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The Morning Risk Report: China to Impose Retaliatory Sanctions on GOP Senators Over Xinjiang Penalties
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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is among the GOP senators that China said it planned to sanction. PHOTO: ANDREW HARNIK/PRESS POOL
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Good morning. China’s Foreign Ministry said it planned to impose corresponding sanctions on several senior GOP figures in retaliation for penalties the Trump administration imposed last week on senior Chinese officials accused of carrying out human-rights abuses against Turkic Muslims in the remote Xinjiang region.
The targeted Republicans include U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey and former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, now serving as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. All four are hawkish on China.
[Continued below…]
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Beijing also planned to impose sanctions on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, co-chaired by Mr. Rubio, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a regular press briefing. The U.S. sanctions, imposed Thursday on Xinjiang’s Communist Party boss Chen Quanguo and others, ban travel to the U.S. and access to the U.S. financial system.
“We urge the U.S. to immediately withdraw its wrong decisions, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs or undermining China’s interests,” Ms. Hua said. “We will make further reactions based on the development of the situation.” Ms. Hua offered very few details of what China’s countermeasures would entail, including whether they would apply to all members of the commission, deny use of China’s closed financial system, or involve visa bans to all or part of China.
The European Union and its member states, meanwhile, will take coordinated action to respond to China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Monday, including looking at export bans for sensitive technologies, widening visa possibilities for the island’s citizens and reconsidering extradition arrangements.
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Quiz Probes Allegation of Minimum Wage Breaches at Supplier
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Quiz PLC said it is investigating a reported allegation of minimum wage breaches at a supplier’s factory in Leicester, England, and that it is launching a review of its auditing processes. The women’s fashion brand said its review so far indicates one of the company’s suppliers has used a sub-contractor, contravening its instructions.
“It is this sub-contractor that is subject of the national living wage complaint. Quiz has immediately suspended activity with the supplier in question pending further investigation,” the fashion brand said, adding it would end relationships with any suppliers who fail to comply with its code of conduct.
Last week, peer Boohoo Group PLC’s shares tumbled over similar allegations, also connected to a site in Leicester.
—Matteo Castia
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Ziad Akle, Unaoil's former territory manager for Iraq, in 2017. Mr. Akle was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to give corrupt payments. PHOTO: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Two former Unaoil Group managers were convicted on charges related to a scheme to pay bribes for securing contracts in Iraq, the U.K’s white-collar crimes prosecuting agency said Monday. Prosecutors alleged that the men paid more than $500,000 to public officials in Iraq to win a $55 million contract for offshore mooring buoys for Unaoil and its client, SBM Offshore.
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Banks and mortgage lenders are urging the Trump administration to scrap a plan to water down an Obama-era regulation aimed at combating discrimination in housing, saying it is inappropriate amid the national reckoning on race. Bank of America and Quicken Loans in recent days came out against the initiative, which would make it harder to pursue housing-discrimination cases by raising the burden of proof needed to bring a claim. Lenders were generally supportive of the changes when they were floated last year.
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Bridgewater Associates lost an arbitration dispute it had brought against two former investment employees who started their own hedge fund, a rare setback for Bridgewater that could hamper its ability to limit former employees’ options after they leave the firm.
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A New York judge vacated a temporary injunction against President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, ending a weekslong legal battle to block the release of her tell-all book.
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Passengers walk past thermal imaging cameras at Los Angeles International Airport on July 7. PHOTO: PATRICK T. FALLON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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After many countries reopened schools, businesses and restaurants, governments world-wide are wrestling with another coronavirus dilemma: When to throw open their borders again. It is turning into one of the most complicated decisions of the pandemic, especially as U.S. caseloads rise and many nations confront possible new waves of Covid-19.
Health officials and citizens in many countries are convinced that keeping some restrictions on flights and other arrivals—potentially for months—will be necessary to prevent further infections. Business leaders see reopening borders quickly as vital to getting the global economy fully back on track.
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The U.S. budget deficit surpassed $3 trillion in the 12 months through June as stimulus spending soared and tax revenue plunged, putting the federal government on pace to register the largest annual deficit as a share of the economy since World War II.
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Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said that the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR—a replacement for the scandal-plagued Libor interest-rate reference regime—has fared well amid the stresses seen in the financial system during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Visitors at the Hong Kong Disneyland in mid-June. PHOTO: KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Disney said it would again close the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park, less than a month after it reopened, amid an increase of new coronavirus cases in the city, in a new setback for the entertainment company.
The reversal highlights the challenge a multinational company such as Disney faces in navigating strategies in disparate jurisdictions as governments around the world adopt different approaches to combating the spread of Covid-19. Disney has reopened some of its theme parks at reduced capacities while implementing heightened safety measures.
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Sharon Hall, the longest-serving Black partner at executive-recruiting firm Spencer Stuart, has noticed a cycle: CDOs are appointed to a role, only to discover that corporate promises fall flat. PHOTO: SPENCER STUART
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U.S. companies are rushing to hire chief diversity officers or elevate existing leaders to the position in the midst of pressure to address racial divisions and inequities within their organizations.
The role has long been marked by high turnover, with many in the position, known as CDO, leaving over a lack of resources, unrealistic expectations and inadequate support from senior executives, according to current and former CDOs. They also move because they are in high demand, according to recruiters, who say average tenure is about three years.
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Darrel Blake outside the Bank of England during his slave-trade money trail tour around the City of London on June 20. PHOTO: SIMON CLARK/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The Black Lives Matter movement is reinvigorating a yearslong campaign to push some of London’s oldest financial institutions to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves. City of London companies played an important role for centuries in organizing and funding the trans-Atlantic passage of African slaves and the Caribbean and American plantations where they were forced to work. Companies are so far resisting the calls for reparations, choosing to focus on improving workplace diversity.
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Washington’s NFL team dropped its name of 87 years, the Redskins, bowing to pressure to change a team name widely seen as a racial slur amid the sweeping reckoning over race in 2020.The decision was expected after the franchise announced on July 3 that it was conducting a “thorough review” of the name, a process that was catalyzed by new levels of criticism in a country charged by protests against systemic racism. Politicians, activists and even the team’s own sponsors, such as FedEx Corp., called on the team to get rid of the mascot that dates back to 1933, when the team played in Boston. A new name was not immediately announced.
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U.S. university and college endowments control more than $600 billion of investments. A movement to divest those funds from fossil fuels is gaining momentum. Activists say years of alarm about the costs of climate change have unified a broad base of support, including among the alumni who typically fund endowments.
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Google has launched the Google for India Digitization Fund to invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years. PHOTO: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS
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Google is tightening its ties to India with a $10 billion fund to profit from the country’s digital evolution and prove it shouldn’t be shut out by protectionist policies.
India may be one of the last great untapped digital markets because roughly about half of its 1.3 billion people have yet to get online. It is expected to see the largest increase of new people on the internet in the coming years. Policy makers in New Delhi have been trying to use that opportunity to attract more investment while at the same time support and protect local startups.
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