fortune--2020-06-02--Dow Jones edges higher despite continued unrest across U.S.

U.S. stock indexes are moving mostly higher in midday trading Tuesday, following broad gains in global markets as investors hope that the gradual lifting of coronavirus lockdown mandates will put economies ravaged by the outbreak on the path to recovery.
The S&P 500 was up 0.2% after shedding some of its early gains. Financial, industrial and other stocks that would stand to benefit the most from a growing economy moved higher. Energy companies also rose as the price of crude oil headed higher. Technology and communication services stocks were among the laggards. Bond yields were mostly higher, another sign of ebbing pessimism among investors.
The modest gains have the S&P 500 on track for a three-day winning streak, extending the benchmark index’s remarkable two-month rally off a steep skid in February and March as broad swaths of the U.S. economy ground to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, Wall Street’s momentum has not been derailed by the wave of daily unrest across the U.S. that began last week in Minneapolis as a protest over police brutality. Cities across the country have been rocked by violence and destruction for seven days in a row, spurring threats from the White House to send troops in to put down the unrest.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125 points, or 0.5%, to 25,599. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology companies, fell 0.4% after having been up 0.2%. Smaller company stocks had some of the biggest gains. The Russell 2000 index was up 0.6%.
NASA astronauts launched into space by SpaceX on Saturday rang the opening bell from the International Space Station early Tuesday to kick off trading on the Nasdaq.
Stocks have now recouped most of their losses after the initial economic fallout from the coronavirus knocked the market into a breathtaking 34% skid in February and March. The S&P 500 is now down just under 10% from its all-time high in February.
Investors are hoping that the worst of the recession has already passed, or will soon, as governments around the country and around the world slowly lift restrictions meant to corral the outbreak.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 jumped 2% Tuesday as the country opened restaurants, cafes, parks and beaches and launched a contract tracing app to help keep tabs on new contagions. Germany’s DAX, which had been closed Monday, caught up with previous global markets’ gains and surged 3.7%. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.9%. Markets in Asia closed broadly higher.
While more countries and sectors are reopening, activity is expected to remain subdued as social distancing rules complicate plans to get back to business. And fears persist about a possible resurgence in coronavirus outbreaks in some countries. There were 34 new confirmed cases in Tokyo on Tuesday, seeming to reaffirm growing risks as people begin to mingle more in crowded commuter trains with the reopenings of more offices, schools, restaurants and stores. The daily numbers had dropped below 20 recently.
Bond yields were mostly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.67% from 0.66% late Monday.
Oil prices rose. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for July delivery was up 2.3% to $36.25 a barrel. Brent crude oil for August delivery rose 2.6% to $39.31 a barrel.


fortune--2020-06-02--Christian Slater on retelling the Betty Broderick story in the new season of ‘Dirty John’

GOP to look at potential alternative sites for August convention

The story of Betty Broderick has been told before—in news articles, talk shows, a two-part made-for-TV movie starring Meredith Baxter, and even an episode of My Favorite Murder. Now her case is at the center of Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, which premieres Tuesday night on USA.
The second season of the true-crime anthology show focuses on the marriage of San Diego couple Betty (Amanda Peet) and Dan Broderick (Christian Slater), from its early stages to their bitter divorce, which culminates in Betty fatally shooting Dan and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, at their home in 1989.
“It’s told over an eight-episode time period, so I think that helps to delve more deeply into who these people actually were,” Slater says of the new take on the story. As the Brodericks became tabloid fodder, he adds, they were seen as “almost fictional-type characters.”
“You end up losing their humanity,” Slater says. “But I think this show and what [showrunner] Alexandra Cunningham wanted to do was delve more deeply into what actually happened here between these two people.”
To portray Dan Broderick, Slater had to rely on the script and his conversations with Cunningham to get a sense of who he was. “You know, certainly power hungry, certainly egotistical, very controlling,” he says. “I think he felt that he’d built up such an impervious wall around himself through success, that it was impenetrable. Obviously, Betty continued to try to break down that wall—until she found the final solution.”
Slater took some time to chat with Fortune about the role, his fellow cast members, and dramatizing the case. What follows is that conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.
Christian Slater as Dan Broderick in USA’s “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story.” Isabella Vosmikova—USA Network
FORTUNE: Did you have the opportunity to interact with anyone who knew Dan or the Brodericks in general?
Slater: No. The family was left alone. It’s tricky. It’s a difficult story to revisit, so my heart and compassion go out to the family. Having to continue to live with something like this is extraordinarily difficult.
But unfortunately, this marriage, this divorce did garner so much attention—I think it’s an example story. It’s an example of two people who were close. Betty supported him through medical school, through law school, did everything she could to take care of the kids, but then he became successful, worked so hard that again another wall was built between the two of them. I think they lost connection with what it was that brought them together in the first place. So much distance had been created, and then sadly she ended up becoming the person that reminded him of a time that he wanted to forget about altogether. He didn’t want to think about any struggle. He wanted to keep up the appearance of a person who had it all together and almost continuing to play a role. There was something so eccentric about this guy and so flamboyant that there is a sense of performance that he’s giving throughout his life. Everything needs to look good on the surface.
The other thing, too, to look at is what it was like at this particular time. I think one of the saddest aspects of this marriage and the destruction that took place is the fact that maybe the egos were too big or the availability to get access to help, or maybe even just the willingness to ask for help, was much more frowned upon than it is today. Obviously, it’s still in our society something that is judged to a certain degree, but particularly when this moment happened and when this story was taking place, it was shunned a lot more.
Dan doesn’t necessarily come across that well in the show. Neither does Betty, but we get to see her in a sympathetic light even as she starts to unravel. Do you feel you still had an opportunity to portray Dan as someone with layers?
That was something that Alexandra and I talked about from the get-go—she wasn’t really interested in a Snidely Whiplash take on the character. I mean this wasn’t a mustache-twirling guy—I think this was a guy who fell prey to what the standards were or what the idea was of what a man was supposed to be: somebody in charge, somebody in control. It’s not like this is an unusual story. To a certain degree, there’s a stereotypical quality to this—you hear about it all the time. People get married and they get divorced, and the man becomes successful and he ends up marrying his secretary. The endings don’t always end up this way, but to a certain degree, there can be different versions of ugly endings, so I think he’s relatable.
It’s funny to talk to men about this story and hear their points of view, then talk to women and hear their points of view, because some of the men I’ve talked to while doing interviews have expressed the opposite opinion. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with that—I wish there’d been more honesty, more openness on his part, and like I said, more help. I don’t think you can really go through anything in this life solely by self-will and self-determination. I think it’s important to seek out information and ask for help.
Slater (left) with Amanda Peet as Betty Broderick in USA’s “Dirty John.” Slater described his costar as “deeply committed to her interpretation of who Betty was.” Isabella Vosmikova—USA Network)
Your characters were at odds with each other, so what was it like working with Amanda on-set?
She is known as pretty much being a classically hilarious person. I never worked with her before, but we’ve crossed paths, and I always found her to be hilarious in the interactions that we’d had prior to this. I had always wanted to work with her—I think she’s extraordinarily talented. And I’m just thrilled that there was a role that she had the opportunity to really sink her teeth into. And she really did take it by the horns and just—she delved as deeply as she possibly could, so I admired her professionalism. But at the same time she was extraordinarily funny, did keep people laughing on-set, but was deeply, deeply committed to her interpretation of who Betty was.
Did you work with Chris Mason, the actor who plays young Dan in the show? I noticed he did a pretty solid job of sounding a lot like you, actually.
[Laughs] Well, yeah. He had the benefit—that I didn’t have—of being around me. I wasn’t able to be around Dan Broderick. Chris is obviously a fantastic and wonderful actor. We didn’t know each other, but he did shadow me quite a bit and he would sit in on voiceover recordings for the show and he would watch takes, and he’d always be sort of off in a corner, really committed and really wanting to, you know, capture my voice, which is hilarious and great. I think he did an amazing job. You know, it’s nice, because it’s very tricky to find a way to make that seamless. But I’m grateful he was able to do that.
You’ve been working on a bunch of TV shows in recent years—obviously there’s Mr. Robot, but you’ve also done voice work on Archer. This show is presented more as an anthology series, so it’s a one-off season for you. How did this compare to other TV roles you’ve done?
Some of the TV projects that I’ve been involved with have obviously gone on for other seasons and it gives you a longer period of time to discover your character, which is an exciting aspect. I liked the tightness of this story. I like anthology series—it’s basically like shooting a movie. You’re there for four months, and you know it’s a finite experience, so you’re telling a story from point A to point B in a much more compact [way than a regular series] but less compact than it would be if it were a movie. So it gives you a feeling of being able to relax a little bit more, even in the intensity of the scenes that you’re working on. You feel a little less pressure, but you still have to obviously keep it moving along.
But each experience is different and typically great and fulfilling. To go back to Amanda, it was very nice to work with her. Because there [were] some violent moments in the show and those types of things that happened. She and I really wanted to make sure that we kept each other as safe as possible, and we always talked about those moments. Those physical moments of pulling her out of the car, wrestling her to the ground, and all those kinds of beats that we had to re-create—my main concern was safety. And that was her main concern as well.
“He wanted to keep up the appearance of a person who had it all together and almost continuing to play a role,” Slater says of Dan Broderick. Isabella Vosmikova—USA Network)
Did working on this series color your perception of the case in the end?
A lot of this was very fresh to me. This was not a case that I was privy to. Who knows what I was doing when I was in my [twenties], so I didn’t know a great deal about it. At the end of the day, for me, it’s a heartbreaking story. It’s heartbreaking because Betty was somebody who had an idea of what life was supposed to look like and was desperate to cling to that. That was the message that was instilled in her as a young person, and she was obviously willing to go to lengths—great lengths—to maintain and hold onto it and not have what happened happen. She was an intelligent woman. She was a skilled woman. I think she was also put in a position again as a result of the times, of being the happy wife, of looking good.
So much of it becomes about looking good in front of people, in front of the friends that you have at the time. As far as actually dealing with any reality, not a lot of that was happening, And when you’re not dealing with reality, you tend to live in fantasy and delusion land, and that can drive you crazy.
Dirty John: The Betty Broderick story premieres, with two episodes airing back-to-back, June 2 at 9 p.m. ET on USA.


fortune--2020-06-02--‘Just Mercy’ is available to rent for free through the month of June

Just Mercy, the 2019 film starring Michael B. Jordan as civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, will be available to rent for free via digital platforms in the U.S. during the month of June. The announcement, posted to the film’s social media accounts and website Tuesday, comes as protests around the world continue in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“We believe in the power of story. #JustMercy is one resource we can offer to those who are interested in learning more about the systemic racism that plagues our society,” said a tweet on the film’s Twitter account.
The film, based on Stevenson’s real-life work, focuses on his defense of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) in a wrongful murder conviction case. McMillian, who was accused of murdering an 18-year-old white woman in 1986, was eventually released in 1993 after spending six years on death row.
“To actively be part of the change our country is so desperately seeking, we encourage you to learn more about our past and the countless injustices that have led us to where we are today,” a statement on the film’s social media accounts said. “Watch with your family, friends, and allies.”


fortune--2020-06-02--Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang lead the call for monthly coronavirus stimulus payments

The nation is in turmoil. Over 40 million Americans are out of work. There’s talk of yet another round of stimulus payments meant to help Americans through tough economic times, adding billions to the bailout budget.
Yet some politicians have even more ambitious designs. In a virtual town hall on Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and fellow former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang talked up a proposal that would see each American receive a monthly payment of up to $2,000 over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Forty million–plus people lost their jobs within the last 100 days,” Harris said during the town hall, which was held by online criminal justice news outlet The Appeal. “The government should be here for the people in a moment of crisis. People should be able to count on their government to see them and to create a safety net for them, so that these people don’t fall into poverty—or further into poverty—during the course of this pandemic.”
Harris’s proposed bill, which she cosponsored with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would provide up to $2,000 per month to every individual making up to $120,000 annually, with the payment amount gradually reduced for those making over $100,000. Married couples who file jointly would receive $4,000, while those with children would receive $2,000 per child for up to three kids. The payments would be made retroactive to March, and would continue for the duration of the pandemic plus for three months following.
The Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act, as it’s known, was introduced in early May and goes far beyond the one-time stimulus payment offered in the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid bill signed into law in March. But with Senate Republicans and the White House already pushing back against the House Democrats’ $3 trillion follow-up stimulus package, it seems unlikely that the Harris-Sanders-Markey bill will gain much traction on Capitol Hill in an election year.
Still, Harris bemoaned the limited, one-time nature of the government’s fiscal stimulus measures amid a pandemic that appears set to stretch on for months to come. She cited the influence of Yang’s campaign platform—famously built around his “Freedom Dividend” policy, which would give all Americans a universal basic income of $1,000 per month—on her own proposed measure.
“Andrew would talk about the fact that almost half of American families couldn’t afford a $400 unexpected expense; that in 99% of counties, if you’re a minimum wage worker, you can’t afford a market-rate one-bedroom apartment,” Harris noted. “The fact is that the cost of living in America has continually gone up, but wages have remained stagnant.”
Yang himself pointed to the killing of George Floyd, which was allegedly precipitated by Floyd’s use of a counterfeit $20 bill, as indicative of the economic challenges faced by millions of Americans today. He described measures like those proposed by Harris and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—who has also floated the idea of recurring payments to get Americans through the pandemic—as “a real chance to alleviate poverty” in the United States.
“We’re facing a new Great Depression, but there are legislators that have bills on the table that, if enough Americans get behind [them], we can pass today,” Yang said. “What I fought for on the campaign trail is not hypothetical. We have tens of millions of Americans whose lives are disintegrating before our eyes, and we have to tell our government to get its shit together and get money out to the people.”
Proposals like Harris’s appear to be gaining more grass-roots support. During the town hall, Denver restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin delivered a Change.org petition supporting a $2,000 monthly payment that has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures to date.
Monthly stimulus payments, including UBI plans, are also getting a closer second look abroad as countries seek to rebuild their economies and offer aid to the hardest-hit income brackets. Spain, for example, is moving closer to a kind of income plan that would pay beneficiaries a monthly payment of up to 1,015 euros ($1,103) per couple, and up to 462 euros per single adult. Similar measures have been floated in countries ranging from Brazil to Britain.
Harris, for her part, dismissed skeptics and political opponents who claim that measures like the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act are too expensive.
“They’re the same people who passed a tax bill benefiting the top one percent and the biggest corporations of America, and are going to cause us to face a $1 trillion deficit as a result,” she said. “If you want to talk about cost, you can’t do that without talking about the benefit. And the benefit of this outweighs the cost, every way you cut it.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune :


fortune--2020-06-02--Hobbled by the coronavirus, the U.K. and EU resume trade talks, though still far apart on two key st

Hobbled by the coronavirus, the U.K. and EU resume trade talks, though still far apart on two key sticking points

Amid the crippling uncertainty caused by the novel coronavirus and the measures needed to fight it, British businesses still have no idea what will happen to trade with their biggest partner at the end of this year.
Although the U.K. and European Union reached a deal on their divorce in October of last year, and though Brexit officially took place at the end of January, the two are still in a transition period that runs out at the end of 2020: The U.K. is out of the EU but, as far as trade is concerned, it is still effectively a member.
So what happens at the end of December? That’s what the two sides’ negotiators are trying to determine in talks that resumed Tuesday: This is round four. But fans of predictability will find little to hold on to at this point. If anything, the smart money is on a collapse in negotiations.
Writing in a Monday Politico op-ed, Carolyn Fairbairn—head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)—warned that the failure to strike a trade deal is “a real possibility at the end of the year” unless somebody gives some ground.
“Both the U.K. and the EU negotiating teams have rigid mandates and are following them to the letter,” she wrote. “Negotiation by videoconference doesn’t allow for the kind of sideline conversations that normally help smooth differences in trade talks.”
Fairbairn noted that the stockpiles businesses had previously built up to cope with a no-deal Brexit have been used to “plug supply shortages created by the pandemic,” and half the country’s manufacturers are experiencing supply chain problems. Cash reserves have been depleted.
“For many firms fighting to keep their heads above water through the crisis, the idea of preparing for a chaotic change in EU trading relations in seven months is beyond them,” she wrote. “Faced with the desperate challenges of the pandemic, their resilience and ability to cope is almost zero.”
So what are the issues that are holding up some kind of mutually acceptable resolution?
Fishy business
One big issue, random as it may sound, is that of fishing rights.
The EU wants European vessels, from countries such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands, to continue to have fishing access to British waters as they do now. But the British side wants a revised system of quotas that would reserve more of the fish in that territory for British fishermen.
Although the fishing industry constitutes a mere 0.12% of the U.K.’s gross domestic product, this issue formed a major part of the case for Brexit, with campaigners regularly talking about the country “reasserting” control over its waters.
Ironically, as the BBC reported a couple of weeks ago, the U.K.’s historical willingness to sell off its fishing rights means around 55% of the English fishing quota is in the hands of British-registered vessels that are owned by companies in Spain, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
But nonetheless, here we are, and neither side seems likely to budge. The EU’s negotiators can only operate within the mandate set for them by the bloc’s member states, and that mandate calls for maintenance of the status quo. Meanwhile the British government, led by arch-Brexiteer Boris Johnson, would be humiliated if it allowed that to happen.
Level playing field
The other big sticking point revolves around a so-called level playing field for future competition between the U.K. and the EU.
A European idea, this essentially means the U.K. would need to maintain rules equivalent to the EU’s on things such as taxation, climate protection, and state aid, if it is to maintain free trade relations. The U.K. argues that other EU free trade deals don’t include such a concept—which would again be antithetical to the point of Brexit: to free the U.K. from EU rules.
Prime Minister Johnson’s team has been adamant that there will be no trade agreement unless the EU ditches its insistence on the level playing field.
“We have been clear that the U.K. will have high standards and, in many cases, higher standards than those in the EU. However, we cannot accept any alignment with EU rules, the appearance of EU law concepts, or commitments around internal monitoring and enforcement that are inappropriate for [a free trade agreement],” said David Frost, the U.K.’s chief negotiator, in a mid-May letter to his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier.
Now what?
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Johnson told reporters that no compromise was forthcoming. “We have always been clear that there is no question of splitting the difference on the level playing field and fish. We aren’t compromising on these, because our position on these is fundamental to an independent country,” the spokesman said. “Any agreement has to deal with this reality.”
Meanwhile, EU officials are briefing the media that many in Brussels suspect the Johnson administration does not actually want a deal at all, but rather for the two sides’ trade relationship to fall back to default, tariff-laden World Trade Organization rules at the end of the year.
The two sides’ negotiators will provide an update on Friday, after several days of virtual talks. And if they don’t make serious progress, then all eyes will be on the British government, to see if it will request an extension to the Brexit transition period.
The EU side is perfectly willing to allow such an extension, but Johnson has consistently maintained that the transition period will end on Dec. 31. He has until June 30 to change his own mind and request an extension; after that, if no deal is struck by the end of the year, there’s no option to keep negotiating.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan yesterday joined the likes of International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva in urging Johnson’s government to change tack, because of the impact of the pandemic.
“The last thing the country needs as it tries to find a way back from the devastation wreaked by coronavirus is more chaos and uncertainty,” Khan wrote. “I urge the government to put political ideology aside and pursue the pragmatic route of seeking an extension to the negotiations so that we and our European partners can focus on recovery from COVID-19.”
No dice, the government responded. “An extension to the transition period would bind us into future EU legislation, without us having any say in designing it, but still having to foot the bill as we would still have to make payments into the EU budget,” a spokesperson said. “The EU themselves have said that their next budget will be unusual, and we would have no say in what it would go towards.”
“The desire for no further delay is understandable,” wrote the CBI’s Fairbairn in her op-ed. “But while it may be tempting for some to down tools and accept that WTO terms are the best either side can hope for, there are many livelihoods and businesses at stake. The current air of resignation surrounding the Brexit talks must be shaken off.”
The EU might be the larger participant in a potential deal, but the impact of collapsed talks would have implications not just for British jobs and businesses.
When the European Commission last month forecast that EU economic output would contract by 7.5% this year, largely owing to the coronavirus, it added the caveat that this was based on a “purely technical assumption of status quo” in terms of future U.K.-EU trading relations.
If there is no deal, and tariffs are imposed on both sides, that will be anything but the case.


fortune--2020-06-02--Venture capital is calling out racism. But can it put its money where its mouth is?

Major venture capital firms are condemning racism following George Floyd’s death, with the likes of Accel and Benchmark donating to various civil-rights causes and others like First Round or Kleiner Perkins voicing their support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We can, and will, do better,” Kleiner Perkins’ statement read. “In order for society to operate with a higher ethical code and sustain change, it requires all of us to change.”
It’s no secret the venture capital community is far from the most colorful crayon box. While many VCs have voiced support for diversity and called for more inclusivity in their portfolios and in their investing teams, the industry remains far from representative. As systemic racism comes to the fore following the death of Floyd, the pressure is only stronger for investors to put the money where their mouths are.
But here lies the challenge for venture capital firms: The ongoing coronavirus could be a step back for diversity in the industry. In the middle of the pandemic, investors have turned much of their focus to the existing portfolio companies or investments they already know well—doubling down on their existing network—which could leave new, underrepresented founders by the wayside.
It’s also a concern whether diversity will take a step back in the realm of new fund managers. While limited partners are largely committed to funding their current commitments, in the next year or further out, LPs could focus on large existing funds—not only hurting founders of diverse ethnicities, but also those of different genders and geographies.
The private coronavirus investor: KKR has been the most active private equity firm since the coronavirus roiled global markets, according to Bloomberg. KKR has deployed about $12.7 billion around the world since the beginning of March, moving fast even before the market hit its all-time lows to avoid its mistakes from the 2008 financial crisis. By dollar volume, Silver Lake comes in second with $5.9 billion in deals during the same period. Among KKR’s notable deals: KKR’s infrastructure team acquired waste management business Viridor for roughly £4.2 billion ($5.2 billion) while KKR acquired the Wella and Clairol beauty brands from Coty in a $4.3 billion tie-up. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Vacasa, the rental property management startup, raised $108 million in financing. Silver Lake led the round.
- Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, Mass.-based autonomous mobile robots maker for fulfillment warehouses, raised $40 million in Series D funding. Zebra Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Scale Venture Partners.
- Danggeun Market, the startup behind South Korea’s largest neighborhood marketplace and networking app, raised $33 million in Series C funding. Goodwater Capital and Altos Ventures led the round.
- Vention, a Montreal-based manufacturing automation technology company, raised C$38 million ($28 million) in Series B funding. Georgian Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Bain Capital Ventures and White Star Capital.
- Cortex, a São Paulo, Brazil-based company measuring for digital marketing campaigns, raised $22 million in Series B funding. SoftBank’s Latin America Fund led the round and was joined by investors including Redpoint eventures and Endeavor Catalyst.
- Tovala, a Chicago-based meal service and countertop smart oven that scans, steams, broils and bakes chef-crafted meals, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Finistere Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd and Rich Products Ventures
- Ezra, a New York-based provider of early cancer screenings using full-body MRI and AI, raised $18 million in Series A funding. FirstMark led the round and was joined by investors including Jeff Raider and Dave Gilboa of Harry’s and Warby Parker, Vlad Tenev of Robinhood, Fred Destin of Stride VC, and Andrei Dunca of LiveRail.
- Bonusly, a compensation platform, raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Access Venture Partners. Next Frontier Capital, Operator Partners and existing investor FirstMark Capital also participated in the round. Read more.
- Zeleros Hyperloop, a Spain-based mobility startup focused on the hyperloop project, raised €7 million ($7.8 million). Altran led and was joined by investors including Grupo Red Eléctrica, Goldacre Ventures, Road Ventures, Plug and Play, Spanish Angels Capital and MBHA.
- Oloid, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company building contactless biometrics platform for “deskless workers,” raised $5 million in seed funding. Emergent Ventures led and was joined by investors including Unusual Ventures.
- NEOU, a New York-based live streaming and on-demand platform for workouts, raised $5 million in capital from investors including Ares Management CEO Mike Arougheti. Read more.
- Biobot Analytics, a Massachusetts-based company tracking Covid-19 through sewage, raised $4.2 million in funding. The Engine led the round, and was joined by investors including AmFam Institute Impact Fund as well as returning investors Y Combinator and DCVC. Read more.
- Rise Gardens, a Chicago, Ill-based provider of an in-home garden system, raised $2.6 million in seed funding. True Ventures led the round.
- Ahana, a San Mateo-based analytics company, raised $2.25 million in funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) along with participation from Leslie Ventures and other angel investors.
- Temporall, a U.K.-based AI and analytics-based platform for performance, raised over £1 million ($1.3 million) in seed funding. Luminous Ventures led the round.
PE
- Summit Partners made a $37 million minority investment in Appway, a Switzerland-based provider of business process automation software focused on customer management for financial institutions.
- Hunter Boot, a U.K.-based footwear and outdoor lifestyle brand, was recapped with £18.5 million by existing shareholder Pall Mall Legacy, and supported by Searchlight Capital, Pentland, and more.
- Arcline Investment Management acquired a controlling stake in Glebar Company, a Ramsey, N.J.-based maker of turnkey micro machining for the production of guidewire. It also acquired the electrochemical grinding assets of Everite Machine Products from Eureka Equity Partners.
- BDC Capital invested in Beehivr Technology, a Montreal-based provider of mobile applications for sales teams with integrated videoconferencing. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Copperweld, backed by Kinderhook Industries, acquired Seminole Wire & Cable Co, a Pennsauken, N.J.-based provider of specialty wire and cable products. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Enhanced Healthcare Partners is creating a medical-staffing services provider by buying Synergy Surgicalists Inc. and EA Health and merging them into EA-Synergy. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more.
- Osceola Capital recapitalized Central Medical Group, a Flanders, N.J.-based provider of outsourced equipment management solutions for hospices. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Suma Capital acquired a minority stake in Nice People at Work, a creator of analytics for video content providers. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Thoma Bravo agreed to acquire Exostar, a business collaboration platform for aerospace and defense, life sciences and healthcare industries. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Topspin Consumer Partners invested in reCommerce, a selling partner of brands through Amazon. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- AE Industrial Partners acquired Deep Space Systems, a Littleton, Colo.-based provider of payloads, systems and components for the space industry. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Pexco, backed by AEA Investors, acquired Exlon Extrusion, a Greensboro, N.C.-based precision extruder of plastic tubing. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Architect Equity acquired Faultless Brands, a Kansas City, Mo.-based company of consumer products and brands. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Wellspring Capital Management Group acquired Steele Solutions, a Milwaukee, Wis.-based designer and manufacturer of steel infrastructure. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Volkswagen Group invested $2.6 billion in Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based self-driving car startup that raised $1 billion in backing from Ford.
- Western Union Co. is seeking to acquire MoneyGram International, a competing money transfer company, per Bloomberg citing sources. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more.
- Shinsei Bank (TYO:8303) acquired Australia and New Zealand Banking Group New Zealand-based asset finance unit, UDC Finance, for NZ$762 million ($479 million).
- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. agreed to acquire Brandis Tallman, a San Francisco-based investment bank specializing in the underwriting and placement of municipal debt for California issuers. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Emigrant Partners acquired a minority stake Pure Financial Advisors, a San Diego-based financial planning and investment advisory firm. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
BANKRUPTCIES, HANG UPS, AND BREAKUPS
- Templar Energy, an Oklahoma-based oil and gas driller, filed for Chapter 11 protection.
IPOs
- Vroom, a New York-based online used car marketplace, plans to raise up to $318.8 million in an IPO of 18.8 million shares priced between $15 to $17 apiece. It posted revenue of $1.2 billion and losses of $275.7 million in 2019. L Catterton, General Catalyst, and T. Rowe Price back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “VRM.” Read more.
- Shift4 Payments, a Allentown payment processing company focused on the hospitality sector, plans to raise $300 million in an IPO of 15 million shares priced at a range of $19 to $21 apiece. It posted revenues of $731.4 million in 2019 and losses of $58.1 million. Searchlight Capital Partners backs the firm. It plans to list on the NYSE as “FOUR.” Read more.
- Dada Nexus, a Shanghai-based grocery delivery platform, plans to raise $264 million in an offering of 16.5 million ADSs priced between $15 to $17. It posted revenue of $437.8 million in 2019 and a loss of $348.1 million. JD Group (51.4%), Sequoia Capital China (11.4%), and Walmart (10.8%) back the firm. JD.com and Walmart intend to acquire $90 million worth of ADSs in the offering. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “DADA.” Read more.
- Applied Molecular Transport, a South San Francisco-based biotech developing oral therapies for inflammatory diseases, plans to raise $130 million in an offering of 10 million shares priced between $12 to $14 apiece. EPIQ Capaital Group (25.9% pre-offering) and Founders Fund (20.7%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “AMTI.” Read more.
- Calliditas Therapeutics, a Stockholm-based biotech developing therapies for kidney disease, plans to raise $75 million in an offering of 3.8 million ADSs priced at $19.77. It posted sales of $184.8 million in 2019 and a loss of $32.6 million. Stiftelsen Industrifonden (14.9% pre-offering), Linc (12.5%), and Investinor (10.7%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “CALT.” Read more.
EXITS
- GI Partners acquired a majority stake in Blue Stream Fiber, a Coral Springs, Fla.-based provider of broadband and video and voice services to those in South Florida, from Twin Point Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Shamrock Capital acquired Adweek, a news publication for the advertising and brand marketing industry, from Beringer Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- BMC closed its acquisition of Compuware, a provider of mainframe application development, delivery, and performance solutions. Investors including Thoma Bravo and Ares Capital backed Compuware.
F+FS
- OurCrowd is seeking to raise $100 million for its Pandemic Innovation Fund.
- Ofek Ventures raised $110.4 million for its first fund. Read more.
PEOPLE
- TPG appointed Joseph Konzelmann as a Partner and Head of Fundraising for the Eastern U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.
- Webster Equity Partners named Todd Rudsenske as a Partner.
PEOPLE
- TPG appointed Joseph Konzelmann as a Partner and Head of Fundraising for the Eastern U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.
- Webster Equity Partners named Todd Rudsenske as a Partner.
hi
s


fortune--2020-06-02--Wharton’s A.I. expert predicts the future of artificial intelligence in business

This is the web version of Eye on A.I., Fortune’s weekly newsletter covering artificial intelligence and business. To get it delivered weekly to your in-box, sign up here.
Kartik Hosanagar has taught a course on the business impact of emerging tech for 17 years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Lately, interest in the portion of the class that deals with artificial intelligence has been so great that Hosanagar and Wharton last month announced a whole new initiative called Wharton AI for Business.
The project includes a new course on the business implications of A.I. as well as a guest lecture series. The whole thing is backed by a $5 million gift from Tao Zhang and Selina Chin, the Wharton alumni couple who founded the food delivery app Dianping and run the Singapore-based Blue Hill Foundation, respectively.
I spoke to Hosanagar about what he sees happening with A.I. in business, especially in light of the pandemic. He tells me the immediate pressures—both practical and financial—may make it difficult for companies to think more strategically about how to use A.I.
He says companies will be thinking about how to use A.I. to help their employees, many of whom are working from home, be more productive. That may involve things like automating scheduling and I.T. support. And many companies will be looking for ways in which A.I. can save them money. “I think there are going to be a lot of cases of using A.I. for cost cutting and efficiency,” he says. He predicts factory automation and robotics will accelerate.
These efforts, however, are not where the real gains from A.I. lie. The most successful companies, he says, will be those that are able to take a big step back and think about how they can use A.I. to do something far more strategic. “The question is, what can you do uniquely with that technology that everyone else can’t do?”
He uses the example of streaming platforms such as Netflix or Amazon and entertainment companies such as Disney. They face a dilemma because social distancing has disrupted their content creation pipelines: With actors and film crews unable to work in close proximity, production on many shows has had to pause. That may mean a looming gap in new content.
Hosnagar says studios could turn to advanced A.I., similar to the technology used to create deepfakes, to create visually realistic content without actors or film crews. “Those that are able to do this might be able to get more films and TV shows out in a period of scarcity,” he says. “But not every studio can change production the same way.”
Figuring out how best to use A.I. strategically requires a realistic understanding of what your company is actually capable of —not only whether you have the right tech chops, but what your customers want and how this fits with your overall brand and market position.
Much has been written about how Covid-19 may result in further concentration of corporate power. But Hosanagar thinks the pandemic may actually present an opportunity for startups too by removing some of the advantage of having vast amounts of historical data.“With this discontinuity, everyone with those massive datasets has to be cautious,” he says. “It doesn’t totally completely level the playing field, but it does bring us closer.”
Like some other folks I’ve spoken to for this newsletter, Hosanagar thinks the pandemic will accelerate the use of unsupervised learning algorithms, which don’t need big, labelled data sets to train on. He also thinks there is a greater role for reinforcement learning, where A.I. software learns from simulated experience. And he thinks that A.I. systems in the future will have to incorporate a wider diversity of data to become more inclusive of disruptions such as those caused by Covid-19.
As for business strategy, Hosnagar says we are still a long way from A.I. being able to make those kinds of recommendations. “A.I. excels at tasks that are highly repetitive,” he says. “Corporate strategy is not highly repetitive. It is highly creative and there is a lot of projecting out scenarios in situations where there is not a lot of data.” The big decisions that shape the fate of companies will remain in human hands, at least for the foreseeable future.
And with that, here’s the rest of this week’s A.I. news.
Jeremy Kahn
@Jeremyakahn
A.I. IN THE NEWS
Trump signs order potentially banning many Chinese students from studying A.I. in U.S. graduate programs. Donald Trump signed an executive order that took effect on Monday barring anyone affiliated with companies or entities that have assisted China's "military-civil fusion strategy" from obtaining a visa for graduate study in the U.S., according to this story in The National Law Review. The order would apply to many who have worked for Chinese tech companies or universities that have received funding or done work for the Chinese government. The ban is not as broad as one pushed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton that would bar all Chinese students from studying any S.T.E.M. subject in the U.S., but it is a step in that direction.
ACLU sues Clearview over "privacy destroying" face recognition technology. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the controversial startup in Illinois, which has strict laws protecting citizens' biometric data from being used without their consent. The company has claimed its software can recognize almost anyone—but it gathered its data by scraping images from publicly accessible social media without asking permission and often in apparent violation of those sites' terms of service. "If left unchecked, Clearview’s product is going to end privacy as we know it,” ACLU lawyer Nathan Freed Wessler told The New York Times. A company lawyer claimed it had a First Amendment right to gather the data.
Amazon in talks to buy self-driving startup Zoox. At least, that's what The Wall Street Journal reported last week. The paper said that the Everything Company was in "advanced talks" to acquire the once high-flying autonomous car company for a valuation less than the $3.2 billion it achieved in a 2018 funding round, citing people familiar with the matter. Analysts told my Fortune colleague (and Eye on A.I. partner in crime) Jonathan Vanian that the move may be aimed at Amazon's ambition to one day operate a fleet of driverless delivery vehicles.
Microsoft replaces journalists with A.I. software. Microsoft is laying off "dozens" of reporters and editors who work for its Microsoft News and MSN.com products and replacing them with A.I. software that can automatically select news stories and compose headlines. "Microsoft has been using A.I. to scan for content and then process and filter it and even suggest photos for human editors to pair it with," according to a story in The Verge. Business Insider, which first reported the layoffs, said that about 50 journalists in the U.S. would be affected, while The Guardian said that 27 journalists who work for PA Media in the U.K. would be losing their jobs. Formerly known as the U.K. Press Association, PA Media is the British equivalent of the Associated Press and is owned by a consortia of British newspaper groups. It had a contract with Microsoft to curate MSN content.
EYE ON A.I. TALENT
News Break, a Silicon Valley-based news aggregator backed by several Chinese investors including gaming company Net Ease, has appointed Harry Shum as chairman, according to The South China Morning Post. Shum had been the long-time head of A.I. at Microsoft until retiring earlier this year.
Popular video conferencing software company Zoom has hired Velchamy Sankarlingam as president of product and engineering, according to a company blog post. Sankarlingam was previously senior vice president, cloud services development and operations, at VMWare.
IBM has promoted Sumit Gupta to vice president of A.I. strategy and chief technology officer, data & A.I., according to his LinkedIn page. He had previously been Big Blue's VP of products, A.I., machine learning and HPC, Cognitive Systems.
Everguard.ai, an Irvine, California, company that sells A.I.-based worker safety technology, has appointed Mark Bula as chief strategy officer and general manager of its steel industry vertical, according to a report in trade publication AI Authority. Bula was previously part of the management team at Big River Steel.
EYE ON A.I. RESEARCH
OpenAI courted controversy last year with a deep learning algorithm called GPT-2 that could compose long passages of relatively coherent prose from a simple human-written prompt. It was one of several very large pre-trained language models that have shown lots of promise in the past few years.
Well, now OpenAI has a new language model, GPT-3, that is 100 times larger: it takes in some 175 billion different variables during training, making it by far the largest language model ever created (it is also about 18 times larger than Facebook's recent Blender chatbot). Training such a large model requires access to a massive supercomputing cluster, which is what Microsoft has apparently built for OpenAI, according to this story in The Register. One of the interesting things about GPT-3 is that it is the first real evidence of exactly what OpenAI's gaining from its relationship with Microsoft—which has invested $1 billion and signed a strategic partnership with the company. (For more on this, please read my story in the January issue of Fortune.)
OpenAI and other researchers have been trying to show that these gargantuan pre-trained language models come closer to exhibiting a kind of general intelligence—automatically learning all kinds of skills and relationships from ingesting so much language data. The idea is that this enables a single algorithm, with little or no additional training, to accomplish skills that would typically require many different pieces of specialized software. It also means these models can be more easily fine-tuned to achieve excellent performance on some specific tasks. In its research paper on GPT-3, OpenAI reports that the algorithm is able to do all sorts of things besides just generating long passages of prose (it's very good at that, by the way: OpenAI said news stories composed by GPT-3 fooled most human evaluators into thinking they were written by humans). It can also do machine translation, answer trivia questions, and even do basic math.
But the researchers also found some things that ought to ring alarm bells for anyone who thinks that building larger and larger models is going to lead to general intelligence. While GPT-3 performed better than GPT-2 at many tasks, it did not perform 100 times better. In fact, on many skills, such as factual and explanatory answers, language translation, common sense reasoning, and analogies, GPT-3's abilities were better than GPT-2's, but not particularly impressive. So while there do seem to be marginal gains from larger models, there also seems to be clear evidence of diminishing returns.
It seems likely some fundamentally different technique is going to be necessary to achieve the kind of artificial general intelligence that is OpenAI's stated goal.
FORTUNE ON A.I.
Cleaning robots have their moment in the fight against COVID-19—by Jeremy Kahn
What Amazon would gain by buying self-driving car startup Zoox—by Jonathan Vanian
Coronavirus apps’ fatal flaw: Almost everyone has to use them or they won’t work—by Jeremy Kahn
The U.K. may soon change its mind about Huawei, delighting hawks like Trump—by David Meyer
Phone sales plummet amid the coronavirus lockdown—by Aaron Pressman
BRAIN FOOD
The artist Gretchen Andrew is a tech provocateur. The L.A.-based Andrew has established a name for herself by impishly gaming Google's search algorithms, making it seem that her art has been exhibited at well-known contemporary art festivals like Frieze Los Angeles and appeared on the cover of Art Forum. But Andrew isn't trying to con anyone—other than the algorithm, she told me when we spoke last week. (The websites she creates explicitly state they aren't really for Frieze or Art Forum. "Any confusion is likely caused by inherent shortcomings within language exacerbated by technology’s inability to handle nuance," says her Frieze website.)
Andrew, who studied information systems as an undergraduate student and worked for a short while for Google (although never on its search team), says she wants to create "counter-narratives about how things work—how the art world works, how tech works, how the Internet works and what artificial intelligence really is."
Much of Andrew's work intersects with the field of A.I. research known as "adversarial attacks"—ways to fool A.I. algorithms into misclassifying things, often by subtly toying with the training data the algorithm is fed or finding edge cases that the algorithm can't handle. (One of the most famous examples is the M.I.T. researchers who, in 2018, were able to trick a Google vision algorithm into misclassifying images of a turtle as a gun.) Andrew says she prefers trying to game Google's search algorithm because anyone can do it—it requires no special access to the algorithm's training data and no machine learning expertise.
The ease with which she can insert herself into history, she says, ought to be a wake up call for everyone. "I can manipulate the global internet – this is not just about Russian troll farms," she says. (In fact, one of her current projects involves gaming the search results for "the next American president.")
She says she also likes to point out the failings of natural language processing algorithms. For instance, her Frieze website works, in part, because she inserted , images of Frieze carpeting into digital images of a gallery space. The A.I. can't understand the difference in context and so scores Andrew's website higher for relevance. "These classifiers are ultimately being used to make a binary decision, but language is not binary," she says.
Andrew says that despite supposed improvements in Google's search algorithm—including last year's overhaul of the search algorithm to use the large pre-trained language model BERT—she's not noticed any change in how easily she can fool the search engine into ranking her websites at the top.
One of the things she finds most troubling about today's A.I. is its lack of imagination: It can only make predictions based on historical data or generate a novel image that is derivative of the images it has been trained on. "Artificial intelligence is still educated in an entirely backward looking way because we are only able to learn what has already been," she says. "My 'Vision Boards' provide the possibility of what could be." Her websites, featuring objects she calls "Vision Boards" that combine elements of painting, charcoal drawing and collage on canvas, mock the intelligence of artificial intelligence.
So much for A.I. getting smarter.
(If you want to check out more of Andrew's work, she will have a solo show opening at the Monterey Museum of Art this autumn—it will, of course, include a web component for those unable to attend in person. Her work has been supported by the Mozilla Foundation and the Wikipedia Foundation.)


fortune--2020-06-02--‘Simply for doing their jobs’: International monitors condemn attacks on U.S. press freedoms

It’s come to this.
International monitors have condemned the repeated attacks on—and arrests of—journalists on American soil in recent days, recording an alarming spike in violence against the press in the wake of the George Floyd killing and the civil rights protests that have sprung up since.
As of Saturday, 68 such attacks had been recorded by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
At @uspresstracker, we’re working to verify and document at least 68 instances of journalists assaulted, arrested and equipment damaged from protests the last two nights. Follow the incidents we're documenting from protests related to #GeorgeFloyd here : https://t.co/8HqAv8sYmM — U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (@uspresstracker) May 31, 2020
The incidents of violence and intimidation against journalists in U.S. cities recall what human rights observers and peacekeepers often see in war zones or despotic regimes where the rule of law is shaky and press freedoms almost nonexistent. Twitter is full of accounts of reporters being shot by rubber bullets and pepper balls, exposed to tear gas, physically harassed, threatened, and having their vehicles and equipment vandalized or destroyed. “Simply for doing their jobs,” as RSF points out.
Press rights advocates see it as part of a worrying pattern of attacks on America’s free press during the Trump presidency. The United States is ranked No. 45 in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, one notch ahead of Papua New Guinea.
“President Trump’s demonization of the media for years has now come to fruition, with both the police and protesters targeting clearly identified journalists with violence and arrests,” said Christophe Deloire, RSF’s secretary general.
“It has long been obvious that this demonization would lead to physical violence. RSF has warned about the consequences of this blatant hostility toward the media, and we are now witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of violence against journalists in the U.S. RSF calls on all U.S. authorities to ensure the full protection of journalists and honor the country’s founding principles in respecting press freedom,” Deloire added.
“Just crazy”
The open-source investigators at Bellingcat, meanwhile, have tallied more than 100 incidents of attacks on the press as of this morning. They started their investigation the day after a CNN crew, broadcasting live in Minneapolis, were placed under arrest while on air.
“Several of these instances are clearly journalists caught up between violent protesters and police,” says Bellingcat’s Nick Waters. “But in a significant number of cases, the journalists are clearly identifiable as members of the press.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t expect to see such numbers when I started to collect these incidents,” he continued. “I figured there would be a few examples of police activities against journalists. The number of instances, though, is just crazy. And how blatant it is, it’s just crazy as well.”
Waters is an expert in drones, chemical weapons, and disinformation. He often travels to newsrooms to train journalists. (I’ve taken one of his courses on open-source investigations, which is what Bellingcat is probably best known for.)
Its work often focuses on war zones such as Libya and Syria, and in places including Russia, Eastern Europe, and Venezuela where journalists are routinely jailed, intimidated, and sometimes killed.
Bellingcat’s work has formed the basis of all manner of criminal investigations. For example, a collective of open-source online investigators, many of whom work for and with Bellingcat, pieced together a series of summary executions in Libya carried out by Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli in 2016 and 2017.
The investigators painstakingly sifted through postings on Facebook and other social media platforms to piece together the crimes, showing al-Werfalli’s clear role in the killing of his 33 captives at the height of the bloody civil war in that country. Months later, the International Criminal Court used the evidence to issue an arrest warrant for al-Werfalli, the first time prosecutors relied so heavily on open-source social media posts to make their case for war crimes.
Live from Louisville
Bellingcat is using many of the same basic techniques to collect and chronicle evidence of violent acts against journalists in the U.S. who are covering the civil rights protests.
The one that surprised Waters the most? The Wave 3 News team, reporting from Louisville, Ky.
The reporter is clearly marked, wearing a yellow “press” cover, and giving a live stand-up report. At one point, she starts howling in pain. “I’m getting shot,” she screams as her studio colleagues frantically ask what’s going on. The camera then pans to a police officer in full riot gear. He aims his rifle and fires directly at the cameraman. The effect is as if the officer is firing a weapon into America’s living room. The officer doesn’t stop. More shots can be heard fired at the journalists.
The incident was all covered live.
Louisville PD literally shooting rubber bullets at @KaitlinRustWAVE. Shooting a JOURNALIST. pic.twitter.com/VKghQkRpfd — John Colucci 😷 (@johncolucci) May 30, 2020
A police spokesperson later released a statement saying the reporters, WAVE 3 News’ Kaitlin Rust and photojournalist James Dobson, had been following police instructions when the shooting incident occurred.
“Targeting the media is not our intention,” the police statement read. “There was a lot going on last night, and to be fair to both the officer and to Kaitlin, we need to take a deeper look at what happened and what prompted that action. So we have said that we will do that and if there needs to be discipline we will address it.”
Firing at the press while reporting is a tactic Bellingcat’s Waters says is standard practice in Venezuela during street protests. He’s also seen it done by the Israeli defense forces. “There’s no way you can mistake them for anyone other than journalists,” he says of the incident in Louisville.
“It’s very very surprising to see this level of attacks on journalists and the free press,” he adds.
Fortune is part of a collective of media organizations that co-publishes a monthly ranked list of the 10 most urgent press freedom cases. You can read last month’s list here.
Correction and update, June 3, 2020: This post has been updated to include reference to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which recorded 68 attacks against journalists as of Saturday, May 30.


fortune--2020-06-02--EU says Russia should not yet rejoin G7, despite Trump plan

The European Union on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of members of the Group of Seven major economic powers to insist that Russia must not be allowed back into the fold, after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he plans to invite the country to a G7 summit next fall.
Trump said Saturday that he is postponing next month’s G7 summit, and plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea, and India when it does take place. Trump told reporters that he feels the current makeup of the group is “very outdated” and doesn’t properly represent “what’s going on in the world.”
The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, while the 27-nation EU, the world’s biggest trading bloc, also takes part. Russia was suspended in 2014 from the then-G8 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Russia should not be allowed back in until it “changes course and the environment allows for the G8 again to have a meaningful discussion, and this is not currently the case.”
Borrell said that it’s up to Trump, as G7 chair, “to issue guest invitations, and guest invitations reflect the host priorities. But changing membership, or changing the format on a permanent basis, is not the prerogative of the G7 chair.”
Borrell said G7 members “sit together because they share values, interests, and commitments,” and he insisted that given the coronavirus pandemic, “cooperation among like-minded partners is crucial even more in such difficult times.”
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Russia’s “continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and why it will continue to remain out.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said the U.K. would “look at the detail of what the U.S. is proposing,” and also noted that it’s customary for the host to invite other leaders as guests.
Asked whether Russia should be let back in, he said that “we’re yet to see evidence of changed behavior that would justify its readmittance.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she will not personally attend a meeting in the U.S. if Trump goes ahead with it unless the course of the pandemic changes by then.


fortune--2020-06-02--Judge gives control of Joe Exotic’s zoo to Carole Baskin

A federal judge in Oklahoma has awarded ownership of the zoo made famous in Netflix’s Tiger King docuseries to Joe Exotic’s chief rival.
In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Scott Palk granted control of the Oklahoma zoo that was previously run by Joseph Maldonado-Passage—also known as Joe Exotic—to Big Cat Rescue Corp.
The Florida group was founded by Carole Baskin, who also featured prominently in the hit Netflix series. Maldonado-Passage is currently serving a 22-year federal prison term for killing five tigers and plotting to have Baskin killed.
Baskin previously sued Maldonado-Passage for trademark and copyright infringements and won a $1 million civil judgment against him. Palk’s ruling Monday found that ownership of the zoo was fraudulently transferred to Maldonado-Passage’s mother in an attempt to avoid paying the judgment.
The decision said the zoo animals must be removed from the property within 120 days, but it does not detail what should happen to them.
Attorneys representing Big Cat Rescue Corp. did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Maldonado-Passage remains incarcerated in Fort Worth. In a handwritten letter posted Monday on Twitter, he repeated his plea for a presidential pardon.


fortune--2020-06-02--Free scanned books are just piracy by another name

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.
There long has been a strand of Silicon Valley thought that declared that “information wants to be free.” It reached its zenith with the failed music-stealing site Napster. Google built an empire by freely, but legally, scraping intellectual content it didn’t create. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter did it one better by capitalizing on “user-generated” information for which they don’t pay a dime.
Book publishers are pushing back on the latest effort by presumptuous netizens. Four big publishers have sued the Internet Archive, an online group that scanned more than one million books and made them available for free. The Internet Archive rationalized that it’s okay to do so because folks can’t get to the library right now. Never mind that many libraries lend electronic copies of books—copies they pay for.
My allegiance is clear here. Two of the four leading publishers that brought the suit, Penguin Random House and Hachette, have published my books. And I’m a member of the Author’s Guild, which is supporting the litigation. Its president called the Internet Archive’s scheme of posting “copyrighted books without the consent of authors, without paying a dime … piracy hidden behind a sanctimonious veil of progressivism.”
Quite so.
***
Speaking of books and works of art worth paying for, I’ll briefly share, and in one case re-share, some recommendations, each of which might be helpful for those inclined to think quietly about race relations without scanning Twitter or turning on the news.
In December I shared that I had read Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, which I called “ a crushing, elegant, highly readable novel about racism in America.” It has since won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Just recently I finished watching the four-part HBO documentary The Defiant Ones about the producers Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. It’s really good, and if you don’t know the history of ’90s gangster rap, the story will be eye-opening and sadly relevant today. Finally, because I often like to read alongside a certain middle schooler, I’m currently reading, for the first time in about 40 years, To Kill A Mockingbird. The story was fresh in my mind because I saw the Broadway version last year. But it’s a trip to read Harper Lee’s witty dialogue and shockingly raw portrayal of racism.
Reading and watching aren’t the same as speaking out. But they can help with understanding.
Adam Lashinsky
@adamlashinsky
adam.lashinsky@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
I'm all lost in a supermarket. Twitter continued to have its hands full implementing its policies against misinformation. The service blocked posts spreading rumors of a blackout in Washington D.C. and labeled a post from Rep. Matt Gaetz for "glorifying violence." Confusion reigned on TikTok, where posts with hashtags including #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd showed zero views, as if they were being blocked. But TikTok said it suffered a technical glitch affecting many hashtags. In reality, posts tagged with #BlackLivesMatter were viewed over 2 billion times, the company said.
Anticipation is making me wait. Events in the tech community that were shifted from in-person to virtual are now being postponed altogether amid the national protests. Cisco said its Cisco Live customer event would not start today, but did not set a new date. Sony postponed a virtual event about the future of gaming and the new Playstation 5. And Google delayed the introduction of Android 11, which had been scheduled for Wednesday.
A little too close for comfort. With little consensus about how to proceed with contact tracing apps, states and countries are choosing different paths. Some in Congress are concerned that some of those paths are not protecting user privacy sufficiently. A bipartisan group of senators led by Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, is backing legislation to regulate data collection by contact tracing apps. “We’re all irritated our browser history might be sold a thousand times over,” Cantwell said, “but when it's your healthcare history it’s a whole new realm.”
All you can eat. Samsung has a new bundle for its biggest phone fans. For $37 to $48 per month (that's $444 to $574 a year), the new Access service includes a brand new Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, or S20 Ultra, a subscription to Microsoft 365 apps, and 1 TB of cloud storage. Subscribers can upgrade their phones as frequently as every nine months, too.
No one has the range. In the markets, a busy week for the letter Z. Game developer Zynga is buying Turkish mobile-game creator Peak for $1.8 billion. And cloud business data firm ZoomInfo is planning to go public (and confuse would-be investors of that super-popular video conferencing company). Away from the Z's, online car seller Vroom is also planning an initial public offering soon.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Mega retailer Walmart has been testing an artificial intelligence app to catch shoplifters at its self-checkout counters. But the app, developed by an Irish company called Everseen, doesn't work well, at least according to a video some Walmart employees made and sent to Wired. Staff writer Louise Matsakis followed up.
In interviews, the workers, whose jobs include knowledge of Walmart’s loss prevention programs, said their top concern with Everseen was false positives at self-checkout. The employees believe that the tech frequently misinterprets innocent behavior as potential shoplifting, which frustrates customers and store associates, and leads to longer lines. “It’s like a noisy tech, a fake AI that just pretends to safeguard,” said one worker.
The coronavirus pandemic has given their concerns more urgency. One Concerned Home Office Associate said they worry false positives could be causing Walmart workers to break social distancing guidelines unnecessarily. When Everseen flags an issue, a store associate needs to intervene and determine whether shopliftng or another problem is taking place. In an internal communication from April obtained by WIRED, a corporate Walmart manager expressed strong concern that workers were being put at risk by the additional contact necessitated by false positives, and asked whether the Everseen system should be turned off to protect customers and workers.
ON THE MOVE
Struggling augmented reality startup Magic Leap is losing founder and CEO Rony Abovitz. He'll stay on until a replacement is named...Zoom Video Communications hired Damien Hooper-Campbell as its first chief diversity officer. He was in the same role at eBay, and worked at Google and Uber...PayPal CMO and former Apple exec Allison Johnson left the company after 18 months...AT&T's WarnerMedia hired Richard Tom as CTO, replacing Jeremy Legg, who shifts to become EVP and CTO at AT&T Communications. Tom is the former CTO of Hulu...Wipro named Thierry Delaporte as CEO, replacing Abidali Neemuchwala, who stepped down. Delaporte was the COO of Capgemini Group.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Facebook workers slam Mark Zuckerberg over Trump’s inflammatory posts. Here’s what they said By Danielle Abril
SpaceX’s historic crewed rocket launch in photos By Alex Scimecca, Armin Harris, and Aaron Pressman
Cleaning robots have their moment in the fight against COVID-19 By Jeremy Kahn
As Amazon shares top $2,442, Charles Schwab is the latest to offer ‘fractional’ shares By Lucinda Shen
We can’t let the coronavirus slow the march toward gender equality By Hanzade Dogan Boyner
Police scanner apps surge as protests grip America By Robert Hackett
The Coronavirus Economy: A private jet cabin host on what to expect when flying during a pandemic By Rachel King
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a 50% discount for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Some web sites take you right back to when the Internet was mostly just a good thing. That's how I felt when I discovered Adam Amran's Untools site this week. It's a bunch of guides and frameworks "to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems." Insanely useful. (And hat tip to the Dense Discovery newsletter for the link.)
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-06-02--Britain’s ethnic minorities are succumbing to COVID-19 in overwhelming numbers, a controversial repo

Britain’s ethnic minorities are succumbing to COVID-19 in overwhelming numbers, a controversial report shows

People of Black or Asian background in the U.K. are far more likely to fall ill and die from COVID-19, the government said Tuesday, reinforcing months of reports from media, think tanks, and health care officials that the impact on non-white Britons has been disproportionate.
The release of the report on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a pledge that Health Secretary Matt Hancock will face questions in Parliament on Tuesday, came amid some confusion and public outcry over when the report, which was commissioned for release by the end of May, would ever see the light of the day.
Recent accounts in the British press suggested the government was trying to delay the report’s release to avoid stoking racial tensions. The killing in America of George Floyd has triggered street protests in cities the world over, including the U.K. The government denied this was the case.
The report comes at a tense time for the U.K. Protests have also highlighted racism against Black Britons, including the death of ticket officer Belly Mujinga from COVID-19 in April after she was spat on by a man who said he had the virus, alongside the well-documented toll COVID-19 was taking on Black, Asian and other people of an ethnic minority background. In the U.K., the signifier Asian typically refers to people of South Asian background.
Reversed death rates
The report, which also covered age, gender, and geographic location, affirmed previous studies, saying that the pandemic had effectively reversed death rates for Black and Asian patients versus white ones. In the years before the pandemic, white patients had a higher death rate than non-white patients. The opposite is now the case, Public Health England said, characterizing the impact as “disproportionate.”
The overall data “confirms that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, has increased them,” the report concludes.
Taking only age into account—the non-white population is on average younger than the U.K. population as a whole—Black men were 4.2 times as likely to die from the virus as white men, for example.
The disparity was largely explained by a range of social and economic factors, the report said, including the fact that a higher proportion of Black and Asian people live in cities, in overcrowded housing and deprived areas; holding jobs that put them at greater risk of being exposed to the virus; and with lower access to regular health care.
However, even with these additional factors considered, there were still disparities: For instance, those from a Bangladeshi background were more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white people, and those of other non-white ethnicities were between 10% and 50% more likely to die as a result of the virus.
The report’s delay highlights a growing source of frustration in the U.K., as evidence has emerged time and again—including from other government reports—of the disproportionate risk to Black and Asian people from COVID-19, a deep disparity that is also evident in the U.S. The report also affirmed that more than a third of coronavirus patients in critical care had an ethnic minority background, despite that same group making up only 15% of the total population, a figure first reported in early April by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre.
Further analysis from the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, and Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine has also found that people with an ethnic minority background are more likely to become critically ill from COVID-19.
The impact has been dramatic in fields where Black, Asian, and other workers with an ethnic minority background are overrepresented—including health care. While about 21% of the 1.2 million people employed by the U.K.’s National Health Service came from an ethnic minority background as of March 2019, more than 60% of health care workers who have died after contracting COVID-19 came from that same group, according to separate investigations conducted by the Guardian newspaper and Health Service Journal in April and May.


fortune--2020-06-02--Alibaba adds new services to court more U.S. small businesses

China’s Alibaba Group is bulking up its U.S. business—and its enticements for American entrepreneurs to buy and sell goods on its platform.
Alibaba.com, the international business-to-business arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, on Tuesday unveiled new financing and freight-shipping services for small and medium-size businesses. The company is also programming virtual “trade shows” for manufacturers and wholesalers based in the United States, as part of what executives called an effort to help American small-business customers deal with the financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everything we can do to help a small business thrive is what Alibaba.com is all about,” John Caplan, the company’s president of North America and Europe, told reporters during an online presentation.
Boosting small-business sales has long been Alibaba’s stated goal in the U.S., an attractive but tricky market for the Chinese e-commerce giant. Tariff hikes and trade tensions between China and the U.S. have complicated its efforts to get more American businesses using its platform.
But while the company’s core businesses remain online marketplaces Taobao and Tmall, it has also slowly retrofitted its original business, Alibaba.com, into a platform where non-Chinese companies can buy wholesale goods from global manufacturers and wholesalers, including those based outside China. That platform opened to American suppliers last July, and has seen promising growth; in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, Alibaba reported a 17% year-over-year increase in revenues, to $1.4 billion, from Alibaba.com’s international commerce wholesale business.
That’s still tiny compared with Alibaba’s core Chinese retail business, which racked up nearly $47 billion in revenue last year. But more than 10 million businesses are buying goods via the international wholesale platform, and Caplan says that the U.S. has been Alibaba.com’s fastest growing market in the past year, in terms of both the number of wholesale suppliers and business buyers signing up.
Amazon is often cited as Alibaba’s top American rival. But Alibaba’s new financing and shipping options are reminiscent of services offered by other tech giants, like PayPal and Square, which have also tried to deepen their relationships with small-business customers by providing multiple types of back-end services.
“When Jack Ma started the company with his partners, the mission was to make it easy to do business anywhere,” Caplan said, adding that Alibaba.com’s new services “are a substantial milestone in making that true for more and more global and American small businesses.”


fortune--2020-06-02--‘Enough is enough:’ 3 corporate leaders on how to respond to the George Floyd protests

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Companies pledge donations to anti-racist organizations, 50% of women of color consider leaving their employers, and three corporate leaders speak to the George Floyd protests. Have a mindful Tuesday.
– ‘Enough is enough.’ Just a few weeks ago, Emma reported on the record-high number of female CEOs running Fortune 500 companies. It came with a stark caveat: “Not one of the 500 companies on the list has a black woman at the helm.”
The dearth of black women CEOs among the U.S.’s largest corporations reflects the marginalization of black Americans that underpins the protests engulfing the U.S. this week. It also means that when chief executives and other corporate leaders spoke out about the demonstrations and the death of George Floyd yesterday, black female voices were underrepresented in the business world’s commentary on what feels like a watershed moment. Some powerful black women did weigh in, however, and we want to highlight their insight here.
Thasunda Brown Duckett, the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking at JPMorgan Chase, wrote on LinkedIn that “it’s 2020 and enough is enough. We can no longer be silent.” She encouraged her followers to take the simple step of watching the PBS documentary Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. “For those who are asking what can I do…. here is one thing,” she wrote. “We can’t heal without truly understanding the depth of the disease. Yes, it’s painful and my tears are real. But in order to ensure our future is brighter…that real sustainable progress can be made…we have to go on this journey as a human race.”
Endeavor CMO Bozoma Saint John talked to CNBC about the “responsibility for corporate America to talk to its people” about racial injustice. Even if that talk isn’t “perfect,” she said, “acknowledging this very moment in time is extraordinarily important.”
At the same time, companies need to move beyond mere rhetoric.
“I want to see more corporations put their money where their mouths are,” she said. “Of course, talk is cheap. But money isn’t cheap. Money goes to fuel defense. It goes to fuel action…Do something about this. Don’t sit back and throw your hands up and say, ‘It’s not my fault; it’s not my problem.’ It is our problem. It’s our collective problem.”
That problem can feel enormous, but individual responses don’t have to be. “Sometimes, it’s not about changing the entire world,” Saint John said. “If you just look in your own backyard; if you just look in your own company, there are probably things you can do to help make a difference, even in employees’ lives, and that’s what’s most important now.”
In a conversation with Squawk Box, Ariel Investments president and co-CEO Mellody Hobson also encouraged action. “I love this saying: ‘Math has no opinion.’ None. Just count,” she said. Counting will reveal that at all levels of corporate America, “people of color, black and brown Americans, underrepresented minorities, do not show up in the numbers in which we exist in this country.” The answer is to “hold ourselves accountable;” to “set targets like we set targets on everything else.” If that’s done, she said, “we would see this needle move because so much of this civil unrest is tied to economic inequality; that’s just a fact, and we need to move the needle on this economic inequality.”
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- A lifetime first. Rep. Joyce Beatty joined protesters this weekend in her Ohio district. While protesting in Columbus, Beatty was pepper-sprayed by police. It was the first time the 70-year-old congresswoman, with a long history participating in civil rights demonstrations, had been confronted with the police tactic. The Atlantic
- Love thy neighbor. After President Trump posed for a photo with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, registered her anger. "I am outraged," Budde said. "I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop." Washington Post
- Next chapter. A new report from the Working Mother Research Institute found that 50% of women of color are considering leaving their companies within the next two years. When they leave the corporate workforce, after seeing opportunity stall or going in search of better ones, many turn to entrepreneurship: 89% of new women-owned companies are run by women of color. Working Mother
- Money talks. As companies make financial commitments in the wake of George Floyd's death and protests across the country, one notable pledge came from Glossier, led by founder and CEO Emily Weiss. The beauty brand promised $1 million, $500,000 of which will go to organizations like Black Lives Matter and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The other $500,000 is intended to support black-owned beauty businesses. Refinery29
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Editor-in-chief Audrey Cooper is leaving the San Francisco Chronicle.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Iced out. How did Iceland beat the coronavirus pandemic? An aggressive contact-tracing program helped the country, led by Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, not just flatten the curve, but virtually eliminate it. The New Yorker
- Hedging bets. During the coronavirus crisis, hedge funds run by women have outperformed competitor funds run by men. The women-run funds lost 3.5% in the year's first four months compared to the 5.5% loss for all funds—suggesting an aptitude among female managers for managing risk. Financial Times
- Vaccine rich. After divorcing her husband Du Weimin, Yuan Liping is the world's newest female billionaire. Yuan, vice general manager of subsidiary Beijing Minhai Biotechnology, now holds 161.3 million shares of vaccine maker Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, worth $3.2 billion. Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
After reality star’s death, Japan vows to rip the mask off online hate New York Times
'Men don't trust we're strong enough': Somali women push into fish industry Guardian
Abused woman who killed husband is granted the family’s U.K. estate New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait, despite the futility of hope, for a cure for racism."
-Writer Roxane Gay


fortune--2020-06-03--A little-mentioned Brexit wrinkle: heftier costs for Britain’s biggest polluters

Sweden chose a looser lockdown .
The scientist behind the strategy now says the death toll is too high

The U.K. government’s plan to create its own carbon market after it leaves the European Union will likely make it more expensive to burn fossil fuels in the country than ever before.
The proposed emissions trading scheme is a small part of overall Brexit planning, but its success could play a critical part in Britain’s ambition to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The EU’s ETS operates as a cap-and-trade system, with a value of around 34 billion euros ($38 billion) last year, that provides a market incentive to heavy polluters to reduce carbon emissions.
Much of the U.K.’s plans mirror the EU’s auction-based system, but with a few tweaks. About 1,000 U.K. power plants, factories, and airlines covered by the EU market will be part of the new program.
“It’s quite bullish in the ambition there,” said Richard Howard, research director at Aurora Energy Research. “It’s already signaling that this market will be tightened and, consequently, actors within the market will either have to pay a higher price and/or take stronger steps to decarbonize activities.”
Among the proposals are:
Emissions cap initially set 5% below U.K.’s Phase IV of the EU ETS
Plan to adjust cap January 2024 to fall in line with policies to hit net zero
Auctions to continue to be main way of introducing allowances to market
15-pound price auction reserve price
International credits will not be permitted
Ultimately, the carbon price could go as high as 100 pounds per ton of carbon dioxide in the final years of the push to net zero, Howard said.
The EU carbon price has never been above 31 euros a ton since the market started trading in 2005. The contract traded as high as 22.11 euros a ton on Tuesday.
The European market has weathered years of low prices amid a flood of permits, which prevented the contracts from reaching levels that punished polluters for burning fossil fuels.
While there is still a possibility that the country will make an agreement to stay linked with the EU market should negotiations fail, the plan helps prepare the U.K. to be ready if it leaves the bloc without a deal.
“There’s obviously clearly a chance that the U.K. leaves the EU without a formal agreement, which would make a linked scheme impossible,” said Joshua Buckland, director at London-based consultancy Flint Global. “This is preparing for any eventuality.”
Now the government has seven months to prepare a whole new system. That requires setting up a registry, auditing emissions, and preparing businesses for the new process.
The government said it will bring legislation in 2020 so that the U.K. ETS can launch in January 2021.


fortune--2020-06-03--How the coronavirus pandemic laid the ground for racial unrest

This is the web version of CEO Daily. To get it delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
It wasn’t obvious that a virus from China carried by global jet setters would create tinderbox conditions for the worst race riots since the 1960s. But so it did. Perhaps one reason why: Black adults were more than twice as likely as whites to have been laid off or furloughed during the pandemic.
That’s the finding of a Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll taken late last month. The survey found 24% of black adults said they had lost their jobs, compared with 20% of Hispanic workers, 19% of Asian workers, and 11% of white workers. (Full poll results here.) Throw in a race-tinged police killing, and you have fire.
Racial unrest ended up dominating yesterday’s meeting of members of the Fortune CEO Initiative. Among those participating was Ryan Williams–a 32-year-old black entrepreneur who has built a technology-driven real estate investment platform called Cadre, which reportedly has a valuation of at least $800 million. The meeting was off the record, but Williams spoke with me afterwards.
“I could very well have been in that same position because of how I looked,” Williams said of George Floyd. “My professional accomplishments don’t matter that much at the end of the day.” Williams grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and said he had relatives who told stories of their experiences during the Jim Crow days. “Will I be able to tell my children and their children that the world they grow up in is more just? It hit me that we haven’t made that much progress.”
Williams applauded other CEOs for openly discussing the problem, but also called on them to take concrete actions. “Put in place immediate steps that increase diversity and inclusion at the table, actually make metrics related to diversity public, make your interviewing and hiring process public, and incentivize people off that,” he said. That may not prevent the next George Floyd, but “there is no one size fits all solution. There are going to be multiple paths that have to be invested in. As CEOs, one of the best things we can do is start with our own home.”
Separately, thanks to Bruce Simpson of McKinsey, our partner for the event, for surfacing this pertinent quote:
“There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.”
—Vladimir Lenin
This may be one of those weeks. More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
Editor’s note: This post was updated to clarify that it was Williams who grew up in Baton Rouge, and that Cadre’s valuation is north of $800 million, not its assets.
TOP NEWS
Digital tax
The U.S. has had enough of countries such as the U.K. and Brazil hitting its digital giants with new taxes, so it has initiated investigations into such moves. The result could be new punitive tariffs, as well as yet more heightening of trade tensions. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer: "We are prepared to take all appropriate action to defend our businesses and workers against any such discrimination." Reuters
Google suit
Google has been hit with a class action lawsuit by people who accuse it of tracking them even when they are in Chrome's incognito mode. Google says it has always been upfront about the fact that browsing in this mode doesn't stop the collection of data about people's browsing activity—it just stops such information being saved to the user's browser or device. Fortune
China and WHO
Tight information controls and competition within the Chinese public health system led to delays in getting information on the novel coronavirus to the World Health Organization, according to an Associated Press report. In January, the WHO was publicly praising China for its response to the epidemic, but there was a lot of frustration behind the scenes. All in all, information could have come through a few weeks before it did, which might have helped to slow the outbreak. AP
Hong Kong
The British government says it will ease immigration rules for Hong Kong citizens, if mainland China imposes its national security law on Hong Kong as planned. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in a South China Morning Post op-ed that the move would be "one of the biggest changes in our visa system in British history." And while on the subject, here's an explainer from Fortune's Eamon Barrett about how the U.S. reaction to that national security law may pan out. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Hello IPO
IPOs are happening again: Warner Music Group today; ZoomInfo Technologies tomorrow. All in all, there are five flotations happening this week, which seems set to be the biggest week for IPOs this year, so far. If they go well, more will likely follow—though don't expect a return to the robust times of last year. Wall Street Journal
Blackout Tuesday
Yesterday much of the music industry engaged in what was called Blackout Tuesday, with people changing their profile pictures and backgrounds to black boxes, in protest against racial injustice. The campaign was backed by the majors. It did have one notable problem: people were using the #BlackOutTuesday hashtag alongside the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, meaning those searching for the latter term saw a sea of black boxes rather than the useful resources they were looking for. Fortune
Sweden coronavirus
Sweden's notoriously relaxed approach to combating the COVID-19 pandemic may not have been such a great idea, the man behind that approach has admitted. Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell: "If we were to encounter the same illness with the same knowledge that we have today, I think our response would land somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done." Sweden, which declined to close restaurants, shops, gyms and schools, has one of the world's highest coronavirus death rates. Bloomberg
Fauci warning
Infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci has warned that, if a coronavirus vaccine does appear, it may not provide long-term immunity. Fauci: "When you look at the history of coronaviruses, the common coronaviruses that cause the common cold, the reports in the literature are that the durability of immunity that’s protective ranges from three to six months to almost always less than a year." CNBC
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.