Tag: Brexit

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Brexit Customs Checks Make a Quiet Debut at U.Okay. Ports

Brexit Customs Checks Make a Quiet Debut at U.K. Ports

LONDON – A new era began without a fuss on Friday morning at the ports and terminals on Britain’s south east coast. Ferries and trains transporting goods from Dover and Folkestone to France ran on time, and the drivers snaked their trucks unloaded into the port.

Apparently little has changed on January 1st, the country’s first day outside the internal market and customs union of the European Union. It was a public holiday, after all, and there wasn’t much to do.

For the first time in over 25 years, goods moving between the UK and the European Union can no longer move freely, and goods entering the block will be subject to customs controls.

A trade agreement signed in the UK in the early hours of December 31st, less than 24 hours before it came into force, means that the country and the European Union will trade goods without tariffs. However, businesses will continue to face significant changes that they had to prepare for even during the lockdowns, closings, and other social restrictions imposed by the government to contain a growing pandemic.

The changes are sure to bring “bumpy moments,” a senior cabinet minister predicted this week. The government estimates that new customs papers alone will cost British companies £ 7 billion (about $ 9.6 billion) a year.

The UK has at least 150,000 exporters who, according to the country’s tax authority, have never shipped their goods beyond the block and are therefore required to file customs declarations for the first time. Border controls within the European Union were abolished in 1993.

This is a change that will be felt immediately in the UK ports, particularly the port of Dover and the Eurotunnel endpoint at Folkestone, which connect the country to France. But on Friday, New Year’s Day, the trains and ferries are said to have run smoothly. Eurotunnel reported that 200 trucks had already used their shuttle train by 8 a.m.

“It seems pretty quiet,” Elizabeth De Jong, the political director of Logistics UK, a trade group, told Sky News on Friday morning.

However, she added that companies are now facing “a new, different language of customs regulations” that need to be understood. She described the next few weeks as a live test, as companies have to ensure that they have the correct documentation for themselves and the goods on board, and traffic into the region has to be controlled.

In the most extreme circumstances, or according to the government, in the worst case, between 40 and 70 percent of trucks going into the European Union may not be ready for the new border controls. This would slow the flow of goods and could result in lines of up to 7,000 trucks driving to the border and delays of up to two days, according to a government report.

Britain has only recently removed a huge backlog of trucks from the border. On late December 20, the French government suddenly closed its border for 48 hours to stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus from England. Thousands of trucks and their drivers were stranded for days. Once the border reopened, they had to show a negative coronavirus test before they could enter France.

The delays in the normally fast-paced port have also raised concerns about the UK’s supply of fresh food, much of which is imported from Europe in winter. A fruit supplier urgently arranged for goods to be flown into the country. British fish and shellfish exporters had to mingle to ship their goods to France unaccompanied by drivers before spoiling them.

The spectacle heightened concerns about trading after December 31, the end of the Brexit transition period. Although goods are already moving more slowly because each driver must first take a negative coronavirus test, which can take around 40 minutes to produce results, trucks are unlikely to see thousands of trucks entering France due to the quieter holiday season Wait friday.

“We would expect the persistent disruption to worsen in the first two weeks as freight demand increases,” the government report said. This could take about three months.

Goods entering the European Union from England, Scotland or Wales now require customs controls, including security declarations, and truck drivers need an entry permit for Kent, the county of Dover and Folkestone to confirm they have the necessary documents .

Truck drivers who drive in the other direction initially have to make fewer demands. The UK government has relaxed the rules for goods coming into the country from the European Union for six months.

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Brexit Is Lastly Performed, however U.Ok. Ambitions Already Appears Outdated

Brexit Is Finally Done, but U.K. Ambitions Already Seems Outdated

LONDON – It took eleven grueling months for UK and European Union negotiators to work out the terms of a post-Brexit trade deal. However, in many ways, the deal is already four and a half years out of date.

The world has changed radically since June 2016, when a slim majority of the people in Britain voted to leave the European Union, tempted by the argument that the country would thrive by shedding the bureaucratic shackles of Brussels.

In those days, the vision of an agile, independent UK – free to develop profitable next generation industries like artificial intelligence, and to sign their own trade deals with the US, China and others – was a tempting selling point. The Brexit buccaneers promised to create a “global Great Britain”.

That was before the rise of President Trump and other populist leaders who erected trade and immigration barriers, and countries that turned inward. It was before the coronavirus pandemic exposed the weaknesses of far-flung supply chains, sparked calls to bring strategic industries back home and drive globalism into retreat.

On the fearful dawn of 2021, buccaneers went out of style. The world is now dominated by three gigantic economic blocs – the United States, China and the European Union. Britain has finalized its divorce from one of them, leaving it in isolation at a time when moving forward seems more dangerous than it used to be.

“The entire Global Britain model does not reflect the more protectionist, nationalist world we live in,” said Thomas Wright, director of the Center for the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “Becoming a global free trader in 2016 is a bit like becoming a communist in 1989. It’s bad timing.”

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson is leading Britain into a post-Brexit future, he also risks being politically out of step.

The Brexit deal with the European Union comes about the moment President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. replaces Mr. Trump’s “America First” creed with the message of repairing alliances and working together on issues such as global health and address climate change.

While the deal turns away tariffs and quotas on goods crossing the English Channel, it is essentially about disentangling neighbors who have been deeply integrated over four decades. This alienation, analysts say, will weaken ties between the two sides in other areas such as security and diplomacy.

“Biden wants alliances, multilateralism and cooperation, and Brexit runs completely against that,” said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “Brexit is entering a more difficult political context in which it runs against the grain.”

Mr Trump welcomed Britain’s drive to separate from the European Union. As a reward, he promised to negotiate a trade deal with Mr. Johnson, which he personally cultivated. But Mr Biden was against Brexit and has ruled out negotiating new trade deals until the United States has improved its own competitive position. That nullifies one of the main selling points of Brexit.

Mr Johnson has pointed out other ways that Britain can work with the United States. It is increasing military spending to strengthen NATO and to host a United Nations climate change summit next year that will provide Mr Biden with a platform to re-engage the United States in the climate change challenge.

Britain has also competed as an advocate of democratic values ​​in places like Hong Kong that stand alongside the United States. But in a less hospitable world, it may not find many allies for this type of work.

“Who are the obvious partners for you?” Mr. Wright said. “Four years ago you could have said Brazil, but Brazil is now run by Bolsonaro,” he added, referring to populist President Jair Bolsonaro.

There are also limits to how muscular a partner Great Britain can be in confronting autocratic states like China and Russia. The changing relationship with China illustrates his diminished stature.

Britain once hoped that its free agent status would enable it to develop a thriving business relationship with Beijing that was not encumbered by the baggage of the European Union or the United States. However, under pressure from Trump on the role of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in 5G networks, Britain has largely given up its cultivation of China, in line with the more antagonistic position of the United States.

In contrast, the European Union has continued to negotiate a landmark investment treaty with China, a goal of Germans who want greater control over the Chinese activities of their companies. Last minute objections from aides against Mr Biden keep Europeans thinking, but Germany’s desire to close the deal before the end of the year confirms its more confident position.

In 2016, Brexit was welcomed by three different factions in British politics, said Matthias Matthijs, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University: right-wing anti-immigration figures like Nigel Farage; Orthodox free traders in the Conservative Party; and some on the left, who hoped the move would free money to subsidize factory jobs in the industrial north of the country, and definitely viewed the European Union as a banking corporation Britain was way out of.

“It’s not clear that signing this EU trade agreement will give them more freedom to do so,” Matthijs said of the subsidies, noting that the UK had agreed to respect restrictions on how much state aid it spends on industry can.

The paradox is that Britain is leaving the European Union at a time when its two largest economies, Germany and France, are adopting some of the principles of industrial policy that inspired Brexit.

The pandemic has forced Brussels to rethink the policies it once shunned – initially in the form of a $ 913 billion coronavirus bailout – to align with Brexiteers’ ideas like Dominic Cummings, former chief advisor to Mr. Johnson, bring it closer. He was the architect of a plan to use public money to “balance out” the economically disadvantaged north of Great Britain with its more prosperous south.

Breaking away from the pressures of Brussels had been one of the biggest attractions of Brexit. Instead, the UK is facing a much larger competitor who, like the UK itself, appears to be eager to transform its economies with digital and “green” technology – and more open to using state aid.

Another irony of Brexit is that, alienated from Mr Trump’s one-sided policies, Europe has started to reproduce some of the languages ​​used by Brexiteers in 2016. President Emmanuel Macron of France and others have spoken of the need for “European sovereignty” in the face of a less reliable United States. Mr Johnson made regaining British sovereignty the leitmotif of his negotiations with Brussels.

Britain still has undeniable advantages as it embarks on a new course. Despite the destruction caused by the pandemic, the economy is flexible and resilient, at least when compared to those on the European continent. It was the first western country to approve a viral vaccine while the European Union has been bogged down by the need for its members to contract.

Mr Matthijs predicted that the UK economy would return faster than Germany or France after the pandemic, which Brexiters would attribute to the freedom they would have gained by shaking off Brussels.

Britain’s independence also gives him the opportunity to be experimental in his relations with other countries. Mr Wright said, for example, that the Biden administration might be interested in negotiating a different kind of economic understanding with Britain than an old-fashioned free trade agreement.

“You are well positioned to be the guinea pig for this,” he said.

Britain, after all, has only negotiated one deal unique in the annals of trade diplomacy – one that divides partners rather than bringing them together. The ability to achieve this is a hopeful sign of the ability to reshape, according to analysts.

“The world in June 2016, however, is not the world today,” Wright said. “They know that too, deep down.”

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Brexit Deal Completed, Britain Now Scrambles to See if It Can Work

Brexit Deal Done, Britain Now Scrambles to See if It Can Work

LONDON – For weary Brexit negotiators on both sides of the English Channel, a Christmas Eve trade deal sealed eleven months of careful deliberation on Britain’s exit from the European Union, which included details as arcane as the species of fish that could be used to catch the boats on either side of the British Waters.

For many others – including bankers, traders, truckers, architects and millions of migrants – Christmas was just the beginning, day 1 of a high-level and unpredictable experiment on how to unravel a tight web of trade ties across Europe.

The deal, far from closing the book on Britain’s turbulent partnership with Europe, has opened a new one, starting on its first pages with what analysts say will be the biggest shift in modern trade relations overnight.

In the four years since the British decided to sever half a century of ties with Europe, many migrants have stopped moving to the UK for work and British firms have sent employees to Paris and Frankfurt to settle on the continent. With all these preparations now, there are now only seven days between companies and an avalanche of new trade barriers on January 1st.

“We have to learn how to do that,” said Shane Brennan, executive director of the Cold Chain Federation, a UK group that represents logistics companies. “Let’s hope it gets for the better in the end, but it’s going to be slow, complex and expensive.”

British traders, spared the catastrophe of a no-deal breakup, nevertheless endeavored to prepare the first of hundreds of thousands of new export certifications so that their meat, fish and dairy products could be sold to the block. British food that was once exempt from such onerous controls is now subjected to the same controls as European imports from countries like Chile or Australia.

The UK service sector, which includes not only London’s powerful financial industry but also lawyers, architects, consultants and others, was largely excluded from the 1,246-page deal, despite the fact that the sector accounts for 80 percent of the UK’s economic activity.

The deal has also done little to reassure European migrants, some of whom left the UK during the pandemic and are now struggling to determine if they need to rush to establish a right to settle in the UK before the split on Dec. December is completed.

“As of January 1st, the landscape is changing and the transition period security blanket is gone,” said Maike Bohn, co-founder of the3million, which supports European citizens in the UK, voicing her fears that Europeans will be unfairly denied jobs and rental homes of confusion about the rules. “There is concern and also numbness.”

The negotiators have not officially published the extensive trade deal, despite both sides offering summaries, leaving analysts and ordinary citizens unsure of some of the details, even as lawmakers in the UK and Europe prepare to vote on it within days.

It has long been clear, however, that the deal would offer the City of London, a hub for international banks, asset managers, insurance companies and hedge funds, few assurances of future trade across the English Channel. The UK sells around £ 30 billion or $ 40 billion in financial services to the European Union each year and benefits from an integrated market that in some cases makes it easier to sell services from one member country to another than services from one member country to sell American state to another.

The new trade agreement smoothes the flow of goods across British borders. However, financial firms don’t have the greatest benefit of being a member of the European Union: the ability to easily serve clients across the region from a single base. This has long allowed a bank in London to lend to a company in Venice or to trade bonds for a company in Madrid.

That loss is particularly painful for the UK, which had a 2019 surplus of £ 18 billion or US $ 24 billion in financial and other services trade with the European Union but a deficit of £ 97 billion or US $ 129 billion from trading in goods.

“The result of the deal is that the European Union retains all of its current advantages in trade in goods, especially goods, and Britain loses all of its current advantages in trade in services,” said Tom Kibasi, former director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a research institute. “The result of these trade negotiations is exactly what happens with most trade deals: the larger party gets what it wants and the smaller party turns around.”

After January 1, sales of such services will depend on European regulators deciding that the new UK financial rules are close enough to their own to be trustworthy. This process excludes some common banking activities and leaves other policy considerations open. British residents living in Europe who have bank accounts in the UK have already been notified that their accounts will be closed.

“Imagine taking the UK and moving it to Canada or Australia,” said Davide Serra, general manager of Algebris Investments, a wealth management firm with offices across Europe. “That’s what this means for services. Great Britain has become a third country. “

When announcing the trade deal earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted that it does not give financial firms “as much” access as “we would have liked”. However, according to analysts, he was not as straightforward about the difficulties even UK retailers were facing as part of the deal.

When he promised there would be “no non-tariff barriers” to the sale of goods after Brexit, he ignored the tens of millions of customs declarations, health checks and other controls that businesses will now be responsible for.

The UK lacks the customs brokers needed to process these documents and even the veterinarians to do health checks, industry experts say. And in the past few days, European truckers have received an alarming preview of the chaos caused by shipping delays of just a few days when they were stranded in UK ports due to travel bans related to the new variant of coronavirus.

“It’s a massive problem that will cost the industry millions of pounds and euros,” said Alex Altmann, partner for Blick Brexit issues at Blick Rothenberg, an accounting and tax practice. “Ultimately, that’s passed on to consumers.”

For European citizens living in the UK, the conclusion of a Brexit deal did little to allay fears about how the country’s new immigration rules could complicate their lives. Migrants were allowed to apply for so-called “settlement status” in the UK. However, little provision has been made for people unable to complete the process online, let alone people who do not know they need permission to stay in a country they have lived in for decades.

“There is a risk of a crisis in the next year or two regarding EU migrants who have been here and have been here for a long time but fallen through the cracks in the registration system,” said Robert Ford, professor of politics at the university from Manchester.

The Brexit deal’s limitations reflect the fact that despite the increasing complexity of financial and other regulations in recent years, trade deals have struggled to keep up, said David Henig, an analyst at the European Center for International Political Economy.

However, the UK also limited what it was aiming for in the deal to a few key areas, making the emergence of a bare bones deal almost inevitable, analysts said.

In addition to a no-deal split, which brought enormous blockages at the borders and deep insecurity for companies, the agreement was an ointment. But even with such a deal, the way forward is uncertain.

“Brexit has always been a long-term blow to the UK’s competitiveness,” said analyst Kibasi. “But the way it’s going to turn out is to ruin investments in the UK. So it’s a slow flat tire, not a quick crash.”

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Treasury yields rise amid combined financial information, Brexit deal optimism

Treasury yields rise amid mixed economic data, Brexit deal optimism

Government bond yields remained stable on Wednesday as investors digested a mix of economic data as well as signs of an impending Brexit trade deal between the UK and the European Union.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 3 basis points to 0.956%, while the yield on the 30-year government bond rose 4 basis points to 1.696%. Bond yields move inversely with prices.

Unemployment claims in the United States stood at 803,000 for the week ending December 19, the Department of Labor said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the initial claims to rise to 888,000. However, personal income declined 1.1% in November, compared to an estimate of 0.3% according to data from Dow Jones.

The yield on 10-year government bonds peaked when Brexit negotiators were on the verge of a new trade deal between the UK and the European Union. A deal would avoid tariffs due to come into effect at the beginning of the year.

President Donald Trump proposed on Tuesday not to sign a lengthy coronavirus aid package. He poured cold water on the $ 900 billion Covid relief bill that Congress passed earlier this week. Calling the measure an inappropriate “disgrace”, he called on lawmakers to make a number of changes, including larger direct payments to individuals and families.

The current package includes an increase in unemployment benefits, more small business loans, an additional $ 600 in direct payment, and funding to streamline the critical distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. However, Trump was dissatisfied with the $ 600 direct payments and requested an increase to $ 2,000.

Investors were also upset this week by a new strain of coronavirus first identified in the UK. The variant is believed to be up to 70% more transmissible than previous strains.

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On Brexit and Coronavirus, Boris Johnson Leaves It Late

On Brexit and Coronavirus, Boris Johnson Leaves It Late

This undermined the government’s goal of curbing social contacts in the face of a new variant of the coronavirus that British officials said is spreading far faster than the original strain. In fact, the refugees from London are likely to spread the virus across the country, where 35,928 new cases were reported on Sunday.

It is more tactical when the Prime Minister pulls out a post-Brexit deal. With only 10 days to go before December 31st, there would be very little time for a review of an agreement in parliament, where pro-Brexit hardliners would keep a close eye on it. But with no margin for error, analysts say Mr Johnson may have to compromise to prevent an economically ruinous breakdown in talks.

“The outlines of a possible deal have been known at least since last March,” said Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Center for European Reforms. “But the prime minister’s approach is to take difficult decisions until the last minute in the hope that something better will happen – as his approach to Covid-19 shows.”

Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University in London, said: “The price for this psychological flaw and its political consequences is paid in lost lives in the case of Covid. In Brexit, livelihoods could be lost if some companies go under due to the uncertainty caused by the delay in decision-making. “

With the UK less than two weeks away from leaving the single market and customs union, UK businesses still have no idea whether their goods will be subject to tariffs when they are exported to continental Europe or Ireland. That could make car factories unprofitable or put some farmers out of business.

Trade talks continued in Brussels on Sunday with no sign of a breakthrough. The two sides are mostly haggling over fishing rights, but there are signs that Mr Johnson is already bowing to the European Union’s broader demand for Britain to accept long-term restrictions on its competition policy and state aid to industry.

Regarding the pandemic, critics say Mr. Johnson’s scattershot policies have undermined public confidence in the government. He has ruled out bans repeatedly, only to reverse course on the claim that the scientific evidence has changed. The mixed messages have left many confused and cynical about the rules.

In the recent U-turn, Mr Johnson cited new evidence that the variant was up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original virus – data he said was presented to his cabinet on Friday. Independent scholars generally have concerns about the variant. But UK health officials said Sunday that they first identified the variant in October from a sample taken in September.

Updated

Apr. 20, 2020 at 2:37 am ET

The government first announced the variant last Monday – and feared it could spread faster – when it placed London and other parts of southern and eastern Britain in the then highest levels of restrictions. Two days later, Mr. Johnson reiterated his promise to relax the December 23-27 restrictions so families can get together for Christmas.

When the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, proposed in Parliament that Mr Johnson reconsider this plan, the Prime Minister ridiculed him. “I wish he had the courage just to say what he really wanted to do,” said Mr Johnson, “which means canceling the plans people have made and canceling Christmas.”

Now, of course, the prime minister has done just that – only he waited three more days with more people making travel plans. On Sunday, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and Austria began banning flights from the UK while the European Union weighed a coordinated response.

Mr Starmer predictably faded into criticism, saying that Mr Johnson was “so afraid of being unpopular that he won’t be able to make difficult decisions until it’s too late”.

The Prime Minister had given a glimpse into his fears earlier this week when he alluded to Oliver Cromwell holding Christmas celebrations during the ascetic days of the Puritan movement in England in the mid-17th century. The British newspapers, which had set Cromwell’s precedent in recent weeks, wasted no time in tagging Mr. Johnson with it after announcing the Christmas ban.

Surprisingly, the tough measures themselves may not be unpopular. A poll by research firm YouGov following Mr Johnson’s announcement on Saturday found that 67 percent of those polled were in favor of additional restrictions. But 61 percent of people said the government handled the rollout poorly.

According to analysts, Mr Johnson has been pressured by the same lawmakers in his Conservative Party that are likely to oppose a trade deal with the European Union. In this respect, the pandemic and the Brexit talks have a connection.

Because his mismanagement of the lockdown rules has angered some conservative lawmakers, they could now calculate that he can’t afford any further backlash in parliament by concluding a trade deal with the European Union that would be unpopular with die-hard Brexiters.

Mr Johnson has navigated swarms like this during his political career. His deadline mentality, developed during his time as a newspaper reporter and columnist, has sometimes led to smart decisions.

For example, he wavered for weeks before endorsing Britain’s exit from the European Union and even writing essays discussing both sides of the subject. It was a roll of the dice that pays off if it gives him a path to Downing Street.

Overall, analysts continue to assume that Mr Johnson will come to terms with the European Union in the next few days. By leaving the final decision so late, the Prime Minister has increased the likelihood that, as with the Christmas lockdown, he will have no choice but to accept the offer on the table.

“Johnson’s technique for dealing with problems is to get them out of control and build them to a point of sufficient crisis where delay is no longer sustainable,” wrote Rafael Behr in a column for The Guardian. “That way, it becomes perversely easier to choose because there are fewer options.”

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Stay Market Updates: Shares Rise as Brexit Talks Are Prolonged

Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, which said it would reduce emissions by 15 to 20 percent by 2025 compared with 2016 levels.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Exxon Mobil announced on Monday that it would reduce methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from its exploration and production operations over the next four years.

The company said it would reduce emissions by 15 to 20 percent by 2025 compared with 2016 levels.

More significantly, the company said it would eliminate “routine” flaring by 2030 in an effort to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions generated when companies burn unwanted natural gas that is released during oil production.

The company stopped well short of the kind of targets set by BP and other European oil companies that have pledged to reduce emissions by much more and have said they would gradually move away from oil and gas as they invest more in renewable energy.

“We respect and support society’s ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and continue to advocate for policies that promote cost-effective, market-based solutions to address the risks of climate change,” Exxon’s chief executive, Darren Woods, said in a statement.

Exxon said that “meaningful decreases” in emissions of greenhouse gasses “will require changes in society’s energy choices coupled with the development and deployment of affordable lower-emission technologies.”

Rory Gamble, the president of the United Automobile Workers union, which agreed on changes meant to root out corruption at the union.Credit…Rebecca Cook/Reuters

The Justice Department and the United Automobile Workers union have reached a tentative agreement on changes meant to root out corruption at the union without putting it under government control.

The United States attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, Matthew J. Schneider, and the president of the union, Rory Gamble, are scheduled to announce details of the agreement Monday afternoon.

Mr. Schneider has been investigating corruption at the U.A.W. for several years and has secured guilty pleas by more than a dozen people, including two former union presidents.

Gary Jones, who became U.A.W. president in 2018 and resigned while under investigation a year later, in June plead guilty to tax fraud and improperly using union funds. He was accused of using more than $1 million in union funds for luxury travel and personal purchases.

Dennis Williams, who served as president from 2014 to 2018, pleaded guilty in September to conspiring with other union officials to embezzle union funds. He and Mr. Jones are awaiting sentencing.

Others who have pleaded guilty include three former executives of Fiat Chrysler and a senior union official, Joe Ashton, who once held a seat on the board of General Motors. In November, Mr. Ashton was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Rihanna at a show for the Savage x Fenty collection in 2018.Credit…Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Savage x Fenty, the lingerie company that the pop singer Rihanna helped found, has hired Goldman Sachs to raise $100 million in financing, sources with direct knowledge of the deal told the DealBook newsletter.

The company wants the money for new initiatives that may include new lines like athletic wear and expanding in Europe.

The high-flying lingerie brand generates about $150 million in revenue, but is not yet profitable, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was confidential.

The valuation it is seeking in the funding round could not be determined, A representative for Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while Savage x Fenty did not respond to requests for comment.

Rihanna’s business ventures have challenged the traditional playbook of fashion and beauty brands, taking an inclusive approach in an industry for which exclusivity is the norm. Her Fenty Beauty line, which she produces with a subsidiary of LVMH, introduced with 40 shades of foundation for a wide range of skin tones. The makeup brand packed the shelves of LVMH-backed Sephora, and paved the way for a Rihanna fashion line with the French luxury empire.

Rihanna started Savage x Fenty in 2018, aiming it at a broad range of body types. It is partly owned by Techstyle Fashion Group, the venture-backed company behind the actress Kate Hudson’s athleisure line Fabletics. Rihanna frequently promotes the brand on Instagram, where she has 87.5 million followers. Earlier this year, Savage x Fenty was accused of deceptive marketing, which it denies.

Savage x Fenty’s launch came as Victoria’s Secret stumbled. The brand that once dominated the lingerie industry had begun to turn off its customers with garments that emphasized sex appeal over comfort. Last year, Victoria’s Secret canceled its fashion show amid dwindling viewership. In what seemed a direct shot at its rival, Savage x Fenty held a body-positive extravaganza at the Barclays Center last year, returning again this year with “a forceful display of inclusivity” that streamed on Amazon.

Britain’s most modern operating power plant, known as Sizewell B, near Sizewell, a fishing village about 100 miles northeast of London. Credit…Dylan Martinez/Reuters

The British government said on Monday that it would enter formal negotiations with EDF, the French utility, to build a new nuclear power station on the east coast of England.

The plant, known as Sizewell C, would have an estimated price tag is 20 billion pounds, or about $27 billion. Negotiations with EDF, which owns most of the British nuclear power system, would cover financing and other arrangements.

In moving ahead with talks, the government is acknowledging that although Britain is investing heavily in clean energy sources like offshore wind, there may also be a need to construct new nuclear power plants to provide stable sources of power to achieve its ambitious climate goals of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, which is likely to require electrifying large parts of the economy.

Nuclear attracts criticism as expensive compared to renewables and for the risk of accidents and long-term toxic waste problems, but it has the advantage of providing very large and steady amounts of low carbon power that would be available when the wind stops. The Sizewell C plant could supply power for six million homes.

Finding a workable financing solution will be crucial. The government said it would “explore a range of financing options” for the plant, including a proposal that might have consumers pay costs of the plant in advance of its operation through charges on their bills, as well as the use of public money to finance construction. A plan by Hitachi, the Japanese company, to build a nuclear installation in Wales collapsed in 2019, in part over financing issues.

The plant would be near Britain’s most modern operating power plant, known as Sizewell B, in the vicinity of Sizewell, a fishing village about 100 miles northeast of London. It is likely to draw protests from local environmentalists who worry that the plant will threaten important wildlife habitat.

The plant would be similar to another installation that EDF and a Chinese partner are building at Hinkley Point in southwest England. The hope is that experience gained at Hinkley Point will translate into lower costs for Sizewell.

Senator Angus King wrote to the heads of several streaming services on Monday, asking them to consider lifting subscription fees.Credit…Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

What if Netflix and the other major streaming services were available free during the holiday season? Wouldn’t that keep people home in the coming weeks, reducing the further spread of the coronavirus?

Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, made that proposal in a letter on Monday to the heads of Netflix, Amazon, Disney, WarnerMedia and Apple.

“Americans are faced with even further social isolation — and increased free time — during the holidays,” Mr. King wrote in the letter. “This is a risk; it could also be an opportunity for creative, socially responsible thinking.”

The streaming services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the past week, there has been an average of more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases a day in the United States, up nearly 30 percent from the average two weeks ago. And while the first health workers may start receiving shots of a new vaccine on Monday, the country faces a devastating winter if people become less vigilant, health officials say.

In an interview, Mr. King said that many people had “pandemic fatigue,” and his proposal was intended to encourage a safe activity, especially for those who don’t have the means to subscribe to streaming services.

“It’s a way to basically lift people’s spirits a bit and mitigate the heartbreak of not being able to be with family and friends at an important holiday,” he said.

Peter Vlitas, a travel industry executive, used the CommonPass app on a United Airlines flight to Newark from London in October.Credit…The Commons Project Foundation

In the coming weeks, major airlines including United, JetBlue and Lufthansa plan to introduce a health passport app, called CommonPass, that aims to verify passengers’ coronavirus test results — and perhaps soon, vaccinations.

CommonPass notifies users of local travel rules — like having to provide proof of a negative virus test — and then aims to check that they have met them. The app will then issue confirmation codes, enabling passengers to board certain international flights, Natasha Singer reports in The New York Times.

“This is likely to be a new normal need that we’re going to have to deal with to control and contain this pandemic,” said Dr. Brad Perkins, the chief medical officer at the Commons Project Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Geneva that developed CommonPass.

Electronic vaccination credentials could have a profound effect on efforts to control the virus and restore the economy. They could prompt more employers and college campuses to reopen. And developers say they may also give some consumers peace of mind by creating an easy way for movie theaters, cruise ships and sports arenas to admit only those with documented virus vaccinations.

But the digital passes also raise the specter of a society split into health pass haves and have-nots, particularly if venues begin requiring the apps as entry tickets. The apps could make it difficult for people with limited access to vaccines or online verification tools to enter workplaces or visit popular destinations. Civil liberties experts also warn that the technology could create an invasive system of social control, akin to the heightened surveillance that China adopted during the pandemic — only instead of federal or state governments, private actors like employers and restaurants would determine who can and cannot access services.

In October, United tested CommonPass on a flight to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey from Heathrow Airport in London. United and four other airlines plan to start using it soon on some international flights.

Internet users worldwide received a jarring reminder on Monday about just how reliant they were on Google, when the Silicon Valley giant suffered a major outage for about an hour, sending many of its most popular services offline.

At a time when more people than ever are working from home because of the pandemic, Google services including Calendar, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps, Meet and YouTube all crashed, halting productivity and sending angry users to Twitter to vent about the loss of services. Students struggled to sign into virtual classrooms.

As users scrambled to figure out what was going on, Google disclosed the outages on a status dashboard that shares information about its various services. Downdetector, a website for tracking internet outages, also showed that Google was offline. Google’s search engine continued to work for some people.

But about an hour after the outages began, the services started working again.

Google initially provided limited information about what occurred, and it was not immediately clear how many users were affected by the outage. Several of Google’s products have more than a billion global users, including Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Play, Search and YouTube.

Later, the company attributed the problem to an “authentication system outage” that lasted for approximately 45 minutes starting at 7:32 a.m. Eastern time.

“All services are now restored,” Google said in a statement. “We apologize to everyone affected, and we will conduct a thorough follow up review to ensure this problem cannot recur in the future.”

Today, at 3.47AM PT Google experienced an authentication system outage for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue. This was resolved at 4:32AM PT, and all services are now restored.

— Google Cloud (@googlecloud) December 14, 2020

Product outages were once fairly common for growing internet companies. But as Google, Facebook and others have become larger, building complex networks of interconnected data centers around the world, the incidents have become less common. Google has privately financed undersea cables to move data between continents and improve performance in the event problems occur in a certain location.

The reliability of the systems have become increasingly important as people and businesses depend on the services, whether to search for information online, find directions, send email or get access to private documents stored on Google’s servers. Some users reported their appliances not working because they were linked to Google’s line of home products.

During lockdowns, schools have leaned on Google services to teach students forced to stay home. “At least we have an excuse for not doing our homework,” one person wrote on Twitter.

The incident is likely to provide fodder for those who say the biggest technology companies have grown too powerful and deserve more oversight. In the United States, Google and Facebook are facing antitrust lawsuits. In the European Union, new regulations will be introduced on Tuesday to limit the industry’s power.

William Dixon, a cybersecurity expert at the World Economic Forum, said the outage highlighted the fragility of the world’s digital networks.

“What you have is an increasingly smaller number of technology providers that are systemically important,” said Mr. Dixon, who used to work on cybersecurity issues for the British government. “If there is one issue, then the cascades of that are quite significant.”

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief negotiator on Brexit, speaking to reporters Monday morning in Brussels. Talks with Britain on a trade deal are continuing. Credit…Francois Walschaerts/Reuters

  • Stocks rose on Monday, rebounding from last week’s slump as negotiators trying to secure a Brexit trade deal and U.S. fiscal stimulus package were given a little more time to reach an agreement.

  • The S&P 500 rose about 0.6 percent in early trading, while the Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.8 percent and the FTSE 100 in Britain was flat. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 closed 0.3 percent higher and the Shanghai composite index rose 0.7 percent.

  • The British pound strengthened against other major currencies, rising 1.1 percent against the euro and 1.4 percent against the U.S. dollar after Britain and the European Union decided on Sunday to extend talks on a trade deal. Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum over four years ago and formally did so on Jan. 31, entering a transition period that will end in 17 days’ time.

  • Last week, the pound suffered its steepest drop in three months after signs that Britain would not reach an agreement with its largest trading partner before the end of the year, which would lead to higher tariffs as well as trade and economic disruption.

  • In the United States, Congress has given itself another week to come to an agreement on package of measures to provide some relief to unemployed Americans and hard-hit businesses. A bipartisan group of lawmakers who have been working for a month on a $908 billion proposal met through the weekend. They plan to introduce a final product on Monday.

As the European Union has become the global leader in tech regulation, Google and other American tech giants have increasingly focused on Brussels in hopes of choking off even stiffer rules before they spread.

In Europe, the tech companies are spending more than ever, hiring former government officials, well-connected law firms and consulting firms, Adam Satariano and Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported in The New York Times. They funded dozens of think tanks and trade associations, endowed academic positions at top universities across the continent and helped publish industry-friendly research by other firms.

American lawmakers and regulators, too, have become much more aggressive in curbing the power of the technology industry’s biggest companies. Last week, federal and state officials accused Facebook of illegally crushing competition. In October, the Justice Department accused Google of illegally protecting its monopoly over search.

In the first half of 2020, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft declared spending a combined 19 million euros, or about $23 million, equal to what they had declared for all of 2019 and up from €6.8 million in 2014, according to Transparency International, a group that monitors E.U. lobbying.

“The budgets are really unrivaled — we’ve never seen this kind of money being spent by companies directly,” said Margarida Silva, a researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory, a group that tracks lobbying in Brussels. The totals are probably much higher, she noted, because disclosure rules do not capture all the spending on law firms, academic partnerships and activities in individual countries.

The spending is less than in the United States, but the growing influence industry is alarming European Union officials who believe that Big Tech is contributing to a Washingtonization of Brussels, giving money and connections an upper hand over the public interest.

Janet Yellen, Mr. Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary, has long argued for emissions reduction as an economic imperative.Credit…Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Even as President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. confronts the immediate task of accelerating the pandemic recovery, he has placed the longer-running climate challenge at the center of his administration’s economic priorities.

The pandemic recovery, too, will have climate-minded undertones, The New York Times’s Jim Tankersley and Lisa Friedman report.

Three of Mr. Biden’s picks for top roles — Janet L. Yellen as Treasury secretary, Brian Deese for National Economic Council director, and Neera Tanden, the nominee to head the White House Office of Management and Budget — are preparing to weave efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate clean energy production into the economic stimulus legislation that his team is planning. Climate change is also expected to play a heavy role in a broader infrastructure initiative that could be one of Mr. Biden’s best hopes for a major bipartisan bill in his first year in office.

The climate battle is also likely to influence his economic approach more broadly, with his team preparing to use the government’s vast regulatory powers to reduce emissions via wind and solar energy, electric cars and other initiatives — an approach that Mr. Biden’s team insists will create jobs.

Those close to Mr. Biden said he was purposefully putting what scientists believe is the world’s largest looming crisis at the heart of the agencies most responsible for promoting the country’s economic security.

“Historically we have looked at climate change as an environmental issue,” said Christy Goldfuss, a former head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Barack Obama. What Mr. Biden has done, she said, “is center climate policy in his economic team.”

People lined to find assistance with their unemployment claims in Frankfort, Ky.Credit…Bryan Woolston/Reuters

The federal program that covers gig workers, part-time hires, seasonal workers and others who do not qualify for traditional unemployment benefits has kept millions of Americans afloat.

Established by Congress in March as part of the CARES Act, the program, known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, has provided over $70 billion in relief.

But in carrying out the hastily conceived program, states have overpaid hundreds of thousands of workers — often because of administrative errors. Now states are asking for that money back, Gillian Friedman reports in The New York Times.

The notices come out of the blue, with instructions to repay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Those being billed, already living on the edge, are told that their benefits will be reduced to compensate for the errors — or that the state may even put a lien on their home, come after future wages or withhold tax refunds.

Many who collected payments are still out of a job, and may have little prospect of getting one. Most had no idea that they were being overpaid.

“When somebody gets a bill like this, it completely terrifies them,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit workers’ rights group. Sometimes the letters themselves are in error — citing overpayments when benefits were correctly paid — but either way, she said, the stress “is going to cost people’s lives.”

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World News

Brexit Commerce Talks Strategy Essential Deadline. Once more.

Brexit Trade Talks Approach Crucial Deadline. Again.

Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen were expected to speak again at lunchtime on Sunday to take stock of the negotiations and make a decision on how to proceed.

Europe’s two most powerful leaders, Chancellor Angela Merkel from Germany and President Emmanuel Macron from France, both refused to contact Mr Johnson directly, effectively denying him the opportunity to take advantage of divisions between the 27 members of the European Union.

As the likelihood of failure escalates, London and Brussels have implemented a mixture of pointing and contingency planning. Mr Johnson met with Michael Gove, the UK Minister in charge of preparing for a no-deal Brexit. Plans include using Navy patrol vessels to stop foreign ships attempting to enter the Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 miles from the UK coast.

The prospect of a military confrontation between British and French ships on the high seas sparked alarms and fierce criticism in Britain, even among members of the Conservative Party establishment.

“This is no longer Elizabethan time. This is the global UK, ”Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee, told the BBC. “We have to raise the bar much higher.” Failure to reach a trade deal, Ellwood said, “would be a backward step, a failure of statecraft.”

Chris Patten, former Conservative Party leader and Hong Kong Governor from 1992 to 1997, accused Mr Johnson of being on a “runaway train of the British State of Emergency”. The Prime Minister is “not a conservative” who feels obliged to alliances, institutions or the rule of law, but an “English nationalist”.

Analysts said they haven’t given up hope of a last-minute deal. Mr Johnson and his advisors would still prefer a deal, as would the leaders of the European Union. Sunday was the last of several deadlines set by both sides. The talks could easily extend beyond that until New Year’s Eve.

Still, the UK’s strategy of waiting until the end of the negotiation phase and then pushing for bigger concessions seems to have failed. The French-led European negotiators were determined on the issue of fishing rights, as well as another controversial area: state aid to industry and competition rules.

Mr Johnson has described the UK campaign as an assertion of his sovereignty after leaving the European Union. The diplomats pointed out, however, that European officials have a similarly strong principle: defending the integrity of the internal market from a new competitor on their doorstep.

“What Britain has never understood is that the European Union is a political project,” said Kim Darroch, who served as Britain’s permanent representative to the European Union and later as ambassador to Washington. “You will make decisions based on political, not economic, considerations.”

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Business

British Pound Tumbles as Prospects Dim in Brexit Talks: Dwell Enterprise Updates

Lastwagen nähern sich Dover, England, um am Freitag nach Frankreich zu fahren. Es ist immer noch ungewiss, ob Großbritannien und die Europäische Union bis zum 1. Januar ein Handelsabkommen erzielen können.

Folgendes müssen Sie wissen:

Anerkennung…Frank Augstein / Associated Press

Als sich Großbritannien einer weiteren neuen Frist nähert, um am Sonntag ein Handelsabkommen mit der Europäischen Union abzuschließen, schließt das Pfund seine schlechteste Woche seit drei Monaten ab. Gegenüber dem Euro ging es am Donnerstag deutlich tiefer und am Freitag weiter zurück, als die Händler mit der Aussicht zu kämpfen hatten, dass die britischen Handelsgespräche mit der Europäischen Union wirklich scheitern könnten.

„Die Märkte neigen dazu zu denken, solange sie reden, gibt es Hoffnung. Da war ich sehr vorsichtig “, sagte Jane Foley, Strategin bei der Rabobank. „Es gibt vielleicht keinen Deal, aber es wird Störungen geben, selbst wenn es einen Deal gibt. Und es wird politische Auseinandersetzungen geben. “

All das ist schlecht für die Währung.

In knapp drei Wochen endet die Brexit-Übergangsfrist, und wenn keine Einigung erzielt wird, wird Großbritannien gezwungen sein, Geschäfte mit seinem größten Handelspartner zu Bedingungen der Welthandelsorganisation zu tätigen, was bedeutet, dass Zölle auf Waren eingeführt werden und es weniger gibt Chance auf zukünftige Zusammenarbeit zwischen Dienstleistungsunternehmen. Bisher haben drei Themen – Fischereirechte, Wettbewerbsregeln für Unternehmen und die Durchsetzung eines Abkommens – die Gespräche zum Stillstand gebracht.

Premierminister Boris Johnson ging am Mittwochabend nach Brüssel, um zu speisen mit der Präsidentin der Europäischen Kommission, Ursula von der Leyen, um zu versuchen, die Sackgasse zu durchbrechen. Als das Fischdinner vorbei war, gab es Berichte, dass die Aussichten für einen Deal noch düsterer waren. Für Sonntag wurde eine neue Frist festgelegt.

Am Donnerstag legte die Europäische Kommission dann ihre Pläne vor, was sie tun würde, wenn es keine Einigung gäbe. Und Herr Johnson sagte, eine Vereinbarung sei “noch gar nicht da” und es bestehe die “starke Möglichkeit”, keine Einigung zu erzielen.

Der anhaltende Optimismus der Finanzmärkte wurde schon oft getestet. Unzählige Brexit-Fristen sind gekommen und gegangen. Diesmal besteht jedoch ernsthafte Besorgnis darüber, wie eine Einigung, falls eine Einigung erzielt wird, vor dem 1. Januar in das Gesetz ratifiziert werden könnte. Das britische Parlament bereitet Pläne für eine Arbeit bis Weihnachten vor, aber die Europäische Union wird es schwerer haben, 27 zu sammeln Nationen während der Ferienzeit.

Diese Woche war die schlimmste für das Pfund seit Anfang September, als Händler erschreckt wurden, dass Boris Johnson ein Handelsabkommen vereiteln würde, indem er ein neues Gesetz einführte, das mit dem EU-Rückzugsabkommen kollidierte und gegen internationales Recht verstieß.

Noch vor dem Ende der Übergangszeit erhielt Großbritannien einen Einblick in die Art der Störung, die auftritt, wenn der Handel nicht reibungslos läuft, als Honda diese Woche sein Montagewerk in England stilllegte, weil Teile während des Transports feststeckten.

Die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen weiterer Handelsstörungen im neuen Jahr nach Beginn der Zollkontrollen werden die britische Wirtschaft belasten Versuch, eine Erholung während einer zweiten Welle der Pandemie herauszukratzen. Daten vom Donnerstag zeigten, dass das Bruttoinlandsprodukt im Oktober um 0,4 Prozent stieg, eine Verlangsamung, bevor England im November eine monatelange Sperrung durchführte.

Die Berater von Mitch McConnell, dem Mehrheitsführer des Senats, sagten, ein parteiübergreifendes Pandemie-Hilfspaket habe bei vielen republikanischen Gesetzgebern keine Unterstützung gefunden. Anerkennung…Anna Moneymaker für die New York Times

  • Die Aktien fielen am Freitag weltweit und Futures deuteten darauf hin, dass der S & P 500-Index um 1 Prozent niedriger öffnen würde, da sich die Anleger von riskanten Vermögenswerten fernhielten, obwohl bekannt wurde, dass die USA den Pfizer-BioNTech-Impfstoff wahrscheinlich innerhalb weniger Tage genehmigen würden. Stattdessen stehen Händler vor der Aussicht auf einen Brexit ohne Deal und monatelange wirtschaftliche Schwierigkeiten, da die Länder immer noch Schwierigkeiten haben, das Virus einzudämmen.

  • Der Stoxx Europe 600 Index fiel um 1,3 Prozent. Der FTSE 100-Index in Großbritannien fiel um 1,1 Prozent, der CAC in Frankreich um 1,3 Prozent und der DAX in Deutschland um 2 Prozent. In Asien schloss der Shanghai Composite Index um 0,8 Prozent und der Nikkei 225 in Japan um 0,4 Prozent.

  • Der S & P 500 Index ist auf dem richtigen Weg, um zwei Wochen lang Gewinne zu erzielen. Als die Märkte am Donnerstag schlossen, war der US-Referenzindex diese Woche bisher um 0,8 Prozent gefallen.

  • Die Ölpreise fielen am Freitag ebenfalls und zogen sich von einer Rallye am Vortag zurück, als die Preise auf den höchsten Stand seit März stiegen. Die Futures von West Texas Intermediate, der US-Benchmark, gingen um 0,5 Prozent auf 46,57 USD pro Barrel zurück.

  • Stattdessen kauften Händler traditionell sichere Vermögenswerte wie Staatsanleihen. Die Rendite 10-jähriger US-Staatsanleihen fiel diese Woche um 8 Basispunkte oder 0,08 Prozentpunkte, am stärksten seit Juni. Die Renditen bewegen sich umgekehrt zu den Preisen.

  • Der britische Premierminister Boris Johnson und die Präsidentin der Europäischen Kommission, Ursula von der Leyen, sagten beide, es sei wahrscheinlicher, dass Großbritannien und die Europäische Union bis Ende des Jahres keine Einigung über den Freihandel erzielen würden. Die Gespräche werden voraussichtlich über das Wochenende fortgesetzt.

  • In den Vereinigten Staaten wurden die Hoffnungen auf eine Einigung über neue fiskalische Anreize vor den Kongresspausen verringert. Am Donnerstag gaben Berater des republikanischen Mehrheitsführers Senator Mitch McConnell an, dass viele Republikaner einem überparteilichen Paket, das sich herausgebildet hatte, nicht zustimmen würden. Am selben Tag zeigten Daten, dass letzte Woche mehr als 947.000 Menschen Arbeitslosengeld beantragt haben, ein Sprung gegenüber der Vorwoche.

Da die wirtschaftliche Erholung ins Stocken gerät und die Bundeshilfe in Washington ins Stocken gerät, versuchen die Regierungen der Bundesstaaten, kleinen Unternehmen zu helfen, den Pandemiewinter zu überstehen.

Der Gesetzgeber von Colorado hat letzte Woche eine Sondersitzung abgehalten, um ein wirtschaftliches Hilfspaket zu verabschieden. Ohio bietet eine neue Runde von Zuschüssen für Restaurants, Bars und andere von der Pandemie betroffene Unternehmen an. Und in Kalifornien wird ein neuer Fonds staatliche Gelder verwenden, um private Kredite in Höhe von Hunderten von Millionen Dollar zu stoppen. Andere Staaten, angeführt von Republikanern und Demokraten, haben ähnliche Maßnahmen angekündigt oder erwägen diese.

Die Bemühungen kommen, da sich viele Unternehmen in einer zunehmend schwierigen Situation befinden, berichtet Ben Casselman von der New York Times.

Eine Umfrage der National Federation of Independent Business am Dienstag ergab, dass der Optimismus sinkt und die Unsicherheit steigt, da der landesweite Anstieg der Coronavirus-Fälle die Regierungen dazu veranlasst, Beschränkungen wieder einzuführen, und die Verbraucher, ihre Ausgaben zu reduzieren. Separate Daten des Census Bureau zeigen, dass immer mehr kleine Unternehmen Arbeitsplätze abbauen, und andere Umfragen haben ergeben, dass eine große Anzahl von Unternehmen vom Scheitern bedroht ist.

In diesem Fall könnte dies sowohl für die Volkswirtschaften als auch für die Staatshaushalte eine Katastrophe sein. Lokale Unternehmen sind wichtige Steuereinnahmequellen – sowohl direkt als auch über ihre Mitarbeiter – und wichtige Triebkräfte für die Wirtschaftstätigkeit. Wenn sie in großer Zahl scheitern, wird dies die wirtschaftliche Erholung verlangsamen, sobald die Pandemie vorbei ist.

  • Lululemon meldete am Donnerstag für das dritte Quartal einen Umsatz von 1,1 Milliarden US-Dollar, ein Plus von 22 Prozent gegenüber dem Vorjahr, da Käufer Leggings und andere Trainingsgeräte kauften, um bei der Arbeit von zu Hause aus bequem und in Form zu bleiben. In Nordamerika stieg der Nettoumsatz um 19 Prozent. Der direkte Umsatz mit Verbrauchern – einschließlich Online-Verkäufen – stieg um 94 Prozent.

  • Walmart bereitet mehr als 5.000 seiner Geschäfte darauf vor, Impfstoffdosen zu erhalten, damit sie bereit sind, die Aufnahmen zu verteilen, sobald sie die behördliche Genehmigung erhalten und verfügbar sind. Der Einzelhändler sagte in einer Erklärung am Donnerstag, dass er sicherstellen würde, dass genügend Gefrierschränke und Trockeneis vorhanden sind, um den Impfstoff zu lagern, und sich darauf vorbereite, den Impfstoff über seine Walmart- und Sam’s Club-Geschäfte sowie in Langzeitpflegeeinrichtungen wie Pflegeheimen zu verteilen. Das Unternehmen wird sich bei der Ausrichtung seiner Vertriebsanstrengungen auf die Regierungen der Bundesstaaten verlassen.

Die New Yorker Generalstaatsanwältin Letitia James hat am Mittwoch die Klagen gegen Facebook angekündigt. Einige Rechtsexperten sagten, die Fälle seien weit entfernt von einem Slam Dunk.Anerkennung…über die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft von New York

Die US-Regierung und mehr als 40 Staaten verklagten Facebook am Mittwoch wegen illegaler Vernichtung von Wettbewerbern und forderten das Unternehmen auf, die Akquisitionen von Instagram und WhatsApp rückgängig zu machen.

Hier sind fünf wichtige Fragen zum Fall beantwortet:

Es gibt einen rechtlichen Grund, warum Instagram und WhatsApp im Mittelpunkt der staatlichen und bundesstaatlichen Klagen stehen. Der Versuch, den Wettbewerb durch den Kauf von Konkurrenten zu verringern, verstößt ausdrücklich gegen die amerikanischen Kartellgesetze. Genau das sagen Regierungsanwälte, Facebook habe es getan und werde es auch weiterhin tun.

Das Schwierige ist jedoch, dass die Regierung Facebook in den Jahren 2012 und 2014 die Erlaubnis zum Kauf von Instagram und WhatsApp erteilt hat. Facebook argumentiert, dass es für Regierungsbeamte unfair ist, jetzt eine Überarbeitung zu versuchen, und dass Facebook Instagram und WhatsApp besser gemacht hat als Sie hätten alleine sein können.

Die Beilegung solcher Klagen kann Jahre dauern. Ihre Erfahrung mit Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp oder Messenger wird morgen nicht plötzlich anders sein.

Die unmittelbareren Auswirkungen dieses Rechtsstreits könnten subtile Änderungen an diesen sozialen Apps sein, da Facebook ein Auge auf seine Gerichtsverfahren hat.

Facebook arbeitet bereits daran, dass Messaging-Funktionen in mehreren Apps hinter den Kulissen nahtloser miteinander verschmelzen, was eine Trennung erschweren könnte. Es ist auch möglich, dass Facebook Neuerwerbungen zurückhält oder Funktionen in der Entwicklung ändert, um die rechtlichen Argumente des Unternehmens nicht zu verletzen.

In einem Interview im vergangenen Jahr sagte Bill Gates, dass das Windows seines Unternehmens – und nicht Googles Android – das beliebteste Smartphone-System der Welt gewesen sein könnte, wenn Microsoft nicht von den 1998 eingeleiteten Kartellverfahren der Regierung „abgelenkt“ worden wäre. Gates spiegelte eine gemeinsame Ansicht der Unternehmensleiter der Zeit wider, dass die Klagen Microsoft vorsichtiger machten und das Unternehmen infolgedessen die Chance verpasste, neue Wege zu gehen.

Es ist möglich, dass Facebook sein Verhalten ändert, weil es durch Gerichtsverfahren festgefahren ist oder sich Sorgen macht, wie Mobber auszusehen.

Die Regierung verklagt Facebook nach Jahren, in denen sie ihre Macht nicht eingeschränkt hat und weil es jetzt einen politischen Willen dazu gibt.

Die Federal Trade Commission ist dieselbe Regierungsbehörde, die im vergangenen Jahr angeprangert wurde, weil sie eine überschaubare Geldbuße von Facebook abgezogen hatte und Änderungen der Datenschutzrichtlinien im Unternehmen mit ungewissen Vorteilen für diejenigen von uns forderte, die die Apps des Unternehmens nutzen. Dieselbe Agentur genehmigte die Akquisitionen von Instagram und WhatsApp.

Was sich jetzt ändert, ist, dass gewählte Beamte und andere Regierungsmitglieder in ihrer Frustration über Amerikas Tech-Supermächte vereint sind und eher bereit sind, umfassende Änderungen zu fordern.

Menschen, die diese Unternehmen, das Internet und die amerikanische Wirtschaft verändern wollen, sehen Kartellklagen manchmal als allgemeine Lösung an. Aber Kartellfälle werden, selbst wenn sie erfolgreich sind, nicht unbedingt all die verschiedenen und manchmal inkonsistenten Beschwerden behandeln, die viele Menschen haben.

Egal, was mit dem Facebook-Fall passiert, es gibt kein Zurück zu unbeschwerteren Zeiten für die Technologiegiganten. In Hauptstädten der Welt, in Gerichtssälen und in der Öffentlichkeit kämpfen wir mit dem, was es für eine Handvoll reicher Technologieunternehmen bedeutet, unser Leben, unsere Wahlen, unsere Wirtschaft und unseren Geist zu beeinflussen.

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Business

Britain’s Ports Are Jammed, and Brexit Is Round Nook

Britain’s Ports Are Jammed, and Brexit Is Around Corner

“It still works by itself,” said Alex Veitch, general manager of public order for Logistics UK, a trading group.

The problem in the UK was exacerbated by a large shipment of medical masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment ordered for the National Health Service and temporarily stored in Felixstowe. At the end of November, the port operator announced that it was working with the government to free the mountain of shipping containers, some of which had been moved to former airfields. The port had also hired staff and extended its opening hours to remove the congestion.

Felixstowe had filed complaints prior to the pandemic. According to IHS Markit, it is one of the least efficient container ports in the world. It is struggling to cope with growing international trade and larger ships with more containers. Moving a container onto or from a ship in Felixstowe takes twice as long as some of China’s busiest ports, IHS Markit data shows.

With Felixstowe and other deep-sea ports mostly handling trade from Asia, these delays are not the same as in the New Year when the UK breaks away from its largest trading partner.

From January 1st, the UK’s trade relations with the European Union will change, introducing customs controls and possibly tariffs. While a trade deal is still being negotiated, the border processes will change regardless. For the first time, hundreds of thousands of businesses will have to meet customs controls and other new trade requirements.

The government has warned companies to prepare, but trade groups say some companies are too busy with the aftermath of the pandemic. Mr Ward said importers and exporters are less prepared, even though warehouses and transport companies have done what they can.

The crux of the matter is likely to be on the south coast, in Dover or Folkestone, the busiest places for goods to be transported between Great Britain and the European Union, either with trucks, which are transported by ferries across the English Channel, or with trains through the Channel Tunnel.

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World News

UK-EU Brexit talks dangle within the stability

UK-EU Brexit talks hang in the balance

Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns to Downing Street after a Cabinet meeting on December 8, 2020 in London, England.

Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Brexit talks over the past few weeks have been dominated by numerous anonymous “sources” briefing reporters both in the UK and across the continent of the poor state of negotiations aimed at finalizing a post-Brexit trade deal.

Both sides have accused each other of not wanting to compromise on important issues, although the sticking points and “red lines” remain in relation to fishing rights, competition rules and the governance of a final agreement.

As UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to travel to Brussels this week for face-to-face meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, there is hope of a breakthrough.

In the meantime, officials on both sides continue to be vocal about the efforts – and the remaining obstacles – before an agreement can be reached.

Johnson warned Tuesday the talks weren’t in a good place.

“You have to be optimistic, you have to believe that there is the power of sweet reason to get this thing over the line. But I have to tell you, it looks very, very difficult right now.” he told reporters.

Johnson will still travel to the Belgian capital this week (the timing is uncertain, but Wednesday or Friday were discussed as options) to meet his European counterparts and see if face-to-face meetings can help resolve the impasse between the negotiators .

Von der Leyen said on Monday that both sides have asked their negotiators to draw up a list of “the remaining differences to be discussed personally in the coming days.”

Britain wants to stress that it wants a deal. A no-deal scenario is likely to cause upheaval and higher business costs for companies and exporters on both sides of the English Channel.

Both sides have accused each other of making inappropriate demands. The UK feels that the EU has not understood its need for sovereignty over its own affairs and its future, while the EU believes it must do everything it can to protect the integrity of its internal market.

Some on the UK side have accused the EU of changing the goalposts late in the talks and making unfair demands.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock implied the ball was in the EU court and said Tuesday that Johnson “went to great lengths to try to get a deal that works for both the UK and the EU. That deal.” may be feasible, but of course the EU has to want it, “he told Sky News.

War of words

France interfered in the war of words on Tuesday, and its minister for European affairs reminded negotiators of one of its beetle bears that an agreement should address – fishing rights.

While this is a small part of the economy in both the UK and the EU, the issue of fishing is emotionally important in countries like the UK, France and the Netherlands, where fishing communities live and where there is public pressure to defend them.

France’s Clement Beaune insisted that his country would not “sacrifice” its fishing crews in any trade deal. “When it comes to fishing, there is no reason to give in to UK pressure. We can make some effort, but sacrifice fishing and fishermen, no,” Beaune told RMC Radio, Reuters, reiterating that France will veto any deal who viewed it as a “bad” business.

What do analysts think of the prospect of getting a deal now when the time expires on December 31, when the post-Brexit transition period ends in the UK? Any agreement reached by the negotiators would have to be ratified by the EU Parliament so that time is short. Not all are bleak, with one telling CNBC on Tuesday that there is still time.

Steen Jakobsen, chief economist and CIO at Saxo Bank, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that he “doesn’t understand all the fuss” about the current state of the talks. “Do not forget that the EU will not close deals until a minute before twelve, which means that we are far from the end date of these negotiations, which is the end of December,” he said, adding: “I think it is a classic EU Move.”

Jakobsen believed the UK and EU could “stop the clock” and continue talks beyond December 31 if necessary. “I agree with you that the calendar year is going to be a bit tricky, but there are ways you can do that, including stopping the clock that we saw before.”

“There are a number of diplomatic ways to play this game,” he said.

The EU Commission reaffirmed on Tuesday that it had not ruled out the possibility that talks could continue beyond the transition period, but the UK previously rejected this option. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Tuesday that a school or even a university of patience was needed, Reuters reported.