Good morning. Plans to quickly complete a deal between the Chinese parent company of TikTok and suitors for the app’s U.S. operations have been thrown off track as the parties huddled over the weekend to weigh new Chinese restrictions that appear designed to affect a potential sale, according to people familiar with the discussions.

China last week issued new restrictions on the export of artificial-intelligence technology that forced ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s parent, to slow down talks with companies including Microsoft, Walmart and Oracle for a portion of the social-media app, according to people familiar with the matter.

[Continued below…]

ByteDance, which had received the broad outlines of bids on Friday for the TikTok assets, had been expected to enter into exclusive discussions with one group of suitors over the weekend, the people said. The Trump administration in early August set a mid-September deadline for ByteDance to sell its American operation.

“We are studying the new regulations that were released Friday,” ByteDance General Counsel Erich Andersen said. “As with any cross-border transaction, we will follow the applicable laws, which in this case include those of the U.S. and China.”

We are conducting a survey of compliance professionals about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their work, and we will present findings at the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on Oct. 8. If you work in compliance we would love to hear from you via this survey link. Responses will be kept anonymous.

The Los Angeles company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. It also reached a parallel agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The settlements resolve criminal and civil violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. From around 2007 to 2016, the company had engaged in a scheme to bribe Chinese officials in order to obtain direct-selling licenses, federal prosecutors said.

• U.S. hotel operator MCR Development LLC has agreed to purchase hotel property management software firm StayNTouch Inc., a $46 million deal that came together after President Trump said the firm’s existing Chinese ownership poses a threat to U.S. national security. A person familiar with the transaction said that the deal has the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
   
• A federal small-business pandemic emergency loan program that has been criticized for delays and fraud has focused attention on the role of a small consulting firm that earned nearly $800 million in fees and subcontracted the work to a unit of the nation’s largest mortgage lender.
   
• Millions of American investors in July received a new government-mandated form from their financial planners that required advisers to disclose past misdeeds. But hundreds of the firms didn’t tell the full truth, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.
   
• BlackRock Inc. got approval from regulators to start a mutual-fund business in China, a milestone for an investment firm with fierce ambitions in the world’s second-largest economy. 
   
• European Union foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on senior Belarusian officials in response to what the EU called violent repression against peaceful protesters and opposition figures by the country’s autocratic regime, EU foreign ministers said.

McDonald’s Corp.’s former head of human resources is emerging as a focus of the company’s investigation into possible impropriety under former Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook.

David Fairhurst, global chief people officer under Mr. Easterbrook, was fired for cause after reportedly making women at the company feel uncomfortable on numerous occasions at business events, McDonald’s current HR chief Heidi Capozzi told employees during an online meeting last week, notes from which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The reason for Mr. Fairhurst’s termination hadn’t been previously disclosed by McDonald’s.

• Hertz Global Holdings Inc. wants to hand out a further $14.6 million in bonuses to executives, months after the car-rental company shelled out $16.2 million in extra pay meant to keep executives from leaving as the Covid-19 pandemic upended the travel industry.

The head of federal intelligence agencies said his office will curb in-person briefings to Congress about security threats to the 2020 presidential election, saying he was concerned that lawmakers had leaked sensitive classified materials to the public.

John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, told Fox News that he will continue to keep Congress informed via written reports and will continue to brief relevant congressional committees. “We will do what is required by law,” Mr. Ratcliffe said. “What we won’t be doing is all-member briefings, to all members of the House and all members of the Senate. We have tried that and the information hasn’t been protected.”

• Dell Loy Hansen, the owner of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake franchise, indicated that he plans to sell the team and the National Women’s Soccer League’s Utah Royals FC, days after he criticized Real players’ racial-justice protests and amid allegations that he used racist language.
   
• A Facebook executive at the center of a political storm in India made internal postings over several years detailing her support for the now ruling Hindu nationalist party and disparaging its main rival, behavior some staff saw as conflicting with the company’s pledge to remain neutral in elections around the world.

• The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases crossed 25 million globally, as the virus accelerates in countries including India, which reported a record daily increase in cases. Meanwhile, cases in the U.S. fell to their lowest level in a week, while the nation’s total number of infections approached six million.
   
• With months still to go until the end of fire season, California’s firefighting resources are already close to the breaking point. In just the first month of the August-December period when California typically experiences its most destructive blazes, it is contending with the second and third largest wildfires in state history, both of which were 35% contained on Friday. Last weekend, 96% of the California Department of Fire and Forestry’s available engines were working or en route to emergencies.

• After halting global operations in the spring—when deadly outbreaks on cruises helped spread the coronavirus around the world—cruise ships are cautiously beginning to sail again in Europe. But doing so while the pandemic is still raging has been risky, challenging and costly for the few operators that have been willing to try.
   
• A new wave of layoffs is washing over the U.S. as several big companies reassess staffing plans and settle in for a long period of uncertainty. MGM Resorts International and Stanley Black & Decker Inc. recently told some employees furloughed at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic that they wouldn’t be put back on the payroll. And companies bringing back the majority of furloughed workers, including Yelp Inc. and Cheesecake Factory Inc., are making reductions.