United News of Bangladesh

A growing coronavirus outbreak in Fiji is stretching the health system and devastating the economy. It has even prompted the government to offer jobless people tools and cash to become farmers. The Pacific nation got through the first year of the pandemic without any significant outbreaks and just two virus deaths. But an outbreak of the highly contagious delta variant two months ago has grown to the point where Fiji is adding about 250 new cases each day. Read:‘Excruciating:’ Florida collapse search stretches to Day 6 The government has so far resisted calls for a lockdown, in part to try and protect an economy which had already shrunk by 19% last year after international tourism evaporated. Nearly half of all jobs were connected to tourism in the island nation that’s known for its white-sand beaches, clear water and welcoming people. “Business-wise, it’s very bad,” said George Bernard, who owns a business servicing fire extinguishers. He fears life will never be the same. “I’m just trying to survive,” he said. A vaccination campaign is in full swing but has been hindered by misinformation that vaccines are unsafe or even evil. So far, about 29% of the population of just under 1 million have gotten their first dose, while 2% have been fully vaccinated. Bernard, who has heard some of the rumors, said he is in no rush to get vaccinated. “Sometimes, I have second thoughts,” he said. Nazia Hussain has been selling vegetables from her roadside stall, and she uses some of the profit to help her family members who lost their jobs at supermarkets and stores in the capital, Suva. Read:Australia battles several clusters in new pandemic phase “I have been doing this so I can save some money to do some shopping for my family,” she said. But business had been slow, and people had little money to spend. Hussain said she’d believed the vaccine was a good thing and had taken the jab herself. Fiji’s government has delivered nearly 40,000 packages of food rations to people who have been isolating at home or are in targeted lockdown areas. It has also allowed people to spend money early from their retirement savings. A new program starting next month offers people who have lost their jobs and have access to rural land about $200 worth of tools, planting materials and cash. “Applicant must be an aspiring crop farmer with an intention to take on full-time farming as a core activity,” the program states. During the current outbreak, 15 people have died and nearly 7% of those being tested are testing positive, indicating the virus is continuing to spread. Australia and New Zealand have sent vaccines, money and medical teams to help Fiji’s overburdened health system. Read:As variant rises, vaccine plan targets ‘movable middle’ Fiji’s government has directed people in some areas, including Suva, to stay home and only go out for essential purposes. It has also imposed a nighttime curfew. James Fong, the country’s permanent secretary for health, told reporters that a complete, nationwide lockdown would spark a socio-economic catastrophe in Fiji. But many worry that will happen anyway if the outbreak isn’t brought under control. “Our numbers are going through the roof now. We must unite against this virus,” wrote Fred Wesley, the editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times. “Together Fiji! United we must stand!”

The coronavirus already changed the way we work. Now it’s changing the physical space, too. Many companies are making adjustments to their offices to help employees feel safer as they return to in-person work, like improving air circulation systems or moving desks further apart. Others are ditching desks and building more conference rooms to accommodate employees who still work remotely but come in for meetings. Architects and designers say this is a time of experimentation and reflection for employers. Steelcase, an office furniture company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says its research indicates half of global companies plan major redesigns to their office space this year. “This year caused you to think, maybe even more fundamentally than you ever have before, ‘Hey, why do we go to an office?’” said Natalie Engels, a San Jose, California-based design principal at Gensler, an architecture firm. Read:Asian shares track rebound on Wall Street Not every company is making changes, and Engels stresses that they don’t have to. She tells clients to remember what worked well — and what didn’t — before the pandemic. But designers say many companies are looking for new ways to make employees feel safe and invigorated at the office, especially as a labor crunch makes hiring more difficult. That’s what drove food and pharmaceutical company Ajinomoto to overhaul the design of its new North American headquarters outside Chicago last year. Ajinomoto’s employees returned to in-person work in May to a building with wider hallways and glass panels between cubicles, to give them more space and try to make them feel more secure. To improve mental health, the company transformed a planned work area into a spa-like “relaxation room” with reclining chairs and soft music. A test kitchen is wired for virtual presentations in case clients don’t want to travel. And a cleaning crew comes through twice a day, leaving Post-it notes to show what’s been disinfected. “Maybe it’s over the top, but maybe it provides comfort to those that have sensitivities to returning to an in-person work environment,” said Ryan Smith, the executive vice president of Ajinomoto North America. Smith estimates 40% of the new headquarters design changed due to COVID. Shobha Surya, an associate manager of projects and sales at Ajinomoto, is energized by the space. “The office gives you a balance of work and home life,” she said. “You are more focused here and don’t have any distractions.” Read:WTO talks on Trips waiver from June 30 Surya said she’s also thrilled to be working alongside her co-workers again. She’s not alone. Surveys show the thing employees miss most about office work is socializing and collaborating with colleagues, said Lise Newman, workplace practice director at architecture firm SmithGroup. Companies are trying to encourage that rapport by building more social hubs for employees. Some mimic coffee houses, with wood floors, booth seating and pendant lamps. “Companies are trying to create the sense that this is a cool club that people want to come into,” Newman said. Steelcase has divided one of its lobbies into cozy meeting spaces of varying sizes, separated by plant-filled partitions. Mobile video monitors can be wheeled in so that people working remotely can be included in discussions. But after a year of working from home, some employees crave privacy, so Steelcase added more glassed-in booths for private calls and cocoon-like cubicles with small sliding doors. Mark Bryan, a senior interior designer with Columbus, Ohio-based M+A Architects, expects a more fluid office culture in the future, with different places to work on any given day. Introverts might choose a small, private room; extroverts, a table in the office café. Some office changes reflect a new commitment to hybrid work. Valiant Technologies, which provides tech support and other services to businesses, is letting its employees work primarily at home but has them reserve a desk for the days they want to come to the office. The New York company has removed rows of desks and put more space between the remaining ones. Employees leave their keyboard, mouse and headsets in lockers. Read:OPEC to boost oil output as economies recover, prices rise Megan Quick, a sales associate with Valiant, said she appreciated the company allowing her to ease back into office life this month. “It will take a lot of time for us to readjust,” she said. “Valiant letting us set our pace for returning makes me feel safe.” Not every design change will stick. Last summer, when Steelcase started bringing back some workers, they pushed tables in the cafeteria far apart from each other and only allowed one person per table. It made the space so depressing that no one wanted to sit there, Steelcase CEO Jim Keane said. “An important lesson is that, yes, it has to be safe, but also has to be inspiring,” he said. “People are actually going to expect more from offices in the future.”

Asian shares have rebounded from their retreat a day earlier, tracking Wall Street’s recovery from the Federal Reserve’s reminder it will eventually provide less support to markets. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.8% in morning trading to 28,785.24. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.4% to 7,336.30. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6% to 3,260.11. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.1% to 28,522.78, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.9% to 3,559.32. Read:WTO talks on Trips waiver from June 30 Although the latest bout of jitters over a possible easing of help from the Federal Reserve and other central banks appears to have passed, analysts said rising coronavirus cases in the region remained a concern. “Much of the region is dealing with renewed waves of COVID-19 infections. These waves, especially in the case of India, Indonesia and some other countries in Southeast Asia, are the most severe yet,” said Venkateswaran Lavanya at Mizuho Bank in Singapore. On Monday, the S&P 500 snapped 1.4% higher, to 4,224.79, recovering nearly three-quarters of its worst weekly loss since February. Oil producers, banks and other companies that were hit particularly hard last week led the way. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.8% to 33,876.97 and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%, to 14,141.48. Investors are still figuring all the ramifications of the Fed’s forecast that may start raising short-term interest rates by late 2023. That’s earlier than previously thought. The Fed also began talks about slowing programs meant to keep longer-term rates low, an acknowledgment of the strengthening economy and threat of higher inflation. Read:Australia says it’s reached a free trade deal with Britain The market’s immediate reaction to last week’s Fed news was to send stocks lower and interest rates higher. Higher rates would make stock prices, which have been climbing faster than corporate profits, look even more expensive than they do already. But it’s not like the Fed said it will hike rates from their record low of nearly zero anytime soon. “If markets are worried about a march back to more normal monetary and fiscal policy as the economy recovers, it will be a very long march,” Barings chief global strategist Christopher Smart said in a note. In the meantime, support from both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government should continue to help stock prices, even if they do look expensive compared with history, he said. Companies whose profits are the most closely tied to the economy’s strength and inflation were among the market’s strongest on Monday. Hess, Marathon Oil and Devon Energy all rose at least 6.9% as energy stocks rallied with the price of oil. Banks were also strong, with Bank of America up 2.5% and Wells Fargo climbing 3.7%. High-growth companies able to flourish almost regardless of the economy lagged behind in a reversal from last week’s trend, when investors rattled by the Fed piled back into the biggest winners of the pandemic. Amazon slipped 0.9%, and the lagging performance for tech meant the Nasdaq trailed other indexes. Read:Odds of settling US-EU trade rifts? Hope may outrun progress More bumps may be ahead for markets, which had been mostly quiet for weeks before the Fed’s announcement. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak before a House subcommittee on Tuesday about the Fed’s response to the pandemic. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude picked up 13 cents to $73.25 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $1.83 to $73.12 on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 23 cents to $75.13 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 110.39 Japanese yen from 110.31 yen. The euro rose to $1.1918 from $1.1914.

World Trade Organization (WTO) members will on June 30 begin talks on the scope and coverage of the waiver of provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement proposed by India and South Africa for Covid-related medicines. At the informal meeting of the Trips Council on Thursday, it was also decided that other issues such as duration and implementation of the waiver will be discussed at a later stage depending on the first stage of talks, officials said. Read:WTO to start Covid-19 vaccine supply negotiations amid clash on patents Differences remain on how to ensure rapid and equitable access to vaccines and Covid-related medical products for all as the European Union and a few others are still opposing a revised proposal by India and South Africa seeking patent waivers on Covid-related medical products for three years, with a provision to review the duration annually. “There was agreement on regular Trips Council sessions to push negotiations,” said an official. The meeting was the first after the WTO members agreed to engage in text-based discussions on the proposal for waiver of intellectual protection rights for Covid medication. At the Thursday meeting, the US expressed doubts about starting a discussion on the scope of the waiver instead of focusing on common objectives and said some proposals could be very expensive as they unfold over the next 5-10 years. Read:WTO panel considers easing protections on COVID-19 vaccines The discussions on the proposal will continue on July 6, 14 and 20 between which meetings among small groups would be held. The first consultation period will start soon, leading up to the first open-ended session and stock taking meeting on June 30. The General Council of the WTO will check the progress of the negotiations on July 27-28, instead of July 21-22 as planned earlier, the official said. EU seeks parity The European Union, which has backed the use of flexibilities within existing frameworks such as compulsory licences instead of new ones, sought its submission to be treated on a par with the waiver proposal though India and South Africa argued that the two be discussed separately in parallel tracks. “While the India and South Africa proposal is based on Article 9 of the WTO Agreement, what the EU has made is not a formal proposal. They can’t be treated equally,” said an expert on WTO issues. Read:World trade primed for strong but uneven recovery after Covid-19 shock: WTO South Africa argued that from the legal point of view of the discussions, the waiver proposal and the communication by the EU should be addressed on different tracks. This article was first published on The Economic Times  

Britain and Australia had agreed on a free trade deal that will be released later Tuesday, Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said. The agreement is the first for Britain since it left the European Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison had reached agreement on the deal during negotiations in London, Tehan said. Read:Odds of settling US-EU trade rifts? Hope may outrun progress “Both prime ministers have held a positive meeting in London overnight and have resolved outstanding issues in relation to the FTA,” Tehan said in a statement, referring to the Free Trade Agreement. “Their agreement is a win for jobs, businesses, free trade and highlights what two liberal democracies can achieve while working together,” Tehan added. Both prime ministers would make a formal announcement on Tuesday morning in London and release further information, he said. Tehan said he spoke to Morrison on Tuesday. Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud described the deal as a “in-principle agreement.” Read:OPEC to boost oil output as economies recover, prices rise “The details are being nutted out from the in-principle agreement that our two prime ministers were able to get to last night over dinner,” Littleproud told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Our departments and the Trade Department are working through feverishly to make sure that an announcement can be made at our time tonight so that Australians will see exactly what is in that in-principle agreement,” he added. The agreement is Australia’s 15th free trade agreement. RMIT University international business expert Gabriele Suder said the deal was good news for both Britain and Australia. Read:Australian court upholds ban on most international travel “It’s wonderful news for the U.K. ... in particular because this is the first post-Brexit deal that has been really constructed from scratch, negotiated from scratch, and in addition has been negotiated in a record time of just one year, which is very, very unusual for free trade agreement negotiations,” Suder said. Britain is Australia’s fifth-largest trading partner. Suder said she expected the deal would add 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($1 billion) a year to the Australian economy.

President Joe Biden has vowed to mend America’s trade relations with its European allies, which were stretched to the breaking point by President Donald Trump’s mercurial behavior, combative policies and aversion to multinational alliances. Yet when he meets Tuesday with European Union leaders in Brussels, Biden may find that making up is hard to do. The prospect of forging an accord to resolve their differences — and perhaps form a united front against an increasingly confrontational China — may be stymied by European skepticism. Sounding a sour note about Biden’s intentions, Valdis Dombrovskis, a Latvian political leader who serves as the European Union’s trade chief, said in speech last week that the time had come “for the U.S. to walk the talk.” Dombrovskis was referring in part to Trump’s 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum — a decision that left European leaders furious and triggered retaliatory steps against the United States. Biden has been slow to take up the possibility of dropping the tariffs, which Trump had imposed on the basis of “national security.” Read:OPEC to boost oil output as economies recover, prices rise Asked about the tariffs during a news conference Sunday as he wrapped up his time at the Group of Seven summit in the U.K., Biden pleaded for patience with his young administration, saying, “A hundred and twenty days. Give me a break. Need time.” And with trade tensions still shading the trans-Atlantic relationship, the EU may also prove reluctant to join a U.S.-led effort to confront China over its provocative trade policies. Then there’s a longstanding dispute over how much of a government subsidy each side unfairly provides for its aircraft manufacturing giant — Boeing in the United States and Airbus in the EU. “This has been going on for 17 years,” says Cecilia Malmström, a veteran of trans-Atlantic battles as the European trade commissioner from 2014 to 2019. All that said, U.S.-EU relations are still certain to be much friendlier than they were under Trump, who regularly accused the Europeans of shirking their responsibility to pay for their own defense through NATO and of exploiting what he called unfair trade deals to sell far more products to the United States than they buy. In a goodwill gesture in March, the Biden administration and the EU did agree to suspend the tariffs they had imposed on each other in the Airbus-Boeing battle. Several news outlets have reported that U.S. and EU diplomats are working on a draft communique that would call for the Boeing-Airbus dispute to be resolved by July 11 and for the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs — and the EU’s retaliatory sanctions — to be lifted by Dec. 1. Read:Biden directs US to mitigate financial risk from climate The Biden administration also announced Friday that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo would be joining the U.S. delegation; her department administers the steel and aluminum tariffs. Kelly Ann Shaw, a former Trump administration trade official who is now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, suggested that the EU and U.S. are eager to move past their tariff battles “so they can move on and tackle some 21st century challenges, not the least of which is China.” Last week, though, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, sounded noncommittal in speaking with reporters on Air Force One. “There has been good progress in those negotiations,” Sullivan said of the Boeing-Airbus dispute. “But I’m making no promises about what might happen.” Regarding the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, Sullivan noted that the EU agreed last month to suspend plans to escalate retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products — a concession meant to ease tensions and encourage further negotiations. But he added: “That’s going to take some time to work out.” Asked specifically whether the United States would be rolling back the metals tariffs, Sullivan shook his head. Read:Ji'nan to hold ‘Dialogue Sessions of 2021 for Executives from Multinational Corporations (Ji'nan) & China-Japan Industrial Innovation and Development Exchange Conference’ The steel and aluminum dispute is an especially sensitive one. In moving to tax imported metals, Trump dusted off a little-used weapon in U.S. trade policy to justify the tariffs: He declared the foreign metals to be a threat to U.S. national security — a decision that startled and outraged Europeans and other longstanding American allies. “Almost all the EU members were NATO members,” said Malmström, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “How could we be a national security threat? It was offensive.” Malmström said she was surprised that Biden hasn’t already dropped the tariffs and hopes he will do so at the summit Tuesday. “Maybe he’s saving this as a gift,” she said. Complicating the political calculus for Biden is that U.S. labor unions and steel and aluminum producers — some of them concentrated in states important to Democratic election prospects — want to maintain the tariffs on the imported metals to help keep prices up. A key reason is that China, which churns out more than half the world’s steel, has contributed to an oversupply that has otherwise kept global prices down. Demonstrating a united U.S.-EU challenge to China’s aggressive policies could strengthen the trans-Atlantic negotiating leverage. But Malmström said she is skeptical about whether the EU is eager to join the United States to face up to China and force a reckoning over its trade practices. Read:Apple brings CEO Tim Cook to court in defense of app store The Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs on $360 billion of Chinese goods came against the backdrop of a roiling conflict over the predatory tactics that China is widely accused of deploying to try to supplant America’s global technological dominance. Many trade experts say Beijing has coerced American companies to hand over trade secrets as the price of access to its market, forced U.S. businesses to license technology in China on unfavorable terms, used state funds to buy up American technology and committed outright theft. Critics, including Biden, had lambasted Trump for alienating would-be allies like the EU instead of enlisting them to help challenge Beijing. For now, though, Biden hasn’t called off Trump’s trade war against China. Malmström noted that among the EU’s 27 member countries, “there is no full unanimity on how to deal with China.” She suggested that the EU might go along with the United States on specific measures — perhaps cracking down on Beijing’s subsidies to its own companies, for example — but still stop short of joining the United States in any wide-ranging confrontation with China. “The EU will not just sign up to a U.S. agenda on the bottom line,” she said. “The EU is not in trade war mode against anyone.’’

The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries plan to restore 2.1 million barrels per day of crude production, balancing fears that COVID-19 outbreaks in some countries will sap demand against surging energy needs in recovering economies. Energy ministers made the decision during an online meeting Tuesday. Read:Ex-premier’s graft case a test of justice in oil-rich Kuwait Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said recent market developments proved the agreement to gradually increase production, made in April and reconfirmed Tuesday, was “the right decision.” There are still “clouds on the horizon” regarding the recovery and demand for energy, he said. The cartel decided to stay the course decided at earlier meetings to raise production by 2.1 million barrels per day from May to July. The group plans to add back 350,000 barrels per day in June and 440,000 barrels per day in July. Saudi Arabia is also gradually adding back 1 million barrels in voluntary cuts it made above and beyond its group commitment. The combined OPEC Plus grouping of members led by Saudi Arabia and non-members, chief among them Russia, is facing concerns renewed COVID-19 outbreaks in countries such as India, a major oil consumer, will hurt global demand and weigh on prices. Oil producing countries made drastic cuts to support prices during the worst of the pandemic slowdown in 2020 and must now judge how much additional oil the market needs as producers slowly add more production. Read: OPEC daily basket price stood at $65.60 a barrel Wednesday But prices have recovered, closing at multi-year highs on Tuesday, and the recoveries in the US, Europe and Asia are expected to drive energy demand higher in the second half of the year as people travel more and use more fuel. The U.S. driving season began over Memorial Day weekend and increasing numbers of Americans have been vaccinated, leaving people feeling freer to travel and take longer trips by car. On Tuesday the price of benchmark U.S. crude rose 2% to $67.72 per barrel after jumping nearly 4%. Brent crude, the European standard, traded 2.7% higher at $71.17 but closed at $70.25 per barrel. The prices were the highest in two years for Brent crude and in nearly three years for U.S. crude. On Wednesday, oil prices rose modestly, with benchmark U.S. crude up 16 cents to $67.88 per barrel. Brent crude picked up 18 cents to $70.43 per barrel. An additional factor complicating market estimates is the possible return to the market of more Iranian oil, depending on the outcome of talks over Iran’s nuclear program. Paul Sheldon, chief geopolitical risk analyst at S&P Global Platts, said he expects a framework nuclear deal will be reached before Iran’s June 18 election, allowing Iranian supply to rise by 1.05 million barrels per day between May levels and December. Read:OPEC, oil nations agree to nearly 10M barrel cut amid virus Bin Salman said that the prospect of more Iranian oil coming to market was not discussed at the brief meeting, which he said lasted less than half an hour. Oil prices have risen more than 30% since the start of the year. That has meant higher costs for motorists in the U.S., where crude makes up about half the price of a gallon of gasoline. Holiday travelers paid the highest gas prices since 2014 at a national average of $3.03 per gallon, $1.12 more than last year. Prices in the western states were even higher; Californians paid $4.20 per gallon.

Johnson & Johnson is asking for Supreme Court review of a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using the company’s talc products. The case features an array of high-profile attorneys, some in unusual alliances, including former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is representing the women who sued Johnson & Johnson. The nation’s largest business groups are backing the company, and a justice’s father also makes an appearance because of his long association with the trade group for cosmetics and personal care products. Read:Apple brings CEO Tim Cook to court in defense of app store The court could say as soon as Tuesday whether it will get involved. At the root, Johnson & Johnson argues that the company didn’t get a fair shake in a trial in state court in Missouri that resulted in an initial $4.7 billion verdict in favor of 22 women who used talc products and developed ovarian cancer. A state appeals court cut more than half the money out of the verdict and eliminated two of the plaintiffs, but otherwise upheld the outcome in a trial in which lawyers for both sides presented dueling expert testimony about whether the company’s talc products contain asbestos and asbestos-laced talc can cause ovarian cancer. The jury found for the women on both points, after which Judge Rex M. Burlison wrote that evidence at the trial showed “particularly reprehensible conduct on the part of Defendants.” The evidence, Burlison wrote, included that the company knew there was asbestos in products aimed at mothers and babies, knew of the potential harm and “misrepresented the safety of these products for decades.” Nine of the women have died from ovarian cancer, lawyers for the plaintiffs said Johnson & Johnson denies that its talc products cause cancer and it called the verdict in the Missouri trial “at odds with decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, is not contaminated by asbestos and does not cause cancer.” The company also is the maker of one of three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States. Health concerns about talcum powders have prompted thousands of U.S. lawsuits by women who claim asbestos in the powder caused their cancer. Talc is a mineral similar in structure to asbestos, which is known to cause cancer, and they are sometimes obtained from the same mines. The cosmetics industry in 1976 agreed to make sure its talc products do not contain detectable amounts of asbestos. Last year, a U.S. government-led analysis of 250,000 women found no strong evidence linking baby powder with ovarian cancer in the largest analysis to look at the question, though the study’s lead author called the results “very ambiguous.” Read:Asian shares mixed after retreat on Wall Street The findings were called “overall reassuring” in an editorial published with the study in January 2020 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study wasn’t definitive but more conclusive research probably isn’t feasible because a dwindling number of women use powder for personal hygiene, the editorial said. A few months later, the company announced it would stop selling its iconic talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada, citing declining demand driven by what it called misinformation about health concerns. The disputed link between cancer and talc is not really a part of the high court case. Instead, the company said it should have not been forced to defend itself in one trial against claims by women from 12 states, differing backgrounds and with varying histories of using Johnson & Johnson products containing talc. The $1.6 billion in punitive damages is out of line and should be reduced, the company also argued in a brief that was written by Neal Katyal, a Washington lawyer who aligns with progressive causes and also represents corporate clients. Katyal, who was the acting top Supreme Court lawyer for a time in the Obama administration, declined an on-the-record interview. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade associations for manufacturers, insurers and the pharmaceutical industry are among the business organizations backing Johnson & Johnson’s appeal. Tiger Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association, pointed to how long it took the trial judge to read the jury its instructions as an indication of how unfair the trial was to Johnson & Johnson. “When a defendant is facing a case where it takes over five hours for the judge to read the jury instructions to the jury, you just have to ask yourself what are we doing here,” said Joyce, whose group generally backs limits on liability lawsuits. Starr said in an interview with The Associated Press that none of Johnson & Johnson’s legal arguments is worth the court’s time. “As the jury found and as every judge to review this six-week trial record has concluded, Johnson & Johnson’s conduct over decades was reprehensible,” Starr said. In addition to Starr, other members of the women’s legal team are former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Washington lawyers David Frederick and Tom Goldstein, frequent advocates before the Supreme Court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh worked for Starr when he investigated the affair between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, which led to Clinton’s impeachment. Read:Oprah and CNN: AT&T is merging media business with Discovery Another name that pops up in some documents in the case is E. Edward Kavanaugh, who was the longtime president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association and is the justice’s father. Kavanaugh’s group fought efforts to list talc as a carcinogen or attach warning labels to talc products. Kavanaugh is retired and the group now is called the Personal Care Products Council. Ethicists contacted by the AP said they haven’t seen anything that would warrant the justice having to step aside from the case. Already, one justice almost certainly won’t take part. Justice Samuel Alito reported last year that he owned $15,000 to $50,000 in Johnson & Johnson stock. Federal law prohibits judges from sitting on cases in which they have financial interest.

The "Dialogue Sessions of 2021 for Executives from Multinational Corporations (Ji'nan) & China-Japan Industrial Innovation and Development Exchange Conference" will be held in Ji'nan, the capital city of Shandong Province, from May 27 to 28.Shandong is one of the provinces in China that are most closely related to Japan in terms of economy and trade. In China, it ranks second in population and third in economy. As its capital city, Ji'nan is the political, economic, cultural, technological, educational, and financial center of Shandong Province.According to Ji'nan Investment Promotion Bureau, this event will be jointly hosted by the People's Government of Ji'nan, Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce, and Department of Commerce of Shandong Province. The event aims to facilitate practical-minded exchanges and cooperation with Japanese multinational corporations, well-known companies, and international business organizations in areas such as health, environmental protection and carbon emission reduction, smart manufacturing, and digital economy. Also Read: China committed to remain engaged in future developmentDuring the event, the organisers will hold 4 ("1 plus 3") major activities. "1" represents a themed activity aiming to advertise the new opportunities of cooperation between Ji'nan and Japan to the attendees. Fortune 500 companies, well-known multinational corporations, and industry leaders from Japan such as Sumitomo, Marubeni, Sojitz, Panasonic, Fuji, Canon, and Mitsubishi, international organizations and business associations like Japan Management Association and China-Japan Digital General Chamber of Commerce will attend the activity.On the site, there will be signing ceremonies of key projects and the opening ceremony of China-Japan Medical Innovation & Development Centers in Ji'nan and Kyoto. "3" represents three parallel activities to negotiate exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Japanese companies in areas like health, environmental protection and carbon emission reduction, and digital manufacturing. During the event, Japanese companies will also be invited to visit major industrial parks.Starting from this year, Ji'nan plans to hold the "Dialogue Sessions for Executives from Multinational Corporations (Ji'nan) & China-Japan Industrial Innovation and Development Exchange Conference" regularly on Thursday and Friday of the last week of each May. We hope to see all sectors of Japan to come to learn about and invest in Ji'nan in order to open up a broader space for cooperation.Source: Ji'nan Investment Promotion Bureau

Apple CEO Tim Cook will take the witness stand Friday to defend the company’s iPhone app store against charges that it has grown into an illegal monopoly — one far more profitable than his predecessor Steve Jobs envisioned when it opened up 13 years ago. The technology company is counting on Cook’s appearance to put the finishing touches on Apple’s defense against an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game Fortnite. Epic is trying to topple the so-called “walled garden” for iPhone and iPad apps that welcomes users and developers while keeping competition out. Created by Jobs a year after the iPhone’s 2007 debut, the App Store has become a key revenue source for Apple, a money-making machine that helped power the company to a $57 billion profit in its last fiscal year. Epic is trying to prove that the store has morphed into a price-gouging vehicle that not only reaps a 15% to 30% commission from in-app transactions, but blocks apps from offering other payment alternatives. That extends to just showing a link that would open a web page offering commission-free ways to pay for subscriptions, in-game items and the like. Read:Apple’s app store goes on trial in threat to ‘walled garden’ Apple fiercely defends the commissions as a fair way for app makers to help pay for innovations and security controls that have benefited both iPhone users and app developers, including Epic. Apple says it has invested more than $100 billion in such features. It also argues that App Store commissions mirror fees charged by major video game consoles — Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Switch — as well as a similar app store run by Google for more than 3 billion mobile Android devices. That is roughly twice the number of active iPhones, iPads and iPods that rely on Apple’s store for apps. Apple’s ironclad control over the App Store is already under investigation by regulators and lawmakers in Europe and the U.S. Epic lawyers are expected to spend several hours grilling Cook on the stand. The questioning is likely to dissect the strategies Cook has drawn up since taking the CEO job nearly a decade ago, just a few months before Jobs died of cancer in October 2011. The App Store ranks among Apple’s biggest successes during Cook’s reign. Since beginning with just 500 apps in 2008 the store has ballooned to 1.8 million apps, most of which are free. Apple has drawn upon its commissions and exclusive in-app payment system to help more than double the annual revenue of its services division from $24 billion in fiscal 2016 to $54 billion last year. This boom wasn’t something Jobs foresaw. Shortly after the store opened, Jobs publicly said Apple didn’t expect the App Store to be very lucrative. Epic’s lawyers have repeatedly cited those comments as evidence that Apple reshaped the store to fuel its earnings growth once the popularity of mobile apps became clear. Exactly how profitable the App Store is has been a point of contention throughout the three-week trial. An accounting expert hired by Epic estimated that its profit margins range from 70% to 80%, based on a review of confidential Apple documents. But Apple has insisted those numbers aren’t accurate because they don’t reflect expenses spread throughout the company’s operations. Phil Schiller, a longtime Apple executive and former Jobs confidant, conceded earlier this week that the company’s commission system had generated more than $20 billion in revenue through June 2017. Epic lawyer Katherine Forrest had presented him with that estimate, based on numbers that Apple publicly released in mid-2017. Epic’s questioning of Schiller may foreshadow how Epic’s lawyers intend to go after Cook, who is generally unflappable in public and tightly focused on his message when dealing with reporters and lawmakers. Read:Apple’s iPhone privacy clampdown arrives after 7-month delay Epic’s lawyers have repeatedly referred to internal exchanges involving Jobs and other executives to depict Apple as using its investment in security and personal privacy as an excuse for preserving the huge profits that flow from its app store. During Schiller’s testimony, for instance, Epic’s lawyers submitted a 2008 email Jobs sent to Schiller and another executive. In that note, Jobs wondered whether Google was taking aim at the then-nascent ad market that was emerging on the iPhone, which relies on operating software called iOS. “The more energy they devote to iOS the better,” Jobs wrote to Schiller. Forrest then challenged Schiller with two questions. “You wanted Google to be beholden to Apple?” she asked, soon following with, “You were basking in the power to destroy a company’s business?” Schiller answered no to both questions.