Bloomberg Businessweek May 9, 2022

● Globally, more than 515m people have been infected with the coronavirus, at least 6.2 million have died, and about 11.7 billion vaccinations have been given. As case numbers drop in Hong Kong, the city is accelerating its reopening plans by easing mask-wearing rules, allowing bars to extend their hours, and permitting beaches to reopen. ● A district court judge ruled that a lawsuit seeking reparations for survivors and descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre can proceed. The lawsuit says the actions of the White mob that killed hundreds of Black residents and destroyed what had been the nation’s most prosperous Black business district still affect the city. ● The End of Roe v. Wade? Conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court are poised to strike down the ruling giving women a…

For many years the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was known as the world’s preeminent public-health agency. No longer. During the pandemic, it’s stumbled repeatedly. Accused of incompetence, overreach, and muddled messaging, the CDC is now in need of repair. Director Rochelle Walensky was right in early April to order a review of the agency’s operations. She shouldn’t shrink from significant reforms. To be sure, some of the CDC’s troubles have resulted from political interference. Donald Trump’s White House sought to undermine the agency. Political operatives pushed to revise some of its publications and revoked its authority to gather hospital Covid-19 data from states. Although President Joe Biden has shown greater respect for the CDC’s expertise, he’s kept White House personnel involved in Covid communications and thereby helped to…

▶ Moscow, meanwhile, hopes to celebrate its invasion of Ukraine at its annual May 9 military parade, despite high casualties among its troops and a failed effort to take Kyiv. ▶ Disney reports earnings on May 11. The company has been dragged into a culture war after opposing a Florida bill restricting discussion of sexual orientation in schools. ▶ President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, a political novice whose conservative People Power Party won in March, will be inaugurated on May 10. ▶ Spooked by Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Finland may decide to apply for NATO membership in the week of May 9. Neighboring Sweden is likely to follow suit shortly after. ▶ The largest white diamond ever to be auctioned will go on sale at Christie’s in Geneva on May 11. The 228.31-carat…

For decades the fight to end abortion in America has been waged over Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the landmark decision that legalized a woman’s right to choose, the fight to stop abortion is going to become a fight about a pill. Mifepristone, originally known as RU-486, was approved in the U.S. in 2000 after being on the market overseas for more than a decade. When used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, it’s more than 95% effective in terminating a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks. Data overwhelmingly show it’s safe. Yet, as I wrote in a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story earlier this year, it’s regulated like almost no other drug in the U.S. The federal government has one set of restrictions on how the…

In 2019, London officials revoked Uber Technologies Inc.’s permit to operate in the city for the second time in just over two years, with Mayor Sadiq Khan citing a “pattern of failure” regarding background checks and drivers’ identity verification. Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi fired back on Twitter, calling the decision “just wrong” and pledging to do whatever it took to regain the license. The company won an appeal a year later, and these days, Khosrowshahi is quick to praise “Mayor Khan’s vision” and stress the strong relationship Uber has with the city. Khosrowshahi met with Khan in November, and in March the city granted Uber a new two-and-a-half-year license to compete with the black cabs that ply the streets of the British capital. The two men have discovered they can…

On a winding country road about 45 minutes north of Memphis, a series of hulking, blue, almost windowless buildings suddenly appear at a bend in the Mississippi River. The facility is Big River Steel, which can produce 3.3 million tons of raw metal a year. That’s almost 15% more than the mill’s new owner, U.S. Steel Corp., can make at its venerable Mon Valley Works just outside Pittsburgh. Even more important, Mon Valley employs about 3,000 unionized workers. Big River has fewer than 700 employees; none are in a union. “This could be the beginning of the end of Mon Valley,” says Tom Conway, president of United Steelworkers. U.S. Steel, which completed its purchase of the mill last year for almost $1.5 billion, has big plans for the site: It aims…