Good morning. China’s ZTE Corp. in 2017 agreed to the oversight of an independent monitor when it pleaded guilty to Justice Department charges of illegally exporting sensitive U.S. technologies to Iran and repeatedly lying to investigators.

Now, to the alarm of Justice Department officials, that monitor, a Dallas lawyer, is seeking to extend his own term beyond its expiration in March and threatening the Chinese telecommunications company if it refuses to accede, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Those threats from the court-appointed monitor, James Stanton, have included saying he would leverage his friendship with the judge overseeing the case, the people said. After previously certifying Shenzhen-based ZTE’s compliance with the settlement agreement on an annual basis, Mr. Stanton in June pushed for the extension, saying he had evidence that the company violated the terms of its probation without providing further details, they added.

ZTE has argued that there is no legal basis for extending Mr. Stanton’s monitorship past the current probationary period, and prosecutors have chosen not to dispute the company’s position, the people familiar with the matter said. Such a decision would normally fall to prosecutors, with the company granted the right to respond.

The U.K.’s sanctions enforcement agency had a busy fiscal year that ended in March, investigating 132 reports of potential breaches as it oversaw a transition away from a European Union sanctions framework to its own autonomous blacklist, according to an annual report by the country’s Treasury.

The number of potential breaches was a slight decrease from the prior fiscal year, but the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, a unit of the U.K. Treasury, generally has seen an increase in considered cases in recent years, including in fiscal 2019, when it investigated 99 potential breaches, the office said Thursday.

The transition to an autonomous U.K. sanctions program, the biggest change ever to its blacklist, was handled under a new director, Giles Thomson, who is looking to broaden OFSI’s strategic objectives to contribute to the U.K.’s wider economic crime agenda, the office said in the report.

The OFSI in its report outlined a number of engagement efforts aimed at educating the corporate sector on changes to U.K. economic sanctions, and has shown signs it will more aggressively enforce sanctions law, releasing guidance on monetary penalties and self-reporting.

—Dylan Tokar

The Securities and Exchange Commission is working to implement a controversial rule proposed in 2015 that would force companies whose financial results contain errors to claw back some of their executives’ incentive pay.

The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday said it would seek more public feedback on its existing proposal, which would put into practice a long-delayed provision required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to discourage financial fraud and better align executive compensation with the accuracy of companies’ reporting.

LinkedIn, in a statement Thursday, said that it made the decision after “facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.” Microsoft’s move comes at a time when China’s Communist Party is ratcheting up its control over its largest tech companies, private enterprises and online commentary, as it continues a campaign to assert itself more forcefully across the economy and Chinese society.

Coinbase Global Inc., which has feuded with U.S. regulators in recent months, plans to publicly release a document with proposals for crypto regulation. It says crypto-market participants face uncertainty about which federal agencies should oversee particular assets.

• A federal grand jury in Texas indicted a former Boeing Co. pilot for allegedly deceiving federal regulators during the plane maker’s development of the 737 MAX before two of the jets crashed, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
   
• Legislation to bar internet companies from favoring their own products on their platforms is gaining more support, in what could be a potential threat to the business models of tech giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
   
• Toyota Motor Corp. used stolen technology for a steel material in electric motors, Nippon Steel Corp.  alleged in a patent-infringement lawsuit Thursday, a rare public clash between Toyota and a longtime ally.
   
• Johnson & Johnson placed into bankruptcy its liabilities for tens of thousands of claims linking talc-based products to cancer, hoping to drive a settlement of personal-injury claims that are expected to grow for decades to come.
   
• A federal judge said steps Purdue Pharma LP is taking ahead of leaving bankruptcy won’t thwart government authorities’ appeals seeking to overturn a $4.5 billion settlement with members of the Sackler family who own the company.
   
• Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was arrested Thursday on charges related to misappropriating insurance settlement money in the death of his longtime housekeeper.
   
• Biden Weighs Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to Lead Agency Again

Officials from 32 governments who met virtually this week to coordinate their response to the ransomware boom said uneven cryptocurrency standards are helping hackers cash in.

The representatives pledged to share information about cyberattacks and investigations, push firms to shore up security, and disrupt the financial infrastructure of a criminal hacking economy that has flourished in recent years. Consistent international scrutiny of cryptocurrencies will be key, the officials said, as ransomware groups that extort victims for digital payments can quickly transfer the funds to countries with lax standards for monitoring illicit transactions.

The U.S. and five European countries have reached an agreement on how those countries’ digital-service taxes would be withdrawn as a broader international agreement moves forward, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.

The deal isn’t likely to yield an immediate withdrawal of those taxes because it is still linked to the broader global tax agreement being completed and implemented over the next few years. But having a path forward could ease tensions between the U.S. and France, Italy, the U.K., Austria and Spain.

Scarce labor is becoming a fixture of the U.S. economy, reshaping the workforce and prodding firms to adapt by raising wages, reinventing services and investing in automation. More than a year and a half into the pandemic, the U.S. is still missing around 4.3 million workers. 

The absence comes as U.S. employers are struggling to fill more than 10 million job openings and meet soaring consumer demand. Meanwhile, workers are quitting at or near the highest rates on record in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and trade, transportation and utilities, as well as professional and business services.

• Tight Labor Market, Supply Constraints Point to Persistent Inflation

• Boeing Co. is dealing with a new defect on its 787 Dreamliner, the latest in a series of production slip-ups that have delayed aircraft deliveries and drawn increased U.S. government scrutiny.
   
• Deere & Co. workers went on strike for the first time in 35 years, extending a series of labor disputes at major U.S. companies during a nationwide labor shortage.
   
• IKEA, the world’s largest furniture seller, said a significant share of its products are missing from store shelves around the world, with many of its flatpacks and houseware items sitting idle at warehouses waiting for trucks.

Calling climate change a systemic risk to the financial system, the White House will release a report Friday outlining its strategy for new rules that could affect investment disclosures, insurance policies and home loans.

The report outlines administration goals, including forcing financial firms to more directly address the risks of climate change, creating new protections for savings and pension plans and making climate change more a factor in federal budgeting and procurement.

• An organization that assesses the credibility of corporate climate-change targets gave its blessing to the emission-reduction plans of two banks and a private-equity firm. The endorsements apply to the companies themselves as well as their investment and lending activities, a first for the sector. The Science Based Targets initiative said it endorsed the emissions targets of French bank La Banque Postale, South Korean bank KB Financial Group and Swedish private-equity firm EQT AB. As well as committing to slash emissions from their own operations, the companies set targets for their portfolios, which experts say have a greater environmental impact.
   
• COP26 Perspectives: Watershed’s Taylor Francis on Corporate Climate Promises