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The Morning Risk Report: U.K. Sanctions Saudis and Russians for Human-Rights Abuses
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‘You won’t be able to launder your blood money in this country,’ Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in the House of Commons on Monday. PHOTO: PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Good morning. The U.K. government issued sanctions against dozens of Russian and Saudi nationals for alleged human-rights abuses, extending British legislation along the lines of the U.S.’s Global Magnitsky program targeting corrupt actors and human-rights offenders. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that 49 individuals and organizations would face travel bans and asset freezes, under a new sanctions system Britain is putting in place post-Brexit. Previously the U.K. followed European Union and United Nations sanctions regimes.
Sanctioned entities included 25 Russian nationals that the British government says were involved in the death of tax auditor Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 and 20 Saudi nationals allegedly linked to the killing in Turkey of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It was the first time the U.K. has sanctioned people from longtime ally Saudi Arabia for human-rights abuses. Also targeted were two Myanmar generals involved in violence against the Rohingya people and two organizations that operate in North Korea.
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British authorities are battling a reputation for turning a blind eye to illicit cash flowing through London’s high-end property market and financial system. The U.K. in 2018 passed the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act, which provided the foundation for the U.K. to impose sanctions after its withdrawal from the EU. Britain left the bloc in January this year.
The act enables the U.K. government to impose sanctions related to human-rights abuses, similar to the Global Magnitsky sanctions program in the U.S. However, up until Monday, the sanctions legislation had been more focused on halting money laundering and financial crime than human-rights abuses.
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Wirecard’s former chief executive was arrested recently after a $2 billion hole appeared in its balance sheet. PHOTO: SVEN SIMON/ZUMA PRESS
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A second Wirecard executive was arrested and questioned by German prosecutors Monday as part of their investigations into suspected fraud at the insolvent, one-time star of the European tech sector. Prosecutors didn’t name the executive, but said they had questioned the managing director of Cardsystems Middle East FZ LLC, and that he was arrested after returning to Germany and handing himself in to authorities. The arrest warrant was based on “the urgent suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud,” among other things, the prosecutors said in a statement.
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The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the use of robocalls to collect government-backed debt, closing an exception Congress enacted in 2015 to a decades-old ban on unwanted and intrusive automated cellphone-dialing campaigns.
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A federal judge ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to shut down by next month because it was improperly granted a key environmental permit, a major setback for operator Energy Transfer LP and the American shale drilling industry.
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The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program designed to help small businesses weather the coronavirus pandemic helped a range of organizations including prominent restaurant chains, law firms and non-profits.
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As senior U.S. and Chinese economic officials plan to discuss China’s compliance with a trade deal signed early this year, more than 40 American business groups called on Beijing to step up purchases of U.S. manufactured goods as well as energy and other products as part of the agreement.
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Overseas representatives of China’s Uighur ethnic group said Monday they filed evidence to the International Criminal Court in a novel effort to spark a formal investigation of China and its top leaders for alleged human-rights violations.
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Hong Kong residents have been accustomed to using social-media apps to express political opinions but in recent days some have deleted accounts for fear of falling afoul of the new law. PHOTO: LIAU CHUNG-REN/ZUMA PRESS
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Google, Facebook and Twitter are among tech companies that have suspended processing requests for user data from Hong Kong law-enforcement agencies following China’s imposition of a national-security law on the city.
The moves, which were welcomed by some activists and advocates for internet privacy, have put U.S. technology titans on a potential collision course with Beijing, after China fast-tracked the national-security legislation that includes a provision mandating local authorities to take measures to supervise and regulate the city’s previously unfettered internet.
Rules for implementing the new law announced by Hong Kong’s government late Monday and set to take legal effect Tuesday, say that if police suspect an “electronic message” may endanger “national security,” authorities may ask the publisher, platform, host or network service provider to remove or restrict access to it. Those who publish messages and don’t comply face a hefty fine and imprisonment for one year.
TikTok, the short-video platform owned by Chinese technology giant Bytedance Inc., said it would pull its app from Google and Apple’s app stores in Hong Kong within a week, in light of “recent developments.”
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The U.K. communication regulator said that a Chinese state-run broadcaster violated fairness and privacy rules in airing interviews with a detained Briton who claimed his appearance was coerced. The ruling signals increasing U.K. pushback against China’s effort to take its state propaganda apparatus global, potentially opening a new front in a clash over media activity that also has pitched Washington against Beijing.
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The London skyline. The Financial Reporting Council said it aims to reduce potential conflicts of interest and boost the quality of audits in the U.K. PHOTO: KIRSTY O'CONNOR/ZUMA PRESS
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The Financial Reporting Council told the U.K.’s biggest professional services firms to draw up plans for separating their audit businesses by Oct. 23, and for the work to be completed by mid-2024.
The U.K.’s accounting and audit watchdog said it aims to reduce potential conflicts of interest and boost the quality of audits in the U.K. as the country embarks on its future outside of the European Union. The measures come after a string of corporate failures, including at construction giant Carillion, coffee chain operator Patisserie Holdings and travel company Thomas Cook Group.
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Customers returned to New York City’s tattoo parlors Monday in the latest phase of the city’s reopening. PHOTO: NATALIE KEYSSAR FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Parts of the country moved tentatively forward with reopening Monday, as other regions continued to struggle to contain the monthslong coronavirus pandemic. California and Florida accounted for nearly 45% of the more than 49,000 new cases reported Sunday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. Cases in the U.S. account for about one-quarter of the global total of more than 11.5 million infections.
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U.S. services industries showed signs of recovery in June as businesses took early steps to reopen following the easing of some of the pandemic-related lockdowns, according to two surveys of purchasing managers released Monday. But analysts warned those gains could be undone in July as a resurgence of cases in some states leads to another shutdown of businesses.
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U.S. hospitals have identified 5,142 coronavirus infections apparently acquired inside hospitals from May 14 to June 21, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figure could be higher; the reporting is voluntary.
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Unemployment rates in the world’s advanced economies will end the year higher than at any time since the Great Depression and not return to their pre-pandemic levels until 2022 at the earliest, the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.
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After early success countering the new coronavirus, Israel faces a significant new outbreak that health experts warn could spiral out of control as the government scrambles to shut down swaths of the economy it had reopened. On Monday, Israel’s cabinet approved closing all gyms, bars, banquet halls, public pools and cultural events, reimposing portions of a strict lockdown that the government had eased in May.
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A Parisian bar serving patrons on the terrace on June 2. PHOTO: BERTRAND GUAY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Public-health authorities in the U.S. have singled out restaurants and bars as a source of coronavirus contagion. Yet in Europe, bistros, pizzerias and cafes bustling with clientele have had no major outbreaks. The difference, health authorities say, stems in part from something many eateries across the Sunbelt—from Florida to Southern California—currently lack: fresh air.
Punishing summer heat has pushed restaurants, bars and other indoor gathering spaces in the U.S. to close the windows and fire up the air conditioning. In Europe, summer temperatures tend to be milder, and most indoor spaces don’t have air conditioners to begin with. When restaurants close windows, people end up breathing in a lot more air that has been exhaled by others, said Edward Nardell, professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “If you’re doing that on top of relaxed restrictions, then you have the recipe for transmission.”
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Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, addressed shareholders digitally. PHOTO: KIYOSHI OTA/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The coronavirus pandemic has changed annual shareholder meetings in Japan in ways that could benefit foreign shareholders, who have been playing a growing role in governance. This year, for the first time, hundreds of Japanese companies including many blue chips offered ways to watch online, sometimes with simultaneous English interpretation. A few allowed shareholders to ask questions from their homes or even vote on resolutions.
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Lloyds Banking Group Chief Executive António Horta-Osório will step down next year after a decade at the British lender during which he oversaw a massive overhaul and returned the bank to private ownership after a £20.3 billion ($25.3 billion) crisis-era bailout.
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Uber Eats will become the second-largest restaurant delivery service in the U.S. by market share with its purchase of Postmates. PHOTO: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS
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Uber Technologies said its $2.65 billion deal for rival Postmates will help it better compete in restaurant delivery and the market for delivering groceries and other staples, a signal of the ride-hailing company’s ambitions to provide a wider range of items to consumer doorsteps.
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Simon & Schuster is moving up the publication date of a tell-all book by President Trump’s niece to July 14, days after a New York appellate judge overturned a temporary restraining order against the publisher.
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Nokia, which initially bet big on the wrong computer chip in the global race for 5G supremacy, is trying to make up market share lost to competitors, including China’s Huawei.
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