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Health

Covid instances are rising in 21 states as well being officers warn in opposition to reopening too rapidly

Dentists, veterinarians and med students authorized to administer shots in U.S.

A U.S. Army soldier with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division immunizes Jacklina Mendez with the COVID-19 vaccine on March 9, 2021 on the north campus of Miami Dade College in North Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Even if the pace of vaccination accelerates in the US, cases of Covid-19 are increasing in 21 states and highly infectious variants spread as governors relax restrictions on businesses like restaurants, bars and gyms.

Public health officials warn that while about 2.5 million people receive shots daily across the country, infection rates have risen this month and some states have not reduced the number of daily cases.

According to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, the 7-day moving average of new infections on Friday was 54,666 after falling for weeks.

More than 541,000 people in the United States have died from the disease.

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned during a briefing on Friday that the country should not declare victory until the infection level is “much, much lower”. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky has also urged states not to reopen too quickly and undermine the country’s progress against the pandemic.

Knyckolas Davis (L) and Matthew Bettencourt celebrate Davis ’35. Birthday with friends at Rizzo’s Bar & Inn in Wrigleyville as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions ease on March 6, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Eileen T. Meslar | Reuters

“The concern is that there are a number of states, cities, and regions across the country that are withdrawing some of the mitigation methods we talked about: withdrawing mask mandates, withdrawing to essentially non-mandate measures in the area of public health are implemented, “said Fauci at the briefing.

“So it’s unfortunate but not surprising to me that the number of cases per day is increasing in areas – cities, states or regions – even though vaccines are being distributed at a pretty good amount of 2 to 3 million per day,” Fauci added added. “That could be overcome if certain areas prematurely withdraw the containment and public health measures we are all talking about.”

Infections are increasing in the following states: Alabama; Connecticut; Hawaii; Idaho; Illinois; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Missouri; Montana; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; North Dakota; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Virginia; Washington; and West Virginia.

The highly contagious variant, first identified in the UK, is likely to account for up to 30% of Covid infections among US health officials. The variant could become dominant by the end of this month or early April.

The variant is seen as the cause of the third coronavirus wave in Europe. Several countries, including France and Italy, have put in place new lockdown measures to reduce the spread of viruses when cases increase.

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Business

German Covid circumstances rising ‘exponentially’ amid dangerous vaccine pause

German Covid cases rising 'exponentially' amid risky vaccine pause

A health care worker will take care of a Covid 19 patient in the intensive care unit of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

It’s no secret that Germany has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, but a leading health expert in the country is now warning of an “exponential growth” in the number of infections.

It does so at a time when the country has stopped using the AstraZeneca University of Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine.

Epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, said a recent relaxation of Covid restrictions has allowed a faster spread of a more virulent variant of the virus that was discovered in the UK late last year.

“We are exactly on the flank of the third wave. That can no longer be denied. And at this point in time we relaxed the restrictions and that accelerates the exponential growth,” Brockmann told the German ARD on Tuesday.

“It was completely irrational to relax here. It just powers this exponential growth,” he said.

Germany has been praised for its initial response to the pandemic, which has managed to lower cases through an effective track and tracing regime and keep the death rate lower thanks to its modern hospital infrastructure.

But over the past few months, over the winter, and with new, more virulent variants of the virus, it has seemed difficult to contain infections. The slow adoption of vaccines in the EU has not helped. The block has been criticized for its slower procurement and slower use of vaccines. The introduction of vaccinations in Germany faced several hurdles that frustrated officials and health professionals in the country.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and heads of state agreed earlier this month to gradually ease restrictions and an “emergency brake” that would allow authorities to reverse course if the number of infections rises above 100 per 100,000 for three consecutive days.

According to the government, the emergency brake is intended “in the event of exponential growth” in the cases. Merkel and the regional leaders are expected to review the measures on March 22nd and decide whether or not to proceed with the next step of reopening.

The number of cases per 100,000 reported Tuesday was 83.7 down from 68 a week ago, and the RKI has said the metric could hit 200 by the middle of next month, Reuters said in a report on Tuesday.

The lockdown in Germany is currently expected to last at least until March 28th, but some restrictions have already been relaxed. Schools, daycare centers and hairdressers will reopen at the beginning of the month.

Then a week ago, bookshops and florists were allowed to reopen and some museums too. However, regional rules may vary, with states being given discretion as to how and when to reopen certain case rates.

On March 22nd, Germany’s five-point reopening plan had envisaged that some restaurants, theaters and outdoor cinemas could be reopened. But the rising number of infections could derail that schedule.

Vaccine suspension

The epidemiologist’s key comments come from the fact that Germany and a handful of other European countries have decided to suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford amid concerns about reports of blood clots in a handful of people who have been vaccinated.

The move has baffled experts around the world as the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency (both of which are conducting a safety review of the vaccine) insist that all available evidence shows that the vaccine is safe and effective, rather than asking for a higher one Risk of blood clots, which are common in the general population.

The vaccine manufacturer itself has highlighted that the data shows that the number of blood clots in the vaccinated population was actually lower than expected.

WHO and EMA, due to release the results of their safety review Thursday, say the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks and that countries shouldn’t interrupt their vaccination programs. Nevertheless, more than a dozen European countries have stopped using it. According to experts, this could lead to a dangerous increase in infections and deaths.

“Latest figures suggest 40 fatal cases for every 20 million cases vaccinated with Astra-Zeneca shocks. Every single case is always terrible, but that percentage is statistically insignificant. Instead, vaccination delays cost Europe about 2,000 more deaths a day – and tens of billions of euros for closings, closed shops, “said Guido Cozzi, professor of macroeconomics at the University of St. Gallen, in a note on Tuesday.

Even though public health authorities like WHO and EMA reiterated on Thursday that the vaccine is safe, experts fear that more damage has already been done to the vaccine’s reputation.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has already faced several hurdles ranging from question marks about trial methods and data to false hesitation about the vaccine’s effectiveness in those over 65 and disputes over delays in delivery to the EU. Real-world data shows the vaccine is extremely effective at preventing severe Covid cases, hospitalizations and adult deaths.

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Business

‘I Have No Cash for Meals’: Among the many Younger, Starvation Is Rising

‘I Have No Money for Food’: Among the Young, Hunger Is Rising

PARIS – Amandine Chéreau rushed out of her cramped student apartment in the suburbs of Paris to catch a train for a one-hour ride into town. Her stomach growled with hunger, she said as she walked to a student-run grocery bank near the Bastille, where she joined a serpentine line with 500 young people waiting for leaflets.

Ms. Chéreau, 19, a college student, ran out of savings in September after the pandemic ended the babysitting and restaurant jobs she relied on. By October, she’d had one meal a day and said she’d lost 20 pounds.

“I have no money for food,” said Ms. Chéreau, whose father helps pay her tuition and rent but was unable to send after being fired from his 20-year job in August. “It’s terrifying,” she added as the students around her reached for vegetables, pasta, and milk. “And it all happens so quickly.”

As the second year of the pandemic begins, humanitarian organizations across Europe are warning of an alarming rise in food insecurity among young people after their families have experienced constant campus closures, downsizing and layoffs. A growing proportion face hunger and increasing financial and psychological stress, which exacerbates the differences for the most vulnerable population groups.

Food aid dependency is growing in Europe as hundreds of millions of people around the world face a worsening crisis in how to meet their basic food needs. As the global economy struggles to recover from the worst recession since World War II, hunger is rising.

In the United States, almost one in eight households does not have enough to eat. People in countries where there is already a lack of food are facing a major crisis. According to the United Nations World Food Program, food insecurity in developing countries is expected to almost double to 265 million people.

In France, Europe’s second largest economy, half of young adults have limited or unsafe access to food. Almost a quarter routinely skip at least one meal a day, according to the Cercle des Économistes, a French economic think tank that advises the government.

President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged a growing crisis after undergraduate and postgraduate students demonstrated in cities across France where higher education is considered a right and the state pays most of its costs. He announced a rapid relief plan that includes € 1 daily meals in university cafeterias, psychological support and a review of financial support for those facing “permanent and notable decline in family income”.

“Covid created a deep and serious social emergency that quickly got people into trouble,” said Julien Meimon, president of Linkee, a statewide food bank that has set up new services for students who cannot get enough food. “The students have become the new face of this precariousness,” he said.

Food insecurity among college students was not uncommon before the pandemic. However, the problem has worsened since European countries imposed national bans last spring to contain the coronavirus.

Aid organizations, which mainly fed refugees, the homeless and people below the poverty line, have realigned their operations to meet the growing demand among young people. At Restos du Coeur, one of France’s largest food banks with 1,900 branches, the number of young adults under 25 standing in line for meals has risen to almost 40 percent.

Over eight million people in France visited a food bank last year, compared to 5.5 million in 2019. Demand for food aid across Europe has increased by 30 percent, according to the European Food Banks Federation.

While the government subsidizes campus meals, it does not provide pantries. As the cost of nutrition becomes insurmountable for students with little or no income, university administrators have turned to relief groups to help fight hunger.

The pandemic has eliminated jobs in restaurants, tourism and other hard-hit sectors that were once easily accessible to young people. According to the National Observatory of Student Life, two-thirds lost the jobs that helped them make ends meet.

“We have to work, but we can’t find jobs,” said Iverson Rozas, 23, a linguistics student at New Sorbonne University in Paris, whose part-time job was reduced to one five evenings a week in a restaurant and left with just 50 euros that you can spend on food every month.

Updated

March 16, 2021, 7:09 p.m. ET

One last day of the week, he stood in a row that spanned three blocks of town for the Linkee Food Bank near the French National Library, with students graduating in math, physics, law, philosophy, or biology.

“A lot of people here have never visited a food bank, but now they live hand-to-mouth,” Meimon said. Many thought such places were for poor people – not them, he added. To ease the feeling of stigma, Linkee tries to create a festive atmosphere with helpful volunteers and student bands.

Layoffs within a family deepen the domino effect. In France, where the average takeaway pay is 1,750 euros per month, the government has spent hundreds of billions of euros to limit mass layoffs and prevent bankruptcies. But that didn’t protect parents from the growing number of recessions.

This was the case with Ms. Chéreau, who studied history and archeology at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in the second year and whose family contributes around 500 euros a month to her expenses.

Shortly after she lost her student jobs, her father was plunged into unemployment when the company where he spent his career collapsed. Then her mother was put on paid leave and her income cut by over 20 percent.

When Ms. Chéreau ran out of savings, she went into debt. Then her pantry ran out of food, she almost stopped eating, and quickly lost weight.

She had heard from friends about the student food banks and now, she said, they are the only way she eats. Even so, she carefully rations what she gets and drinks water to combat hunger between her daily meals.

Class disturbed

Updated March 15, 2021

The latest on how the pandemic is changing education.

“It was hard at first,” Ms. Chéreau said, clutching a folder of homework she brought to work on while she stood on the food line. “But now I’m used to it.”

Mr Macron’s actions are welcome, but they can only help so much. In the northwestern city of Rennes, the € 1 dishes are so popular that they attract queues for over an hour. But some people have to take courses online and can’t wait that long. Others live too far away.

“A lot of people just go without food,” said Alan Guillemin, co-president of the student union at the University of Rennes.

The demand is so great that some enterprising students have started to address an urgent need.

Co’p1 / Solidarités Étudiantes, the grocery bank visited by Ms Chéreau, opened near the Bastille in October when six students from Paris’s Sorbonne University joined forces after more peers went hungry.

With the support of the Paris Mayor’s Office and the Red Cross, they negotiated donations from supermarkets and food companies like Danone. Now 250 volunteer students are organizing pasta, muesli, baguettes, milk, soda, vegetables and hygiene items to cater to 1,000 students a week – although the need is five times greater, said Ulysse Guttmann-Faure, law student and founder of the group. Students go online to reserve a place on the line.

“At first it took three days for these slots to fill up,” he said. “Now you are booked in three hours.”

Food banks like this one, run by volunteer students for other students, have become a rare ray of hope for thousands who have silently struggled to cope with the psychological stress of living with the pandemic.

Thomas Naves, 23, A Nanterre University scholarship student philosophy student said he felt abandoned and isolated after months of taking online classes in a tiny studio.

When his student jobs were cut, he looked for food banks that were set up on his campus twice a week. There he not only found much-needed meals, but also a way to escape loneliness and cope with his growing hardship. His parents were both sick and could barely make ends meet.

Mr. Naves sat down behind a small table in his student dormitory one afternoon to eat a microwave-cooled curry he’d gotten from the campus pantry. There was a small supply of donated pasta and canned food in his closet – enough to keep him going for a few more meals.

“Going to the food bank is the only way I can feed myself,” he said.

“But when I met other students in my situation, I realized that we all share this suffering together.”

Gaëlle Fournier contributed to the coverage.

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Business

Demand for composite decking is rising due to a DIY boon, Trex CEO says

Demand for composite decking is rising thanks to a DIY boon, Trex CEO says

Bryan Fairbanks, CEO of Trex, told CNBC on Friday that sales for the company’s alternative wood products rose during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers embark on more home improvement projects.

In addition to increasing demand for composite decks from homeowners, the manufacturer has increased capacity and lowered prices to make its products more affordable, Fairbanks said in a “Mad Money” appearance.

“People are really starting to understand what the long-term cost of owning a wooden deck will be,” he told CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “Another thing that we see significant traction in is people who want to make the green choice.”

The housewares and remodeling markets benefited from increased interest in home improvement and outdoor living projects during the pandemic as residents found new ways to stay busy amid lockdowns and travel restrictions over the past year.

In the final quarter of 2020 – which is typically slower for the company due to a decline in construction – Trex’s residential product sales grew 40% year over year.

Fairbanks found that many customers find their way to Trex when looking for more sustainable materials to use on their DIY projects. He added that the company’s decks are 95% made from recycled material, as opposed to the environmental impact of pressure treated wood, which is high in chemicals.

While Trex competes with Azek on alternative wood surfaces, the company is focused on disrupting wood, which accounts for around 78% of the total market, he added. North America has an installation base of 40 million wooden decks, he said.

“There is absolutely a lot of space in the market,” Fairbanks said when asked about composites competition. “As we continue to grow as an organization, we are aiming for the largest segment of the market that is under pressure [wood]is very important to us and we look forward to this opportunity. “

Trex’s total revenue rose 18% to $ 881 million in 2020, the company said in late February. This is double the revenue growth rate that Trex saw in 2019. The company expects further double-digit sales growth in 2021, but did not give a forecast for the full year.

The shares of the $ 10 billion company rose 3.6% to $ 88.24 on Friday, breaking a three-day streak of bad luck.

Categories
Business

Unemployment Claims Present Toll of Rising Covid Instances: Reside Updates

Vacant retail shops in Columbus, Ohio. The rate of jobless claims has been rising as coronavirus cases remain high across the country.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Rising Covid-19 cases are taking a steep toll on economic activity, battering the labor market even as new vaccines offer a ray of hope for next year.

The number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance remained high last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. After dropping earlier in the fall, claims have moved higher, and they remain at levels that dwarf the pace of past recessions.

There were 935,000 new claims for state benefits, compared with 956,000 the previous week, while 455,000 filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally funded program for part-time workers, the self-employed and others ordinarily ineligible for jobless benefits.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of new state claims was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week.

Consumer caution, coupled with new restrictions on business activity like indoor dining, has pummeled the hospitality industry, lodging, airlines and other service businesses. The debut of a coronavirus vaccine this week offers the prospect of relief, but until mass inoculations begin next year, the economy will remain under pressure.

“Businesses are closing, and as a result, we are seeing job losses mount — and that’s exactly what we were fearful of going into the winter,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “It’s going to be a challenging few months, no doubt.”

At the end of November, more than 20 million workers were collecting unemployment benefits under state or federal programs, Labor Department data indicates.

With the weakening economy as the backdrop, Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress continued talks on Wednesday on another pandemic relief bill, something that economists have warned is overdue. Without action, two key programs for unemployed workers will expire this month, cutting off benefits to millions.

“We are not moving in the right direction,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “With the looming expiration of benefits, it’s even more worrisome.”

Data released on Wednesday showed a 1.1 percent drop in retail sales in November, a disappointing start to the crucial holiday season. Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services, expects economic growth to be weak for the next few months before picking up later in 2021.

“Until we get a lot of people vaccinated, the economy will face a difficult test,” he said. “I don’t know if we will see an outright contraction or the loss of jobs, but the pace of improvement will slow markedly.”

Christian Smalls leads a workers strike at the Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island in May.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times

The National Labor Relations Board said on Thursday that it had found merit in a complaint that Amazon wrongfully fired a warehouse worker in retaliation for organizing colleagues concerned about pandemic safety conditions.

Kevin Petroccione, a congressional liaison for the National Labor Relations Board, said if Amazon did not settle, the board would file a formal complaint against the company.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. The finding was earlier reported by Vice.

The charge of unfair labor practices was brought by Gerald Bryson, who worked at Amazon’s warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y. Mr. Bryson had joined with other workers, including one named Christian Smalls, in a protest over safety concerns in late March after the pandemic struck. Amazon immediately fired Mr. Smalls. About a week later, Mr. Bryson protested again in the parking lot of the building.

Amazon fired Mr. Bryson about two weeks later, saying he had violated the company’s vulgar language policy during a confrontation with another worker in the second protest, according to Frank Kearl, Mr. Bryson’s lawyer.

In June, Mr. Bryson filed a case with the National Labor Relations Board, effectively saying that Amazon selectively enforced its vulgar language policy as an excuse to retaliate against Mr. Bryson for his organizing. Mr. Kearl said the agency told him of the finding late last month.

If Amazon does not reach a settlement, which could include back pay or reinstating Mr. Bryson’s job, the agency plans to file a complaint to be heard by an administrative law judge. It filed a similar retaliation complaint against Amazon in a case of a worker in Pennsylvania who protested conditions during the pandemic. That case is pending.

Do you work in an Amazon warehouse and have a labor issue? We want to hear from you. Contact the reporter of this article at karen.weise@nytimes.com.

Nearly a year after the coronavirus outbreak, the full impact of the pandemic on the U.S. economy remains unclear. Some of the most obvious indicators are in conflict: As some companies report enormous profits, the number of unemployed Americans is nearly 10 million more than it was in February, and hundreds of thousands are expected to have filed new unemployment claims last week.

The Times interviewed a rage of economists and experts who suggested looking at eight measures to understand the state of the economy that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will face on Jan. 20.

  • Wages: That wages and salaries have bounced back quickly is a sign that things are on track for a rapid recovery. During the last recession — which Mr. Biden and then-President Barack Obama inherited in 2009 — drops of wages and salaries took years to recover.

  • Unemployment for Black men: The current crisis has had a particularly negative, persistent impact on employment for Black men, who face an unemployment rate of 11.3 percent, five percentage points higher than the unemployment rate for white men.

  • Long-term unemployment: The number of Americans who are still in the labor force but have been unemployed for more than six months has been increasing since April. A sociologist with a left-leaning think tank said the rise in long-term unemployment, coupled with the fact that millions of workers have left the labor market altogether since February, indicated “a very serious problem in connecting people who are able to produce needed goods and services with the opportunity to do so.”

  • Housing costs: Home prices and rents have risen during the pandemic. But while the rising costs have strained low-income renters, the rise in housing prices typically signals strong economic growth.

  • New businesses: Even as countless businesses have been forced to close over the course of the pandemic, the increase in business applications over the last year is a sign that the economy may be adapting rather than totally seizing.

  • Spending on goods: Though the pandemic has altered Americans’ day-to-day lives, it hasn’t halted their spending as much as some feared it would. Consumption has shifted toward goods over services — buying alcohol from stores instead of from bars, for example — bucking a generational trend toward a service economy.

  • Food scarcity — More families across the country are unable to meet their basic needs for housing and food security, according to a Census Bureau survey.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Capitol. After months of stalemate, congressional leaders were on the verge of cementing a stimulus deal.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress haggled on Thursday over the remaining hurdles to an emerging $900 billion stimulus deal, with Democrats making a last-ditch effort to use the package to deliver more emergency aid to states struggling amid the pandemic.

With Congress running out of time to deliver another round of relief to Americans and stave off a government shutdown on Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported more momentum toward a compromise that could be ready as early as today.

“We made some progress this morning,” Ms. Pelosi, of California, told reporters at the Capitol. Asked if a final agreement would be announced within the day, she said: “We’ll let you know.”

The plan under discussion would provide a dose of badly needed relief after months of stalled negotiations and amid a national public health crisis that has killed more than 307,000 people.

That includes a new round of stimulus payments, probably $600, to American adults; a temporary infusion of enhanced federal jobless aid of around $300 per week; and rental and food assistance. It would also revive a loan program for struggling small businesses and provide funding for schools, hospitals and the distribution of the vaccine.

With plans to merge a final agreement with a sweeping omnibus government funding package, Congress may have to approve another stopgap spending measure to avert a government shutdown on Friday while negotiators put the finishing touches on the stimulus deal. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, warned Republicans on Wednesday that they should prepare to remain in Washington through the weekend.

“I hope it wouldn’t be more than 24 or 48 hours,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, said of a possible stopgap bill, adding, “I really think this is coming to a close.”

Ms. Pelosi, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, spoke late Wednesday evening to continue ironing out differences over the measure, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi said, and they planned to continue talks on Thursday.

In order to reach an agreement, Republicans appear to have dropped their demand for a sweeping coronavirus liability shield for businesses in exchange for Democrats agreeing to exclude a direct funding stream for state and local governments that are facing fiscal crises, according to two officials familiar with the discussions.

But Democrats were pushing to provide billions of dollars for governors to use for health-related expenses during the pandemic — including vaccine distribution — and extend emergency federal assistance for states and local governments through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Republicans who have fiercely opposed sending more aid to states and cities were resisting the moves, concerned about leaving FEMA with enough money for future natural disasters and about the lack of restrictions on how the funds are spent.

Some Republicans — in particular Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania — were pushing to curtail the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority, which Democrats argue would hamper the Biden administration’s ability to continue supporting the country’s economic recovery. After the Federal Reserve used such authority earlier this year after the enactment of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law, Mr. Mnuchin clawed back the remaining funds in part to offset the cost of another stimulus bill.

There is also a push to include billions of dollars in relief for theaters and venues, something that lawmakers in both parties support.

Zach Montague contributed reporting.

By: Ella Koeze·Source: Refinitiv

  • A generally upbeat mood prevailed in global stock markets on Thursday, as lawmakers from both parties in Washington signaled they were close to reaching a deal on an economic aid package, an extraordinary shift in tone from both Republicans and Democrats, and more people received a coronavirus vaccine.

  • Investors are also looking toward an economic recovery sometime next year with one coronavirus vaccine already approved in several countries, and a second close to receiving emergency approval.

  • Still, the pandemic is far from over and continuing to take a staggering human and economic toll. Claims for state unemployment insurance illustrated this on Thursday, with 935,000 filing new claims last week, the Labor Department said.

  • The market gains on Thursday were relatively small: the S&P 500 rose about half a percent in early trading. The Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.5 percent, while the FTSE in Britain was flat. Most Asian indexes closed the day with gains.

  • In Washington, talks continued on a $900 billion stimulus plan that would provide a new round of direct payments to millions of Americans as well as additional unemployment benefits, food assistance and rental aid. Republicans and Democrats alike signaled that they were ready to coalesce around the main elements, though a final agreement hasn’t been reached.

  • The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, on Wednesday made a point of saying the central bank was in no mood to begin scaling back its efforts to bolster the economy. He said the Fed’s policy decisions were intended to show that policymakers would “deliver powerful support to the economy until the recovery is complete.” He said the economy would face near-term challenges, but would likely bounce back quickly once vaccines were widely available, perhaps by midyear.

Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev, Robinhood’s co-founders, in 2018. Millions of investors have turned to the app in recent years.Credit…Reuters

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said that Robinhood, the stock trading app, had misled its customers about how it was paid by Wall Street firms for passing along customer trades, the latest enforcement action against the popular platform.

Robinhood agreed to pay a $65 million fine to settle the charges, the latest blow to the company whose popularity has surged since its founding, offering commission-free trading and an easy-to-use app. Critics have said that the company relied on practices that hurt its rapidly growing base of customers, who tend to be younger and less experienced.

The charges announced on Thursday apply to Robinhood’s disclosures from 2015 to late 2018, the regulator said.

The S.E.C. had charged Robinhood with “repeated misstatements that failed to disclose the firm’s receipt of payments from trading firms for routing customer orders to them, and with failing to satisfy its duty to seek the best reasonably available terms to execute customer orders,” it said in a statement.

“Robinhood provided misleading information to customers about the true costs of choosing to trade with the firm,” Stephanie Avakian, director of the S.E.C.’s enforcement division, said in a statement. “Brokerage firms cannot mislead customers about order execution quality.”

As part of the settlement, Robinhood did not admit or deny the allegations. But Dan Gallagher, its chief legal officer, said that the company was committed to helping meet its customers’ needs. “The settlement relates to historical practices that do not reflect Robinhood today,” he said in a statement.

Millions of investors have turned to Robinhood in recent years, lured by the simple fact that the site allows investors to trade without paying commissions. Much of the retail brokerage industry has since followed suit, resulting in a surge of retail trading activity this year.

Because they do not charge commissions, brokerage firms like Robinhood make money by charging high-speed trading firms for the right to execute their clients’ orders, a practice called payment for order flow. The trading firms are willing to pay Robinhood because they can eke out incremental gains on individual trades, which because of their speed and scale add up to large amounts of money.

But that also means that the high-speed trading firms determine the price one of Robinhood’s clients would pay for shares, or what they might receive for selling stock.

The S.E.C. said that for several years, the company had failed to be transparent with customers about its use of payment for order flow. It also said that the brokerage firm had violated a duty to get customers the best possible prices for their orders, tying that failure to the high payment rates it received from trading firms in exchange for customers’ trades.

In its order summarizing the settlement, the S.E.C. said that although the company was publicly declaring that its customers were getting trading terms as good as or better than what rivals offered, internal reviews showed that was far from the case.

The federal charges come a day after regulators in Massachusetts accused Robinhood of aggressively courting and manipulating inexperienced investors and then failing to protect them. In a complaint, the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth, William F. Galvin, said that Robinhood focused on signing up young traders with perks like free shares, and then used “gamification” marketing techniques to persuade them to trade often.

Matt Phillips and Gregory Schmidt contributed reporting.

Google received a kernel of good news on Thursday when European Union authorities approved its acquisition of the fitness-tracking company Fitbit after a lengthy review to determine whether the $2.1 billion takeover violated antitrust laws.

European regulators had been under pressure to block the deal, first announced last year, but allowed it to move forward after Google agreed not use the health and fitness data collected from Fitbit’s wearable devices and services to target ads at internet users. Google also agreed to continue providing its free Android software to competing makers of fitness and health devices.

The announcement comes as Google faces two antitrust lawsuits in the United States. On Wednesday, 10 state attorneys general accused the Silicon Valley giant of abusing its power in digital advertising. In October, the Justice Department accused the company of using illegal tactics to maintain dominance for its search engine.

The European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, has brought three antitrust cases against Google in recent years. The company is appealing the fines.

The central bank left its benchmark interest rate at 0.1 percent and did not increase its purchases of government bonds. Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times

The Bank of England, which has been battling not only a pandemic but the threat of a disruptive exit from the European Union, made no changes to its monetary policy Thursday amid signs that both threats could be receding.

The central bank left its benchmark interest rate at 0.1 percent and did not increase its purchases of government bonds. In November, at its last meeting, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee expanded the bond purchases, a way of holding down market interest rates, by £150 billion. The bank said Thursday it would continue to aim for total asset purchases of £895 billion, or $1.2 trillion.

The bank also extended by six months a program that allows commercial banks to borrow money at or close to the benchmark interest rate, if they funnel the money to small and midsize businesses.

Successful development of vaccines against the coronavirus are “likely to reduce the downside risks to the economic outlook from Covid,” the Monetary Policy Committee said in a statement. But the committee also said growth would be “a little weaker” than policymakers expected in November because of sharper lockdowns.

Negotiators for Britain and the European Union continued to meet in Brussels on Thursday, and there were indications they had narrowed their differences, potentially averting a no-deal Brexit that would be bad for both economies, but especially Britain’s.

In one example of the potential damage, the German automaker BMW warned that it would have to significantly raise prices for cars sold in Britain if there were no deal. Nicolas Peter, the company’s chief financial officer, told German media on Wednesday that BMW would also have to raise the price of British-made Minis sold in Europe because of import and export tariffs.

  • Unilever, a major advertiser, said it would resume spending in January on U.S. ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter but would continue to monitor the social media platforms for hate speech, misinformation and postelection “polarization.” The company stepped away in June but said on Thursday that it was “encouraged by the platforms’ new commitments and reporting to monitor progress.”

  • Ten state attorneys general on Wednesday accused Google of illegally abusing its monopoly over the technology that delivers ads online. The state prosecutors said that Google overcharged publishers for the ads it showed across the web and edged out rivals who tried to challenge the company’s dominance. They also said that Google had reached an agreement with Facebook to limit the social network’s own efforts to compete with Google for ad dollars. Google said the suit was “baseless” and that it would fight the case.

  • Tyson Foods has fired seven workers accused of being involved in a betting pool over how many employees would get the coronavirus, the company said Wednesday. The son of a meatpacking worker who died in April filed a suit claiming that the manager of the Waterloo, Iowa, pork plant organized a “cash buy-in, winner take all” betting pool. In all, about 1,000 workers at the plant — about a third of the work force — tested positive for the virus. Tyson had hired the law firm Covington & Burling to conduct an independent investigation of the matter, led by Eric H. Holder Jr., the former U.S. attorney general.

The Pandemic’s Toll

Credit…Audra Melton for The New York TimesCredit…Audra Melton for The New York Times

There remains widespread confusion about a key element of the plan to protect some of the most vulnerable Americans against the coronavirus, report Rebecca Robbins and Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times: how nursing homes will get consent to vaccinate residents who aren’t able to make their own medical decisions.

Some states are starting vaccinations in their nursing homes this week, but a broader nationwide effort will start in earnest on Monday as CVS and Walgreens employees begin to arrive at tens of thousands of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to vaccinate staff and residents.

A CVS executive said such residents’ legal representatives will be able to provide consent to nursing homes electronically or over the phone, but officials at multiple large nursing home chains said they were not aware of that.

If residents or their representatives have not given consent before CVS or Walgreens employees show up, it is not clear whether or when they will have another chance to be inoculated.

There is no federal requirement for people to give consent before getting vaccinated, but it is standard practice and is often needed for billing purposes. States have different requirements about how medical consent can be given and what information needs to be provided to the person who is consenting. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is that residents or their representatives should receive a fact sheet about the coronavirus vaccine and then consent to receiving it.

Executives from CVS and Walgreens said in interviews that they had been planning the vaccination campaign for months and were confident it would work. “If there are concerns or challenges, we certainly are open to work with facilities to try to minimize any disruption that they may have,” said Rick Gates, a Walgreens executive leading the company’s planning.

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World News

Dow rebounds, rising greater than 100 factors as new stimulus proposal unveiled

Dow rebounds, rising more than 100 points as new stimulus proposal unveiled

Shares traded higher on Tuesday as Congress resumed negotiations on another economic bailout package and rolled out Covid-19 vaccines across the country.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 was up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7%.

Apple led the Dow up 3.5% after Nikkei reported the company will increase iPhone production by about 30% in the first half of 2021. Technology and energy were the top performing sectors in the S&P 500, up 1.2% each.

Legislators released the latest proposal for another round of economic relief on Monday evening, splitting an earlier bipartisan proposal into two parts.

The new plan sees $ 748 billion in spending on programs popular on both sides of the aisle, including an additional $ 300 a week on federal unemployment benefits and another $ 300 billion on more under-line loans of the paycheck protection program.

A second $ 160 billion bill would cover the more controversial areas of corporate liability protection and financial assistance to state and local governments.

In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed the stimulus proposal and broader government funding negotiations on Monday evening, Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said on Twitter. The couple “discussed the urgency of the committees to finish their work as soon as possible,” said Hammill.

The most recent move towards a business cycle deal is for investors and Americans as a whole to grapple with bleak near-term prospects but prospects for economic growth and the possible end of the pandemic in 2021.

The first round of shooting with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was conducted in the United States on Monday. However, according to the Johns Hopkins University, the country has also recorded 300,000 deaths from Covid-19. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also warned residents that a complete shutdown might be needed to protect the city’s hospitals.

Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, said another stimulus package was needed to keep the economic recovery from stalling before the vaccine can be distributed.

“With cases continuing to rise and mass vaccinations that are still ongoing, we could see further weakness in jobs and even a flattening where we’re not creating any new jobs at all … that’s absolutely an opportunity for this next job report. ” Said Tilley. “And if we didn’t get another stimulus package, 10 to 11 million people would immediately fall off the unemployed list, and that would also weigh on spending.”

On Tuesday morning, the Food and Drug Administration announced that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine data is in line with emergency expectations, a crucial step ahead of full approval. If the FDA gives the vaccine the green light, it will be the second after Pfizer to be approved for use in the United States. Moderna shares were down 3.4%.

The move in stocks follows a mixed session on Monday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and small-cap Russell 2000 rising, while the S&P 500 and Dow falling. The S&P 500’s 0.4% decline was the fourth consecutive negative day.

Despite the recent weakness in the S&P 500 and the Dow, the three major indices are trading near record highs that have risen sharply for the year. David Waddell, chief investment strategist at wealth advisory firm Waddell and Associates, said this could mitigate the normally bullish seasonal trend for stocks.

“We might have a little Santa Claus rally already,” said Waddell. “Ordinarily the markets would accelerate from here until the end of the year, and they could do it again, but the run has been so strong that I would not be surprised, and actually I would prefer the market to consolidate its gains. A. . little bit.”

The Federal Reserve will begin its two-day December meeting on Tuesday with a policy statement and press conference for Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday.

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Business

Reside Market Updates: Shares Decline Amid Covid Restrictions and Rising Instances

Goods are piling up at some British ports, as trucks and rail have failed to keep up with companies trying to stockpile ahead of Brexit.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Businesses in Britain and the European Union are bracing for the economic disruption of Brexit, which threatens to clog ports and disrupt trade across the English Channel on Dec. 31 if leaders do not reach a compromise to settle their future trading relationship.

But the economic breakup could have a relatively limited impact on trade with the United States, trade experts said.

Because the United States does not have a free-trade agreement with the European Union, Britain’s departure from the bloc will do little to alter its trading relationship with the United States. Following Brexit, the terms of trade between the United States and Britain will continue to be governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization, as they were before.

The direct effect on the two trade partners “should be minimal given there’s no change in tariffs,” said Christopher Rogers, a global trade and logistics analyst at Panjiva.

Still, he said, significant customs disruptions between Europe and Britain could have knock-on effects for supply chains, if, for example, it takes British businesses that are exporting to the United States longer to source components from abroad. Goods are piling up at some British ports, as trucks and rail have failed to keep up with companies trying to stockpile ahead of Brexit.

Britain’s trading terms with the United States may not get much worse, but they also appear unlikely to get better.

The two countries have been carrying out negotiations for a free-trade deal since May. But with the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the prospects for that agreement, which many Britons saw as a source of post-Brexit strength, have been greatly diminished.

The congressional authority that gives trade deals an easier path to approval by Congress, called trade promotion authority, is set to expire this summer, and Mr. Biden has promised not to enter into any major new trade agreements until the United States has made major investments at home.

Boeing 737 Max aircraft in a lot at Boeing Field in Seattle. The plane was grounded worldwide almost two years ago.Credit…Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Gol Airlines, a Brazilian carrier, said it planned to start flights aboard the Boeing 737 Max on Wednesday, making it the first airline to fly passengers on the plane since it was grounded worldwide almost two years ago.

The first flights will be on domestic routes to and from Gol’s hub in São Paulo, with the company expecting all seven of the Max planes in its fleet to be updated and cleared to fly by the end of the month. A Gol spokeswoman declined to provide further details.

“Our first priority is always the safety of our customers,” Celso Ferrer, vice president of operations and a commercial pilot at Gol, said in a statement. “Over the past 20 months, we have watched the most comprehensive safety review in the history of commercial aviation unfold.”

The Max was banned worldwide in March 2019 after a total of 346 people were killed in two crashes aboard the plane. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration last month became the first regulator to allow the plane to fly again, after required modifications are made. The agency was recently joined by regulators in Brazil, while the European aviation authority has suggested that it plans to lift its ban within weeks. Relatives of those killed in the crashes criticized the decision to allow the plane to fly again, arguing that it remains unsafe.

The lifting of the ban allows Boeing to restart sales and deliveries in earnest after its passenger airline business was pummeled by the grounding and the pandemic. The plane maker on Tuesday reported a net decline of 61 orders last month. Boeing’s backlog of orders, most of them for the Max, stood at 4,240, down more than a thousand from the start of the year after accounting for fulfilled orders.

Still, airlines are still interested in acquiring the plane. Last week, the company announced it had agreed to sell 75 Max jets to Ryanair, the low-cost European airline. Like RyanAir, Gol is among the biggest customers for the Max. The airline’s fleet is composed of 127 Boeing planes and it has an order for 95 Max jets scheduled for delivery over a decade starting in 2022.

Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s co-founder, in 2018. It’s usually not regular people, employees or even pre-I.P.O. investors who get a windfall from initial public offerings.Credit…Eric Risberg/Associated Press

A dirty secret of initial public offerings is that even the coolest ones may make only a handful of people rich — and it may not be regular people, employees or even fancy pre-I.P.O. investors who get a windfall.

DoorDash and Airbnb are expected to have spectacular first sales on public stock exchanges this week and start trading at far higher levels than anticipated even a few weeks ago.

But buying stock in relatively young and unproven companies — which usually describes technology companies selling their stock to the public for the first time — is often a coin-toss bet. Even the professional investors who buy stock in hot companies before they go public don’t always get rich, unless they throw their money around early and get lucky. Companies you might have heard of like Uber, Lyft, Snapchat and Slack were at best meh I.P.O. investments.

Look at Airbnb. Among the investors who got a special chance to buy Airbnb stock nearly four years ago, each $10,000 of stock they bought will be worth about $11,500 if Airbnb starts selling its shares to the public for $60 each. Nice!

But if your aunt had invested $10,000 nearly four years ago in a simple fund that mirrored the ups and downs of the S&P 500 stock index, she would now have $15,600. Even nicer.

The pandemic hurt business for Uber and Lyft, but their stocks were losers before then. Uber’s stock price has bounced back and is now up 30 percent since the spring, and still anyone who bought Uber shares in its 2019 I.P.O. — and even the professional investors who bought its stock in the four years before that — would have made far more money buying an index fund. Uber employees who were hired before the I.P.O. and were paid partly in stock also would have been better off getting paid in an index fund.

People who bought Snapchat’s stock in its 2017 initial public offering had to wait more than three years to not lose money on their bet. Slack just sold itself at a share price not much higher than its first public stock sale last year.

These are cherry-picked examples. There are companies whose stock prices have soared since their I.P.O.s and made people rich — Zoom Video is a prominent example in technology. And the people who have already bet on the restaurant delivery app DoorDash stand to make a big profit when the company goes public this week.

Will Airbnb be a winning I.P.O.? It depends. It definitely will be for the venture capital firm Sequoia, which bet on Airbnb early. And it’s certainly faring better than people expected when travel froze early this year. But no one can confidently predict whether its share price will shoot to the moon like Zoom’s has since its 2019 I.P.O. or will plunge as Lyft’s did after it went public.

That’s the lesson. Cool companies don’t always make good investments. The people screaming on Robinhood about their splurge on a hot I.P.O. may not know what they’re talking about.

By: Ella Koeze·Source: Refinitiv

  • Stocks were unsteady on Tuesday, as the spread of coronavirus cases and restrictions on people’s movement and businesses outweighed optimism about the rollout of a vaccine.

  • The S&P 500 was flat by midday after recovering from an earlier dip. The Stoxx Europe 600 and Britain’s FTSE 100 also recouped small losses and were slightly higher.

  • In the United States, rising numbers of virus cases has led California to impose new stay-at-home orders in large swathes of the state. In New York, the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus is rising and could lead to another ban on indoor dining.

  • In Europe, countries are struggling to emerge from a second wave of the pandemic. The infection rate in France is threatening plans to ease restrictions before the holidays, and in Greece, the lockdown was extended until early January.

  • But on a brighter note, Britain on Tuesday started a mass vaccination campaign, delivering the first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. “There is finally some clear light at the end of a very dark tunnel,” James Pomeroy, an economist at HSBC, wrote in a note to clients. “And that cheer should be seen in some of the economic data in the coming year too.”

  • Tesla said on Tuesday it would sell as much as $5 billion in shares, its third return to markets in 10 months, and use the money for more investments including factory construction. Tesla’s shares were down nearly 3 percent. This year, the electric carmaker’s shares have risen about 670 percent, and later this month, the company will join the S&P 500.

Google’s offices in London. Britain’s top antitrust regulator recommended a new tech watchdog.Credit…Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Governments around the world have been grappling with ways to crimp the power of the biggest tech companies. In the United States, the Justice Department recently filed an antitrust case against Google. The European Union has issued antitrust violations and enacted stiffer data-protection laws. The Australian government is pushing new rules to make Google and Facebook pay for certain content.

But many question whether the tactics are adequate, particularly if a lengthy enforcement and legal process slows down action against the fast-moving and deep-pocketed companies.

On Tuesday, Britain’s top antitrust regulator recommended a new approach. The Competition and Markets Authority released recommendations for creating a new regulator called the Digital Markets Unit that will focus on the biggest technology platforms. The regulator would be able to fine companies up to 10 percent of global revenue.

The idea of creating a tech industry regulator has gained momentum among academics and policymakers around the world. The aim is to treat giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft more like the biggest companies in banking and health care — with dedicated regulators that have the expertise in the subject matter to serve as a watchdog and act quickly to address wrongdoing, akin to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Food and Drug Administration.

Britain is perhaps the furthest along. The new regulator would be responsible for enforcing a legally binding code of conduct intended to prevent the biggest companies from using their dominance to exploit consumers and business, or to box out emerging competitors. Officials said only companies of a certain size would fall under the rules, which would be tailored to specific types of businesses. Google and Facebook may face certain restrictions related to digital advertising, while Amazon would have others related to e-commerce.

To improve competition, the regulator could force companies to share certain data with rivals, and it would review acquisitions.

The proposals build on recommendations made by a British panel of experts last year and are part of a process by the government to enact regulations for the digital economy by next year. Britain is preparing to leave the European Union, which next week will release its own draft laws to increase oversight of the tech industry across the 27-nation bloc.

British authorities have raised specific concerns about the digital advertising market dominated by Google and Facebook. In July, the Competition and Markets Authority published a 437-page investigation that concluded the two companies have such scale and unmatched access to user data that “potential rivals can no longer compete on equal terms.”

Goldman Sachs has reached a deal to buy out the minority partner in its Chinese securities joint venture, which could make it the first global bank to assume full ownership of its securities business in mainland China since the Communist Party took control of foreign-owned enterprises in the country in the 1950s.

In a memo to employees on Tuesday, the Wall Street bank said it had reached a definitive agreement to buy a 49 percent stake in Goldman Sachs Gao Hua still held by its local partner, Beijing Gao Hua Securities. Goldman Sachs did not disclose a price for the transaction.

The deal follows a pledge by Chinese leaders in 2017, amid worsening trade relations with the United States, to relax or remove limits on foreign bank ownership. The move was part of an unsuccessful effort by China to enlist Wall Street in heading off President Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.

Goldman Sachs could be the first to take full control of its China securities business, depending on regulatory approval and how quickly the deal is completed.

JP Morgan Chase already has full ownership of its futures business in China, but still has a joint venture for other activities on the mainland. Other investment banks, like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Nomura, are in various stages of raising their stakes in their Chinese securities operations.

Commercial banks, by contrast, have avoided raising their stakes in commercial banking operations in mainland China above 25 percent. Doing so would subject those operations to further global banking regulations.

Goldman Sachs had announced on March 27 that it had obtained regulatory approval to raise its stake in Goldman Sachs Gao Hua from 33 percent to 51 percent. Tuesday’s memo was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

With movie theaters largely shut across the United States, traditional movie companies like Warner Bros. are being forced to evolve.Credit…Aaron P/Bauer-Griffin, via Getty

Last week, when Jason Kilar, WarnerMedia’s chief executive, announced that 17 more Warner Bros. movies would each roll out on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously. To prevent the news of the 17-movie shift from leaking (and to make the move speedily rather than get mired in the expected blowback), WarnerMedia kept the major agencies and talent management companies in the dark until roughly 90 minutes before issuing a news release, report Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling.

The surprise move left agencies on a war footing. Representatives for major Warner Bros. Talk of a Warner Bros. boycott began circulating inside the Directors Guild of America. A partner at one talent agency spent part of the weekend meeting with litigators. Some people started to angrily refer to the studio as Former Bros.

The 97-year-old studio, the ancestral home of Humphrey Bogart (“Casablanca”) and Bette Davis (“Now, Voyager”), suddenly finds itself at the uncomfortable center of a Hollywood that is changing at light speed. Even before the pandemic, streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video were upending how movies get seen and their creators are compensated. Now, with theaters struggling because of the coronavirus and the public largely stuck at home, even traditional film companies are being forced to evolve.

It’s not that all actors and directors are against streaming. Plenty of big names are making movies for Netflix. But last week’s move by Warner Bros. raised fundamental financial questions. If old-line studios are no longer trying to maximize the box office for each film but instead shifting to a hybrid model where success is judged partly by ticket sales and partly by the number of streaming subscriptions sold, what does that mean for talent pay packages?

How studios compensate A-list actors, directors, writers and producers is complicated, with contracts negotiated film by film and person by person. But it boils down to two checks. One is guaranteed (a large upfront fee) and one is a gamble: a portion of ticket sales after the studio has recouped its costs.

If a film flops, the second payday never comes. If a film is a hit, as is often the case with superheroes and other fantasy stories, the “back end” pay can add up to wheelbarrows full of cash.

A garage at the Aurora office in Palo Alto, Calif.Credit…Jason Henry for The New York Times

Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle effort over to a Silicon Valley start-up, the companies said on Monday.

Uber will also invest $400 million in the start-up, called Aurora, so it is essentially paying the company to take over the autonomous car operation, which had become a financial and legal headache. Uber is likely to license whatever technology Aurora manages to create.

The deal amounts to a fire-sale end to a high-profile but star-crossed effort to replace Uber’s human drivers with machines that could drive on their own. It is also indicative of the challenges facing other autonomous vehicle projects, which have received billions in investments from Silicon Valley and automakers but have not produced the fleets of robotic vehicles some thought would be on the streets by now.

Aurora’s chief executive, Chris Urmson, said Aurora’s first product will not be a robot taxi that could help with Uber’s ride-hailing business. Instead, it will likely be a self-driving truck, which Mr. Urmson believes has a better chance of success in the near term because long-haul truck driving on highways is more predictable and does not involve passengers.

In a statement, the Uber chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said he was looking forward to bringing Aurora technology to market “in the years ahead.” Uber declined to comment further on the agreement.

  • Rashida Jones, a senior vice president for news at MSNBC and NBC News, will become the first Black woman to take charge of a major television news network. Her promotion, announced by Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, is another big shake-up in the network’s management ranks. She will succeed Phil Griffin, the MSNBC president whose left-leaning shows yielded big ratings in the Trump years and minted media brands like “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Morning Joe,” will depart on Feb. 1 after a 12-year tenure, the network said on Monday.

  • The Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Group plans to cut roughly 6,000 jobs as it grapples with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In a securities filing in Tokyo on Monday, Dentsu laid out details of its restructuring strategy, which will cost 88 billion yen (about $850 million) to carry out over two years and includes trimming its 48,000-person international work force by 12.5 percent. The timeline will vary by location, the company said.

Patrick Gaspard, a former aide to President Barack Obama, U.S. ambassador to South Africa and executive director of the Democratic National Committee, has emerged as the leading candidate to be nominated as labor secretary under President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Mr. Gaspard announced last week that he would step down as the head of the Open Society Foundations, founded by the liberal megadonor George Soros, at the end of the year, fueling speculation in Washington that he was poised to join the incoming administration. He has a background in labor organizing, including a senior leadership position for the Service Employees International Union, which he held before joining the Obama administration.

His potential nomination would give Mr. Biden, who calls himself a “union guy,” a labor secretary with union roots. He would also add to the list of Black cabinet appointees, a key goal of Mr. Biden’s transition team as it seeks to fulfill Mr. Biden’s campaign promise of diversity in the top leadership of his administration.

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haitian parents, Mr. Gaspard immigrated to the United States in early childhood, grew up in New York and attended Columbia University before leaving to work on Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. He worked for years in New York City politics and on Howard Dean’s 2004 Democratic presidential bid, and he was an aide to former Mayor David Dinkins. After Mr. Dinkins died last month, Mr. Gaspard wrote on Twitter, “He taught me that you don’t need to be loud to be strong.”

Mr. Gaspard worked for years as an organizer and rose through the Service Employees International Union to become its national political director before joining Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In the Obama White House, Mr. Gaspard served as director of political affairs, before helming the Democratic National Committee and being confirmed as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to South Africa.

Allies of Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and Mr. Biden’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination this year, had pushed hard for Mr. Sanders to be selected as labor secretary. But Mr. Biden’s short list for the job does not appear to include Mr. Sanders.