Good morning. A difference between U.S. whistleblower laws and the regime taking shape in Europe shines a light on a key question for policy makers: What motivates people to come forward with information about wrongdoing?

European Union member states have until Dec. 17 to implement an EU directive aimed at replacing the bloc’s hodgepodge of national whistleblower-protection laws with a regional framework. Countries must pass laws requiring organizations with more than 50 workers to set up whistleblower reporting hotlines to receive reports about violations of EU laws, such as those related to money laundering and public health.

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Some parts of the directive—such as requirements that countries protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and designate authorities to receive and investigate tips—follow the model of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program. But countries aren’t required to provide financial incentives for tipsters, a key part of the SEC’s approach.

The divergence illustrates a debate over what motivates whistleblowing—an area where results from academic studies are conflicting, researchers say.

Tech companies are turning their attention to statehouses across the country as a wave of local bills opens a new frontier in the push to limit Silicon Valley’s power. Arizona, Maryland and Virginia are among states where lawmakers are seeking to limit the power of tech companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. on a range of issues, from online privacy and digital advertisements to app-store fees. State policy proposals have bipartisan support from lawmakers who want to temper companies’ influence and financial clout, which have grown during the pandemic.

Ordering a temporary halt to the ban, Judge Rudolph Contreras cast doubt on the Pentagon’s decision in January to designate Xiaomi as a company with links to the Chinese military. Judge Contreras said the U.S. failed to convincingly show such links in prior filings with the court.

This year’s tax season is bringing an extra surprise to many Americans: the news that they were victims of unemployment-insurance fraud that has topped billions of dollars nationwide.

China’s antitrust regulator fined a dozen companies, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., over a number of past investment deals, the latest sign of Beijing’s broad crackdown on the internet sector.

Agricultural company Archer Daniels Midland Co. said it would pay $45 million to settle price-fixing allegations leveled at its peanut-processing division. The settlement by the Chicago-based company aims to resolve a civil lawsuit filed by nearly 12,000 U.S. peanut farmers, who accused the nation’s top peanut processors of colluding to hold down prices paid to growers.

A report by short seller Hindenburg Research took aim at electric-truck startup Lordstown Motors Corp., saying the company misled investors about the strength of its truck preorders and the progress it is making toward putting its first model into production. Lordstown Motors Chief Executive Steve Burns, responding in an interview, said the report contained half-truths and lies.

More companies may soon be required to make more substantive climate disclosures amid growing pressure from investors and from regulators for businesses to think more about the future physical impact of changing climate patterns. Under the Biden administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to issue rules compelling companies to do a better job of disclosing their climate-related risks.

Such disclosures pose difficult questions for companies: What is a climate risk versus a normal extreme-weather risk?

• The Federal Reserve faces a decision over whether to extend relief that temporarily loosened restrictions for the way big banks account for ultrasafe assets such as Treasury securities.
   
• A Wall Street Journal review of internal Greensill Capital records, including board minutes and emails, along with interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with Greensill’s business, reveals how the company obscured its riskier loans behind a safe but barely profitable supply-chain finance business.

Microsoft Corp. is investigating whether the hackers behind a world-wide cyberattack may have obtained sensitive information necessary to launch the attack from private disclosures it made with some of its security partners, according to people familiar with the matter.

• Nearly three years after a sweeping privacy law took effect in Europe, regulators are seeing more sanction decisions challenged and overturned as companies file appeals. European courts struck down or reduced several multimillion-dollar fines in recent months, raising questions about whether judges and privacy regulators disagree about how to enforce the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation. 

Ant Group Co. Chief Executive Simon Hu has resigned, the company said, amid heightened scrutiny over the Chinese financial-technology behemoth.

The departure of Mr. Hu, one of Ant’s two top executives, comes at a time when the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is revamping its entire business, following the abrupt cancellation of its blockbuster initial public offering late last year, and as Chinese authorities have stepped up pressure more broadly on the country’s technology giants.

Successful vaccination campaigns in the U.S., accumulated savings and the $1.9-trillion relief bill are turbocharging consumer demand. That is straining the globe-spanning supply chains companies rely on to deliver everything from toys to cars.

For now, economists don’t expect the shortages to be a big drag on the recovery. But some businesses worry that a further surge in demand, led by the U.S., could exacerbate supply-chain disruptions and drive up costs.

• Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-diseases expert, warned that the U.S. could experience another Covid-19 surge like Europe if it lifts restrictions too soon and called on Donald Trump to urge his supporters to get vaccinated.
   
• While Covid-19 deaths head lower, raising hopes that the U.S. is turning a corner as vaccinations continue, states around the country are steadily finding previously unreported deaths that are causing data confusion.
   
• AstraZeneca PLC has warned European Union officials it no longer expects to supply the bloc with around 100 million Covid-19 shots it pledged to bring in from overseas in coming months, worsening a vaccine-supply crisis on the continent as cases rise again and governments consider new lockdown measures.
   
• U.S. Surpasses 100 Million Covid-19 Vaccines Administered