Good morning. Juries are going “nuclear” with greater frequency, imposing outsize verdicts on U.S. companies as they seek to stand up for the little guy, according to some studies, a trend that is making some insurance policies more costly and harder to come by.

• The phenomenon: The number of cases with a corporate defendant that had a jury award of more than $10 million—what businesses and insurers call a nuclear verdict—grew more than 27% in 2023, continuing a general upward trend, according to research by Marathon Strategies, a communications and research firm.
   
• Big awards on the upswing: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a recent report that the number of verdicts above $100 million reached a record in 2023, up nearly 400% from 2013.
   
• More cases, more problems: The so-called nuclear verdict phenomenon isn’t new, but American corporations worry that it is growing. Advocates for victims say corporations are whining about a relatively small number of cases involving horrific events.
   
• Public anger: “Folks vote two ways: in the ballot box and in the jury box,” said Seth Gillston, the head of North America industry practices for Chubb. “People are just desensitized to the numerical value, [and] that’s coupled with the fact that people are angry.”

Nordea faces court case in Denmark over anti-money-laundering shortcomings.

Nordea Bank is facing a court case in Denmark related to weak anti-money-laundering controls, but a provision booked previously will be enough to cover any outcome, the bank said on Friday.

Authorities investigated the bank’s Danish unit nearly a decade ago, probing its compliance with anti-money-laundering regulations in terms of having adequate processes to identify and combat money-laundering.

This led to orders by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority to improve its know-your-customer and transaction-monitoring procedures, with the matter then referred to the Danish Prosecution Service for further investigation. The Danish National Special Crime Unit has now announced that it will commence court proceedings and file a formal charge.

JPMorgan warns customers: Prepare to pay for checking accounts.

The head of America’s biggest retail bank has a warning for its 86 million customers: Prepare to pay for your bank accounts.

Marianne Lake runs Chase Bank, the sprawling franchise inside JPMorgan Chase that is the country’s biggest bank for consumers and one of its biggest credit-card issuers. Lake is warning that new rules that would cap overdraft and late fees will make everyday banking significantly more expensive for all Americans.

• Employers face a summer of uncertainty about the legality of noncompete agreements.
   
• A federal judge dismissed for a second time a racketeering lawsuit against McKinsey & Co. brought by Jay Alix, ruling that the founder of turnaround consulting firm AlixPartners lacked standing to sue, according to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy (subscription required). 

Iran’s voters elect their first reformist president in two decades.

Iranians turned out in higher numbers than in previous votes to elect a reformist president who ran on a platform of re-engaging with the West and loosening the country’s strict moral codes for women.

Little-known politician Masoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old surgeon, won with more than 53% of the vote, beating his hard-line rival Saeed Jalili, 58, according to official results announced by the Interior Ministry on state television.

Now Pezeshkian will have to operate in the treacherous theater of Iranian politics to manage a battered economy and an increasingly disaffected population that has erupted in protests repeatedly over the past decade. He has vowed to work to restore a 2015 pact that lifted international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, rein in the country’s hated morality police who force women to cover their hair, and stand against curbs on the internet.

• Iran’s New President: Guarded Reformist, Quiet Survivor

China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine puts Beijing on NATO’s threat list.

When NATO leaders meet in Washington on Tuesday their agenda will be dominated by Ukraine, Russia and European military spending. But looming over their summit is a country far from alliance territory that NATO didn’t even mention until five years ago: China.

Beijing today figures increasingly large in the plans of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 32 members and their close allies in the Asia-Pacific region.

• China Outspends the U.S. on Fusion in the Race for Energy’s Holy Grail
• Only China Can End the War in Ukraine, Finland’s President Says
• China’s Foreign-Exchange Reserves Edged Down in June

• Last week's jobs report seems to have affirmed investors’ view that the economy is slowing, but not in a drastic way that would prompt more aggressive rate cuts.
   
• Thousands of Samsung Electronics unionized workers in South Korea walked off job sites Monday as part of a three-day strike, pressing for higher wages and better working conditions, union leaders said.
   
• A trip by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia next week is aimed at reinforcing the relationship with Moscow as New Delhi strengthens ties with the U.S. to counter China.
   
• New governments in Europe are being handed a poisoned chalice. They are being elected with mandates for change, but only limited means at their disposal to enact it.
   
• As Labour returns to power in the U.K., it inherits a similar situation to the one it left in 2010: a lack of funds to address Britain’s myriad economic and social challenges.
   
• Another wave of record-setting heat is on the horizon for the U.S. West Coast this week.
   
• Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas, bringing life-threatening winds, power outages and snarling air travel, officials said.

• President Biden faced new calls from prominent Democrats to exit from the race, as he hit the campaign trail Sunday to try to dispel mounting concerns over his fitness for office and chances of defeating Republican Donald Trump.
   
• As President Biden continues to grapple with the fallout from his bad debate against former President Donald Trump, more Democrats are publicly and privately suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris is the only viable replacement if Biden were to bow out of the race.
   
• A coalition of leftist parties won the most seats in France’s parliamentary elections, according to projections based on ballot counts, in a stunning come-from-behind victory fueled by a groundswell of opposition to Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant forces.
   
• Paramount Global agreed to merge with David Ellison’s Skydance Media in a complicated deal that ends the Redstone family’s involvement with the Hollywood company.
   
• You are likely not getting a big promotion this year. So how about a job swap?
   
• An influx of older Americans bolsters the nation’s fastest-growing city: "We have more fun than our daughter."
   

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