Good morning. 3M agreed to pay up to $12.5 billion to settle hundreds of lawsuits brought by cities that said their drinking water was contaminated with “forever chemicals” the company made for decades.

The tentative national class-action settlement in a landmark environmental fight involving PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam was reached Thursday.

• 11-figure payout: 3M is to pay between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion, and the settlement will cover public water systems across the U.S., plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
   
• Risky products: If completed, it would be among major settlements involving litigation over products deemed to be health risks, including the massive agreements reached in lawsuits involving tobacco, opioids and asbestos.
   
• Dangerous, but versatile: PFAS chemicals were once used in everything from pizza boxes to cosmetics.

Fraudulent Covid aid drove up U.S. house prices, report says.

Fraud against the Paycheck Protection Program was widespread enough to bump up real-estate prices within certain U.S. ZIP Codes, researchers at the University of Texas concluded, blaming the abuse on some of the financial technology companies that provided the loans.

House prices in ZIP Codes with high fraud were 5.7 percentage points higher than in low-fraud ZIP Codes in the same county, even when controlling for a range of other possible factors, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business said in a study released Thursday.

The researchers said people who received fraudulent loans were significantly more likely to purchase a home during the program than those who got the money legitimately, ultimately driving up home prices for everyone around them.

JPMorgan to pay $4 million over deleted messages.

JPMorgan Chase’s brokerage arm will pay $4 million in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the accidental deletion of 47 million electronic messages it was supposed to retain.

While trying to clear a backlog of communications dating back to the 1970s, JPMorgan inadvertently wiped the messages, the SEC said in an order published Thursday.

• More Americans are using marijuana. Their employers are trying to decide how much that matters.
   
• A judge began hearing arguments in a case that could decide the fate of one of tech’s largest-ever acquisitions, Microsoft's proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard for $75 billion.

Can sanctions threat deter China from invading Taiwan? Yes and no, study finds.

The storm of sanctions the U.S. and its allies unleashed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine has raised the question of whether the threat of similar economic pressure can help deter China from launching an invasion of Taiwan.

The answer, according to a new study, is a potential “yes”—but with big caveats.

Bank boards light on tech expertise.

More than a fifth of big banks worldwide lack a board member with technological expertise, according to a study by professional services firm Accenture.

The firm, which looked at the backgrounds of 1,736 board members at the 106 largest banks by assets worldwide, found that 22% have boards lacking any directors with tech expertise, though that share has fallen from 33% in 2020 and 43% in 2015.

Accenture, which looked at board compositions as of June 1, defined board members with tech experience as those who have technology-related responsibilities at their current company or had such responsibilities at previous companies, or those who have or had senior responsibility at a tech business.

• President Biden said U.S. ties to India were strengthening rapidly, as he concluded a round of talks with India’s leader in which the two countries announced defense deals aimed at weaning New Delhi off arms purchases from Russia.
   
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank didn’t raise interest rates last week as it wanted to slow down its historically rapid pace of increases, but stressed it would likely lift rates again in coming months.

• The Instant Pot maker’s bankruptcy filing signals that pandemic-driven supply-chain pressures still are straining the finances of companies.
   
• CFOs started using company jets for personal use during the pandemic. They haven’t stopped.
   
• A big source of inflation is parked in the garage, and we aren’t talking car prices.

• The five men onboard the missing submersible in the North Atlantic died in a catastrophic implosion, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
   
• Canada’s Parliament approved legislation to compel digital companies to compensate domestic media outlets for links to their articles.
   
• When it comes to housing, there is a perpetual supply malfunction that inflates costs: local government zoning policies that expressly forbid developers from building homes where people want them.
   
• V Pappas, TikTok’s chief operating officer and top U.S.-based executive, is leaving after nearly five years, setting up a leadership transition for the Chinese-owned video-sharing company at a pivotal time in its most important market.

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