Good morning. U.S. regulators and state officials are finding a significant number of imported N95-style masks fall short of certification standards, complicating the response to the coronavirus crisis and potentially putting some front-line workers at greater risk. Recent tests by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that about 60% of 67 different types of imported masks tested allowed in more tiny particles in at least one sample than U.S. standards normally permit.

One mask that Niosh tested, sold in packaging bearing unauthorized Food and Drug Administration logos, filtered out as little as 35% of particles. Another, marked KN95, a Chinese standard similar to N95, had one sample test below 15%, far short of the 95% it advertised, Niosh said. KN95 and N95 both refer to standards that call for masks to block 95% of very small particles.

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The Niosh tests, combined with recalls and additional testing from multiple states, show that millions of substandard masks have been imported from China and other countries as the need for protective gear for workers confronting the pandemic has skyrocketed.

“Niosh is very concerned about this issue,” the institute said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. Niosh, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, used 10 samples from each of the 67 mask types in its tests.

Cloudflare Inc., a provider of cloud-based networking and cybersecurity, responded to further questions from U.S. regulators regarding possible violations of U.S. sanctions and export controls requirements, the company revealed in its annual report.

Last year, Cloudflare disclosed in a prospectus before it went public that it may have violated sanctions and export rules when it learned that persons or entities blacklisted by the U.S., some of them designated terrorists and drug dealers, either used or benefited from its products, and that it may have submitted incorrect information to the U.S. government about some hardware exports. 

In the annual report it filed in March, Cloudflare added that it had responded to more questions from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security in January. OFAC and BIS are reviewing its disclosures, the company said in its filing. It had first submitted information about its possible lapses to several U.S. agencies in May of last year.

The added information in its annual report “was an update given in regards to our previous disclosures in May 2019 and does not signal any new disclosures,” a company spokeswoman said in an email on Thursday. A separate disclosure to the Census Bureau on potential violations of Foreign Trade Regulations was completed in November with no penalties, Cloudflare also said in its yearly report.

—Mengqi Sun

Amir Dianat and Kamran Lajmiri used front companies to launder money into the U.S. for the purchase of the tanker, called the Nautic, in a plot involving several sanctioned Iranian entities, among them, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the National Iranian Oil Company, federal prosecutors said. The men were charged with violating U.S. money-laundering and sanctions laws.

Blue Bell Creameries LP agreed to pay $19.35 million and plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to a 2015 listeria outbreak tied to three deaths and a number of other illnesses. Part of the fine resolves civil allegations that the company produced ice cream under unsanitary conditions and sold it to federal facilities, the Justice Department said.

The department also charged Blue Bell’s former chief executive, Paul Kruse, with seven felony counts related to a scheme to cover up problems at the company. Mr. Kruse was charged with conspiracy and wire fraud.

• Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee called on Amazon Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos to testify on its private-label practices, citing a Wall Street Journal investigation that found Amazon employees used data about independent sellers on its platform to develop competing products. The House panel has been investigating the market power of large technology firms.
   
• The U.S. Coast Guard said it was investigating whether two cruise ships owned by Carnival violated federal law by failing to alert health authorities about sick travelers disembarking in San Francisco and Puerto Rico. A criminal investigation and a separate government-ordered probe are under way in Australia about similar suspicions regarding a third Carnival-owned cruise ship. 
   
• Justice Department antitrust authorities cleared the way for Dairy Farmers of America Inc. to buy the bulk of Dean Foods’ milk plants out of bankruptcy, uniting the nation’s largest dairy cooperative by membership with the biggest milk processor.
   
• Hedge fund Elliott Management is financing a patent lawsuit against streaming service Quibi, according to people familiar with the situation. Elliott has agreed to fund the suit brought by interactive-video company Eko, which claims Quibi is violating its patents and has stolen trade secrets, the people said. As part of the financing, Elliott would end up with an equity stake, the people said.
   
• The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory U.S. officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump signed an executive order intended to limit the use of foreign-supplied components in the nation’s electric grid, declaring that the practice poses an “extraordinary threat to national security.”

Government agencies have warned repeatedly that the nation’s electricity grid is an attractive target for overseas hackers. The U.S. blamed the Russian government for a hacking campaign in 2017. National-security officials have said that Russia and China have the ability to temporarily disrupt the operations of electric utilities and gas pipelines.

• Call it hero pay or hazard pay, essential workers want more of it. 
   
• The World Health Organization warned of possible food shortages in some countries due to global travel restrictions in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The media industry’s measurement watchdog has warned Facebook that it could be denied a key accreditation due to deficiencies in how its reports on the effectiveness of advertising on its products, according to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The notice from the Media Rating Council says that Facebook has failed to address advertiser concerns arising from a 2019 audit performed by Ernst & Young, most notably concerning how it measures and reports data about video advertisements. Accreditation from the watchdog is considered a signal of trustworthiness to advertisers.

PG&E detailed a planned shake-up of its board of directors. The California utility said that only three of its 14 directors will remain on the board once it emerges from bankruptcy protection in coming months. The company had earlier agreed to overhaul its governance structure to secure the support of California Gov. Gavin Newsom for its plan to exit chapter 11.

The company filed for chapter 11 protection last year, citing billions of dollars in liability costs from a series of deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that state officials said were sparked by the company’s electrical equipment.

• Ford has appointed Alexandra Ford English, daughter of executive chairman Bill Ford Jr., to fill the company’s board seat at electric-car startup Rivian Automotive, signaling the rise of another young Ford within the company’s ranks.

• Some U.S. farms are taking the unprecedented step of securing socially distant housing for infected or quarantined workers as they try to keep their operations humming.
   
• J.Crew, the preppy U.S. retailer that fell on hard times even before the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the retail industry, filed for bankruptcy protection.
   
• The federal government’s $660 billion aid program for small businesses coping with the coronavirus pandemic threatens to leave hundreds of thousands of companies struggling to survive because of its limits on nonpayroll expenses.
   
• U.S. manufacturing contracted at the sharpest rate since the last recession in April as companies pulled back following lockdowns to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

Lodging companies affiliated with the Texas hotelier Monty Bennett said they were returning the more than $68 million they received in government assistance, bowing to growing political pressure that his companies shouldn’t have received those funds.

The news comes after one of the three companies reached a deal last month to sell a Florida property for $120 million, but the company canceled the arrangement after learning it would receive federal bailout funds, say people familiar with the matter.

That decision to scuttle that hotel sale to Starwood Capital Group in favor of government assistance added to the pressure Mr. Bennett’s companies would have been under to repay those loans, say experts on the government program.