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In China, Apple Compromises on Censorship and Surveillance

In China, Apple Compromises on Censorship and Surveillance

On Chinese iPhones, Apple bans apps through the Dalai Lama, while hosting apps by the Chinese paramilitary group accused of arresting and abusing Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in China.

The company has also helped China spread its view of the world. Chinese iPhones censor the Taiwanese flag emoji, and their maps suggest that Taiwan is part of China. According to Patrick Wardle, a former National Security Agency hacker, simply typing the word “Taiwan” could cause the iPhone to crash for a while.

Sometimes, Mr. Schuhmacher said, he would be woken up in the middle of the night with requests from the Chinese government to remove an app. If the app seemed to mention the prohibited topics, it would remove it, but it would send more complicated cases to senior executives, including Mr Cue and Mr Schiller.

Apple defied an order from the Chinese government in 2012 to remove the Times’ apps. But five years later it ended up being that way. Mr Cook agreed to the decision, according to two knowledgeable people who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Apple recently announced the number of times governments require apps to be removed. In the two years ending June 2020, the latest data available, Apple approved 91 percent of the Chinese government’s app deactivation requests and removed 1,217 apps.

In every other country during that period, Apple approved 40 percent of requests and removed 253 apps. Apple said most of the apps that were removed for the Chinese government were related to gambling, pornography, or operated without a state license, such as: B. Rental services and live streaming apps.

However, a Times analysis of the Chinese app data suggests that this information represents a fraction of the apps that Apple has blocked in China. Since 2017, around 55,000 active apps have disappeared from Apple’s app store in China, according to a Times analysis of data compiled by Sensor Tower, an app data company. Most of these apps are available in other countries.

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All eyes on Walmart+ when retailer reviews 1Q earnings Tuesday

All eyes on Walmart+ when retailer reports 1Q earnings Tuesday

From now on, everything for Walmart revolves around loyalty and loyalty.

One of the tools it will use to do this is Walmart +, a subscription service that the company launched in September.

Walmart is expected to provide a progress report on the program when it releases a earnings report on Tuesday. So far, the retailer hasn’t shared any subscriber numbers – and that probably won’t change this week – but investors and analysts will be listening for clues as to whether the program is helping the retailer deepen relationships with its customers and provide them with other types of services to sell. Holding on to market share and trips to the store has become more important, especially as consumers are vaccinated and allowed to revert to typical spending patterns prior to the pandemic.

Walmart + is part of the retailer’s plans to expand its business beyond retail and leverage its reach to make money in other ways, from advertising and financial services to healthcare. When customers sign up for the program, the retailer can learn more about their shopping list and preferences. These can then be converted into customer benefits like personalized coupons and new sources of income like targeted ads.

“This is another tool Walmart has to help drive loyalty and growth online,” said Michael Lasser, retail analyst at UBS. “And what’s important, it allows it [the company] to collect more data from its consumers. “

Increasing competition, falling stocks

Walmart, the largest grocer in the country, saw sales spike throughout the pandemic, especially on the internet, as Americans scaled back shopping trips and focused on groceries and other pandemic-related necessities, from soap to puzzles. Sales in the same store increased 8.6% in the last fiscal year in the US and e-commerce sales increased 79% year over year. Despite its size, the discounter faces numerous competitive threats from e-commerce forces like Amazon, low-cost retailers like Dollar General and Aldi, and third-party disruptors like Instacart and Fresh Direct.

In a corporate memo recently received from Recode, Walmart was open about the challenges facing grocery shoppers choosing competitors like Target, Publix and Albertsons, and how members who sign up for Walmart + can be held after their subscriptions expire .

Walmart hit a 52-week high of $ 153.66 on December 1. Since then, stocks have fallen to $ 139. Walmart’s fourth quarter profit resulted in a sell-off as company executives said the retailer would increase its investments to $ 14 billion and expected sales to weaken for the year. Stocks are down another 3% this year, which translates to a market value of around $ 391 billion.

Walmart’s revenue growth is expected to slow in the first quarter as pandemic-related spending eases. UBS expects the retailer’s US sales to grow 1.5% in the first quarter. That’s less than the 10% growth that Walmart saw in the first quarter a year ago, but higher than the average 3.6% drop in sales in the same store that UBS expects for consumables retailers.

The company’s earnings per share are projected to be $ 1.21 and revenues are $ 132.09 billion, based on consensus refinitive estimates

Walmart has not provided a specific guidance for the fiscal year, but expects net sales to increase in the low single digits and, excluding the effects of divestments, operating income and earnings per share to increase flat or slightly.

Walmart + is Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime, but with its own perks and a value-driven twist. The subscription service costs $ 98 for a year or $ 12.95 for a month. It includes features like fuel discounts, free next and second day shipping, and unlimited deliveries of groceries and other merchandise from Walmart stores.

Still in its infancy

According to a recent survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Walmart + has grown to an estimated 8 to 9 million members. That is an increase from an estimated 7.4 million to 8.2 million members at the beginning of the year. Members spend an average of $ 1,100 per year on the Walmart website, according to a study by the company in April. When we surveyed customers in January, annual online spend increased by an average of $ 1,000.

When including in-store purchases, CIRP found that Walmart + members spend an average of $ 1,800 a year because they shop at Walmart.com 50% more often than non-subscribers.

Since launching the subscription service in the fall, Walmart has continued to optimize it. For example, in December, the company lowered an online member shipping minimum of $ 35. This move brought the retailer more in line with Amazon Prime and came during the holiday shopping season.

On an investor day in February, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, said Walmart + is one of the ways the company can increase sales for new and existing customers. First, however, he said the company would focus on “delivering a quality experience” to customers before adding any other benefits and emphasizing membership growth.

“We don’t want to outdo ourselves and sell too many Walmart + memberships and have a customer experience that is below our expectations or expectations,” he said at the virtual event.

For example, he said, the retailer needs more capacity to keep up with orders for groceries and other stores being delivered to members’ homes – one of the main benefits of the program. The company is adding automated systems to dozens of stores to quickly pick items and fulfill more online orders.

“Over time, more of our customers will want Walmart + because it makes life better,” he said. “This relationship will drive repeat business and provide data that will enable us to serve them even better and be more personalized. It is an important part of our strategy.”

Ultimately, according to Lasser at UBS, the membership program could strengthen other areas of Walmart’s business – like serving ads that are more targeted and relevant based on consumer buying patterns.

Earlier this year, Walmart renamed its advertising business and announced ambitions to become one of the top 10 advertising platforms in the US over the next few years. According to the 2020 annual report, the advertising business accounts for less than 1% of annual sales.

UBS has listed Walmart stock as a buy. The price target for Walmart is $ 160, about 13% higher than stocks.

While the retailer faced tough comparisons a year ago, Lasser said customers were likely buying more goods like televisions, lawn tools, and clothing than basic household and grocery items like paper towels and milk. That could mean more profitable sales for Walmart, he said.

Charlie O’Shea, retail analyst at Moody, said he will be paying attention to the speed of online sales and whether sales have attracted discretionary items. He said he doesn’t expect the company to reveal Walmart + subscriber numbers, but rather expects to know what’s next for the program.

He said Walmart + is still in its infancy compared to Amazon Prime, which launched in 2005. Prime has grown to around 200 million Prime subscribers worldwide, said its CEO Jeff Bezos in April.

Even when Walmart shared subscriber numbers, O’Shea said the pandemic distorted buying patterns and “made it a difficult time to evaluate a membership program.”

“It’s a laboratory experiment that should work,” he said. “But I’m not sure if it will rise to the level of Amazon.”

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Authorities assist blunted the pandemic’s monetary fallout, however it nonetheless hit some arduous.

Government help blunted the pandemic’s financial fallout, but it still hit some hard.

American households had vastly different economic experiences in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns left workers unemployed and many less financially secure, a Federal Reserve report on household economic well-being released Monday showed.

“One clear pattern from the survey is that 2020 financial challenges were mixed and those who entered the year were often left with fewer resources,” according to the Fed’s annual report on the economic well-being of US households.

The differences came when Congress and the White House instituted a tremendous response to spending to keep families financially alive during a difficult time. The data suggests that these programs have helped – but they haven’t completely mitigated the harm to vulnerable households.

The Fed’s online survey, which tracks the experience of adults over the age of 18 in the United States, found that nearly a quarter of respondents said they were financially worse off than a year earlier – up from 14 percent in 2019. As Job Losses Took The Nation Roughly One In Seven Adults Reported To See A layoff at some point in 2020.

“People who kept their jobs during the pandemic generally had stable or improved finances in 2020,” the report said. “However, those who have suffered layoffs and prolonged unemployment have seen their financial situation deteriorate.”

Less than a quarter of those who lost their jobs had returned to their old positions by the end of the year, although more than 80 percent of laid-off workers indicated as of April 2020 that they would expect to get their jobs back, according to the Survey.

The economic costs of state and local lockdowns, while widespread, were nowhere near equal. Overall, the proportion of households that said they were “at least financially okay” remained constant, but the gap between those with a bachelor’s degree reporting financial comfort and those with less than a high school degree did expanded sharply over the past year, rising 44 percentage points in 2020, which happened when the pandemic closed shuttered service providers such as restaurants and shopping malls, costing jobs that required less formal education.

Disparities also played out in a racist manner. Black and Hispanic families are far less likely than white and Asian households to be able to cope financially, the survey found. Less than two-thirds of black and Hispanic adults said they were “at least okay,” compared with 80 percent of white adults and 84 percent of Asian adults.

A large proportion of households took advantage of the government relief in 2020. When Congress expanded eligibility and increased the generosity of benefits for those who have lost their jobs, the report found that 14 percent of adults said they had received unemployment income, up from 2 percent in Year 2019.

The report said that “many aspects of government stimulus measures” “appear to have mitigated the negative financial impact of the pandemic on many families”.

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Pandemic removed from over regardless of vaccinations

Pandemic far from over despite vaccinations

Family members of Vijay Raju, who died due to Covid, mourn before his cremation in the village of Giddenahalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India, on May 13, 2021.

Samuel Rajkumar | Reuters

The global pandemic is not over yet, despite high Covid vaccination rates in some countries, the head of the World Health Organization warned on Monday, days after the CDC told fully vaccinated Americans that they could go without a mask in most places.

“There is a tremendous hiatus where in some countries with the highest vaccination rates the pandemic appears to be over while others are experiencing large waves of infection,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference from the agency’s headquarters in genf.

“The pandemic is far from over,” he warned. “It won’t be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere.”

Tedros’ comments came four days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their public health guidelines to say that fully vaccinated people no longer wear face masks in most settings, whether outdoors or indoors, or 6 Need to stay away from others. It’s the first time the federal government has been encouraging people to stop wearing masks since the agency first called for face coverings more than a year ago.

Some doctors said the new guidelines mean “people who have been vaccinated can go back to normal”.

In the United States, new Covid cases are on the decline as more Americans get vaccinated. As of Sunday, the nation reports about 33,200 new infections daily based on a 7-day average of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, a 19% decrease from a week earlier. According to the CDC, around 123 million Americans are fully vaccinated.

Major outbreaks occur in other countries. India, for example, reports an average of around 328,900 cases per day for seven days as of Sunday, according to Hopkins. That’s 15% less than a week ago, but it’s still an enormous number of cases. The country also hit a new record of deaths, reporting an average of 4,039 deaths in seven days, according to Hopkins data.

Tedros said the agency has responded to the surge in India and other hot spots around the world. He said WHO needed immediate funding to maintain its technical and operational support to all countries, especially those hardest hit by the pandemic.

“The current response plan is underfunded and the vast majority of it is earmarked by donors for specific countries or activities,” he said.

He also urged Covid’s vaccine makers, including Pfizer and Moderna, to make more vaccines available to COVAX, which doses poorer countries.

“We need cans now and we urge them to move forward with deliveries as soon as possible,” he said.

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U.S. and Europe Transfer Nearer to Truce in Trump-Period Commerce Spat: Dwell Updates

Working on a steel pipe at the Iron S.p.A. factory in Assisi, Italy. Former President Donald J. Trump’s administration imposed steel tariffs on several countries in 2018.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

The United States and the European Union said Monday they had begun discussions to resolve a conflict over steel and aluminum imports that was a major front in the Trump administration’s trade wars and a serious burden on trans-Atlantic relations.

As part of a truce announced Monday, the European Union will not, as planned, increase tariffs on products like United States whiskey, orange juice and motorcycles, which the bloc imposed in 2018 in retaliation for duties that the Trump administration imposed on European steel and aluminum. The higher tariffs were scheduled to take effect June 1.

The talks about steel and aluminum are part of an effort by the Biden administration to rebuild relations between the United States and Europe after the Trump administration treated the bloc like an adversary, sometimes threatening to leave NATO and citing national security as a justification for charging 25 percent tariffs on imports of European steel and 10 percent on aluminum.

In March, the United States and European Union temporarily suspended tariffs on billions of dollars of each others’ aircraft, wine, food and other products as they worked to settle a long-running dispute involving Boeing and Airbus, the two leading airplane manufacturers. The United States also temporarily suspended retaliatory tariffs against British products like Scotch whisky that had been imposed as part of the dispute over aircraft subsidies.

Some European officials had hoped President Biden would simply lift the Trump-era tariffs, which are unpopular with businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. But the administration is moving cautiously and is likely to seek something in return, mindful that the tariffs are welcomed in steelmaking regions like Pennsylvania.

In a joint statement, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative; Gina M. Raimondo, the secretary of commerce; and Valdis Dombrovskis, the top European Union trade official, said they would discuss how to address a global glut in steel products that poses “a serious threat to the market-oriented E.U. and U.S. steel and aluminum industries and the workers in those industries.”

The United States and European Union are “allies and partners, sharing similar national security interests as democratic, market economies,” the officials said, adding that they would work together to “hold countries like China that support trade-distorting policies to account.”

Starbucks has announced that masks will be optional for vaccinated customers as of Monday, unless local regulations require them.Credit…Eze Amos for The New York Times

Target on Monday joined a growing list of retailers, restaurants and theme parks that will allow fully vaccinated customers to go mask free, following new coronavirus safety guidance from the federal government last week that said vaccinated people rarely transmit the virus.

[Answers to your questions about vaccines and masks at work.]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday took many businesses by surprise when it said that people who are vaccinated could go maskless in most places, including indoors. For businesses, the announcement was complicated by the fact that C.D.C. guidance does not override state and local rules. But several major companies have already moved to relax mask requirements. Businesses for the most part have not said they would require customers to show proof that they have been vaccinated.

Here’s the latest on companies that are changing their mask policies.

Costco, which has more than 500 U.S. stores, said it would allow fully vaccinated customers to go mask-free where state and local guidance allowed. The retailer said it would “not require proof of vaccination” but would ask for its customers’ “responsible and respectful cooperation with this revised policy.”

Publix, which has 1,270 grocery stores in the Southeast, said “face coverings are optional for fully vaccinated individuals inside Publix stores” subject to local regulations.

Starbucks, which has 32,000 cafes worldwide, said that facial coverings would be optional for vaccinated customers beginning on Monday, unless local regulations requireed them. Employees at Starbucks locations in the United States and Canada will still be required to wear masks.

Target, which has 1,909 stores in the United States, said it would no longer require fully vaccinated customers and employees to wear face coverings, except where required by local ordinances. The retailer said that it masks would still be “strongly recommended” for both shoppers and staff members who were not fully vaccinated.

Trader Joe’s, which operates 517 grocery stores across the country, said that customers who were fully vaccinated no longer needed to wear masks in its stores. It will not require proof of vaccination “as we trust our customers to follow C.D.C. guidelines,” a spokeswoman, Kenya Friend-Daniel, said in an email. Masks are still required for store employees.

Walmart said that vaccinated customers were allowed to go maskless starting May 18 in areas that did not have stricter mandates. A spokesman for the company, which operates more than 4,000 Walmart and nearly 600 Sam’s Club stores in the United States, said it expected its customers to abide by the honor system. Employees can also go mask-free by answering “yes” to a vaccination question that is part of a daily health assessment.

Walt Disney World Resort in Florida said that it was no longer requiring visitors to wear masks in most outdoor areas as of this weekend, though masks are still required in indoor locations. Disneyland in California continues to require masks indoors and out because of state mandates. Disney’s chief executive, Bob Chapek, said on an earnings call Thursday that the company had begun to increase capacity and that the C.D.C.’s new guidance “is very big news for us, particularly if anybody’s been in Florida in the middle of summer with a mask on.” About 150 million people visited Disney’s parks in 2019.

Hershey Park in Pennsylvania said it would no longer require masks nor social distancing for fully vaccinated guests. The theme park, which drew 3.4 million visitors in 2019, said it would rely on its guests to “accurately follow the guidelines based on their vaccination status.”

Universal Orlando Resort said masks were no longer required when outdoors but still must be used in “all indoor locations.” Its theme park in California will still require masks both outside and inside because of the state rules.

One of the 40,000 DVD rental kiosks operated by Redbox in the United States.Credit…Stuart Isett for The New York Times

Redbox, the company best known for its DVD-rental kiosks, is going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in a deal that values the company at $693 million, the DealBook newsletter was the first to report.

Redbox’s parent, Outerwall, was acquired by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2016 at a $1.6 billion valuation; it later separated the group’s businesses, which included Redbox, Coinstar and ecoATM. Apollo is rolling over all of its equity in Redbox as part of the deal, which also includes a $50 million investment led by Ophir Asset Management.

Redbox has some 40,000 kiosks across the United States, more than there are McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. Are they needed in the age of Netflix? Redbox gets its DVDs long before many movies arrive on subscription services, said its chief executive, Galen Smith, and its customers are more value-conscious than the typical Netflix streamer. Many are also late adopters to streaming, perhaps because they can’t afford broadband access, Mr. Smith said.

The physical rental business was in decline at the time of Apollo’s acquisition, and revenue from DVDs fell more than a third last year, to around $500 million, as the pandemic held up new releases. As the backlog clears, the company is expecting a rebound. There is a “very long tail for the physical business,” Mr. Smith said.

Redbox is also hoping to convert loyal customers to its own streaming business, which accounted for about 8 percent of its revenue last year. It partners with brands like Showtime and is also creating its own content. Once seen as a threat to the studios, Redbox is now considered an important buyer. “We can create value in helping these studios reach consumers that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach through our platform,” Mr. Smith said.

The Internal Revenue Service delayed the tax filing deadline by a month, to May 17.Credit…Susan Walsh/Associated Press

It’s May 17 and it’s Tax Day, the deadline for filing your 2020 taxes. The Internal Revenue Service in March said that Americans who needed it could take extra time to file their taxes. That time has arrived.

The one-month delay from the usual April deadline did not offer as much extra time as the I.R.S. gave people last year, when the filing deadline was pushed to July 15. But the aim was the same: to make it easier for taxpayers to get a handle on their finances — as well as tax changes that took effect this year with the signing of the American Rescue Plan.

Still have questions? Here are some articles that might help.

How the Pandemic Has Changed Your Taxes

New rules for a new reality, from stimulus payments to retirement withdrawals to unemployment insurance, could cut your bill or even generate extra refunds.

The Tax Filing Deadline Was Delayed, but Read the Fine Print

The federal government and most states pushed back the date to May 17, but others have gone their own way. It’s a good idea to double-check deadlines.

The Tax Headaches of Working Remotely

“Each state has its own rules,” one tax expert says. So if you worked in a state other than your usual one in 2020, here are some tips on dealing with the tax season.

For Gig Workers and Business Owners, Taxes Are Even Trickier Now

Filing taxes has never been simple for freelancers and business owners, but the pandemic has made it far more complex.

A Break for Working Families

The government is allowing people who qualify for the earned-income tax credit to use income from either 2020 or 2019, whichever will result in a bigger credit.

Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, said it has seen signs that a recovery in air travel and tourism “has already begun.”Credit…Albert Gea/Reuters

U.S. stocks slipped in early trading on Monday and most European equity indexes were lower, reversing some of Friday’s rally.

The S&P 500 fell about 0.2 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.1 percent.

The Wall Street benchmark rose on Friday, but the increase was not enough to reverse a decline of 1.4 percent for the week, when faster-than-expected inflation data rattled markets.

Traders are watching inflation data closely because if it shows signs of a substantial and sustained rise central bank policymakers might pull back on monetary stimulus. On Wednesday, the central bank will publish minutes of its April policy meeting.

  • Discovery shares rose 8 percent in early trading after confirming it would merge with AT&T’s media business, including the WarnerMedia assets, to create a new giant company. AT&T shares rose more than 3 percent.

  • The FTSE 100 in Britain fell 0.4 percent even as England entered the next stage of its exit from lockdown. Indoor dining and hotels reopened as well as entertainment venues such as museums and cinemas. But an increase in the number of cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in India has raised concerns about the easing of restrictions.

  • Ryanair shares rose slightly after the airline reported a loss of 815 million euros (or $991 million) in the year through March but said that it expected a “strong recovery” in air travel and tourism in the second half of this fiscal year. “The recent strong increases in weekly bookings since early April suggests that this recovery has already begun,” the earnings release said.

  • Taiwan’s stock index dropped 3 percent as the island battles its worst coronavirus outbreak. Its government imposed tougher restrictions, including closing cinemas and limiting the size of gatherings, and encouraged people not to panic buy essentials.

  • Oil prices rose slightly. The West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose 0.3 percent to $65.58 a barrel.

  • Bitcoin fell to about $45,000 on Monday morning, though it recovered some of its losses from the weekend after Elon Musk said Tesla hadn’t sold any Bitcoin. The electric carmaker bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency earlier this year but Mr. Musk recently suspended plans to accept Bitcoin for car payments.

The paper’s conclusions suggest that economic programs embraced by President Biden may be useful in raising wages.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

Two economists at the liberal Economic Policy Institute conclude in a new paper that the government is to blame for the fact that pay for middle-income workers has increased only slightly since the 1970s.

“Intentional policy decisions (either of commission or omission) have generated wage suppression,” write Lawrence Mishel and Josh Bivens.

Included among these decisions are policymakers’ willingness to tolerate high unemployment and to let employers fight unions aggressively, trade deals that force workers to compete with low-paid labor abroad and the tacit or explicit blessing of new legal arrangements, like employment contracts that make it harder for workers to seek new jobs.

Dr. Mishel and Dr. Bivens argue that a decades-long loss of leverage largely explains the gap between the pay increases that workers would have received had they benefited fully from rising productivity, and the smaller wage and benefit increases that workers actually received, Noam Scheiber reports for The New York Times.

Drawing on existing measures of the relationship between unemployment and wages, Dr. Mishel and Dr. Bivens estimate that excess unemployment lowered wages by about 10 percent since the 1970s, explaining nearly one-quarter of the gap between wages and productivity growth.

They perform similar calculations for other factors that undermined workers’ bargaining power: the decline of unions; a succession of trade deals with low-wage countries; and increasingly common arrangements like “fissuring,” in which companies outsource work to lower-paying firms, and noncompete clauses in employment contracts, which make it hard for workers to leave for a competitor.

Together, Dr. Mishel and Dr. Bivens conclude, these factors explain more than three-quarters of the gap between the typical worker’s actual increases in compensation and their expected increases, given the productivity gains.

The C.D.C.’s new guidance on masks comes with caveats.Credit…Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

Are companies responsible for making sure that every employee without a mask is vaccinated against the coronavirus?

What if unvaccinated employees infect their co-workers — is the company potentially liable? Will companies ask their employees to take Covid-19 tests?

Millions of office workers who have been able to do their job from home during the pandemic are now thinking seriously about returning to work. The prospect raises myriad health safety and workplace protocol questions for employees and companies.

Lauren Hirsch of The New York Times’s DealBook team spoke to lawyers, employers and human resources professionals about some of the questions.

Generally, employers are allowed to require employees to be vaccinated. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance in December stating that vaccine mandates are legal. But this is complicated by proposed legislation in a number of states that would restrict companies’ abilities to set such requirements.

Whether executives are prepared to follow through on the implications of a vaccine mandate is also up for debate.

“If they want to permit employees to remove masks indoors, yes, I believe it does put the burden on the employer to verify,” said Kristin White, a lawyer at Fisher Phillips who specializes in workplace safety regulations.

The White House is also reviewing a new emergency standard on Covid workplace protections from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Labor groups have been pushing for new rules for about a year. OSHA suggests social distancing and masks in the workplace — but a temporary standard would establish requirements. Any new standard now needs to consider the new C.D.C. guidance.

As vaccination numbers rise and the number of Covid-19 cases drop, it’s natural for companies to rethink their workplace plans, said Joseph Allen, who is the director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program and advises companies on Covid-19 strategy.

“What was state-of-the-art last year is not state-of-the-art right now,” he said. “The science has changed, the plans should change.”

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5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Monday, Could 17

5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday, May 17

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis that investors need to get their trading day started:

1. The stock jump in the late week gushes on Monday before the market

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on May 10, 2021 in New York City.

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

US stock futures fell on Monday after Friday’s strong rally. However, Friday’s gains of more than 1% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 and over 2% for the Nasdaq were not enough to offset the sharp declines early last week. The Dow and S&P 500 both saw more than 1% weekly declines, while the Nasdaq fell over 2% on its worst weekly performances since February. The roller coaster ride on inflation concerns hit stocks early last week. The Dow was down 3.4%, the S&P 500 was down 4% and the Nasdaq was down 5%. All three stock benchmarks made up some of those Thursday and Friday losses.

2. 10-year return below 1.7% even if inflation subsides

Bond yields were mostly lower on Monday after 10-year government bond yields rose to over 1.7% on Wednesday during last week’s worst stock sale. This was the highest 10-year return level in more than a month after a 14-month high in March. Fears of inflation and whether the Federal Reserve will be able to keep the promised line with interest rates close to 0% and massive asset purchases rocked the markets. On Wednesday, the government reported that consumer prices accelerated at their fastest pace in more than 12 years in April as the US economic recovery kicked off. The Fed released minutes of its April meeting on Wednesday.

3. AT&T agrees to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery

John Stankey, President & Chief Operating Officer of AT&T and Chief Executive Officer of WarnerMedia, speaks on stage at the HBO Max WarnerMedia Investor Day presentation at Warner Bros. Studios on October 29, 2019 in Burbank, California.

Presley Ann | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

AT&T on Monday announced a deal to combine its WarnerMedia movie and media content division with Discovery, which will pave the way for one of Hollywood’s biggest power players to better compete with streaming media giants like Netflix and Disney. AT & T’s shares were up 4% and Discovery was up 10%. AT&T shareholders would own 71% of the new company. Discovery shareholders would own 29%. The transaction would assemble properties like CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. from WarnerMedia, as well as the HGTV, TLC and History channels from Discovery. In 2018, AT&T acquired Time Warner, since then renamed WarnerMedia, for an equity value of $ 85 billion.

4. Elon Musk clarifies that Tesla did not sell Bitcoin.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated in a tweet early Monday that the electric vehicle maker “did not sell Bitcoin”.

Bitcoin partially rebounded on Monday, trading above $ 45,000 per unit. The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell below that level on Sunday after Musk apparently hinted on a Twitter exchange that Tesla might or might not sell the rest of its Bitcoin holdings. He “actually” replied to a sympathetic tweet.

All of this happened days after Musk said Tesla planned to hold onto its Bitcoin even though it stopped using it to buy electric cars until Bitcoin mining can become more energetically sustainable.

5. CDC Director Defends New Mask Policy; Businesses go their own way

People enjoying the sunshine on the steps of the MET in New York City as the CDC lifts restrictions on wearing masks for those who are fully vaccinated.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged people to be honest and only drop their Covid masks if they are fully vaccinated. The sudden change in CDC guidelines over the past week has left some people confused as it is not overriding local mask regulations. Local governments and businesses are grappling with the question of whether to follow the CDC’s new guidelines. Starbucks said, “Facials will be optional for vaccinated customers starting Monday, May 17, unless local regulations require it by law.” Walmart and Costco led the way on Friday.

– Follow all market action like a pro on CNBC Pro. With CNBC’s coronavirus coverage, you’ll get the latest information on the pandemic.

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How Lies on Social Media Are Inflaming the Israeli-Palestinian Battle

Lies on Social Media Inflame Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In a 28-second video posted on Twitter this week by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian militants appeared to be launching rocket attacks on Israelis from densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

At least, Ofir Gendelman, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, said the video. But his tweet with the footage, which was shared hundreds of times as the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis escalated, wasn’t from Gaza. It wasn’t even that week.

Instead, the video he shared, which can be found on many YouTube channels and other video hosting sites, was from 2018. According to captions in older versions of the video, militants were shown, the rockets not from Gaza but from Syria or Libya fired from Syria.

The video was just misinformation circulated on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media this week about the increasing violence between Israelis and Palestinians when Israeli military forces attacked Gaza early Friday. The false information included videos, photos, and text clips that allegedly came from government officials in the area. Earlier this week, unfounded claims were made that Israeli soldiers had invaded Gaza or that Palestinian mobs were raging through sleepy Israeli suburbs.

According to an analysis by the New York Times, the lies were amplified as they were shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook, and spread on WhatsApp and Telegram groups with thousands of members. The effects of the misinformation are potentially fatal, disinformation experts said, creating tension between Israelis and Palestinians when suspicions and suspicions were already high.

“Much of this is a rumor and a broken phone, but it’s being shared right now because people are desperate to share information about the developing situation,” said Arieh Kovler, a Jerusalem political analyst and independent researcher who studies misinformation . “What makes it more confusing is that it’s a mix of false claims and real stuff that is being attributed to the wrong place or time.”

Twitter and Facebook, which own Instagram and WhatsApp, did not respond to requests for comment. Christina LoNigro, a spokeswoman for WhatsApp, said the company has put limits on how many times people can forward a message in an attempt to contain misinformation.

TikTok said in a statement, “Our teams have worked quickly to encourage, and continue to work, to encourage and remove misinformation, attempts, violence, and other content that violates our community guidelines.”

The Times found several misinformation this week spreading through Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods and activist WhatsApp groups. One, which appeared as a block of Hebrew text or an audio file, contained a warning that Palestinian mobs were preparing to descend on Israeli citizens.

“Palestinians are coming, parents protect their children,” said the message, which specifically pointed to several suburbs north of Tel Aviv. Thousands of people belonged to one of the Telegram groups where the post was shared. The post then appeared in several WhatsApp groups that had tens to hundreds of members.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Updated

May 16, 2021, 7:21 p.m. ET

The Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. There were no reports of violence in any of the areas named in the message.

Another post earlier this week, written in Arabic and sent to a WhatsApp group of over 200 members, warned that Israeli soldiers would be invading Gaza.

“The invasion is coming,” read the text that asked people to pray for their families.

Arabic and Hebrew language news sources also appeared to reinforce some of the misinformation. Several Israeli news outlets recently discussed a video showing a family with a wrapped body going to a funeral to drop the body when a police siren sounded. The video was cited by news organizations as evidence that Palestinian families held false funerals and exaggerated the number of people killed in the conflict.

In fact, the video appeared on YouTube over a year ago and may have featured a Jordanian family holding a fake funeral, according to the title of the original video.

Clips from another video showing religious Jews ripping their clothes as a sign of devotion were also broadcast on Arabic-language news sites this week. The clips were cited as evidence that Jews faked their own injuries during clashes in Jerusalem.

That was wrong, according to Times analysis, the video was uploaded several times to WhatsApp and Facebook earlier this year.

There is a long history of misinformation between Israeli and Palestinian groups, with false allegations and conspiracies increasing in moments of heightened violence in the region.

In recent years, Facebook has removed several Iranian disinformation campaigns in an attempt to fuel tension between Israelis and Palestinians. Twitter also shut down a network of fake accounts in 2019 that was smeared on opponents of Mr. Netanyahu.

The grainy video Mr Gendelman shared on Twitter Wednesday, allegedly showing Palestinian militants launching rocket attacks on Israelis, was removed Thursday after Twitter labeled it “misleading content”. Mr. Gendelman’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Gendelman also appears to have misrepresented the content of other videos. On Tuesday, he posted a video on Twitter instructing three adult men to lie down on the floor with their bodies being arranged by a nearby crowd. Mr Gendelman said the video showed Palestinians staging bodies for a photo opportunity.

Mr Kovler, who traced the video back to its source, said the video was posted on TikTok in March. The accompanying text states that the footage shows people practicing for a bomb drill.

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Singapore, Hong Kong push again launch date for air journey bubble

Singapore, Hong Kong push back launch date for air travel bubble

Crew members and travelers of Singapore Airlines in the transit hall of Changi Airport in Singapore on January 14, 2021.

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SINGAPORE – Singapore and Hong Kong have again postponed the start date of a long-awaited deal on air bubbles, the two cities announced on Monday.

The travel bubble, which would have allowed travelers to skip the quarantine, was due to begin May 26. The program has had several rounds of delays since it was first launched in November 2020.

The Singapore Department of Transportation said in a statement that “with the recent increase in unlinked cases in the community, Singapore is unable to meet the criteria to launch the travel bubble”.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government said in a statement that further updates will be made on or before June 13th.

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Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline Covid Vaccine Exhibits Promise, Agency Says

Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline Covid Vaccine Shows Promise, Firm Says

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical company, announced Monday that it will move the experimental Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with GlaxoSmithKline to a late-stage study after the shot provoked strong immune responses in an interim study in volunteers.

The results are encouraging news for a vaccine that has fallen behind in development and so far has disappointed those who expect it to be vital in fighting the pandemic. If the vaccine can be available in the last three months of this year, as the developers hope, it could continue to play a pivotal role as a booster, as well as an initial vaccination, in developing countries where vaccination pace is lagging.

The vaccine suffered a major setback in December when its developers announced that it did not appear to work well in older adults and that they had plans to test it in a Phase 3 study, the pivotal test in assessing the vaccine’s effectiveness. would have to move.

However, the companies modified the vaccine and began testing it in February in a Phase 2 study that enrolled more than 700 volunteers in the US and Honduras between the ages of 18 and 95. Sanofi said the vaccine raised no safety concerns and produced a strong immune response across age groups, suggesting it was successfully optimized.

Sanofi announced the results in a statement, saying it plans to publish the results in a medical journal soon.

Sanofi and GSK have much more vaccine development experience than some of their previously approved competitors. The two companies took a more established approach than those used in other, more rapidly developed Covid vaccines. Their shot is based on viral proteins made with engineered viruses that grow in insect cells. GSK supplies the Sanofi vaccine with an adjuvant, a component used in many vaccines to boost the immune response.

The Sanofi and GSK vaccine was one of six vaccines selected for funding through Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to accelerate vaccine development. Last summer, the federal government agreed to give companies $ 2.1 billion to develop and manufacture the vaccine, against 100 million doses once the shot was done.

Sanofi also has delivery agreements with the European Union and Canada. It was also agreed to ship 200 million doses to Covax, the program to deliver vaccines to middle and low income countries that is grappling with a shortage of expected doses. Sanofi also announced plans to help manufacture the approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Sanofi said the Phase 3 trial of its vaccine will begin in the coming weeks and will enroll more than 35,000 adult volunteers around the world. Two formulations of the vaccine are being tested, one to prevent the original strain of the virus and the other for variant B.1.351, which was first observed in South Africa and against which some vaccines appear to be less effective.

Su-Peing Ng, Sanofi’s global medical director for vaccines, told journalists on Monday that the company believed it would be “operationally quite difficult” to enroll unvaccinated participants in the Phase 3 study because the vaccination rate was in many countries. Still, she said, vaccine doses are still scarce in many parts of the world, pointing to Latin America and Asia as places the company may want to enroll volunteers.

The company said that shortly after the Phase 3 trial begins, it will test whether its vaccine can boost immune responses in people who had been vaccinated with approved vaccines months earlier. These booster studies are expected to enroll volunteers in well-vaccinated parts of the world, including the US and Europe.

Sanofi and GSK said last year they are preparing to produce 1 billion cans a year. Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi’s global director of vaccines, said Monday that if the vaccine turns out to work, the company’s production would depend on the needs of the world this year.

The vaccine “has the potential to be a booster of choice for many nations and many different platforms”.

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China says retail gross sales grew 17.7% in April, lacking expectations

China says retail sales grew 17.7% in April, missing expectations

A worker uses a thermometer to check a customer’s temperature as they enter a Starbucks store while the country is hit by the new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, China on Jan. 30, 2020.

A worker uses a thermometer to check a customer’s temperature as they enter a Starbucks store while the country is hit by the new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, China on Jan. 30, 2020.

BEIJING – As the latest sign of a sluggish recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, China said on Monday that consumer spending grew more slowly than expected in April.

Retail sales rose 17.7% year over year last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. According to analysts polled by Reuters, this fell short of expectations of 24.9% growth in April.

Retail sales in April also slowed from 34.2% year over year in March.

“China is still experiencing an unbalanced recovery as employment, household income, consumption, manufacturing investment, the service sector and private businesses have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels,” Bruce Pang, director of macro and strategic research at China Renaissance, said in one Explanation.

Catering sales, which also include restaurants, rose 46.4% year over year in April from 91.6% in March.

Online sales of consumer goods rose 23.1% year over year in the first four months of the year, slower than the growth rate of 25.8% in the first three months of the year. The statistics bureau has not published any growth rates for a month.

In a quarterly monetary policy report released last week, the People’s Bank of China noted that the foundation for economic recovery is not yet solid and consumer spending remains constrained.

The urban unemployment rate fell from 5.3% in March to 5.1% in April, but the average number of hours worked fell from 46.9 hours in March to 46.4 hours last month.

Consumption has left China’s macroeconomic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic behind. Retail sales declined last year despite the expansion of China’s GDP – the only major economy that grew last year.

“The travel, leisure, and entertainment sectors are a busy place for a lot of people,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, in a note. “The uncertainty of Covid is still holding these sectors back.

“Economic growth is likely to have peaked quarter over quarter in the first quarter,” he said, reckoning that growth will slow in the coming months and that the likelihood of a rate hike by the central bank has decreased.

In yet another sign of persistent consumption weakness, Chinese tourist travel surged to a record high during the May 1-5 holidays, but spending was still below 2019 levels.

Other April numbers showed steady growth in non-consumer sectors.

Industrial production rose 9.8% in April, in line with Reuters’ expectations.

Fixed investment rose 19.9% ​​in the first four months of the year, slightly above the 19% forecast by a Reuters survey.