Good morning. As U.S. officials weigh sanctioning China over its recent moves in Hong Kong, the city’s status as a global financial center limits the menu of effective levers available to Washington.

Major actions against Hong Kong’s financial system risk hitting U.S., Western and Hong Kong companies and consumers, officials and analysts say. More targeted sanctions against Chinese officials and trade measures against products made in Hong Kong would have little impact on Beijing’s integration of the city into the mainland’s political and security system, these people say.

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Trump administration officials discussed Hong Kong plans Thursday in a White House meeting, according to people familiar with the gathering. Officials will regroup early this week and may announce sanctions or other measures, one official said.

“You want to find sanctions that hurt the perpetrators of the law without shooting yourself in the foot, and it’s a difficult exercise,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former senior U.S. trade official. “There are a lot of options, but none of them are great.”

Related:

• Hong Kong Security Law Makes Foreign Businesses Feel Less Safe, Survey Says

A federal judge in Miami dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Florida doctor who claimed Carnival Corp. used his property—which he says was confiscated by the Cuban government—to do business.

The lawsuit was one of the first under a long-dormant provision of a law allowing Americans to pursue legal action against companies doing business in Cuba on property confiscated by the regime of Fidel Castro. The decision could foreshadow difficulty for plaintiffs trying to use the provision.

• Universal Health Services Inc. and related entities agreed to pay $122 million to settle investigations into billing practices at behavioral-health facilities and claims it paid illegal inducements to federal health care beneficiaries, the U.S. Justice Department said.
   
• A subsidiary of security-services company G4S PLC has agreed to pay £38.5 million ($48.6 million) to resolve allegations of procurement fraud, the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office said. A deferred prosecution agreement between the agency, which investigates major economic crimes, and G4S Care and Justice Services (UK) Ltd. was approved in principle by a court on Friday, the SFO said.

• The Trump administration plans to retain a national limit of 70 parts per billion for the pollutant ozone, the standard set by the Obama administration five years ago after business groups fought tougher standards. Manufacturers and energy companies are the most likely to benefit from a decision not to tighten ozone standards.
   
• U.S. national-security officials are reviewing the 2017 acquisition of a South Carolina pharmaceutical company by Chinese investors after learning the firm was in talks to participate in a Pentagon project to develop injection devices for a coronavirus vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed sharply raising the size threshold of funds required to report their U.S. stockholdings quarterly, a move that would end such disclosures for nearly 90% of current filers, including many hedge funds and mutual-fund firms.
   
• The Trump administration said it would put tariffs on $1.3 billion of French imports if Paris doesn’t back down from plans to impose a new digital-services tax that would fall heavily on U.S. technology companies.
   
• Bankruptcy lawyers expect a surge in small-business failures in the coming months. A new law, they say, will make many business owners realize that filing for bankruptcy might be a better option than struggling for years to dig out of a financial hole, especially with the outlook so unpredictable.
   
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing ethics questions about his government’s decision to grant a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a charity whose events his family members have been paid to speak at.
   
• Ubisoft Entertainment said two more senior executives have left the company amid an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behavior at the maker of “Assassin’s Creed” and other popular videogames.

An initial draft of the Iran-China deal would pave the way for Chinese investments in Iranian free-trade zones and for joint projects in other countries, such as Syria and Iraq. It would expand cooperation between the two countries in defense and counter terrorism. And it says that under a 25-year partnership, China would import “sustainable” levels of Iranian oil, but offered no further details.

Even nascent talks between Iran and China for a partnership of such scope and duration is an indication of growing concern that each has about the U.S. Both Beijing and Tehran are engulfed in acrimonious relationships with Washington. China is engaged with the U.S. in a trade war, while Iran’s economy is struggling under a raft of U.S. sanctions.

• The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the economy—and the operations of banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, which on Tuesday are forecast to post at least 60% drops in income from a year ago. Lending money has become a much riskier proposal, forcing banks to put aside billions of additional dollars in case consumers and businesses stop paying. And early this year, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, which was meant to shore up the economy but also lowered the margin banks can make on any lending they do.
   
• When the pandemic began spreading in the U.S. earlier this year, the nation’s testing system was beleaguered by supply shortages and multiday backlogs. Months into the crisis, many of those original challenges remain.

Several nations agreed to ease border restrictions to allow for the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of sailors who have been stranded for months as a result of coronavirus-related lockdowns. The countries, including the U.S. and 12 other nations, will recognize seafarers as essential personnel, making it easier for them to board flights and to move to and from ships.

“After months of this crew-change crisis getting worse, governments must do their bit,” said Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation. “That means that port states where ships dock, flag states where ships are registered, transit hubs with airports and the home countries of seafarers all need to make visa, quarantine and border exceptions for seafarers now.”

• Covid-19 Hits Cruise-Ship Crews Hard

• As lockdowns lift, employees returning to the workplace—as well as those who never left—are clashing over different views of the pandemic. Some say their colleagues aren’t taking it seriously; others say their co-workers are going too far to stay safe. The disconnect, often freighted with election-year politics, is creating tension as the number of U.S. coronavirus cases continues to climb.

• Last month Target told a leading online news publisher not to run its ads in stories related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Articles mentioning police-brutality victims such as “Breonna Taylor” and “George Floyd” were off limits, as were those with the word “protests.” News publishers say such moves effectively punish media companies for covering important issues, since they earn less money from content where ad-blocking is prevalent.
   
• Disney’s ESPN suspended Adrian Wojnarowski, its top scoopmonger on the inner workings of the National Basketball Association, after it was revealed he used profane language in an email to a U.S. senator, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Amazon reversed a demand that employees delete the TikTok app from company mobile devices, a shocking turnabout from a dictate that just hours before had stoked concern about the app’s security and ties to China. The first message was dramatic enough, as the email directive to employees appeared to buttress recent scrutiny of TikTok security issues from governments in the U.S. and India.

Then, the second message, in which a spokesman called the email an error, backed away from what briefly appeared to be a major policy change. It was a rare instance in which such a shift played out in public for one of the world’s most valuable and closely watched companies.