Good morning. Countries have long fought financial crime by relying on banks to identify and report suspicious transactions. But the system is largely ineffective, financial crime experts say, because it rarely provides useful real-time feedback—a reality that is giving way to a more collaborative approach, Risk & Compliance Journal’s Dylan Tokar reports.

For around the past five years, governments and the financial sector have been teaming up to create information-sharing partnerships that facilitate a two-way dialogue on suspected financial crimes. When the two parties can share information on specific cases or on the types of potential criminal activity they’re seeing, the thinking goes, the industry can more effectively screen for suspicious activity.

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A new survey shows the partnerships have produced some promising early results, and compliance officers say it could lead to a shift away from the current “tick-box” approach to anti-money-laundering regulation. Today, nearly 20 countries have created information-sharing partnerships, according to the Future of Financial Intelligence Sharing program, which carried out the survey. The program is a research project supported by the Royal United Services Institute, a U.K. think tank.

About a decade ago, the financial sector’s efforts to prevent financial crime came under intense scrutiny, leading to big fines that in turn led to big investments in compliance. Information-sharing partnerships are part of a recent push to examine just how effective those investments have been in preventing abuse of the financial system, compliance officers say.

The U.S. Justice Department issued a rare Foreign Corrupt Practices Act opinion letter, saying it doesn’t intend to bring an enforcement action against a U.S.-based investment adviser for a fee the company planned to pay to a foreign government entity for services.

The letter, issued by the department in response to questions from a company regarding a prospective transaction, has no binding application to other cases. But it highlights an avenue of communication through which companies can seek the department’s opinion on planned conduct that might raise bribery concerns.

States are asking for around $26.4 billion from major pharmaceutical industry players to help pay for damage wrought by the opioid crisis, people familiar with the matter said, the latest demand in yearslong litigation seeking to hold companies accountable for widespread drug addiction.

The current talks involve McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., which collectively distribute the majority of pharmaceutical drugs in the country, as well as Johnson & Johnson, which makes some opioid painkillers, the people said.

The new rules prohibit non-U.S. companies from selling any chips made using U.S. technology to Huawei without a special license. The rule covers even widely available, off-the-shelf chips made by overseas firms, placing potentially severe new limits on Huawei’s ability to source parts.

• Citigroup Inc. sued Brigade Capital Management LP for the return of the hedge-fund manager’s share of nearly $900 million that the bank said it mistakenly paid to Revlon Inc. lenders. Brigade “has unlawfully attempted to capitalize on the mistaken payment,” Citi said in the complaint, filed in New York federal court.
   
• “Fortnite” creator Epic Games Inc. accused Apple Inc. of escalating a dispute between the two companies by threatening to cut off access to tools used in making software for iOS devices and Mac computers. Epic asked a federal judge to prevent Apple from terminating developers’ accounts by the tech giant’s Aug. 28 deadline, arguing such a move would cause irreparable damage to Epic’s business and harm its customers.
   
• The Trump administration approved an oil leasing program for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Monday, opening up the pristine 19-million-acre wilderness to drilling for the first time and making it difficult to unwind the decision should Democrats recapture the White House in November.

Some Justice Department staffers have expressed internal concerns over plans to bring an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google—and what they view as an aggressive timeline favored by Attorney General William Barr, according to people familiar with the matter.

The department has been moving toward bringing a lawsuit as soon as this summer, but some lawyers involved in the yearlong investigation have expressed a belief that the department doesn’t have a camera-ready case right now and needs more time to consider whether the millions of pages of documents in the government’s possession yield the kind of evidence needed to win in court, the people said.

Former McDonald’s Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a court filing that the company had information about his relationships with other employees when it negotiated his multimillion-dollar severance package.

In his first response to a suit McDonald’s filed seeking to recoup that severance, Mr. Easterbrook’s attorney said the company admitted it had his email account stored on company servers when it first investigated his conduct last October. “Based on the very same information McDonald’s has today, it negotiated a separation agreement,” Mr. Easterbrook’s attorney wrote in a filing in Delaware. “But McDonald’s admits that the ‘new’ information it now relies upon is not new at all.”

• Pinterest Inc. appointed veteran media executive Andrea Wishom as a director, adding a Black woman to its board, as the image-sharing company contends with claims from former employees of discrimination and pay inequities.
   
• Washington’s NFL team hired Jason Wright, a former player who went on to a successful consulting career, as its president. Wright becomes the first Black team president in NFL history—a distinction that spotlights the continuing lack of diversity at the highest ranks throughout the league.
   
• Thousands of China-based U.S. and other foreign business executives remain stranded outside the country due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, leading some to give up hope of returning and posing operational challenges for their companies.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic passed 170,000, while the number of new cases declined, reaching the lowest daily level since June 29. Meanwhile, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will shift all undergraduate courses for the fall to remote instruction Wednesday, following a series of Covid-19 outbreaks on and around campus since starting classes last week. 

• After Beirut Explosion, Lebanon Faces Surge in Coronavirus Cases

• Al-Shabaab militants’ deadly assault on a popular seaside hotel in Somalia’s capital has raised fresh questions about the threat posed by the terrorist group, despite a heightened U.S.-backed counterterrorism campaign in the Horn of Africa nation. The militants, carrying AK-47 rifles and explosives, detonated a car bomb outside Mogadishu’s Lido beach Sunday afternoon, before shooting their way into the compound of the upscale hotel, killing 11 civilians and one police officer, a government spokesman said.
   
• Millions of Californians could lose power in coming days, the state’s grid operator warned Monday, as it continues to struggle with inadequate electricity supplies as many people have been forced indoors to ride out a crippling heat wave during the coronavirus pandemic.

• Amazon is expanding its physical offices in six U.S. cities and adding thousands of corporate jobs in those areas, an indication the tech giant is making long-term plans around office work even as other companies embrace lasting remote employment.
   
• Gyms in New York can reopen at one-third of their regular capacity starting next week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. People exercising will be required to wear masks at all times, and local officials will inspect facilities and review whether they are able to host group fitness classes. Attendees must sign in to facilitate contact tracing, and gyms must install specialized air conditioning filters, state officials said.
   
• Workers at the world’s largest miner of potash are joining widespread protests against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, intensifying pressure on the embattled leader and threatening to disturb the market for a key fertilizer.
   
• Residents of the agriculture-rich Central Valley are falling victim to Covid-19 at the highest rates in California, endangering a largely immigrant workforce during harvest season and helping drive the state’s persistently high infection rate.