Good morning. Amazon has fired at least three warehouse employees and reprimanded several others who say they were singled out after pushing for better working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, a contention the company denies.

The current and former employees, who don’t belong to a union, say they are being retaliated against as they pushed the company for better treatment after helping to process an extraordinary surge in orders during a time of elevated worker absences.

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Amazon denied that the firings were connected to seeking better treatment and said the individuals were terminated or reprimanded for violating internal policies, including harassing a co-worker and violating social-distancing and other safety guidelines.

As the nation’s second-largest employer, Amazon has been subject to unionization efforts for years. Some groups and advocates supporting warehouse and delivery workers have seized on the coronavirus pandemic as a rallying moment. Amazon had about half a million U.S. employees before the health crisis hit, many of whom work in its warehouse and delivery network.

Labor officials backing Amazon workers say the firings follow a pattern of efforts the company has made in the past to resist employee organizing to seek better conditions in warehouses.

Companies are expected to face heightened environmental and social scrutiny this proxy season, according to a preview of the season by investment manager Nuveen.

The number of environmental and social proposals is likely to hit an all-time high and already accounts for almost 70% of submitted proposals, it says. Nuveen also found that this year, investors have moved beyond disclosure of environmental data and are demanding action on climate change, with 66% of all proposals around environmental topics requesting steps be taken on issues like carbon emissions.

Nuveen also expects discussions on ensuring minority groups and women have a seat at the table of company boards.

—Maitane Sardon

The U.S. Department of Justice said it sent about $300 million back to Malaysia that was misappropriated from 1MDB, Malaysia’s investment development fund.

The Justice Department said the U.S. has either returned or helped recover more than $600 million of the misappropriated money. It is still working to recover money, it said. Money from the fund was laundered around the world, the Justice Department said.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up the fund, known more formally as 1Malaysia Development Bhd., more than a decade ago. Billions of dollars from the fund are believed to have been misappropriated, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

—Allison Prang

A trade association of political consultants is suing the Trump administration, arguing that the Small Business Administration is violating the First Amendment rights of its members by barring pollsters, lobbyists and campaign operatives from receiving emergency loans linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

At issue for the political consulting industry are a few words in federal rules that prohibit certain industries from applying for loans from the government. Small Business Administration rules specifically bar “businesses primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities.”

The owner of the high-end Ruth’s Chris Steak House chain, meanwhile, became one of the first public companies to disclose it has received a government-backed loan to keep people on its payroll.

• Mall and shopping-center owners are compiling a blacklist of large, usually financially stable tenants that haven’t paid their April rent. Big companies that have failed to pay all or some of this month’s rent include the fitness chain Equinox Holdings, Dick’s Sporting Goods and discount fashion retailer Burlington Stores.
   
• Texas regulators debated curtailing oil output in the state in response to cratering demand caused by the new coronavirus, but it quickly became apparent that the industry was divided over taking such a historic step.
   
• The Justice Department said state and local coronavirus restrictions can’t treat churches less favorably than other institutions, filing legal papers in support of Mississippi churchgoers who received citations.

Big banks sent a clear message in first-quarter earnings Tuesday: This recession is going to be bad. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo set aside billions of additional dollars to get ready for a flood of customers to default on their loans as the coronavirus pandemic pummels the economy. That sunk the banks’ quarterly profits.

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo set aside another $6.8 billion and $3.83 billion, respectively, to cover potential losses on loans to consumers and companies struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus shutdown. Unfortunately, that may only be enough under a rosy scenario. 

The global economy has almost certainly entered a recession affecting most of the world, with a severity unmatched by anything aside from the Great Depression, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

• More than 9,000 U.S. health-care workers have contracted the new coronavirus and nearly three-quarters of them are women, according to federal data released Tuesday.

Regulatory changes have helped make possible the increased use of telemedicine that is driven by the pandemic, industry officials say.

Teladoc Health Inc. said its remote medical appointments have more than doubled in number since early March, a sign the coronavirus pandemic is remaking how doctors take care of patients.

The Department of Health and Human Services said last month that it would waive potential penalties under the federal patient-privacy law—known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act—as long as teleconferencing tools are used in good faith.

Locals from a town in northern Colombia last month blockaded a mine operated by one of the world’s biggest miners, Glencore, burning tires and delivering a simple message: Don’t bring the new coronavirus here.

Covid-19 is swamping hospitals around the world, shutting down entire economies amid measures to slow its spread. It is also heightening local mistrust of some foreign corporations working in far-off lands, adding to a number of new pressures that the pandemic has created for globalized industries.

And while the first people to lose their jobs due to the pandemic worked at restaurants, malls, hotels and other places that closed to contain the virus, a second wave a job loss is now hitting those who thought they were safe.

• Boeing said it suffered the biggest monthly spike in jetliner cancellations in decades as airlines start to adjust their fleets in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The biggest U.S. airlines, meanwhile, reached an agreement in principle with the federal government on financial assistance aimed at preventing layoffs in an industry hit hard by the pandemic.
   
• Renault, which was already struggling in China before the coronavirus epidemic hit, will stop making gas-powered cars for domestic sale and wind up its main joint venture with state-run auto maker Dongfeng Motor.
   
• A month after major cruise operators suspended their sailings, tens of thousands of crew workers remain stranded at sea indefinitely, raising the prospect that some will stop getting paid before they reach shore.
   
• Only a few months ago, much of the property world was betting the future of the office was one where strangers shared limited space. Now, many are wondering if that model is too rooted in the past.

The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating a longstanding feud between McDonald’s and its U.S. franchisees, as social-distancing measures cut deep into the burger giant’s sales and profits.

McDonald’s has asked the more than 1,600 owners of its restaurants in the U.S. to do more to protect workers after some employees have contracted the virus and others have gone into quarantine.

Franchisees, in turn, say they want more financial relief from the company to help keep them afloat. Same-store sales at the chain’s U.S. restaurants fell by 13% last month as dine-in service stopped across most of the country. McDonald’s continues to make delivery and drive-through sales from many restaurants.

• Longview Power LLC, a private-equity-backed power generator, filed for bankruptcy with a prepacked restructuring proposal that includes help from the government stimulus package passed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
   
• Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are joining forces to develop a coronavirus vaccine in a collaboration that—if successful—could pump out hundreds of millions of doses by the second half of 2021. The partnership—a first between two major pharmaceutical companies to fight the pandemic—brings together existing efforts at the drug giants. It will combine Sanofi’s work reviving a shelved SARS vaccine with Glaxo’s expertise in developing “adjuvants,” or ingredients that boost the immune response to a vaccine.

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Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, Jack Hagel, at jack.hagel@wsj.com