Good morning. The recent resignation of a compliance director at GitLab Inc. illustrates anxiety in the technology industry over foreign espionage. It also shows how, in managing one risk, companies can expose themselves to others, Risk & Compliance Journal’s Kristin Broughton reports.

Candice Ciresi resigned from her position as director of global risk and compliance at the San Francisco-based software-development startup following a brouhaha that began last month over how the company handled client concerns about data privacy.

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GitLab’s vice president of engineering, Eric Johnson, said in GitLab’s public discussion forum in October that the firm would no longer hire people living in Russia and China—countries U.S. authorities have linked to major data security breaches—for some roles where they would be handling sensitive customer data. GitLab, whose employees all work remotely, said the policy would also stop existing employees from moving to those countries while in such jobs.

Ms. Ciresi had raised concerns about the policy, saying it could expose the firm to additional risks. Among the issues she raised: whether the hiring restrictions would run afoul of employment laws, and whether the firm was opening itself to claims of weak internal controls by basing employment decisions on a client’s list of high-risk countries instead of establishing its own.

Companies can expose themselves to discrimination claims when they restrict the hiring of foreign nationals within the U.S., but they are on more solid legal ground when they focus on policies that impose restrictions on business relationships with residents of foreign countries, said Davis Bae, co-chair of the immigration law group at Fisher Phillips LLP.

Digital disruption, shifting workplace norms and the rapidly changing state of world affairs have added new dimensions to corporate compliance. Join The Wall Street Journal in New York on Nov. 19 for a live discussion with chief compliance officers from leading companies about how their focus is changing. For details and to register, click here.

Stronger anticorruption enforcement in China appears to be helping the country’s antibribery ranking.

Anticorruption compliance group Trace International Inc.—which measures the likelihood of bribe demands a company could face in 200 countries, territories and regions—ranked China 133rd this year. That is up from 151st in 2018—the biggest year-over-year jump of any G-20 nation on the list.

China is still the lowest-ranked G-20 nation based on Trace’s indicator, which considers factors such as a country’s antibribery enforcement, government transparency and civil society oversight.

Brazil and Argentina, which were 100th and 101st in the latest rankings, were the only other G-20 nations to climb 10 spots or more. Croatia fell the furthest—from 53rd to 65th—of G-20 nations. New Zealand remained in the top position overall. Meanwhile, the U.S. climbed from 18th to 15th place.

—Mengqi Sun

Years ago, William “Rick” Singer forged a fruitful connection with the head of the University of Southern California’s women’s soccer team.

After bribing the coach, Ali Khosroshahin, in 2012 and 2013 to accept some teens into USC as phony soccer recruits, Mr. Singer leveraged the alliance. He had Mr. Khosroshahin connect him with at least three other coaches Mr. Singer subsequently sought to pay off, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter.

Such was the way Mr. Singer, the admitted mastermind of the sprawling college-admissions scandal, built his network, according to the court documents and interviews: coach by coach and contact by contact.

• Comcast, which is seeking to quash a discrimination suit filed by a black television producer, faced a skeptical Supreme Court at Wednesday arguments, where several justices suggested there was enough in Byron Allen’s allegations to get his case into court.
   
• Efforts to push cryptocurrency startups to comply with laws governing fundraising may be faltering, as several firms that agreed to fix past misdeeds missed deadlines to repay investors or provide more transparency.
   
• Southern California Edison, an arm of Edison International, California’s second-largest utility company, has agreed to pay $360 million to compensate about two dozen local governmental entities for damages and other costs related to a series of fires and resulting mudslides that hit the region in 2017 and 2018. 
   
• In China, marijuana is seen as a dangerous narcotic, and possession is strictly punished. That hasn’t stopped the country from trying to become a powerhouse in the fast-growing industry for cannabis products.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a proposal Wednesday aimed at providing temporary, optional guidance to help companies reduce the cost and complexity associated with the transition from the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Under the new rule, companies are now encouraged—but not required—to use a set of shortcuts for applying generally accepted accounting principles to contract modifications and hedge accounting relationships affected by reference rate reforms.

Companies must move away from Libor, a scandal-plagued benchmark that is used to set the price of trillions of dollars of loans and derivatives globally, by the end of 2021. Therefore, the new rule is temporary: It would not apply to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered or evaluated after Dec. 31, 2022, the board said.

The U.S. accounting-standards setter said it plans to issue documents on the changes early next year.

—Mark Maurer

Trade talks between the U.S. and China have hit a snag over farm purchases, creating another obstacle to locking down the limited trade deal President Trump outlined last month.

Mr. Trump has said China has agreed to buy up to $50 billion in U.S. soybeans, pork and other agricultural products annually. But China is leery of putting a numerical commitment in the text of an agreement, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beijing wants to avoid cutting a deal that looks one-sided in Washington’s favor, some of the people said, and also wants a way out should trade tensions escalate again.

• President Trump said Wednesday that a cease-fire in northern Syria is holding and expressed hope for progress in talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking before White House meetings with his visiting Turkish counterpart on Wednesday, Mr. Trump indicated he planned to address the issue of Turkey’s military assault on U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, which started last month after the White House announced a U.S. troop withdrawal from the area. Vice President Mike Pence later negotiated a cessation of hostilities.
   
• Office-space startup WeWork lost $1.25 billion in the third quarter as expenses far outpaced revenue growth, draining the company’s cash ahead of a bailout by SoftBank last month.

• Activist investor Carl Icahn is pushing for the proposed union of Xerox Holdings and HP, arguing that a combination of the printer makers could yield big profits for investors. Mr. Icahn, who owns a 10.6% stake in Xerox, told the Journal he also owns a 4.24% stake in HP, valued at roughly $1.2 billion. 
   
• Unilever has tapped the former head of Danish shipping company A.P. Moller Maersk as its new chairman, the second big change in the consumer giant’s top ranks in the past year.
   
• Abbott Laboratories said Chief Executive Miles D. White, who in more than 20 years at the helm oversaw the transformation of the health-care-products maker with a series of acquisitions and spinoffs, will step down as CEO in March 2020.
   
• BHP Group named Mike Henry as its new chief executive, opting for his experience running the most profitable operation of the global miner after a tumultuous period of big swings in commodity prices and exiting legacy assets.

• United Airlines has experienced a double-digit increase in operating costs on certain routes because of the continued grounding of Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX aircraft, the airline’s finance chief said.
   
• McClatchy, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. by circulation, said it has begun talks with its creditors and federal authorities about a possible government takeover of its pension fund as it tries to relieve considerable liquidity pressure because of its pension responsibilities and debt load.

Two of Japan’s internet leaders—news and shopping site Yahoo Japan and chat app Line—are in talks over a combination that could expand SoftBank's empire, a person involved in the talks said.

If completed, the deal could give SoftBank and its acquisitive Chief Executive Masayoshi Son a bigger presence in internet advertising and payment apps in Japan. SoftBank effectively controls Yahoo Japan through subsidiaries.

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