% in (2008). A lot of investors might be headed for a rude awakening if they’re right about a downturn.
One more interesting number:
57%
… of investors say they plan to leave an inheritance for their family or friends.
*Methodology: The Fortune-Civis Analytics survey was conducted among a national sample of 1,315 investors in the U.S. between December 19-20. The findings have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography.


fortune--2020-01-09--‘They Must Scale Up:’ Greenpeace Ranks China’s Tech Giants on Renewable Energy

Greenpeace released its first-ever renewable energy ranking of China’s biggest tech companies on Thursday. The conclusion? Companies like Alibaba and Tencent are taking steps in clean energy, but they need to do a lot more.
“Many of China’s biggest tech companies have made some progress on renewable energy procurement in recent years, but they still lag behind their global peers. They must scale up their ambition and action,” said Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Ye Ruiqi.
E-commerce giant Alibaba—China’s largest company by market value—scored 60 out of a possible 100 points on the ranking. Tencent, China’s second largest publicly listed company, scored 52 on the report.
Huawei and Baidu each scored 46, while e-commerce company JD.com received just 12 points. Huawei was the only company on the list that has set a greenhouse gas emission reduction target.
Software firm Baosight Software, whose parent company is the state-owned Fortune Global 500 company Baowu Steel, made the bottom of the ranking, receiving just two points.
Internet companies across the globe consume huge amounts of electricity through their data centers, which house the computer servers that store and share website and cloud information.
In China, the electricity consumption of the data center sector is on track to increase by 66% between now and 2023, according to Greenpeace. The “dirty secret” of Internet companies is their massive energy consumption, and currently, China’s data centers run primarily on coal.
21Vianet, the operator for Microsoft data centers in China, scored 21 on the Greenpeace ranking, with zero points out of a possible 40 awarded for its renewable energy performance.
Still, there were exceptions in the data center sector. Chindata Group, a data center operator currently seeking an initial public offering with backing from Bain Capital, was the highest-scoring company on the report with 80 points.
Greenpeace recommendations
Greenpeace collaborated with the North China Electric Power University for the report, which analyzed 15 of China’s biggest cloud companies and data center operators and scored them based on their performance in renewable energy, carbon reduction, and energy efficiency.
The report also evaluated factors like government and industry influence—measuring company cooperation with local governments and national clean energy initiatives—and transparency (researchers only used publicly available information for the report).
The companies Greenpeace evaluated comprise more than 70% of China’s public cloud market and over 85% of its independent data center market. Four out of five companies analyzed, including Alibaba, Baidu, and JD.com, currently do not publicly disclose their total electricity consumption or greenhouse gas emissions data.
The report recommended that all data center operators and Internet companies set targets for 100% renewable energy use. Chindata, which committed to that target in December 2019, is the first China-based data center operator, and the only one on the Greenpeace ranking, to do so.
The data center market in China was worth around $12.3 billion in 2018. It makes up around 11% of the global data center market, the second-largest share after the U.S., and it’s growing. The need for power will only increase with the creation of more data and consumer demand for faster connection speeds and higher-definition video.
“Power consumption from China’s internet industry is skyrocketing, and it’s imperative that Chinese internet giants lead the sector to break away from its reliance on coal.” Ye said.
Greenpeace recommended that companies scale up their renewable energy usage, publicly disclose their energy and emissions data, and collaborate with local governments and grid companies to expand clean energy use. The report concluded, “In the face of the global climate crisis, the internet industry must increase its reliance on clean energy sources.”
Coal-powered electricity is just one climate issue that Chinese tech companies have had a hand in escalating and now face pressure to help solve. Alibaba’s annual Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza produces billions of dollars in sales, as well as millions of tons of packaging waste in a country where as much as 99% of plastic delivery packaging is not recycled.
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fortune--2020-01-09--Amazon’s Ring Fired at Least Four Staffers Who Tried to Access Customer Data

British Airways Empire-Builder Willie Walsh Is Stepping Down as IAG CEO

Amazon said its Ring subsidiary fired at least four employees for improperly seeking access to customer data over the last four years, the latest privacy headache for the video doorbell maker it acquired in 2018.
“Although each of the individuals involved in these incidents was authorized to view video data, the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions,” Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, wrote in response to an inquiry from five Democratic senators about the company’s privacy and data security practices.
The letter doesn’t specify what customer data the employees involved in four separate incidents sought, how many employees were involved, or how many of them successfully gained access to it. In addition to investigating and firing the employees, Ring has taken “multiple actions” to limit data access to a smaller pool of employees, Huseman said.
Ring has been beset by allegations of privacy flubs in the last year, from a report that employees had previously passed around unencrypted footage captured by doorbells, to claims from civil liberties groups that Ring’s partnerships with law enforcement, which allow police departments to ask that doorbell owners turn over footage to aid investigations, risk enabling a government surveillance network.
The company also faces a lawsuit brought by a man who claims someone took control of a video camera installed on his garage and spoke to his children, one among a set of similar incidents that reportedly relied on stolen passwords.
In an interview with CNET, Ring founder and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Siminoff said watching a widely shared video of a similar experience “made me cry. And every time I think about it makes me sad.”
In November, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and four colleagues wrote to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos to express concern about reports of vulnerabilities to systems holding “a vast amount of deeply sensitive data and video footage detailing the lives of millions of Americans in and near their homes.”
The senators asked about policies on deleting users’ footage, security policies, and ambitions on facial recognition. In addition, they focused on reports that developers in Ukraine had “unrestricted access to Ring’s entire camera database in unencrypted form, with each video file reportedly linked to a specific Ring user.”
“If hackers or foreign actors were to gain access to this data, it would not only threaten the privacy and safety of the impacted Americans; it could also threaten U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.
Huseman’s response said that no Ring employees or contractors, including those in the company’s Ukrainian research and development offices, have unrestricted access to customer camera data.
On Monday, in an announcement timed to coincide with the massive CES technology trade show, Ring announced a new feature of its smartphone app designed to centralize privacy and security settings. A Ring spokeswoman said the company planned to enable two-factor authentication, a more secure password protocol, on customer accounts by default.
Senator Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, said Ring’s privacy tools announced this week don’t go far enough. “Ring’s privacy and security problems won’t be solved with a new privacy dashboard,” he said in a statement.
The Ring spokeswoman declined to comment on the terminated employees beyond the details in the letter, which was provided by Wyden’s office. “Privacy, security and user control will always be paramount as we pursue and improve technologies that help achieve our mission of helping to make neighborhoods safer,“ she said in an emailed statement. “We take the protection of customer data very seriously and are always looking for ways to improve our security measures.”
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fortune--2020-01-09--California Labor Law Pushes Uber to Change Fare Structure and App Features

Uber Technologies made changes to its ride-hailing app in California, tweaking fares and features to respond to a new state law designed to reclassify gig economy workers as employees.
Changes for passengers include a shift from showing upfront pricing on trips to showing an estimated price range, the ability to schedule rides with favorite drivers, and adjustments to a rewards program. For drivers, the revamp includes an end to flat surge pricing and the ability to quickly see how much they will make on each ride.
Critically, drivers won’t get punished for rejecting trips they don’t want to make. Uber included a cautionary note, however, that drivers shouldn’t refuse trips solely to avoid certain neighborhoods as doing so would violate the company’s policy and California law.
While the San Francisco-based company announced many of the changes last month, a Wednesday morning email to California riders heralded they were now live and explained that the changes were “due to a new state law.” The labor law, Assembly Bill 5, went into effect a week ago. Uber and Postmates are attempting to block it with a recent lawsuit against the state.
Uber, along with Lyft and DoorDash, is also working to put an initiative on California’s November ballot that would roll back the law while guaranteeing minimum pay of $21 an hour and some benefits for drivers. A group backed by the companies said it began collecting signatures this week for the ballot initiative. It has until June to collect the necessary number to qualify for this year’s election.
While Uber has publicly downplayed the impact of A.B. 5, some analysts have said it’s a concern. Prices for California rides could increase as much as 30% as a result of the new law, according to industry estimates.
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fortune--2020-01-09--What You Need to Know Before Buying CBD Oil or Treats for Your Pet

Companies have unleashed hundreds of CBD pet health products accompanied by glowing customer testimonials claiming the cannabis derivative produced calmer, quieter, and pain-free dogs and cats.
But some of these products are all bark and no bite.
“You’d be astounded by the analysis we’ve seen of products on the shelf with virtually no CBD in them,” said Cornell University veterinary researcher Joseph Wakshlag, who studies therapeutic uses for the compound. “Or products with 2 milligrams per milliliter, when an effective concentration would be between 25 and 75 milligrams per milliliter. There are plenty of folks looking to make a dollar rather than produce anything that’s really beneficial.”
Such products can make it to the shelves because the federal government has yet to establish standards for CBD that will help people know whether it works for their pets and how much to give.
Still, there’s lots of individual success stories that help fuel a $400 million market that grew more than tenfold since last year and is expected to reach $1.7 billion by 2023, according to the cannabis research firm Brightfield Group.
Amy Carter of St. Francis, Wis., decided to go against her veterinarian’s advice and try CBD oil recommended by a friend to treat Bentley, her epileptic Yorkshire terrier-Chihuahua mix. The little dog’s cluster seizures had become more frequent and frightening despite expensive medications.
“It’s amazing” Carter said. “Bentley was having multiple seizures a week. To have only six in the past seven months is absolutely incredible.”
But some pet owners have found CBD didn’t work.
Dawn Thiele, an accountant in Oak Creek, Wis., said she bought a $53 bottle of CBD oil from a local shop in hopes of calming her 2-year-old Yorkshire terrier during long car trips.
“I didn’t see a change in his behavior,” said Thiele, who nonetheless remains a believer.
“The product is good, it just didn’t work for my dog,” she said.
Short for cannabidiol, CBD is a non-intoxicating molecule found in hemp and marijuana. Both are cannabis plants, but only marijuana has enough of the compound THC to get users high. The vast majority of CBD products come from hemp, which has less than 0.3% THC.
CBD has garnered a devoted following among people who swear by it for everything from stress reduction to better sleep. Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which eased federal legal restrictions on hemp cultivation and transport, unleashed a stampede of companies rushing products to the market in an absence of regulations ensuring safety, quality and effectiveness.
Products for people were swiftly followed by CBD chewies, oils, and sprays for pets.
“The growth is more rapid than I’ve seen for any product in 20 years in this business,” said Bill Bookout, president of the National Animal Supplement Council, an industry group whose member companies agree to testing and data-gathering requirements. “There’s a gold rush going on now. Probably 95% of the industry participants are responsible, but what’s dangerous is the fly-by-night operative that wants to cash in.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is developing regulations for marketing CBD products, for pets or people. This year, it has sent warning letters to 22 companies citing violations such as making claims about therapeutic uses and treatment of disease in humans or animals or marketing CBD as a dietary supplement or food ingredient.
“It’s really the Wild West out there,” said S. David Moche, founder of Applied Basic Science, a company formed to support Colorado State University’s veterinary CBD research and now selling CBD online. He advises consumers to look for a certificate of analysis from a third-party testing laboratory to ensure they’re getting what they pay for.
“Testing and labeling is going to be a critical part of the future of this industry,” Moche said.
Wakshlag said products must be tested not only for CBD level, but also to ensure they’re free of toxic contaminants such as heavy metals and pesticides and have only trace amounts of THC, which in higher levels is toxic to dogs.
Bookout said his organization has recorded very few health incidents involving CBD and no deaths.
Still, scientific documentation of CBD’s safety and efficacy is nearly nonexistent.
That’s starting to change, however. A small clinical trial at Colorado State University published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in June found CBD oil reduced seizure frequency in 89 percent of the epileptic dogs that received it.
A clinical study headed by Wakshlag at Cornell, published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science in July 2018, found CBD oil helped increase comfort and activity in dogs with osteoarthritis.
Stephanie McGrath, a Colorado State University researcher, is now doing a larger clinical trial funded by the American Kennel Club’s Canine Health Foundation.
“The results of our first epilepsy study were promising, but there was certainly not enough data to say CBD is the new miracle anti-convulsive drug in dogs,” McGrath said.
Seizures are a natural focus for research on veterinary CBD products, since Epidiolex, the only FDA-approved drug containing cannabidiol, was approved last year for treatment of two severe forms of epilepsy in children. Veterinarians are allowed to prescribe Epidiolex for pets, but it’s prohibitively expensive—upwards of $30,000 a year for an average-size dog, McGrath said.
The Kennel Club’s chief veterinary officer, Jerry Klein, said CBD is “over-hyped” but promising for treatments like pain relief. He’s hopeful that the growing market will result in more money being invested in research to prove uses.
Meantime, the American Veterinary Medical Association is telling veterinarians they can share what they know about CBD with clients but shouldn’t prescribe or recommend it until the FDA gives its blessing.
“There’s no question there’s veterinary interest in these products as therapies, but we really want to see the manufacturers demonstrate that they’re effective and safe and get FDA approval so we can have confidence in the products,” said Gail Golab, chief veterinary officer for the association.
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fortune--2020-01-09--Facebook’s Political Ad Policy Puts the Burden on Users, Not Candidates

As the Dow Hits New Highs , the Bulls Remain in Charge— for Now

Politicians can still lie in their ads on Facebook and aren’t subject to the same fact checking policy as other advertisers. But Facebook users will soon be able to limit the number of campaign ads they see.
“We recognize this is an issue that has provoked much public discussion — including much criticism of Facebook’s position. We are not deaf to that and will continue to work with regulators and policy makers in our ongoing efforts to help protect elections,” Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, says in a blog post on Thursday.
Facebook users in the United States who want to see fewer political ads will have to opt-in when the feature is released sometime this summer, according to Leathern. They’ll also be able to control how an advertiser reaches them based on custom audience lists, which are created when an advertiser or candidate uploads a list of usernames and emails and uses them to target people with ads.
Leathern says the features offer “expanded transparency and more controls for political ads.”
With Facebook refusing to budge on its policy, the onus is on users to not only change their settings, but to also be savvy enough to question the content of an ad. And in the Internet’s biggest echo chamber, where micro-targeting is allowed and users are often shown content that re-enforces their beliefs, critics say the tools are an empty gesture that doesn’t address the root problem.
“Facebook has a terrible record in aligning with user expectations, preferring to claim transparency and controls which Facebook can often manipulate and bury,” says Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade association for the digital industry. “More importantly, Facebook and its Instagram division have done absolutely nothing in the past few years to earn the trust to do what is in the public interest.”
Facebook ad targeting is still a mystery to most users, which raises the question of whether they’ll even bother to limit political ads in their feeds. Nearly three-quarters of users 74% were not aware that Facebook keeps a list of their interests and traits, according to a Pew Research Center study conducted in September and October 2018.
Facebook’s decision to continue allowing politicians to advertise misinformation stands in contrast to its other big tech counterparts. Google now limits the ways political ads can be targeted to users in the United States, letting candidates only target people using broad categories, such as gender or post code. Twitter stopped accepting them, and Spotify is pausing them in the United States ahead of the 2020 election.
“Nearly all of Facebook’s high-margin $70 billion business relies on surveillance and micro-targeted advertising,” says Kint. “They’re doing what is lowest risk for their shareholders with a special focus on the one at the top who has been subpoenaed globally, yet refused to testify to answer questions about their past failures in this area,” he adds, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook has dealt with backlash over the past few months for refusing to fact-check political ads. The issue gained widespread attention after President Donald Trump bought ads on its social network to make unfounded accusations that former vice president Joe Biden of using his position to influence policy in Ukraine to benefit his son’s business dealings.
In response, Adriel Hampton, a California politician, decided to file for candidacy for the 2022 governor’s race so he could run false ads about Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to test Facebook’s policy. One ad claimed McConnell supports impeachment, while another suggested Trump would replace Vice President Mike Pence with Fox News host Sean Hannity. The ads were never taken down.
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fortune--2020-01-09--The House Just Approved a War Powers Resolution. Here’s What That Means

Reigniting a debate over who has the power to declare war, the Democratic-controlled House on Thursday approved a resolution asserting that President Donald Trump must seek approval from Congress before engaging in further military action against Iran.
The war powers resolution is not binding on the president and would not require his signature. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nonetheless insisted it “has real teeth” because “it is a statement of the Congress of the United States.”
The measure will “protect American lives and values” by limiting Trump’s military actions, Pelosi said. “The administration must de-escalate and must prevent further violence.”
The House passed the measure, 224-194, with almost no Republican support. A similar proposal by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., faces an uphill fight in the GOP-run Senate. Kaine’s efforts received a boost Thursday as Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, an ex-Marine, said he might support the war powers measure. Two other Republican senators said Wednesday they would back Kaine’s plan.
“We are members of a separate and distinct branch of government. It is our duty not to take anyone’s word for things as we are dealing with matters of life and death,” Young said, adding that he wished Trump administration officials had provided more intelligence information during a briefing Wednesday on a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.
Pelosi, in announcing the House vote, called the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani “provocative and disproportionate.”
Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, denounced the Democratic measure as little more than “a press release designed to attack President Trump,” while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California called it a ”meaningless vote” on a measure that will never be sent to the president or “limit his constitutional authority to defend the American people.”
The House vote came a day after the Trump administration briefed lawmakers on its actions in Iran. Democrats and several Republicans called the briefings inadequate, adding that officials did not provide enough details about why the attack was justified.
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that Soleimani “was traveling the region making plans to bring an attack against American personnel and American forces.” He said it was not possible to share full details of the intelligence with lawmakers.
“When it comes to intelligence we have to protect sources and methods, there’s only certain amount we can share with every member of Congress,” Pence said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “But those of us who have seen all the evidence know that there was a compelling case of imminent threat against American personnel.”
Trump said Thursday that he “had calls from numerous senators and numerous congressmen and women saying it was the greatest presentation they’ve ever had.”
Referring to criticism by GOP Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul, Trump said: “They want information that honestly I think is very hard to get. … It really had to do with sources and information that we had that really should remain at a very high level.”
Lee, a conservative from Utah, said the briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials was “probably the worst briefing I’ve seen, at least on a military issue,” in the nine years he’s served in the Senate.
Paul, of Kentucky, said administration officials justified killing Soleimani based on the 2002 authorization of force in Iraq. “That is absurd. That’s an insult,” he said.
Pelosi scheduled the House vote after Iran retaliated for the Soleimani killing by launching missiles at two military bases in Iraq that house American troops. No casualties were reported.
The five-page resolution says “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military” unless Congress declares war on that country or enacts legislation authorizing use of force to prevent an attack on the U.S. and its forces.
The resolution’s sponsor, freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said it is intended to “make clear that if the president wants to take us to war, he must get authorization from Congress.”
If loved ones are going to be sent to fight in a protracted war, “the president owes the American people a public conversation about why, and for what ends,” said Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official who served in Iraq.
Members of Congress have a constitutional responsibility to uphold in authorizing use of military force, Slotkin said, adding, “We are owed concrete, specific details on strategy.”
Trump did not consult with congressional leaders ahead of the attack that killed the Iranian general and afterward sent Congress a notification explaining the rationale, but kept it classified.
Congress has allowed its war powers role to erode since the passage of Authorization for Use of Military Force in 2001 to fight terrorism after the 9/11 attacks, and passage of another AUMF for the invasion of Iraq in 2002.
Fallout from those votes deeply divided Congress and the nation, with many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, now saying they were mistakes. Yet Congress has been paralyzed on the question of whether to repeal or change those authorities.
Trump, facing one of the greatest tests of his presidency, said Wednesday that Iran appeared to be “standing down” and said the U.S. response would be to put in place new economic sanctions “until Iran changes its behavior.”
The strikes by Iran had pushed Tehran and Washington perilously close to all-out conflict and put the world’s attention on Trump as he weighed whether to respond with more military force.
Republicans have largely supported Trump’s actions, saying the president was well within his power to take out Iran’s architect of proxy operations against Americans in the Middle East. The U.S. considered Soleimani a terrorist.
Democrats were unconvinced that the threat posed by Soleimani was imminent or that other alternatives to the killing were pursued in good faith. By not disclosing many details of the threat, Trump was asking the American public to trust the very intelligence reports he has often disparaged, Democrats said.
He called Kaine’s resolution a “mechanism to force us to debate this.”
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fortune--2020-01-09--Netflix to Defend Gay Jesus film in Brazil Supreme Court

Netflix said Thursday that it had filed a complaint in Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court, a day after a judge ordered the withdrawal from the platform of a satirical film depicting Jesus as a gay man.
“We strongly support artistic expression and we’ll be fighting to defend this important principle, which goes to the heart of great storytelling,” Netflix said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the film remains available on the platform.
On Wednesday, Rio de Janeiro judge Benedicto Abicair ruled against the film following a petition by a Brazilian Catholic organization that argued the “honor of millions of Catholics” was hurt by the airing of The First Temptation of Christ. The special was produced by the Rio-based comedy group Porta dos Fundos, whose headquarters was targeted in a gasoline bomb attack on Christmas Eve.
In the complaint filed to the supreme court, Netflix’s lawyers argue that the judge’s decision amounts to censorship and has an impact “equivalent to that of the bomb used in the terrorist attack against the headquarters” of the comedy group. “It silences by means of fear and intimidation.”
The ruling has revived scrutiny on what his critics call censorship under the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro. His administration has vowed to fight “cultural Marxism” and openly supports Christian values. Several shows, plays and conferences have been canceled since Bolsonaro took office just over one year ago.
Felipe Santa Cruz, president of the Brazilian Bar Association, said the ruling went against the Brazilian constitution, which guarantees free expression in the arts, science and communication.
“Any form of censorship or threat to this hard-won freedom is a setback and cannot be accepted by society,” said Santa Cruz, who has clashed with Bolsonaro in the past.
Porta Dos Fundos said in a statement that it stands “against any act of censorship, violence, illegality, authoritarianism and all the things we no longer expected to have to repudiate in 2020. Our job is to make humor.”
In the Christmas Eve attack, several men threw gasoline bombs at the entrance of the headquarters of Porta dos Fundos. No one was injured.
One suspect, Eduardo Fauzi, celebrated the judge’s decision in a video shared by Brazilian newspaper O Globo. “Congratulations to the Brazilian judiciary system, congratulations to the Brazilian people,” Fauzi said from Russia, where he fled to after the attack.
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fortune--2020-01-09--Weak Holiday Season For Macy’s, Penney, and Kohl’s Deepens Turnaround Doubts

Despite a blockbuster 2019 holiday season that saw retail sales (excluding gas, restaurants, and cars) jump 5.1% to $714 billion, according to research firm Customer Growth Partners, department store chains looking for a strong finish to an otherwise weak year fell flat. Kohl’s, Macy’s, and J.C. Penney decked their stores out with new merchandise and programs but the industry’s busiest time of the year did them no favors.
Kohl’s pulled out all the stops for the Christmas period, launching an exclusive apparel and accessories line with the Olsen twins, Elizabeth and James; a limited capsule collection by designer Jason Wu; and a home goods line, Scott Living, by television’s Property Brothers, Drew and Jonathan Scott.
Yet for all its efforts, Kohl’s said on Thursday that comparable sales (a metric that includes business from stores a year old or more and e-commerce) fell 0.2% and blamed a poor showing by its women’s wear. That’s quite a problem considering women’s products generate 28% of Kohl’s revenue. Kohl’s had eked out a small gain in the third quarter only by heavily discounting merchandise.
This was also the first holiday season in which all 1,160 or so Kohl’s stores were handling returns for Amazon, a move aimed at generating store visits by the younger shoppers the department store chain covets. But Kohl’s showing raised concerns that people are simply going to the Amazon returns counter and not walking the rest of the store.
“Initiatives like Amazon returns are good at driving footfall, but Kohl’s needs to convert that traffic into money in its own registers. That needs to be the critical focus in 2020,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, wrote in a research note.
Kohl’s has long bristled at being lumped in with the struggling department store sector. Indeed, about 90% of its locations are outside shopping malls. Problem is, Kohl’s is going toe to toe with Target at hundreds of strip malls, and clearly losing market share to its larger rival.
Target, which has not yet reported holiday sales, has been on a tear for two years, helped by the immense popularity of its new proprietary brands, the latest of which, activewear line All in Motion is just launching. The company has also remodeled hundreds of stores to make them feel and look new. In contrast, Kohl’s has struggled to re-energize many of its own store brands.
Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass said in a statement “we are working with speed to address” and fix the women’s wear business. But that part of the business has been weak for several years now, so it’s not clear how quickly any improvement will come. Kohl’s shares were down 9% in morning trading, and fell by one third over the last year.
As for J.C. Penney, the company again reported a dismal set of numbers, saying that comparable sales fell 7.5% during the quarter. While J.C. Penney CEO Jill Soltau has laid out a credible plan to begin restoring Penney to some semblance of viability, Penney was clearly not on the minds of shoppers this holiday season.
To the naked eye, there was little new on Penney’s store floors to entice shoppers or win them back, according to GlobalData retail. And that will have repercussions beyond the quarter. As Saunders put it: “If people are not coming into stores or onto the website, generating sales is impossible.”
The two reports came a day after Macy’s said its comparable sales were down 0.2% during the holidays, an improvement in that things could have been much worse and were indeed better than its awful third quarter. Macy’s, which will provide investors with a detailed update next month (Kohl’s will do so in March), announced it would close 28 of its namesake stores and one Bloomingdale’s.
Two other troubled retailers, L Brands’ Victoria’s Secret and Bed Bath & Beyond, also reported dismal numbers this week. Victoria’s Secret’s comparable sales fell 12% for November and December, with store visits dropping even more. Meanwhile, during the full third quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond saw sales plummet 8.3% for stores that had been open at least a year. The home goods chain recently ousted six c-suite executives.
One takeaway from the holiday season is that, despite years of turnaround attempts, retailers that had been struggling to adapt to shoppers’ new tastes and habits have little to show in terms of progress. And that’s before the inevitable economic slowdown will do to them.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Holiday return deadlines loom for most major retailers
—L’Oréal’s new at-home device makes personalized beauty products
—How the 2010s changed retail forever
—Consumers are turning away from real fur, but faux fur isn’t a perfect fix
—After a decade of e-commerce, convenience just isn’t enough
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fortune--2020-01-09--As the Dow Hits New Highs, the Bulls Remain in Charge— for Now

The House Just Approved a War Powers Resolution .
Here ’ s What That Means

Investors may very well have vertigo from the already dizzying spate of trading days in 2020. But as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs midday Thursday, moving up over 200 points, some on the Street are predicting markets still have more room to run.
Following a rocky start to the year marked by conflict with Iran, markets not only eased—but leaped—at what seems to be de-escalated tensions between the two nations on Wednesday. From vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Randy Frederick’s perspective, Thursday’s record highs “are not too surprising,” as geopolitical conflicts have historically dropped and popped markets.
But for those like Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, investors’ bullish trading to kick off the new year could be a sign of more upside to come.
“One of the most remarkable things is there have been no shortage of sources that generate the proverbial wall of worry for investors, and the market has managed to distance itself from those underpinnings of anxiety and move … to higher ground,” Hamrick tells Fortune. In addition to markets’ relatively mellow response to geopolitical tensions, Hamrick suggests that from a historical standpoint, the early rally in 2020 feeds into a “historical record that doesn’t guarantee but does suggest that the market ought to do well through the end of the year when it’s all said and done,” he says.
While the new year certainly came in with a bang for investors, analysts are looking to the fundamentals underpinning the economy. What they’re seeing? Plenty of positives that should drive further returns.
From phase one to historical returns
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He’s scheduled trip to Washington next week should seal a phase one trade deal with China, something analysts see as one of the biggest bright spots driving the market. In fact, Frederick believes that, barring anything wholly unexpected, “there’s plenty of reason to think this market can go higher” in 2020 as increasing resolution on the trade front continues to buoy markets. In fact, LPL Financial’s Ryan Detrick thinks that if we see resolution on the China front, markets could even post double-digit returns this year.
Detrick is also looking to slowly rebounding CEO confidence via The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence, which read 43 for the 4th quarter, up from 34 in the 3rd. “Confidence has come back from the corporate side of things, and that could really help to extend this business cycle,” Detrick suggests.
And Schwab’s Frederick suggests that, historically, an election year tends to be one of the best performing years of the four-year election cycle in the markets, noting that “everybody’s optimistic”—whether it be for four more years of Trump, or a new president. As a year that followed nearly 30% market returns, 2020 could be shaping up to see strong performance as well on the back of the economy. “The economic data in general has been … good enough that, if it’s not a drag, the markets can continue to move a little higher,” Frederick says.
What to watch
Investors should keep their eyes peeled for news of a potential retaliation from Iran in the coming weeks, Schwab’s Frederick suggests. But he also sees the upcoming earnings season as an important indicator of how markets could perform following their strong start.
Yet Hamrick cautions: “When we’ve had the market on a run like this, history has suggested that good things don’t last forever—we just don’t know when the lights are turned off in the room where the party’s been held.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How Nissan-Renault became a ‘masquerade of an alliance,’ according to Ghosn
—Investors see a 2020 recession coming—but think they’ll make money
—As investors shrug off Iran concerns, analysts find the complacency ‘disconcerting’
—Laws meant to close down tax havens and shut loopholes could have opposite effect
—What a $1,000 investment in 10 top stocks a decade ago would be worth today
Subscribe to Fortune’s forthcoming Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-01-09--As Climate-Driven Crises Mount, New Activists Are Created

This is the web version of raceAhead, Fortune’s daily newsletter on race, culture, and inclusive leadership. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
The world is burning. And drowning. And fighting about it.
So it’s welcome news that a new crop of environmental activists are working to center communities of color in the climate change conversation, to mitigate risks, seek long overdue justice, or simply contribute to an environmental movement once seen to be the purview of wealthy, white society.
If there ever was a case for radical inclusiveness, this is it—and, it’s worth noting, that climate activist Greta Thunberg herself is making it. “Africa is so hugely underreported when it comes to the climate crisis (as well as everything else…),” she tweeted recently. “If you have a platform—help amplify the voices and stories from Africa. Africa has a key role in the fight for climate justice. Please acknowledge and share their perspective.” And then, she shared their perspectives.
The first installment of the “Black In The Time of Climate Change” series, OneZero, The Guardian’s technology publication, profiles four environmental justice activists who are fighting for communities of color in work that links to climate activism across the globe.
Consider the story of Boynton, a working-class community in southwest Detroit, intentionally created by discriminatory housing practices. Boynton is adjacent to a Marathon oil refinery. The sky over Boynton is a ghastly orange, acid rain is the norm, and the population suffers disproportionately from deadly respiratory disease and Type I diabetes. Vince Martin, an Afro-Cuban who moved to Boynton with his family when he was three, says he’s seen the neighborhood decline over the past three decades as the Marathon campus steadily grew into a 250-acre tank farm. It’s now Michigan’s most polluted zip code, and some 71% of the population is Black.
He’s now an environmental activist. “Eventually a lightbulb goes off and you see that your community is a sacrifice,” he tells OneZero. “We’re actually Dr Frankenstein’s laboratory in Michigan. How you just going to sit here using these people as guinea pigs?”
While Indigenous people have long been ignored as environmental stewards and activists, there are signs that they are getting the attention they deserve.
Here’s just one: High Country News, an award-winning media outfit that covers life in the American West with a dedication to Indigenous issues, is part of ClimateDesk, a wide-ranging journalistic collaboration between a broad group of outfits, including The Atlantic, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, CityLab, Grist, The Guardian, HuffPost, Medium, Mother Jones, National Observer, Newsweek, Reveal, Slate, The Weather Channel, Undark, Wired and Yale Environment 360.
And it seems the youth will lead the way.
HCN recently covered the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) 2019 Convention in Fairbanks, Alaska, one of the largest meetings of Indigenous people in the U.S. The big story: Two teen climate change activists—17-year-old Quannah Chasing Horse (Hans Gwich’in and Lakota Sioux) and 15-year-old Nanieezh Peter (Neetsaii Gwich’in and Diné)—successfully lobbied the Federation to pass a resolution on climate change action, and persuaded them to create a climate change task force within the AFN. The resolution will center climate change issues in the legislative work the AFN does within the Alaska legislature and the U.S. Congress.
I’d love to see them at Davos, wouldn’t you?
And then there’s the rest of us.
New York Times opinion writer Charles M. Blow declared in his most recent column that he’d become a “radical environmentalist,” a label that until recently had been embraced almost entirely by wealthier, white liberals. It’s a master class in becoming aware. “[S]omething happened to me last year,” he begins. He describes a slow-drip of influences—Greta Thunberg’s United Nations speech, Bill Nye the Science Guy’s dramatic and f-bomb exhortation on a burning world, the overwhelming science. Perhaps it was simply becoming the parent of newly adult children and waking up to the enormity of the problems facing the next generation, he writes.
But he’s noticed how the world has changed during his lifetime. Growing up poor, his family produced almost all their own food, and what they bought was largely unpackaged. Now, he’s part of the problem.
“Poor people were the original recyclers before recycling was the norm. Waste was for the wealthy. For that reason we had little trash. When I thought about that in the context of the outrageous amount of trash my family and I now produce, I felt ashamed.”
So now he looks for ways to reduce his personal environmental impact as an individual and an advocate with a big megaphone. “It seems to me that environmentalism involves not only the changes we personally make, but also proselytizing, getting more people to join us,” he says with the zeal of the newly converted.
“I think that the only way to prevent the radical alteration of our planet is to commit to a radical alteration of our own behavior,” he says.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
The C-suite doesn’t believe your diversity data A survey conducted by KPMG of 2,190 senior executives from nine countries finds that only 35% have high confidence in their company’s data and analytics, and a whopping 92% worry about the impact of flawed data on their company’s business and reputation. "Executives and managers are being asked to make major decisions based on the output of an algorithm that they didn't create and don't always fully understand," says Thomas Erwin of KPMG. For HR-related analytics, the data is both thin and relatively new, says Kevin Wheeler, founder and president of the Future of Talent Institute. "We're very early in understanding which analytics are important and which aren't."
Society for Human Resource Management
Megxit, explained Everyone was a royal watcher yesterday, as Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry made an announcement that they would "step back" from their roles in the royal family, seek financial independence, and set up part-time residence in North America. The reactions have been as polarizing as expected. Helen Lewis has an excellent explainer in The Atlantic. "Harry and Meghan have departed from royal protocol by laying the blame for this unhappiness squarely at the door of the media," she begins, and reminds us how Harry has not only always had Markle’s back in the face of horrific and racist coverage, he’s had a long journey of his own, overcoming trauma and struggling with his mental health. “I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person,” Harry wrote in a statement when Meghan sued a British tabloid. “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
The Atlantic
Mississippi’s governor does NOT want a Democratic senator In fact, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant took to Twitter to declare that if Democrat Mike Espy was elected to replace current Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith it would be bad. “If Mike Espy and the liberal Democrats gain the senate we will take that first step into a thousand years of darkness.” Espy, the potential darkness-bringer, would be the first Black senator from the state in nearly 140 years, lost in the runoff for the seat in 2018. Read this for a helpful rundown on the race, and the history of racism in Mississippi politics.
The Root
On Background
How the medical profession sees black women in pain I will warn you now: This essay is rough. It is an excerpt from Thick: And Other Essays, an essential book by Tressie McMillan Cottom, an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. It begins with a horrific story about her treatment by medical professionals during a suddenly troubled pregnancy and ends in tragedy. “When the medical profession systematically denies the existence of black women’s pain, underdiagnoses our pain, refuses to alleviate or treat our pain, healthcare marks us as incompetent bureaucratic subjects,” she writes. “Then it serves us accordingly.”
Time
Leaders, do better Research from the nonprofit Center for Talent Innovation shows what we all suspected was true: Most company sponsors choose talent who look like themselves in terms of race and gender, or as Bloomberg put it in their analysis, they “pick Mini-Me’s.” Turns about 71% of executives have proteges of the same gender and race, and the vast majority reported their mentees had the same management style or skills. The survey comes from a poll of more than 3,200 white-collar executives.
Talent Innovation
What does it mean to be white? One of the enduring problems of talking about race is the default position that white people don’t have one. More specifically, that by being the default idea of good things, like power, beauty, leadership, etc., white people don’t have a way to speak about themselves and their own lived experiences, while also addressing the messy reality of status. Writer and professor Eula Biss grew up in a multi-racial family and has been wrestling with the language around race for a long time. She uses the word “complacent” as an example. “[O]ne of the privileges of being white, is that you can coast through your experience, you can coast through your life without having to think about what your race means to other people, and what your existence in a community means to the people around you.”
On Being
Quote
“Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time. Everyone in this room is in one way or another aware of that. We are in a revolutionary situation, no matter how unpopular that word has become in this country. The society in which we live is desperately menaced, not by Khrushchev, but from within. To any citizen of this country who figures himself as responsible—and particularly those of you who deal with the minds and hearts of young people— must be prepared to ‘go for broke.’ Or to put it another way, you must understand that in the attempt to correct so many generations of bad faith and cruelty, when it is operating not only in the classroom but in society, you will meet the most fantastic, the most brutal, and the most determined resistance. There is no point in pretending that this won’t happen.”
— James Baldwin, "A Talk To Teachers," October 16, 1963


fortune--2020-01-09--Prodigal Son or Unwelcome Fugitive? Carlos Ghosn’s Flashy Return to Lebanon Clashes with a Country i

Prodigal Son or Unwelcome Fugitive? Carlos Ghosn’s Flashy Return to Lebanon Clashes with a Country in Crisis

In downtown Beirut, just a few blocks away from Carlos Ghosn’s multi-million dollar mansion, smoke billows out of flimsy tents set up by protestors occupying the center of the Lebanese capital. They huddle around trash can fires to keep warm amid a Mediterranean downpour, holding their ground despite weeks of clashes with riot police and government loyalists who have at times burned tents or tried to clear their presence from the square.
When asked about the fate of Ghosn, the disgraced former CEO of Nissan and Renault who arrived in Lebanon last week after a daring escape from Japan, they are largely apathetic.
“He has nothing to do with our revolution,” says Tony Khoury, 53, an off-duty security guard wrapped in a scarf, stretching his fingers out over the open flames. “We are fighting corruption; the revolution does not protect thugs or fugitives.”
“Look, he might be innocent, but if he is such a successful businessman, why did he come here smuggled and why did the politicians help smuggle him?” asked Ali Chahla, 46, who works in marketing.
The men hail from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, one of the poorest regions in the country. Like many of the protestors in Lebanon’s three-month old uprising, they are demanding basic infrastructure for their villages: clean water, electricity, garbage collection, and jobs.
Battered by decades of war and instability, Lebanon is one of the world’s most indebted countries and is currently facing a renewed financial crisis as global ratings institutions have downgraded its credit ratings multiple times over recent months, citing fears that the state could struggle to repay loans amid dwindling capital inflows.
With an unemployment rate around 25% and a rapidly devaluating local currency, most Lebanese are struggling to survive on a few hundred dollars per month, a far cry from the $17 million annual salary of Ghosn, once one of the highest paid CEOs in the world.
A warm welcome
The protestors’ skepticism of Ghosn stands in stark contrast to the reception he reportedly received from Lebanese officials who facilitated Ghosn’s mysterious return to his ancestral homeland. They assisted Ghosn, a citizen of Lebanon, France and Brazil, despite him being wanted by Interpol after fleeing house arrest in Japan, where he faces corruption charges.
“I respect the authorities in Lebanon and the hospitality they have extended to me,” Ghosn said at a Wednesday press conference, his first public remarks since his arrest in Japan in November 2018. He fled to Beirut on a private plane, reportedly smuggled in a musical instrument case.
His first stop in Lebanon was the presidential palace to meet President Michel Aoun, Reuters reported, although the president has denied the visit took place. (Ghosn himself refused to confirm or deny the meeting, when asked about it by reporters.)
A portrait of Carlos Ghosn on a billboard in Beirut on December 6, 2018, after the former executive was arrested in Japan. Ghosn, who grew up partly in Lebanon, has been held up by some in the country of an example of a successful member of the large Lebanese diaspora. JOSEPH EID—AFP via Getty Images
President Aoun’s son-in-law, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who spearheads an annual conference to encourage the Lebanese diaspora to invest in their home country, has often touted Ghosn as a model emigrant. A day after his arrest in Japan last year, Bassil said Lebanon’s foreign ministry would stand behind Ghosn, lavishing praise on the ex-auto exec as “a Lebanese citizen who represents one of the Lebanese successes abroad.”
Bassil, who also heads a powerful bloc in parliament, has emerged as one of the main targets of the anti-corruption uprising. Since October, Lebanon has seen the largest protests in its history, with hundreds of thousands of people gathered in squares across the country, often chanting curses at Bassil and other leading Lebanese politicians, many of them millionaires and billionaires. Wealth inequality is massive in Lebanon, with the richest 0.1% of the population estimated to earn as much as the bottom 50%.
A second act?
Fed up with decades of state dysfunction blamed on corruption, protestors have demanded the resignation of all ruling parties, calling for a government composed of technocrats or independent experts. Credited with turning heavily-indebted Nissan into a profitable company, Ghosn’s name has often been floated as a possible savior for Lebanon’s crippling national debt, which at $80 billion is equivalent to over 150% of GDP.
“Look at Carlos Ghosn’s arrival in Lebanon as a doctor’s visit,” tweeted former Lebanese minister Fady Abboud, noting Ghosn’s reputation as a “cost cutter” whose skills could put the country on a “path of serious reform.”
Carlos Ghosn arrives at the Lebanese Press Syndicate ahead of a press conference in the capital Beirut on January 8, 2020. He used the appearance to rail against the Japanese justice system—and appeal to local sensibilities. JOSEPH EID—AFP via Getty Images
During his marathon two-and-half hour press conference, Ghosn seemed to rule out a public role for himself but didn’t shut the door completely.
“I am not a political man, nor do I seek political office, but if someone in the government asked for my expertise, I will provide it for the service of Lebanon,” he said in Arabic, responding to a local reporter’s question. Ghosn also answered questions in French, English, and Portuguese, showcasing his cosmopolitan business prowess and multiple nationalities.
“He didn’t sound like a man who was ready to retire,” says Carmen Geha, professor of public administration at the American University of Beirut. “It was very fishy the way he arrived in the midst of a financial crisis . . . and in the context of demands for technocrats to lead the country.”
If not in public office, Geha says Ghosn could emerge as a behind-the-scenes political financier, using his expertise and wealth to influence economic policies. “He has a lot of what it takes to be a politician in Lebanon: you have to be rich and have powerful foreign friends. He fits the profile.”
Speaking the local language
Ghosn’s packed press conference, which drew a scrum of journalists and was broadcast internationally, was pitched as a global exposé of what he dubbed Japan’s “corrupt and hostile” justice system. But, with his frequent remarks in Arabic and nods to Lebanese pride, the target audience may well have been a local one.
“He has never used his Lebanese identity as much as he has this week,” says Jamil Mouawad, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut. “He needs a safety net in Lebanon, so he is addressing public opinion.”
Ghosn even apologized for a business trip to Israel in 2008; at yesterday’s conference Lebanese journalists raised the possibility of him facing trial over the matter. (Lebanon forbids its citizens from traveling to the Jewish state, with which it remains at war.)
Lebanese anti-government protesters block the Sidon-Beirut highway in the town of Jiyeh, south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on January 3, 2020. Lebanon is in the midst of widespread protests over corruption, and a deepening economic crisis. MAHMOUD ZAYYAT—AFP via Getty Images
In many ways, Lebanon serves as an ideal hideout for Ghosn, not only because he can speak and travel freely, but because the politically-beholden Lebanese judicial system is notorious for failing to prosecute corruption cases at the highest levels of power.
When the Lebanese civil war ended in 1991, a new general amnesty forgave all past crimes, paving the way for the most violent militia leaders to become today’s leading politicians. And over the last 30 years, billions of dollars have been spent on reconstruction and public works contracts—mainly tied to the political elite—while the country continues to lack basic services, such as sewage treatment, public healthcare, and electricity production. Air and water pollution have reached dangerous levels as citizens resort to rampant dumping in waterways and unregulated private generator use.
Amid the dark streets of the city center, some protesters reacted angrily to what they described as the foreign media’s obsession with the Ghosn saga. “Why are all these reporters coming here asking about him,” said one man, who refused to give his name for fear of retribution. “Why don’t they ask about our problems and the corruption we are struggling against every day?”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—7 M&As that defined a decade of dealmaking and reshaped the economy
—3 charts that prove patent power is tilting in Asia’s favor
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—2020 Crystal Ball: Predictions for the economy, politics, technology, etc.
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-01-09--Verizon Unbundles Cable for Cord Cutters

Verizon ripped a page out of T-Mobile’s playbook on Thursday, announcing a slew of changes to its Fios home Internet and TV service that broke from some of the cable industry’s longtime, customer-annoying practices.
In an announcement reminiscent of T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” plans that shook up wireless, Verizon said it was eliminating multi-year contracts, multi-service bundles, weird added fees at the bottom of bills, and other nickel and diming cable features. Instead, Fios will offer Internet at a couple of speeds, priced at $40 to $80 monthly, and a couple of TV packages, priced from $50 to $90. The channel line ups of the TV packages will be more customizable than in the past, as well.
Most important in this era of cord cutting, customers will be able to buy just Internet service and get the lowest pricing without also having to subscribe to TV service. That could be appealing to the millions of consumers who have dropped cable in favor of Netflix and other online-only alternatives.
But whether the moves will have the same impact on the other big cable players as T-Mobile’s widely copied “Uncarrier” strategy had on the wireless industry is yet to be seen. The initial stock market reaction was muted, with shares of Verizon down 1%, Comcast and Altice about unchanged, and Charter Communications up 1%.
That’s probably because there is one big difference that could greatly limit Verizon’s ability to have the same disruptive impact as T-Mobile. While any consumer in the country can sign up for T-Mobile wireless service, only a small fraction of cable and Internet customers even have Verizon’s service as an option.
Among about 100 million U.S. households that subscribe to home Internet service and 80 million to cable TV, Fios has 6 million Internet and 4 million cable TV customers. And Verizon passes only about 15 million homes that could potentially subscribe to Fios, according to the last time it revealed the number at the end of 2017. Since 2010, when Verizon halted major expansion of the service, the carrier has added only one new city (Boston in 2018).
Another challenge is that Verizon hasn’t eliminated all of the cable industry’s expensive, unwanted features. It will still charge customers extra for equipment, $12 per month for a cable box and $15 per month for a router. To be sure, T-Mobile didn’t eliminate all customer pain points in its first Uncarrier move in 2013, but steadily improved its offerings over subsequent years.
The equation could change significantly as Verizon expands its current, limited 5G home Internet and TV service. Currently available in just a few cities, Verizon is awaiting better gear from hardware makers before expanding much more. The company says it plans for the service to be within reach of 30 million homes within five to seven years.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—7 companies founded in the last 10 years that you now can’t live without
—Electronic health records are creating a ‘new era’ of health care fraud
—Apple, Amazon, and Google want to create a smart home standard
—What a $1,000 investment in 10 top stocks a decade ago would be worth today
—Amazon is on a collision course with employee activists outraged by the climate crisis
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-01-09--A Potential War with Iran—and Other Geopolitical Events—Just Don’t Bounce Oil Prices Like They Used

A Potential War with Iran—and Other Geopolitical Events—Just Don’t Bounce Oil Prices Like They Used To

It’s been the steady drumbeat that has defined the oil market over the last two years. As tensions have mounted between Iran and the U.S., each development—from renewed sanctions to saber-rattling to the threat of outright war—has brought the question: how much are oil prices going to rise?
There are historical reasons for this: conflicts in the Middle East are associated with oil price increases. In the past, they have had such an effect—the lead-up to the 1990 Gulf War, in particular, sparked a prolonged rally—and day-to-day, price spikes are often used as a proxy for just how nervous investors are about global politics.
But if we take the last several days as a guide, convention certainly doesn’t match reality. While Brent crude initially spiked on Friday, following the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, by Wednesday the jump had evaporated.
Oil prices were back where they started—and oil analysts weren’t surprised.
The market now seems to be conditioned to start selling soon after a geopolitical price spike occurs, looking to cash in immediately, knowing the rally will be short-lived, said Eric Nuttall, a senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Parners in Toronto.
After years of oversupply, particularly from the U.S. shale boom, geopolitical shocks just don’t result in persistent oil price pops like they used to.
Oil hits $70
On Monday, the price of Brent crude futures hit $70 per barrel, before settling at $68.91—the highest close in more than three months. But by market close on Wednesday, Brent had not only eliminated the initial rally following Soleimani’s death—which were already fairly modest, building on months of rising prices—but had slid some 4% on the day to end at a more than three-week low.
This may seem counter-intuitive. “Historically, every time you’ve had bombs flying in the Middle East there’s always been risks that something might hit oil infrastructure, because there’s so much of it there,” says Christopher Haines, a crude oil analyst at London consultancy Energy Aspects.
But there are relatively straightforward reasons behind oil’s tepid response. First, the attack on Soleimani didn’t have an immediate impact on the supply of oil—it just stoked fears that supply could be disrupted if the conflict escalated.
A perennial concern is that a conflict in the region could result in Iran closing off the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint. The strait—which links the Persian Gulf and Asian markets, and through which an estimated 40% of the world’s crude passes every day—is bordered on one side by Oman and on the other by Iran.
Iran has pledged to close the strait in the past if war breaks out—and saber-rattling in and near the strait last year resulted in brief oil rallies. But there’s a good reason for Iran to not follow through. After the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, economically crippling the country, one of the few remaining customers for Iranian oil has been China. How does Iranian oil get to China? Through the Strait of Hormuz. And, indeed, the waterway has stayed open during this week’s U.S.-Iran escalation.
But there’s a second factor at play here, too. “Right now, people think that we have an awful lot of oil available,” Haines said.
Oil overload
Texas’s shale boom has redrawn the oil map of the world: the U.S., far from being a massive importer of oil, is now a frequent exporter. In October, the last month numbers were available, crude exports from the country hit around 3.38 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That was a record—and a gain of 1.1 million barrels per day from just a year before.
According to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative, a project that tracks oil data, U.S. exports accounted for around 12% of total global exports that month—far short of Saudi Arabia’s nearly 27%, but a dramatic jump from nearly 0% a decade before.
That’s produced the general feeling that there is no end to the supply, and oil prices have little incentive to rise.
Strikes on Saudi Arabia
To get another sense of why the oil market does little more than shrug at the prospect of the outbreak of war in the Middle East, it’s helpful to look back to September 2019.
Then, drone attacks on an oil refinery and an oil field in Saudi Arabia produced what looked like a “worst case scenario:” the disruption of half of production in the world’s largest oil exporter, amounting to about 5% of the world’s supply. It was a genuine supply hit, during a time when the geopolitical mood was already shaky.
Oil prices acted accordingly, and spiked up to 20% in a single day, the largest one-day jump since the mid-1980s. But then something else happened: prices almost immediately started dropping. In just over two weeks, Brent not only erased that initial gain, but dropped further, taking more than 16% off its post-strike peak. Saudi Arabia had worked quickly to calm global markets and reassure buyers, but, still, the impact was striking—it was like the attacks had never happened at all.
“It’s incredible,” said Nuttall, reflecting on the drop. The belief that there is enough oil to soften any blow to supply has meant that it’s difficult for oil to hold higher, even with a massive shocks, he said. Even a few years ago, he said he could not imagine that happening.
Does that mean that a threat to supply will never again produce a long-term oil price pop?
No, but when it comes to disruptions with lasting effects, the biggest risks don’t necessarily lie in the Middle East anymore; they’re in Texas.
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fortune--2020-01-09--Nancy Pelosi on Articles of Impeachment: ‘I’ll Send Them When I’m Ready’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will “soon” transmit the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, but warned that Senate Republicans are rushing to acquittal without a fair trial.
Pelosi brushed back GOP claims that Democrats are afraid to send the impeachment case to the Senate. And she said she has no concerns about the anxiety some House and Senate Democrats are showing over the standoff with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over the terms of delayed trial. It’s now more than three weeks since the House impeached Trump on charges of abuse and obstruction.
”I’m not holding them indefinitely,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. “I’ll send them over when I’m ready. That will probably be soon.”
Pelosi said she’s waiting for what she wanted from the start — “to see the arena” and “terms of the engagement” that McConnell will use — before sending her House managers to present the articles of impeachment in the Senate.
“We are proud of our defense of the Constitution of the United States,” Pelosi said. “We are concerned the senators will not be able to live up to the oath they take.”
The standoff over Trump’s impeachment trial deepened this week as McConnell said there will be “no haggling” with Democrats as Pelosi demands for more details and witnesses.
McConnell said on Thursday if Pelosi and House Democrats are “too embarrassed” to transmit the articles of impeachment, the Senate will simply move on next week to other business.
“They do not get to trap our entire country into an unending groundhog day of impeachment without resolution,” McConnell said as he opened the Senate.
McConnell’s Senate majority has the leverage Republicans need to launch Trump’s trial toward swift acquittal of the charges, but Pelosi’s reluctance to transmit the articles of impeachment leaves the proceedings at a standstill.
What started as a seemingly minor delay over process and procedures is now a high-stakes showdown between two skilled leaders facing off over the rare impeachment trial, only the third in the nation’s history.
As Pelosi headed toward a morning meeting Thursday, Pelosi told reporters, “I know exactly when” she plans to send the impeachment articles over, but, “I won’t be telling you right now.”
Asked if she had any concerns about losing support from Democrats for her strategy, she said: “No.”
One top lawmaker, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN on Thursday “it’s time” to send over the charges. But shortly afterward, he tweeted that he misspoke: “If the Speaker believes that holding on to the articles for a longer time will help force a fair trial in the Senate, then I wholeheartedly support that decision.”
McConnell, who met with Trump late Wednesday at the White House, suggested last month it would be “fine with me” if the House never sent the articles. More recently, he has drawn on the Constitution’s intent for the Senate to have the ultimate say on matters of impeachment. He scoffed that Pelosi has ‘’managed to do the impossible” by uniting Democrats and Republicans who want the trial to begin.
“There will be no haggling with the House over Senate procedure,” McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday before meeting with Trump at the White House. “We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment. The House Democrats’ turn is over.”
Trump tweeted Thursday that “Pelosi doesn’t want to hand over The Articles of Impeachment, which were fraudulently produced by corrupt politicians like Shifty Schiff in the first place, because after all of these years of investigations and persecution, they show no crimes and are a joke and a scam!” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., led the House impeachment inquiry.
Three weeks have passed since the House impeached Trump on the charge that he abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine’s new leader to investigate Democrats, using as leverage $400 million in military assistance for the U.S. ally as it counters Russia at its border. Trump insists he did nothing wrong, but his defiance of the House Democrats’ investigation led to an additional charge of obstruction of Congress.
Senators from both sides are eager to serve as jurors for Trump’s day in court. The trial will be conducted in the Senate, where Republicans have a thin majority.
The impeachment timeline is complicating the political calendar, with the weekslong trial now expected to bump into presidential primaries. Several Democratic senators are running for the party nomination.
Returning to Washington from the campaign trail, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters she was confident in Pelosi’s plan.
“I have no doubt that she will get this right,” Warren said. ”Some things are more important than politics, and the impeachment of a president is certainly one of those. No one is above the law, not even the president.”
Another 2020 hopeful, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said: “Those articles will come over here for a vote in due time.”
The showdown is expected to be resolved this week, lawmakers said, although Pelosi did not commit to a timetable.
The confrontation over a Senate trial had been building for weeks. But McConnell gained ground when he announced Tuesday that he has support from the majority of senators to start a trial structured like the last one, against President Bill Clinton in 1999. Those proceedings also began without an agreement on witnesses.
It takes 51 votes for agreement on the trial proceedings, and with Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority McConnell has a slight advantage if he can hold GOP senators together. Democrats are trying to peel off support from a few Republicans to support their demands.
McConnell, who has resisted calling new witnesses, expects a speedy trial that will end with Trump acquitted of the charges. He complained about Pelosi’s “endless appetite for these cynical games” and said it will be up to senators to decide if they want more testimony.
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer promised he would force votes on witnesses, requiring senators to choose whether they want to hear from Trump former national security adviser John Bolton and others.
Some Senate Democrats have said the time has come for Pelosi to send the articles so the trial can begin. But aides downplayed any riff between the leaders, saying senators are simply eager to have their say on Trump’s impeachment.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Donald Trump and the power of incumbency
—How the UN’s climate efforts could change the business world
—The wealthiest members of Congress—and how they made their millions
—USPS could privatize as early as next year
—2020 Crystal Ball: Predictions for the economy, politics, technology, and more
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-01-09--Sex Tech Steals the Spotlight at CES

Sex Tech Steals the Spotlight at CES

Despite what you may have read, sex toys are really nothing new at the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas.
Just ask Suki Dunham, whose company, OhMiBod, has exhibited on the main show floor for 10 years. In 2016, in fact, it won a Best of Show award for its Lovelife krush kegel exerciser.
To get into the show the first time, though, OhMiBod had to play a game of semantics with CES, which had a policy of not allowing sex toys at the show. The company’s then-flagship product worked in conjunction with the iPhone (a rarity for sex toys at the time), so it was allowed to be part of the “wireless” section of CES, alongside Verizon and Yahoo. In following years, it was moved the iLounge, near companies offering phone cases and power bricks for iPhone and Android devices.
Dunham says that presence gave her company a big lift, giving her the opportunity to meet vendors, suppliers, and buyers, including one from Target who eventually invited OhMiBod to sell its products at the chain retailer.
“It’s been massive on all different levels,” says Dunham. “We never tried to push the envelope or tried to make a statement, because we want to make people comfortable, so, in turn, they feel more comfortable buying these products or carrying them in their store.”
CES and its chilly attitude about sex emerged into the open last year after CTA, the show’s organizer, gave an Innovation award to Lora DiCarlo for its Ose sex toy. But the organizers then rescinded the award after realizing it was a sex toy.
Lora DiCarlo loudly and very publicly complained about decision. Months after the show, the CTA restored the award and said it had changed its policy regarding adult novelty companies, welcoming them to the show.
This year, 10 companies specializing in sexual wellness, including OhMiBod, are attending CES and showing their products on the floor, alongside the new TVs, smart home devices, and autonomous cars. They’re all hoping the exposure the show brings translates into more sales.
“I think it will help this category to grow significantly,” says Jerome Bensimon, president at adult novelty company Satisfyer, which is also showing its products on the CES show floor. “It’s a product where a lot of people hesitate to buy the first one but once they do, they buy more.”
The reaction from show attendees has bordered on fascination. Turnout at the booths showcasing adult novelties has been steady, as people learn there’s actually a lot of technology behind pleasure products
Sex toys are already a huge industry. In 2018, the category brought in $24.6 billion, according to a study by eSherpa. It’s expected to grow to over $38 billion by 2025.
Beyond the increased media exposure, one of the chief CES benefits for companies in the sex toy industry is the mainstreaming of their products. While it’s not unusual to find adult novelties in Walmart or even Nordstrom these days (which has carried products from JimmyJane), there’s still a lingering taboo factor.
“We’ve demonized human sexuality for too long,” says Lora DiCarlo, founder of the eponymous company. “[At CES,] we’re not being compared to something people normally associate with these products [the porn industry]. We’re reaching a market where people normally wouldn’t have access to these devices. They wouldn’t go in a sex shop. Here, they’re able to touch, to feel and see what the devices are like.”
Last year’s troubles with CES officials certainly helped raise awareness for her company. The company said that Ose, which isn’t yet available, had pre-sales of over $3 million in December after surpassing its initial goal of $1 million in just five hours.
Later this year, DiCarlo (the founder) says she hopes to sell her products through other outlets, including stores like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, where shoppers won’t be scared away by Ose’s $290 price tag.
Mainstream exposure is good, but sex toy companies (even those that reject the label “sex toy,” arguing it makes their product sound frivolous) would be wise to continue working with stores that focus on adult entertainment. OhMiBod may be a CES regular, but Dunham says, for now at least, most of the company’s sales still come from retailers that focus on sex.
“Everything that has happened the last few years at CES is baby steps,” she says. “The sex tech world has always been taboo. There’s been a stigma around them. People talk about them quietly. By being here at CES, people start to see it’s not such a big deal. It helps to destigmatize the category in general.”
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—7 companies founded in the last 10 years that you now can’t live without
—Electronic health records are creating a ‘new era’ of health care fraud
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fortune--2020-01-09--Congress Confronts Its Powerlessness on Iran

President Donald Trump not only failed to inform congressional leaders before ordering a strike in Iraq that killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, he later said that his tweets counted as notification to Congress of any future military action against Iran, a country that the United States is not at war with.
For House Democrats, it was the latest sign that their constitutional power to declare war had eroded to a humiliating nadir.
In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that Democrats would be voting Thursday on a War Powers Resolution, a constitutionally contentious and largely untested Vietnam-era law, in an attempt to limit Trump from further military escalation on Iran. The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), terminates the use of U.S. forces against Iran, except absent a congressional authorization or to defend against an imminent armed attack.
Pelosi added that Democrats would consider another measure sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to prohibit funding for a war in Iran, and a separate measure to repeal the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force against Iraq, which the Trump administration has cited as legal basis for the strike against the Iranian leader in Iraq.
“We expect we are going to take some action in the near term, with respect to demanding that the President follow the Constitution and follow the War Powers Act,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) at a briefing on Wednesday. “And before he takes action, which is not defensive and not responsive to an imminent threat, that he seek and receive the approval of the Congress.”
How effective Democrats would be in changing the President’s behavior, however, remained an open question as it was not lost on members of Congress how much their power had been weakened in the face of increasingly expansive presidential authority.
The War Powers Resolution was passed by Congress after it never declared war in Korea or Vietnam, but administrations have said since that it has not applied in various military missions, such as the 2011 Libya intervention.
The Slotkin measure, a concurrent resolution, would not go to President Trump for signature should it pass both Houses, and therefore, it would have questionable constitutional force.
“War Powers has never been a check, that’s part of the problem. we’re being disregarded by one President after another, and I think it’s time to put a stop to it,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fortune.
However, Khanna, the California Democrat, pointed to the Trump administration stopping the Pentagon’s refueling of Saudi-led jets in the War in Yemen after both Houses of Congress passed a joint resolution under the War Powers Act—that did not become law after Trump vetoed it—as proof that the law does still work. “We’ve seen that this administration does respond to congressional action, especially if it’s bipartisan,” he told reporters.
The Slotkin resolution was expected to pass but gain few, if any, Republican votes in the House. A similar joint resolution invoking the War Powers Act on Iran introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), gained the support of two libertarian-minded Republican senators, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah), meaning it would be very close to passage in the GOP-controlled Senate, as it is expected to be voted on next week.
Classified briefings held by the administration Wednesday on the Soleimani killing angered many lawmakers, who doubted that the administration made the case that the threat from Soleimani was imminent, and said it only strengthened their efforts to act to curtail the President’s war powers. Lee, the Utah Republican senator, said that the briefing was “insulting” and “probably the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve seen.”
House members said that the administration was basing its legal case, which remains classified, on the President’s executive power to act in self defense under the Constitution, and the 2002 Iraq War authorization.
“They’re basing what their doing on Article II and the 2002 authorization and it doesn’t apply today,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) told reporters. “We have talked for a long time about changing that; and this is as good of a reason as any.”
Democrats were starting first, however, with a largely symbolic resolution that they hoped would start a debate. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, said that the hope for the measure was to “force action on the Senate.”
“If you had a War Powers Resolution that has to be signed by the President, I’m not sure Donald Trump would sign a War Powers Resolution,” he said. “I think the question is what’s the best way to force the debate in the Senate.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Donald Trump and the power of incumbency
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—USPS could privatize as early as next year
—2020 Crystal Ball: Predictions for the economy, politics, technology, and more
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-01-09--Facebook Drops the Mic on Political Advertising

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.
Good morning. This is Aric Jenkins, staff writer at Fortune, filling in for Adam. Data Sheet readers might recognize me from my recent deep dives into virtual reality and Airbnb.
Today, Facebook announced tweaks to the company’s much-criticized approach to political advertising. The company’s director of product management, Rob Leathern, said in a blog post that the company plans to roll out greater transparency features for its Ad Library, a public database of ads that’s designed to hold political advertisers accountable. And the company will soon allow users to toggle a feature that shows fewer political or social issue ads in their Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Still, there is no sweeping overhaul to the system that was the subject of so much controversy in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election. Facebook will stand firm on its policy allowing targeted political advertising on its platform: “Ultimately, we don’t think decisions about political ads should be made by private companies,” Leathern wrote. Ads will continue to go un-fact-checked, and campaigns can still microtarget specific audiences, a tool some lawmakers and critics say is particularly effective at spreading disinformation.
To be blunt, it may still be completely possible for politicians to advertise lies on the world’s largest social network. (“We are not deaf to [criticism of Facebook’s position] and will continue to work with regulators and policy makers in our ongoing efforts to help protect elections,” Leathern wrote.)
What’s most interesting to me is that Leathern claims regulators should step in—a plea to government that you might not usually hear from large tech companies. “Frankly, we believe the sooner Facebook and other companies are subject to democratically accountable rules on this the better,” Leathern wrote. But, “in the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies.”
Unlike Facebook, other social media companies have decided to take direct action against political advertising. Google most recently decided to limit the targeting of political ads, notably preventing the ability of campaigns to microtarget based on political affiliation. Not long before, Twitter outright banned all political advertising from the platform. “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted at the time.
Some, especially those concerned that targeted political ads can morph into propaganda, had hoped Twitter and Google’s measures would finally spur Facebook into action. But it seems that this latest announcement might be the company’s final word on the matter ahead of another contentious presidential election in November.
Aric Jenkins
Twitter: @aricwithan_a
Email: aric.jenkins@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Slipping through the cracks. After California passed a law to try to classify Uber drivers as employees of the company, Uber has tweaked its fares and features in an effort to avoid that outcome. Passengers no longer get shown an exact upfront price, just a range, and drivers won't get punished for refusing trips.
Block that kick. Speaking of app redesigns, Twitter is planning to let users limit who can reply to their tweets, a tweak that may mitigate abusive responses. Users will be able to limit responses to only people who follow them or people they have mentioned, or allow no replies at all.
Unbundling. Is it a day of all tweaks? Verizon announced an overhaul of pricing and features for its Fios home Internet and cable service. The changes include simpler, separate choices for each service, the elimination of all of those bogus extra fees at the bottom of the bill, and a discount for Verizon wireless customers.
Listen closely. The podcasting industry continues to mature. Spotify introduced new tools to help podcasters insert targeted ads into shows and collect anonymized listener data.
That's a lot of Candy Crush. And speaking of maturing industries, Apple disclosed that its app store tallied $1.4 billion of sales just in the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, a 16% increase from the same week a year earlier. Apple also said its premium News+ service has reached 100 million monthly active users.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
While Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meat sausages proliferate, some tech companies are going much further in developing new food sources in the lab. A startup called Solar Food has developed a technique to grow all manner of foods at low cost not with plant or animal cells but via bacteria. George Monbiot, a columnist at The Guardian, digs into the implications of this potential hydrogen-powered agricultural revolution.
We are on the cusp of the biggest economic transformation, of any kind, for 200 years. While arguments rage about plant- versus meat-based diets, new technologies will soon make them irrelevant. Before long, most of our food will come neither from animals nor plants, but from unicellular life. After 12,000 years of feeding humankind, all farming except fruit and veg production is likely to be replaced by ferming: brewing microbes through precision fermentation. This means multiplying particular micro-organisms, to produce particular products, in factories.I know some people will be horrified by this prospect. I can see some drawbacks. But I believe it comes in the nick of time.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
‘They Must Scale Up:’ Greenpeace Ranks China’s Tech Giants on Renewable Energy By Naomi Xu Elegant
New Laws Meant to Close Down Tax Havens and Shut Loopholes Could Have the Opposite Effect By Erik Sherman
How Neil Young’s Eccentric Online Home Was Born By Morgan Enos
ClassPass Raises $285 Million—and Hits Unicorn Status By Emma Hinchliffe
This Specialty Pencil Shop Charms Everyone From Creative Professionals to Stationery Lovers By Anna Ben Yehuda Rahmanan
BEFORE YOU GO
Hopefully, even when all of our food is grown in vats, there will still be plenty of wildlife to admire. Paper artist Lisa Lloyd could fill in any gaps. Check out her astonishingly lifelike paper sculptures of bird, bugs, and other creatures.
Aaron Pressman
On Twitter: @ampressman
Email: aaron.pressman@fortune.com