Financial Times Europe - 19 12 2020

2020·46.51 MB·English

Europe edition
EUROPEAN NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER / SUNDAY 20 DECEMBER 2020
‘All hell broke loose’
Spike Lee on 2020
The great
How fragile is LIFE & ARTS
our internet
security?
hack attack
BIG READ
All downhill
Trump blacklist ups ante with China
Big chill for ski industry
COMPANIES
3 Largest chipmaker added 3 Concerns over use by military 3 Ross cites ‘bullying behaviour’
James Politi and that its chips were used in products for iour both inside and outside its borders claims in the South China Sea, entities
Demetri Sevastopulo — Washington the Chinese military. harms US national security interests, that acquired US-origin items in sup-
Hudson Lockett — Hong Kong
The official said that DJI, the world’s undermines the sovereignty of our allies port of the People’s Liberation Army’s
The Trump administration has put biggest drone-maker, which has a domi- and partners, and violates the human programs and entities and persons that
China’s biggest chipmaker and biggest nant market share in the US, had been rights and dignity of ethnic and religious engaged in the theft of US trade secrets”.
drone-maker on an export blacklist, added because its drones were used to minority groups,” said Wilbur Ross, US SMIC has previously been subjected
raising tensions with Beijing as Joe enable human rights abuses in China commerce secretary. The commerce to US trade restrictions blocking the
Biden prepares to take office. and elsewhere. Mr Ross said that the move was partly department said export of certain controlled items under
The commerce department placed 60 Beijing Institute of Technology, China driven by concern about China’s “mili- DJI had been put rules concerning military end users.
‘What temper?’
Chinese companies, including Semicon- Communications Construction Com- tary-civil fusion” programme, which on to its ‘entity “Adding the company to the entity list
ductor Manufacturing International pany and more than a dozen research compels Chinese companies to provide list’ because its would have a much bigger impact,” said Martin Sorrell has Lunch
Corporation and DJI, on its “entity list”. institutes linked to the China State Ship- the military with various technologies. drones enabled Nicholas Turner, a Hong Kong-based
A department official said SMIC was building Corporation were also added. The commerce department said that human rights lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson. with the FT
added to the list, which requires US The actions mirror earlier curbs on Chi- the sweeping action included “entities abuses SMIC did not immediately respond to
companies to obtain licences to sell nese tech, such as Huawei and Hik- in China that enable human rights a request for comment. LIFE & ARTS
equipment and technology to the black- vision, the surveillance camera maker. abuses, entities that supported the mili- Additional reporting by Yuan Yang in Beijing
listed companies, because of concern “China’s corrupt and bullying behav- tarisation and unlawful maritime Order faces Treasury backlash page 4
Free once more
Nigeria hails
return of boys
The best sweet wines
A group of schoolboys gathers in the city
of Katsina, Nigeria, after being held for Jancis Robinson
days by kidnappers in forests in the
north-western region of the country. LIFE & ARTS
The attack on the school and the
abduction of more than 300 children
was a fresh blow to President Muham-
madu Buhari, a former general elected
in 2015 on a national security pledge.
Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko
Haram, the militant Islamist group,
claimed responsibility on Tuesday. He
said that the group had conducted the
attack because “western education is
not the type of education permitted by
Allah and his holy Prophet”.
Full story page 2

Sunday Alamba/AP
French to patrol Eurostar trains as UK
truck gridlock points to border chaos
yet to agree post-transition customs on both sides of the Channel and roads
Victor Mallet — Paris
George Steer and controls, forcing Paris to introduce the approaching the Channel Tunnel depar-
Jim Pickard — London temporary Eurostar checks. ture terminal at Folkestone, partly
Jim Brunsden — Brussels Detailed discussions between UK and caused by stockpiling ahead of the
France is to deploy customs officers on French customs began only a few weeks Brexit deadline.
Global criminals hit dark Eurostar trains travelling from London ago, Mr Dussopt said, more than four Rod McKenzie, managing director of
web with fake Covid jabs to Paris as a stop-gap measure to moni- years after the Brexit referendum. policy and public affairs at the Road
tor goods entering the EU, as lengthy “There’s a discussion under way Haulage Association, said supermarkets
Vaccines for sale i PAGE 3 traffic jams at Channel ports pointed to between the French and British authori- and other businesses wanted “a reason-
potential border chaos when the UK’s ties to allow French customs to have an ably high stock of everything that’s not
Brexit transition ends on December 31. official presence on British soil at points perishable in place before the Brexit
of embarkation,” Mr Dussopt said. deadline in case they’re hit with tariffs”
Austria €5.00 Morocco Dh55
Bahrain Din2.20 Netherlands €5.00 France has appointed 600 extra customs “While we wait to reach agreement . . . in the event of no deal.
Belgium €5.00 N Macedonia Den240
Bulgaria Lev8.75 Norway NKr49 officers and 300 more specialist inspec- we will adapt, for example, by having Talks to avert a no-deal Brexit contin-
Croatia Kn31 Oman OR2.20 tors, such as vets, at Channel ports and checks inside the trains.” ued yesterday with Michel Barnier, the
Cyprus €4.50 Pakistan Rupee450
Czech Rep Kc140 Poland Zl 25 other points of entry to deal with the The French move underlines the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, warning
Denmark DKr50 Portugal €4.50
Egypt E£55 Qatar QR20 additional checks and procedures that obstacles to the free flow of people and that the negotiations had reached a
Finland €5.90 Romania Ron19 will come into force on January 1. goods between the UK and EU that will “moment of truth”. Mr Barnier said he
France €5.00 Russia €5.00
Germany €5.00 Serbia RSD520 Olivier Dussopt, the French minister be erected by the British departure from believed an agreement with the UK was
Gibraltar £4.00 Slovak Rep €4.50
Greece €4.50 Slovenia €4.50 responsible for customs, told the Finan- the bloc’s single market on New Year’s possible but that difficult sticking points
Hungary Ft1590 South Africa R130 cial Times in an interview that British Eve. remained, notably on the issue of EU
India Rup260 Spain €4.50
Italy €4.50 Sweden SKr55 and French customs authorities were There was heavy congestion at ports access to UK fishing waters.
Lithuania €5.00 Switzerland SFr7.50
Luxembourg €5.00 Tunisia Din9.00
Malta €4.50 Turkey TL25
UAE Dh25.00
World Markets
Subscribe In print and online
STOCK MARKETS CURRENCIES INTEREST RATES
www.ft.com/subscribetoday
email: [email protected] Dec 18 prev %chg Dec 18 prev Dec 18 prev price yield chg
Tel: [phone] S&P 500 3701.49 3722.48 -0.56 $ per € 1.224 1.225 £ per $ 0.742 0.736 US Gov 10 yr 105.58 0.93 -0.01
Fax: [phone] Nasdaq Composite 12730.21 12764.75 -0.27 $ per £ 1.348 1.359 € per £ 1.102 1.110 UK Gov 10 yr 0.25 -0.04
Dow Jones Ind 30125.09 30303.37 -0.59 £ per € 0.907 0.901 ¥ per € 126.499 126.166 Ger Gov 10 yr -0.57 0.00
© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2020 FTSEurofirst 300 1528.72 1533.00 -0.28 ¥ per $ 103.395 103.035 £ index 78.645 78.361 Jpn Gov 10 yr 101.09 0.01 0.00
No: 40,587 ★ Euro Stoxx 50 3546.30 3560.87 -0.41 ¥ per £ 139.418 140.056 SFr per £ 1.194 1.202 US Gov 30 yr 117.85 1.69 0.00
FTSE 100 6529.18 6551.06 -0.33 SFr per € 1.083 1.083 Ger Gov 2 yr 105.53 -0.72 0.01
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, FTSE All-Share 3689.82 3705.40 -0.42 € per $ 0.817 0.817
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
CAC 40 5527.84 5549.46 -0.39
Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul,
Dubai Xetra Dax 13630.51 13667.25 -0.27 COMMODITIES price prev chg
Nikkei 26763.39 26806.67 -0.16 Fed Funds Eff 0.09 0.09 0.00
Hang Seng 26498.60 26678.38 -0.67 Dec 18 prev %chg US 3m Bills 0.08 0.09 -0.01
MSCI World $ 2674.87 2654.79 0.76 Oil WTI $ 49.18 48.54 1.32 Euro Libor 3m -0.57 -0.57 0.00
MSCI EM $ 1272.96 1263.82 0.72 Oil Brent $ 52.07 51.50 1.11 UK 3m 0.04 0.05 -0.01
MSCI ACWI $ 641.89 637.10 0.75 Gold $ 1890.75 1851.95 2.10 Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:FrontBack Time: 18/12/2020 - 19:02 User: nick.miller Page Name: 1FRONT USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 1, 1
2 ★ FTWeekend 19 December/20 December 2020
INTERNATIONAL
Company filings
German insolvencies continue to fall
WORLD|
WEEK IN REVIEW|
Bankruptcy proceedings of the courts”, the statistical office said, September for most companies but ‘We could However, economists still expect
adding they would only be included in extended until December 31 for those European insolvencies to rise next year.
drop faster than expected see a critical
its figures “in the coming months”. suffering from over-indebtedness. Euler Hermes, the credit insurance
despite end to waiver A court in Wolfsburg agreed to open The rule helped to reduce the number moment in group, forecast that western European
Brussels and Beijing negotiators
insolvency proceedings only at the start of companies going bust this year insolvencies would fall 18 per cent this
the second
near agreement over investment of this month for the Klier Hair Group, despite the pandemic dragging Ger- year, before rising 28 per cent next year.
Martin Arnold — Frankfurt
Germany’s biggest hairdressing chain, many into its biggest recession for a gen- or third “We could see a critical moment in the
China and the EU are rushing to meet a year-end The number of German companies which has 1,350 salons and about 9,200 eration, with Europe’s largest economy second or third quarter of next year,
quarter of
deadline to seal an investment agreement, in a sign of going bust continues to fall rapidly employees. It suffered from a sharp contracting 12 per cent in the first half. depending on whether government sup-
the bloc’s push to build strategic ties with Beijing, despite a waiver allowing pandemic- drop in demand in the pandemic and In the nine months to September, next year’ port measures expire as expected or are
even as it revives relations with the US. stricken companies to avoid filing for filed for court protection in September. Destatis said there were 15.8 per cent extended,” said Maxime Lemerle, head
The likelihood of the accord being settled soon is insolvency being partly phased out at Stefan Schneider, economist at Deut- fewer corporate insolvency filings than of sector and insolvency research.
rising despite the disruption caused by the coronavi- the end of September. sche Bank, said there was “probably a in the same period last year, although Despite fears that a hard lockdown
rus crisis, officials from both sides have told the There was a 35 per cent fall in the massive backlog accumulating” of insol- the expected claims of creditors rose, introduced by the German government
Financial Times. A shift by Beijing in the important number of insolvency proceedings vencies because of Germany’s waiver. indicating that bigger companies were this week would drag the economy into
area of market access has given the process addi- opened in German courts in November, Introduced in March, the waiver going bust. There was an even sharper a double-dip recession, there was an
tional momentum, EU officials said. compared with the previous year, made German companies hit by the fall in consumer insolvency filings, improvement in business confidence in
“The talks are now in the final stage,” Zhang Ming, according to data published by the fed- pandemic exempt from having to file for which fell 28.1 per cent. December, according to the Ifo Institute.
China’s ambassador to the EU, said in an interview eral statistical office Destatis yesterday. insolvency, prompting critics to accuse The drop in German insolvencies has Its business climate index rose
with the FT. “Both sides are working towards the However, companies applying for the government of supporting “zombie been mirrored across Europe as ultra- 1.2 points to 92.1, confounding expecta-
objective of finishing the talks by the end of this insolvency proceedings in October and companies” that will never be able to low interest rates and generous govern- tions for a third consecutive fall to 90 —
year.” November would not show up in the fig- service their debts. ment support have combined to keep but most of its responses were submit-
ures yet because of the “processing time The rule was phased out at the end of many companies afloat. ted before the tighter restrictions.
Putin admits Navalny was tracked
but denies any role in poisoning
Germany. Humboldt Forum
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russian intelligence
agents had followed opposition leader Alexei Nav- Berlin museum stirs furore over colonial past
alny — including on the trip when he was poisoned
with novichok in August — but denied the Kremlin’s
involvement in the attack on his most prominent
opponent.
Answering a question on allegations by investiga-
tive website Bellingcat, the Russian president said Opening of €644m project
that Mr Navalny’s attempts to oust him justified the
surveillance. “This patient from the clinic in Berlin is tarnished by dispute about
supported by secret services, in this case from the US.
ethnic treasures’ provenance
And if that’s the case, then that’s interesting, it means
that [Russian] secret services must keep an eye on
him,” Mr Putin said during his marathon annual
Guy Chazan — Berlin
press conference.
The opening of Europe’s biggest cultural
project in the heart of Berlin was meant
to be a moment to celebrate the city’s
US declares Switzerland and cosmopolitan confidence.
Vietnam currency manipulators Instead, the Humboldt Forum
museum has found itself at the centre of
an increasingly toxic debate about colo-
nialism and looted art.
Housed in a reconstructed royal pal-
ace, the €644m museum was designed
as a new focal point for the German cap-
ital. It had the potential to “electrify the
whole city, like the Centre Pompidou did
with Paris in the 1970s”, said Monika
Grütters, Germany’s culture secretary.
She will be one of those inaugurating
High stakes: a pile of Vietnamese dong the forum on Wednesday, in an opening
ceremony that, thanks to coronavirus,
The US labelled Switzerland and Vietnam currency will be digital-only.
manipulators, accusing the two of holding their Its centrepiece will be a display of
currencies lower to prevent “effective balance of 20,000 priceless objects drawn from the
payments adjustments” and in the case of Vietnam, collections of Berlin’s Ethnological
seeking to gain “unfair competitive advantage in Museum and the Museum of Asian Art.
international trade”. The Swiss central bank denied the The organisers are hoping to create a Focal point: The forum is a reconstruction of the groups in what was then German South examination of European colonialism”
charge and said it remained willing to intervene more “dialogue between world cultures” that Berlin officials Hohenzollern Stadtschloss, or city pal- West Africa. “The Kaiser got his palace and “give voice to colonised people’s
strongly in the foreign exchange market. will reflect Berlin’s reputation as one of take a look at ace, home to the kings of Prussia and back, but there is still no memorial to points of view”.
Europe’s most open-minded, tolerant work in progress later the kaisers of the German Reich. the Herero and Nama,” said Mr Zim- Regardless of the controversy, the
and diverse cities. at the city’s Considered one of Germany’s finest merer. museum on Unter den Linden, Berlin’s
Horst Bredekamp, one of the Hum- Humboldt Baroque buildings, it was destroyed in The issue was thrust into the public central avenue, will dominate the centre
Big Tech served notice of break-up boldt’s founding directors, said it was Forum in Allied bombing raids in 1945 and its eye in 2017 when Bénédicte Savoy, pro- of the German capital. Built with
over anti-competitive behaviour the first time that “non-European cul- October remains flattened by the East German fessor of art history at Berlin’s Technical 100,000 cubic metres of concrete and
tures were being placed at the heart of a Hayoung Jeon/EPA-EFE communists in the 1950s. University, quit the Humboldt’s advi- 20,000 tons of steel, it is a vast complex
nation in such a magnificent way”. They built a new “Palace of the sory council, complaining that the that includes public squares and thor-
The EU raised the stakes in its efforts to curb Big Tech But critics have drawn attention Republic” — a vast modernist block con- organisers were not doing enough to oughfares. Planners say it will give Ber-
by threatening to break up companies that repeat- to the often problematic provenance of taining the East German parliament as expose the colonial history of the lin an entire new quarter. A rooftop res-
edly engage in anti-competitive behaviour in the first the ethnic treasures that will be on dis- well as restaurants, shops, a disco and museum collections. taurant will offer views of the city.
overhaul of the bloc’s rules for internet businesses play. Nigeria last week demanded the bowling alley. Found to be stuffed with “You can’t just pretend these objects Meanwhile, with its reference to the
for two decades. restitution of the Benin Bronzes, a group asbestos, it was demolished in 2008, 18 were dropped here by helicopter,” she Humboldt brothers, two leading figures
A draft of the new Digital Markets Act warned of plaques and sculptures that once dec- years after German reunification. told the Financial Times. “You have to of the 19th century German enlighten-
technology companies that break competition rules orated the royal palace of the Kingdom But the decision to rebuild the Hohen- explain how they got here, that they ment, the museum hopes to hark back
would face fines of up to 10 per cent of global reve- of Benin and were looted by British zollern Stadtschloss in its stead, have a history.” to a period of the country’s history when
nues. Brussels also warned the EU would move to forces in 1897. endorsed by the Bundestag in 2002, was Since her departure, she said, much the spirit of exploration and scientific
break up any technology company that is fined three “A lot of these objects were stolen, contentious. “It is a Prussian Disney- had improved. “The people running the inquiry reigned supreme.
times within five years. Margrethe Vestager, the robbed, looted,” said Mnyaka Sururu land,” said Jürgen Zimmerer, a history Humboldt Forum now understand they That is precisely what bothers Mr
commissioner in charge of competition and digital Mboro, a Tanzanian activist and professor at Hamburg University. have to engage with the issue of the col- Zimmerer. “It is trying to return us to
policy, said the EU would not hesitate to “impose founder of the NGO Berlin Postkolonial. He said the project exemplified Ger- lection’s past.” the days when Germany was the coun-
structural remedies, divestitures, that sort of thing”. “Some were used in rituals and prayers many’s failure to address its dark impe- That comes through in the public try of poets and thinkers,” he said. “But
— it is like taking the altar from a Catho- rial past and colonial-era, such as the messaging, with the museum’s website it erases the time when we were judges
lic church.” genocide of the Herero and Nama ethnic saying the displays feature a “critical and hangmen.”
Nigeria
MAKE A SMART INVESTMENT
Boko Haram releases hundreds of kidnapped schoolboys
Subscribe to the FT today at FT.com/subscription
Neil Munshi — Lagos rity pledge. If Boko Haram is confirmed holy Prophet”. Boko Haram translates in the north-east, Mr Shekau and Boko
TTpeorclihtuictmiatlaFrnRipIsDsAkYn—3ve1eMGsAdIRLCLttHIoA2h0Nm17TeiEnTiVmT,PiasAeGlEl1e3y AItthaelyFp’soipvoorep—uBSlIiGstWtRsaEOAaRrDrL,eDPpAtBGrUlyEaSi1In1NngES?tSoNwEWooSPAPER DMleUtaKtey£e2’.rs7a0—CfhirarRnsnOeDtlBIssElatnRdoaTs£b3Sn.0Ha0;RtR.eI.ptM.uhbSliecLoEfbIYrer,laePndAa€Gk3.0E-0u12p More than 300 schoolboys have been teox phaanvesi boene onf iintsv soplvheedre, iotf w inofululde nmcaer.k an to T“whees tinercnid eednutc actaiomne is sfioxr byideadresn ”a. fter Hbaanrdamits h ina vthe es onuogrhtht -two ecsutl.tivate ties with
FBSSCMATeLlETwemuueeexrodwtaaIlltbtebnv::enwect csNts++eaeakrau.ccesra44rgecrrtt.sxd44nieeAtiiip epv:ssd t yH22tc+ieo@tiino00-tiNo 4 ooaaotgfu n4uht77npprr. @s c88eCo spp2peo77 fo0o&fee,fm33t ieIid71r.n ncC sr44 iAFt7otstou90mrmo7:mn i0s0w5rdeLate90 anowl6n y tma 0awtsSwTFwJAdmslamnMcsihBiBccsTBbdctclwhrtteHcbb33©NPFCT neinoioAuaraioauhrhoosdeosttCaAadftUTSwoeuorkearrmhwaoTnoiuchakoisohieainncAPHTSacltlrTMtwmhmievtsecemnscntemreoss:etpd:eSylavetowghtiretgronaarterhykurgbleexec0xifatheioHbaSdm3nisrElcMergengoaltpCFefceeteettopes.0bmitbdciyr,ktdwmfiiueuc89eieSBhgmeootteohsnrsltrlEHtmthahttg.nntas3utbohilruece,rtisss,0l.feiiraiud2rnR4Ctnfece.htpapgttmeso0cBacryaSepp.eialnaonarii,ecedperFawi0“tobsho82sofnenbet3fetyaLBpruUUdrudeLotp0ctdrlweusftlinfievgIageoMchneugntmecaom05areuaoerpfNIo25vtsshmttvtaiSStiiumdtlMstTdrineodW.eiaobodcroKirFnnnginbteu9ohl1nduet3inE/ct★osananaAt-ptledonaZesterksoaeosgr,gmusaue9rhM28nawnssgBvpa.rioyldttqlonUentrtunceeMkhpNwunemQcoeladc,n0asreonaelawgh—usdaoilgfiirneb4tnalufbeasoala,n0ckettbisncnnm,eacCtwtycli&nea1we,vP,oraeedltie7peexIrLslyhsnchtleiibtreosSi3uookdtMoa,dgxaIoseeWlnoeorR0nvcaihAsoscdiciuoreaBhiA&vD,nedeasErctnlnttsnciosriiryoirhacr.hvenfaedl8beaeclndaenrhHsgthettopnegrCtinao,uL$gieatlseUCapdribuetspcasphlythsrWoieensaicmsspndeewtIs.me3usnDnecur.ntombttdorettutTtpl,Tp,uhrbcomoheneexHDay3cheralddoalhnMrninktdodmsoo EaIohoSesBaalbasfiuIsudapaobuadiaaetnporleesacoeMhlceauaruMtRcsocnbeaHepurne,lniatrlrh”srnnetvcndsg,omsiioldwheweaGocrU,atoDandrtmlfacEs.waoe,etsphAEmndtqcrSsioeudtdamRrdtuarglasri.taennoicnlneonsogamsBxoutKULentd.hfSedeutritioinutbeinssdh CnoopeosvoicdbTom,snhdLraicrtsrfrrsoge.ointfpNsotLiuedeslnbteurdoraoceirinraehioeomhhtfanEnlnbTibotcesrteegtitassetyr,eeDnlJwsWliomoeatoeinhmtwondaodgDhtpaeoeSDsaxifefDrhseeidCsttm,hdsoeuplydl—vhnofsinnpuMeotresoDtohloedIerLhp,YotemCTchdwuTsren—telorbruieceeOt2rrwifheneudouekttidoreoteeorhieaaOosoiuetntevn0ibisrlrrrxpiiiuleaifitsunmrifPnscatkumolfiansstgateennloyReeeeaiapbBu1epnicgitrhmei,rAlhtcynyvrdnargnrgsopd7ddsawtsxosoayhyhereqers,IpGetehdaefssielhrotpf.hery6eijttloaodrnpcioraEt,uttttotfeteTumlono’EBtdnU0aeeos,hleleotittnaaeltwmrilc8hotbisobbehhgvrlUaummmarltmriaactraKtee’nendyndaeoeeeeseeessstttt-e,.ltswpic,lEPJmataittfctvsccTSactHCtcbomdlaEomopJcTApbSSNDFEFFCXNHFLAaarntsbiieauWCl@vinnnoheorehiiTTTTu&TatEtPeeoaoheAhpndcAcannaifocdruuneirae:hDsUi iamohukaMaSSSSLermtOmtcPubedifHHInssSNcegecuCamoh.cwhmheMpedjnaalUkmoiridatckrgEEEEtnedno,ffeSc ,tsuugtCaialln souereatcoee5brheN sni tEu te4ananireRRrMahvahMSruefJo1AAsk ,wri Kosapei.mn0pv/ssshtDe’eSatoana0arlmonluqIta.trLeytsnAit0UdWgismfieellr too0oCdreavtseiofFlllDernMednaasetknssh awa0pRwtRda- esSlicloBCpogeefidhar£nieWxmetoeSxrnaCEaeirliAtNtone,tAbdeoatdtionestarepo.thxixoe,gontCrthnabdCmftionsaiuRlaocs3blnttonehtoRe OetstHsmlleiidtu uitepmi.waia.dt5mbinsrncteIbryg’Clhneo‘sporlsct7sKl ynimdsotimpeTelrgw0ge3lOvusy.snletpdhpeeceoinedb,MliiehautodbeonErem&r0nrioMs0lahxwarlvgaWieEHroIW”oru eeomNiTonhtacpoeawemmCe0$rytenucsayrdanhzt.ittensrseGepi0tcRutfgrSOrgkivsvktuAsdaasilrahenhemlaegDovaoterphfBlrhtsninahesmotoalrrmoto0MttoseyteClleeiNgdnntnbyteoeogolaeeoyeosdorelhanauuAychpStlavrniuobrhirwh.iemMslPrausemmsn”iupavefismritk—nmaieaco&maEtBtntreaseaonnasertesnntltsesSdtwstto,soentaaekondatnffi“ginircaUatCpamoFtiwAdetOet“mtviEApntstbrgfitiRsiDmtppitcoeeeoleyanwgtonahtar“mtFioer&edeNowUucnphiimooegcrmeMirpopUaeefenbhese’raesesmokrconidstro2112aisipaiurrrttuoaobpitpcrenaBnretup”Ny—siaann2513745wmdnhelt0294tehnhngeodnsjMsotP“osaurmlhl2laex3954300mlLhpbl7203.soptsp,rtmtopbe,iashdiayoemtc.ecads9kpswfk6008618tnansl0560nTbuhsnIshteLyoeGrospaa.bnwapt7erNbntehfiiow5201919hstrs3631ei-eahserbstedqlgeOaaegrs tspyhasleom.tnlb:cg.......toe3iri....Itro9aocnasi9776506Jefcdcmet3420tnsseyrelisrxhtgsuBanbirNdt0rityaoeop9e“rewee3427214oihta8329glnyBl/iikscat,sdosesiinpmadficietiiloaoin.[jDrsnaloSemrsrreanaioe1keffiurlckorCeNebrsc’uiprte“cfepCeiloceilgnet8arsuOc,dngrupaee2112hnogrsnhendceseneaaIoDeUtnpclphsdelaokcm2513745eocDc0294eavisriaNsfitCttedrneefgdn2tdodhtcc3844300saccnahi6223vputsmvi,wSKpsshearglrre3upa”eohS9gcfv6997716bieorot5019mokregiaenssetoeceagytpheuoobonr7egdi1735319doanet]sir9372ewdaeB”edpsaemtynmleriswalrrioimto.om.......npirh.....elgecgeats7etewear1572780oi.12ss3040e,,[email protected]”astsmpdds0othceowbnisinhsnelb”tuudiajthtitveiucicifwlyoer1m%1enoobaehnoinchhneacah----beivouaoa“unet2ecokesoa00000000ec0000s9ssti’rinncbnhdondgedeegggeaeeeerrsc........fsrs....stts--s-t-----tt.,,20414024h0083o097819146207mgfjCCO$$£¥¥€SOGaMtciBiiaalnbbdcaiF UOgoiipppppiasonenollnorlcsrnuaRe eeMlseeeee aWBssddprgfrBeCTScnnhRnirwurrrrrvcttMrtom eeP oe$TeErhEeckLscrNaLt€£€$£fihbisetkyteixrOrIfnsNvryiheyiey cbhx nrlmedapeUd€e$gmsitDstdCoeeJasoenlipose piekntahee$oIssmFIB im11rey”tTnaeEh,ntiaMrlbnnieetdkt8sh.13eacCsIuSldfdodo1101Eeaste9irctoa19,atsagptemltanopWtiiAd....Sro’.ipisu..-arevt0280acvss0nb20ourltlaotac ilaoeo37456Noflhrp4ke,“93seoiaeoenalasoy“t0i4999d6ndlwo55yi fydervtBsiapteaheonftttitfmrnest11-rrcihiitooriltenarnEa.kovL8roos“nl13hdsrfoiwydwNrpe Bos1101dl9coaem17osdnfilhpoogvae.rp....sde.Mdur..so0280rniFdr3acain08hnyovnrteenocsehe1se7467mn7es32GCruMde,eswlitaldier2d5162sxh2evis“52aMduni’ups.55caArxtn4”vsoaotiaodNipsasoi02hnsnsff8”omnr osct€£€¥£$Seopfstl. sd..nurebt.u.329Fai adniito8rapeurTppppiinsiesebkon0nn2e8rrbsapeC0istdnmstceeee eprrc“h,hrsddpaoo-narutcsieaarrrrehahowfiimobaukeenetoi nioaelior$$£€fftsasomlnpaxxero oxfndrriyvguins mwssWerno£noaot’dlicsnwfw”.uesaeepeseenh1nrfenetWitoe11ngtlre2.dtpomhMtgSh7ooto10sc45rshuo5Buhdttha0011rBhom6pae9492aachtety1tirfeles....ptr. c..rh.r.i9812gadhoc7h.am46c5i5tod4uaea 1timrisua3q3064c0u73la14hentnrlahhvte0euitess02144k5rJsd66oudslnsreercgwehhreesuvr--aeiire11Aaas leoasist7ffbon10oievssinch%o0011etrep6unr93-nraiwaeei p10e0a.....erl..na9812cc9akpso39ligr..tw.lrasffs48h1ndibwsghbL3053d5es”e63sst----f,,na.348yg0658e1vr30seeuMoisoTnaelnsulIUUGJUGFUEUPtuddnhNispndreurreeSKSSKnibpfALmbpCiseiftFcJbhiTqcnedrso rren ncoeeieGG3aoG3lleEes osaraoi huodeGGsGeFsiranrmrffms BecRAIMJgoo osiLntecmaaduenaaesaootoevitnr’Evvdlchvismire eesennsbnn”ervvemvBiufnffme aSp rotfAbot13il1 .arltbd ts toisltTd12o1oatiiadolwgg00seee0amfeeiaNslotrbnot0 pe0 ssaaae r rpy irReaordersryy3anryEf i raeaosreisymtnytpnsAmirrstdrmeoffpddttteaitgrrprenhu w.k,iTfhdthsdclhliholtwsappsapeIoltosrEephtIirosr,edcoega eBratcaehiSienneewossdofnncCaieewdnuifiinglp9daorteUropewdtiaipesfit.oooesihroiks.udintcoflisoKsdiibsspimrtnnisygeM,w2nnlrd.tarnntttisattneabsoe0miadimlonehhachlnocaihnedluternfenBhesseeeigkrsaau,iasdhtraanLdtsogytrsvacuwtbFresibabltbosthuuBiibabteoeyaparsaCtwcodoo1111atnysstsesopdrafmalr99eaC0000nA-vnDpppelasdfb0000o88nrn0002ottitnhaarrefoceks....ben..esrho....hiihacet673i3a86oscn4415oolccng.ocarleinso6846ey78negsbeee6548 eeesrsaatdpeetmdteusdeatorabso“MsnetCcstretupmvdhl.aeheoarcehoiTedt--dpytrep2010200000vpeehraeeieLIbhMiatEuat........e..stranfndste32309673o73rcNeteonnceoalronU ssr8196968465odeirbrsbrvsrsMoosxutifdEimiypaeycuany,etlhauve NmmeMrsrewbqpatranwrhlamteg“ahdoeteyula.eh--ophltekreas00000000nJ00ritelingUpccesre.eefoltsxo........ihns..uei00000000hhn00stneemilsshuifofffftxao00100000r31eogggpgssrt---tot1rnse uotaD4reatgsrtrmuiathttboohbiatelndielftln”ioyotan.rkhilblngsoeae,kodswncmtouidaptdesloyeaetLrrgrnweuyeettolx.gi1pnkeu8BomeloAuaolFnyt-P-l TtMnTerdtiEiAmnsiDgtiApiaiTiImafiiTdeeASnnieaeooBDxomqlnelueeolauthhteuRmUELTTHkansocaersmlvtulaeLrdynarvrrHee,eeuarnoNSwTFwRDCsFbicow“pwsetcrdbtgmaEcslCef33U©NPFCTerdnsriacromleoideoiiSytaooeoi-SnieeacruswapoiesrohenffemcreuoncerffiirtAbiiaAtwwwlsane£ALpUaUnoorUalsrowKruanooiouhspfgnsopeitlnnlskotsiqoeiygenTDCTTdagdnvtllTtnboBswx-gotacnr3cr:egeoroangplsboaLsweeNd:nib :oyanihretStnhaw’eirtaeiradiwJniohioiddacunusl ramkoeibspkrr6td0vuwjhhnhetteeoHemndupfal£ur3Pdeorgnclomvaagr4CoriC2aatffgeolaemrfkUBtsEeeiTOR sfrnse.paetycodocacs,ihwti0nedjrwfetu8r9iidpHrrie.3pmeeectmiknntostyieAuoC0ggSllstE5Hr,ucnats—gedod”hyyeoitierlbsahrsnsnaroenyctagm,rcnisae—,0otimt.n.eviwhitewniFne4Atrtwsn’hd5csh2thg8N1ioSpdclcsrvdo’neSicntrAnmhfto.ehiogairrin,snhsolygnF.asoebrnw0tlaam sanotfaasntto5gePcgtrn362aroLeBno’iTS0iowaakoarroueetniiuKrTaicachagavWuseaortIinegfhetRnsyngitbnnetsmacosAcqaooSsoetd6rtGapa,h.uin.tafoiNisptn2fieu.Lot;garkaeu£o3inssiuleb—enuepgdKrhdirgntaznno.timinfeGtsOullaKoupFlrioduS“rtbinc9rbrossoctosaeitwt/ntcmsCaey7a★nosAtanirln-tdfralwneot luutgedtIetdruathrosnkMctpcgsEehcewsreisoroaiBsw8o.anwhtonevrNsvoaffiwaPd a,dlrrornhrvahbPboa5gvlroeestuneeesrboNeeolgntixahveiaehne-virrrstnImcUeklnalOsA1imHesybpruemnisStAallsgla0asiae4ceitdcePtueuNaaxnrbtatilsnhtvoae5omtemortegclnFvnaemea,letkatFCoeceald1Ger,lawuanaeGoag,ihdi nfyrSoi7ci-esaster;ILcsbshoeidosr”ltaSctvh—nasoSeisnmw asssngxacMeap1gsiernuohes,IiElcyarorsiaenirttCsen0Ecr,,oiieneonciieeeOaciietAenlfhaseivdeiecwnfsfsoift’n4neonwiinandintsseklveoteridbpotHeiishrtioliaesstndm8utne4eeitkldro4ggrbltrdspoksoZroaitNg,esnianiaangtF,neaLh3rdansthdheiiyt’teoendrbeoocuNlnoaophIseslga hntsWtaahnnnPsanunrneUepmr—lIxidNtaeitccstsalssrhortpsnasresehewss,hetnvnpnpvradoAu,rToaIrtneog—enattbsheadteaaeetwauatbrAterReatstpdssueubeMpfiwusnktoasaanoigidhaaaihgaeoketirpricrsuhssvwhoeeitieImrnbdxtEnunoleeuapiivsrbInsner yfirnrnomyoorlseunhMahlnagntaearyvunCtrdCreeOtediediahe,dsrBasneAnriUuttagaenEtnnflkeheatgataisd3eingshinwmhdrGcatarnrgr,nUleeneHug’eehosscdeiwcbctieennsnRrgehEtfireis.dni.wlnroregSsnelo4etem byasiKksettngalttbedynaeneidRlhtaselihfaeElmpecannByasiUaSeriBduSsiabpodtiaiesasnbtfcal1Ttrrdbcieon..irieufBtnesiuetgsrisnoieircvo.osooo,aslluotaeay,uSaewplt’rnnStnsaohtnndNergqonhiUl0eeslTatSnaeNneseLTuetnlEcrdrolcei ueinelceatfcnnrrhedrlbrhnwCtroiSec£tootuNlcgrosutdlil0inaTnraeifwneeysgbseatorSwethcarogsG,tDvochdnHsduewesuroirgAEsesi3rlatnAttdmwsssDiitoibarcshfrita0tsneseaDkpurle-pefodaChHrie,rpdsai“oIlfseeoe,epLi.rutd.ioearEsiesoiTaltrim8ucricaolDt &—awtevarntedef,YorcitndsttreaoStsnienpsolrsnsskie”egprrlalbihtebffuegeeOn2ysM0ktinrhuSdsuouyDcouafnksfe,.Dce.aosdcEbeludjittimlanoNladcegsttedir—rele0agsboPrnerainolueag;ratveeecfrntctffiPnioyevEltkrotvislvtraatlerlrselorwlotnAeaaaHnahcscfr1orEneSnitoreraaReoeree,so1Aiti,un.ieormTatyetsetnnwonredtPcoovp7smANaaBbboRnftwerirlGisi—inlsddytkeentsnpnacr.crcme,lMeaeaeaeeeL.andWomtvdAdtstrtnlnelfouoifsdk2errfhrmclE,nosetgadepatenradtrcnvrtpsshreiiSotptiumrcedtlsameUc,cgGsuiwosaPdsrtaitarm.sootiesatntieruiterei,a,pnec2abcesieeeektotaceowutheuceetlacstAdbEernuhahSaNhmhinb-Pbirssst0slKvoenilaneapsmmierryrydnanaktidontbrreasnitrGolsen,NexsciA-ylpridged1neiateete-eelsMtrpscsnsreiysot-c---edy,v,n.nllDFB51T32(PPrC1U5-p.nMiEwercansGers—niselare—g,rsBtienbngctyeoNcdliascunucE-sxtrth,iEtsnas9hdvar&iasfoigtlfhgeoisadcbuEueelPlotrePPesotaR—tulrte1yalethsnoerarrneyuitiAeioA7csnaftvAefdcucgilsdatrmtaipitSodiretsdDHiDETwtaaSSNDFEFFCXNHFATsBe“eBwGSdSd3Mo2ewdmdhenarlmrurknothatnnrnGsihaahhGioTTTTeu&uTtate0apvaeApcoToxnwrespDpad,ai0ositlereerekr11EthciLInrsushleuuuaekouethfuaSSSShswElrnxxrtOefaPsEhvHDAITPen1nsTigoarstnteCoowseeaarmhErlahepmOoikadvoeEre0hrieEEEE—eb1touddrdinteesihn siidgs4naniCcta8p3 i’saseiedd54weebetuald1 XFpahh ogu hir4cuadrnrbllcsloaRtMrSlJkleln1AAas - Kss6heizena0nEcrciDaecspSed0Auuuuiraooeulidrhqh2e/rDi tosnshye0eeteaapacllGui o0nBi’eogtneeorenetAchllMncnsagUe tiuecisaea;in0lts0Ntt- otaregC,lifiinEnpiWaexrtAdo,dSxRwdeiri4ehi3trwhhUeagtaheAdbSddiwxnagts’rioefaoxti1ngaluheastsdynverlWsofiepPetoumRxodaRrae oiewytmaCege 4yrdtpaaaSt5n€nadftIthnptnkenparecrecepK nArin.KhvrraroddAt0hB3alohris,np”glpe3i“dedasmeciirraiin dgIEori7nisttthlL0eEdRisrhinrseGsltoCaaota.rttooic op8eeenTaa“BeC2lgi“sotia80$emndSRstionincyoebaxsKeotvsngaSrrSsarst”la eoanarxohhrtwbbg0ireoirlrnrs.sxtdecgiuFatEaTeegrdiaasronssni—artnafieInelttbeidL5punhpsfwednliRii.roconditGtebrdnbYimtaxrtvtudormyhtttttt8voeiaeoeoinsioghueettibiaBckEodsieLiruesoiine—rorso&Srosnaeoadytnristnsnni“btcatnhaapfR6veSnsiatert.nntneegve—nB,desdoere,etSioiCroiictttaalt”neiaUdpdocLinpsmie0lkeosanosaagxosreiaaiiuhnwst2afiastdozcnduOyogSrso:haotntBgsltsnootr2112gleolortppbiepcdnopnd“toepStaus,s”llN2513735iannbfoohE0284esleyieeysdbter-MkadaonfiopT2ydertE3954391ntrw6391aslagDsttiRsffildfanaaogyvtxy-ao9niroe6109292uutLacao8101naoMhtelniah-hvjhgaonLnmOaaSt7esyhph7835202rssehL9291omlsySttxcwagtffnisseciire: eece.Itnaennptwi.......ays3dp....iaNi 3wiNol1605905eoaveit6825tittr.ibsvacfooicsmmntpud”1aretd8dlshi0939201ialou4769iachueueEatiesesh1tmed8ooeetsnueeinonleoaltetililg4ileensrsthtnGlolieleasslUa ndfzsv2tdeatggrssnraaddoelbl8io”sniuato2112eiepddielec$edeeoua,inagaht.tsi-tt2513745patt0294tnpsnNbndalrimalrr2rorosUoir2ilertaibo3954300sas“7203nwpdiwmtnoSaooeg’olVdydieerTst9cMao.ye6108618vtdeesn2560Dislaae6,oKlpacFeeott,angbad8pfniyje8401919kaoi8631naeeaaihep.npttoceerbignt.lpkowol.......gntorl....nneey1eew0375506uynvwstc4420rttpitlhitttedlcihhficdneunea1evuaBffi26428214sne arsne9329dhogeehvahriekietrth7taltiane.”i. ,aundiUnntaitotertrinias,aitoehernefh%2.nloonaehncn-------hhncd.ihttisoetnlatmrt00000ax0000000nsciiaiKittIncdnnedndohoaaoynydrCersgegege.....r.......sr--,t----l l01464h0652187r e750564324918:gai:6BC$$£¥¥€SCOOGii75EcMtS“tmtlwwuiafcEtsF UO aoiipppppianuriohllnllrt5meppR uMolneeeee aaaeeWBrthddprsilSBGBaR rrrrrwsatngMnrrlauusrnn iee be$TeeyETtrAriAo€£€$£iosPeietxrOsisdoIo“ndtNbiiunnt tmsupl€et$etbuDtwtrreeCyeertsiDi” di,,esh$aIevkossI”ena11a2oexsT5.oEo3ip“Mksa.d8htee13austerlInlSaccrpdarw11013Eoe8nd’h19tMnaiclsoWseoyt....S.tTea..nsri0280eE7o43ii inCtEnetffibis3c7557nrt6aogg33o’hsuturneUsi1h0151tsoy7to08Uesnndanxelictuyrgtiudnd11ethdnriiargrtred8tnha13nar0a.esu.geoeilelgb h1101ldls9 19tdleeggees;Spsdc....lduoc,.tsc..ae0280ep0i20ioidcfagrpte co 1uo7456ptnp4ae93tpMaitefoodrt2f4999a6nvvLo55md teMMMdller55rrlnJ4idau htnoeeeturutov03maort4ria€£€¥£$Sdohanii”sb fri ..amhoa.mbst343Fa nnrps8i,eippppiiyraaicyCt1rnn65ramtoatlh5fwtguneeee DCiarientlpeoddpoi’0tpcoerrrrslihcnnpiimdkieeteet mrnrte$$£€aftnmtssexxsroieogdasyoehe ttueog£iraouslmerdnihtt an1tlsnotfnibsntn HTCAhh11rFititno2racfMnltfaeoo7c10aos55oilts4aeyctaread0011dTot7p94ns03he.afroci8ltthe....viPg.ban..rsrr..eanc9812eo2.se15wky31“sse t8iHseeoeoot3E3065eo2y83”53s8.cnMhOavWd0isffl1oit5092h6.uth06rhftmPeaoysreudilnhgdear11eaadtinarirEteE7snacpo10wtersCmtins%h0011Att6tart94-mtbtoUaWrgEwp000....hhh.esRe..Ea9812lcaaa7o46oerlf...arisrii’24h3dd3064ee ee0eKese73sttsip-t--fm.cv212g2144Hra5vc66m ENesRecIUUGJUGFUEUPiNaN ppahreueeeSKSSKiethcrsmbpmsBrNhwJHRMaTicnidroP rr NoeDeGG3uteooiG3fDE oe aaeriGGseGahtrFiaGratImom eqMBRi,nooa nopLelbssidpauenooosttn tenEivvzvirunrss aox naeobrevvervMeBoeubCr S rneoinst131 Oiid t orarielgy ivnb.T12rBR1enaslsrn00sun0hctTsliorvtItii0 0 sseAel e uys RrIelM,atntyy3rsayE-t et wShiuArisrfyyenmANrrrnmmffhse“GtnJmdtiGr&prnaMi ixeosiTofioegBhdedanfLIometknPiEnmxh)hrrcel aMnAhettr NspnVScie oylieeatnanEwinwtdNiyseiGis ewrtt ZrgnnnidOtastcutkt,aaaitiwuipoiugCoodlsteteiaBwInerinnyTtnnanhcsnuislnENei obdohsgIsldtatdygnh:c h,d,arBiauspineDGEeeermiTsswooctteAcrreetetielRWhrBao1iM“pgsersruahoianagmuisac2svenrnirsalasunanudnfful“k111WiidYgesttotfdtH999slni000tretg-ffiDpeposaeosaNeLai0000h899rse002hsicapathlrrsaaDelJ...n.trdt...ica...oAiiet6733in3622o335scrccsnoayreitoep684ae6eg377nee567 etaistrflxopr’timntem eavosplioracagr hylreofn Ehlsiuotrlnetp,IvudY.salaneaydeetiaaxy-sb--tdyrtt—rnp10000203g00”ssonrlie pSigiuo,u&p.k........re..rilMteudDet20673430t73ip-”Seartlalrd eaeseao27684134c65db,bevtomyeo eiltregyrgtffiw d nskiragh nseMeeelOteSeaarssl oetgcrtoMaAte1emrtt--faaa3raiiu.0000000000r1aienrRttEsccarinor..........daie u00000000lhh00rsantlyUydT nady2010000011”ggegernFss-g,,r,esoutaaibzri & fpiss2nLr edTeto3e:9ben0IBVn_rCoiFe daong5ves emrER_a.unPlhRAuP rEt SceLv .Si9b.rPian rd 4ydl o e1lLt+ueba6,ao, uH CiM TRoEHaCWue .nb3 A Tf pTosoehpFha- G sfbrobc wnereKoOHSAerinianlns L rwtZgc1hilpecs3to nlSuiIELieii,NiaA igegnoogrnrTaEa it shng: eU9nTnh nRttRt e o f eheashaD—hfJlolAlw oa aeanieIoFfY(s rjas Lr Sod. nnK19 ttadaAa aIhSxoFcloe ahl r aEsP0d E—ortiopeRcpe sie +I& cnhL de HnrOecl5l n e/aeeDhrAtOians Sxg h R—UUnamitF)oneentNtTi2S r eDi ta9FSnEa ;fvAlvidcETyl aYpc1a&ai a g fteM2 bi C d Hryg,sAIeOA eO0 RiONP Nt; lMRtEI5apLE2Y-a2, 0Gh 1 . e7°3lL8So2Pf Aa p.T7M1 .00s. On6r21ii19tem 0 . 6S 481sNB0,9lee24 aoM.u sn 50dCYx m6tLae ia284;dlib,2017FEBRUARY 4 tm4F5M84reiv ai356i2rdatex4 14 e.hR 0:7 oI.d+aS;u0 1f9,/0l1I/32 S0fe1l,7S 1 3ie:537N cSLs e( Nia 0; 1) rhemChsrBrAwedeehedseoooofeselMtlorgl nueklep dnitewicacfraunooo tdofiassis hnro hne ’m nesitmrasHaadmhg domi mefsd baaarb ts pdsaotiatetomryla ry ihshfrima oitotttst a-dihmy neh vwapsbde. er e e fog yue,oo og p om bs rsarrffBvwute eearat iteullNmciihlhoh erninkhuetuiniaeeigygaacr dsismsd enr irh ecncktvi r tbe ,oyhfai ii anIaraudhdt opsehnint,nneoalpn eaedthdotldai hd mbrn aia pp ytoeaoadg sripc cmcyr ls egtiwlleekotshnseoa ed ounigag vbicadl rrmntioeaee aenok fdlwrmtionnegue nrntlrf.ltddpyyoeg t---, cwswgnAkdBItnhcariaouKhiholsAA“artnrlkethT-ruoteuntigt4ai t phdhothetByeur7hhl i -de trto-tbspceehoirewo kooei, ao Iraan ufniyoossauiot ecrtslnts p nrtaihaliH ’ e eddlm GNnbaperascaeisslye rnintinorhio gsile lnagaboetltamaec os mlnaairvrtey.scc gsl h weiI db s raaeaCet ietiaseel ls his m ywastasn anbaawe i pnntbatdidoanx n,eadsoe nrt g dpte iahett eddnhsena htlnce.a.isemehn l-t ti ec gwTsedhdawoaoo oteie anrntgnthn s fBiaIshafagftosyitcuino ntl r ls kamewliagBheeaam dtswdt laotmti aso ehivoraot sindoaaeeersrtf Bic€gam2ibAnnuir0oo3fr aAer2Ce1kmdlri s40dfhocpyr t ,a1i,ih ,ire He nb M6 ePaordk o.arsv rt r nBtpkaruhoe oaSnuo.lmv e emnhgSswtirdnr oeeeoas ongckmvdkm nueri ei aande.ae,peru lMhlgins yme etb b aashsoaaIestrpecsesrls eogmaplleer neksaap e datbg diemedhhn yie edff aaee 2riroat nncadsah7odr. r c6 nma 1p Sdem o0tdrst orcat 0fatwohr hmsot foro eeoeo aefmiI ro rng rsteWcltruhei g hiasornmobiee nuracislsslnndppyeest- fcanidmdaBfoatroo nbfaeeossoro “Tuedatda krm Brahnctrhn uiode hcualeoc cety atentsraornHth yh ieidyralrf-tenslaavtaiysiite datvg nLrietr csaidf aaaem rasb”tt2noelmyce ek ui ,aie 0klt dsrencsolh,r r 0a ty lo gbCasohocw st0rci ynhasahetcinah .e nts dmaaeJgtehi aocd lsri cr ninechns og hsoboéko -uao ft yaja frin Lhporu pensltttlgp ueishhake ghnts teeroei-en - ,,lnrwep rv wlwockaaeamglihorciedtelesoltluceo .stl eih-a2 eos n tnICkrgN8-dt ,r toeNa les d pariwasavb sgyiifecraseng rfhe,ogote faee grbet,etprcrrn i hueretaliaatldyoaeeersstt,,
Sweden: Responsible Publisher - Christer Norlander
Published by: The Financial Times Limited, where massacres and mass abductions than ever,” said Mr Bukarti. “Boko and burnt 800 homes in a village just
BTeral:c +k4e4n H20o u7s8e7,3 1 3F0ri0d0a;y F Satxr:e +e4t,4 L 2o0n d7o4n0 7E C5470M0 9.BT. ©Re Cporopdyuricgthiotn T ohfe t Fhien aconncitaeln Ttsim oef st h2i0s 2n0e.wspaper in any have become increasingly common. Haram will provide criminals that have over the border in Niger.
Editor: Roula Khalaf. manner is not permitted without the publisher’s prior “Our administration is fully aware of been horribly shedding blood for ages Analysts warn that Boko Haram and
consent. ‘Financial Times’ and ‘FT’ are registered trade
Germany: Demirören Media, Hurriyet AS-Branch marks of The Financial Times Limited. the responsibility we have to protect the religious justification and thus make Iswap could connect with the jihadis ter-
Germany, An der Brucke 20-22, 64546 Morfelden- lives and property of all Nigerians,” he them more vicious and allow them to rorising Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Walldorf, [phone]. Responsible Editor, Roula The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a
Khalaf. Responsible for advertising content, Jon Slade. self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of said. “I ask Nigerians to be patient and recruit more young people.” “The north-west is the area standing
Italy: Monza Stampa S.r.l., Via Michelangelo Buonarroti, Practice: www.ft.com/editorialcode fair to us as we deal with the challenges Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram between the Sahel and Lake Chad
153, Monza, 20900, Milan. Tel. [phone]
Owner, The Financial Times Limited; Rappresentante e Reprints are available of any FT article with your of security, the economy and corrup- leader, claimed the attack on the school region,” Mr Bukarti said. “Boko Haram’s
DViiare Gtt.o Prue eRcehsepr,o 2n s2a0b0il3e7 i nP aItdaeliran: oI. MD.uDg.Snraln-Mo a(MrcoI) ,P Itraolvya. si - c(mominpimanuym l oogrdoe orr 1 c0o0n tcaocpti edse)t.ails inserted if required tion. We will not relent.” in a message on Tuesday. He said the consolidation in the north-west will pro-
Milano n. 296 del 08/05/08 - Poste Italiane SpA-Sped. in One-off copyright licences for reproduction of FT articles The brazen attack on the school is a group had conducted the attack because vide a bridge between jihadis in the two
Abb.Post.DL. 353/2003 (conv. L. 27/02/2004-n.46) art. 1 are also available.
.comma 1, DCB Milano. For both services phone [phone], or email fresh blow to Mr Buhari, a former gen- “western education is not the type of Free: schoolboys are escorted epicentres, making movement of fight-
Spain: Bermont Impresion, Avenida de Alemania 12, CTC, [email protected] eral elected in 2015 on a national secu- education permitted by Allah and his to safety after leaving captivity ers, weapons and loot easier.”
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:World Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:43 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD1 USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 2, 1
19 December/20 December 2020 ★ FTWeekend 3
INTERNATIONAL
Vaccines for sale appear on dark web as
Brussels pressure
EU doubles
global criminals prey on pandemic fears Moderna
order to
160m doses
Pharmaceuticals industry on alert as it prepares to support biggest immunisation effort in history
Cynthia O’Murchu — London “Pharmaceutical manufacturers are Hannah Kuchler — New York
already spending a lot of time to make Michael Peel — Brussels
Vendors were offering coronavirus vac- sure their products and their supply The EU has ordered a further 80m
cines for sale on hidden parts of the chain is secure,” said Chuck Forsaith, doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine
internet days after the first Covid-19 head of the Pharmaceutical Cargo Secu- and brought forward plans to assess
shot was approved this month, as crimi- rity Coalition, an industry association. the shot for approval in a sign of the
nals seek to profit from global demand “I don’t think there is any other industry growing pressure on the European
for inoculations. on the globe that is as prepared for Commission to roll out vaccinations
One such offer on the so-called dark something like this.” across the 27-member bloc.
web, traced by cyber security company Shipments are regularly fitted with
Check Point Software, was priced at real-time digital devices that measure The European Medicines Agency said
$250 with the seller promising “stealth” temperature and location, reporting its relevant committee would meet on
delivery in double-wrapped packaging. back any divergence from the plan. The January 6 to discuss Moderna’s applica-
Shipping from the US via post or a cou- technology ensures the integrity of the tion for a conditional marketing author-
rier company would cost $20, with an supply chain, though it could also be a isation, six days earlier than previously
extra $5 securing overnight delivery. vulnerability. While Mr Forsaith said planned.
Another vendor claimed this week to there appeared to be no evidence of any The decision was revealed yesterday
have vaccines developed by Chinese physical raids on the Covid-19 vaccine as Moderna said the commission had
manufacturers Sinopharm and Sinovac supply chain so far, numerous cyber exercised an option to buy another 80m
for sale at $750 for two doses, payable in attacks had been documented. Hospi- doses of its vaccine. The purchase brings
bitcoin. The advertisement was illus- tals and healthcare facilities have been Brussels’ total order from Moderna to
trated with a stock photo, which did not hit with phishing and ransomware 160m doses, with the first shots set to be
correspond to the two vaccine makers’ attacks since the pandemic began. delivered early next year.
normal packaging. When asked how the “We have seen very targeted attacks The two decisions came after some
vaccine should be stored, the seller sug- related to the vaccine”, said Evangelos European governments questioned why
gested a cold box or refrigerator. Ouzounis, head of the secure infrastruc- the US and UK, which have already
Experts said that many of the vac- ture unit at Enisa, the EU Agency for approved a Covid-19 vaccine for use,
cines for sale on the dark web were Cyber Security. had been able to move faster.
either fake or would never be shipped. In one attack reported this month, The UK approved the Pfizer/BioN-
Similar offers have been posted by other researchers at IBM found hackers had Tech coronavirus vaccine for emer-
vendors for months. But whether or not impersonated an executive at a Chinese gency use at the start of the month and
sellers have gained access to authentic supplier of ultra-cold refrigeration in an commenced vaccinations immediately.
products, the adverts reflect the type of Drug dash: a logistics expert at Overhaul, which deals ‘We need to “We need to tell people at the vaccine attempt to steal log-ins and passwords. The US Food and Drug Administration
criminal opportunism that experts shipment of the with supply chain security, said: “There centres that they carry gold,” said The lack of access to coronavirus vac- then approved the Pfizer/BioNTech
tell people
warn will increase as demand for Pfizer/BioNTech will always be a market for people who Thorsten Neumann, head of the Euro- cines in countries such as the US and shot on December 12 and was expected
approved vaccinations outstrips supply Covid-19 vaccine wouldn't necessarily have access to that at the pean arm of Tapa, a supply chain secu- UK, where health authorities are priori- to approve the Moderna shot yesterday.
next year. arrives at Rocky medicine and wanted to protect them- rity association. tising the vulnerable or those working in Several leaders at an EU summit in
vaccine
Interpol and Europol warned this Mountain selves and their families.” She cited the “Criminals don’t see a vaccine load, specific industries, means a secondary Brussels last week asked why the EMA
month of a probable “onslaught” of Regional VA existing illicit market for chemotherapy centres they see money,” he said, highlighting market for credentials allowing individ- was not able to give approval more
criminal activity linked to Covid-19 vac- Medical Center medicines, despite how difficult the the risk that supply chain workers with uals to “jump the queue” was also likely quickly, according to officials briefed on
that they
cines, ranging from online fraud and in Colorado. drugs are to administer. “There will be, existing links to criminal networks to thrive, says data firm Experian. the talks. The EMA has said its approval
cyber crime to theft and the sale of fake Below, an advert certainly globally, a lot of money that carry gold’ could provide information to enable “There’s already offerings and chat process, which is more comprehensive
or substandard doses. Even empty vac- on the dark web can be made by criminals.” those groups to target shipments. rooms [for] valid credentials of people than the UK emergency use permission,
cine vials, which could be illegally claiming to offer The risk that vaccines will be stolen The industry is prepared. Efforts to with pre-existing [health] conditions”, requires “extensive” data and is the
refilled, could be targeted, according to coronavirus and diverted on to the black market has improve security in recent years have said Michael Bruemmer, vice-president “most appropriate regulatory mecha-
Europol. Counterfeit vaccines were a shots for sale put the pharmaceutical industry on led to manufacturers introducing regu- of Experian Data Breach Resolution. nism” to underpin mass vaccination

public health threat, “ineffective at best, Michael Ciaglo/Getty high alert as it prepares to support the lar audits and vetting of supply “You can pre-book your order for the campaigns.
and toxic at worst”, it said. biggest global vaccination effort in chains, as well as minimising human vaccine [on the dark web] so we think High pre-Christmas Covid-19 infec-
Amy Shortman, a pharmaceutical history. contact, stops and handovers during the dark web is only going to get busier.” tion rates in many European countries
distribution. See FT Big Read have increased the sense of urgency.
Covid-19. Spiralling infections
Denmark’s response runs into trouble
The government was forced to admit Monday, while all shops except those
Prime minister, under attack
that the killing was unlawful, thousands selling food or medicine will close from
for botched mink cull, forced of dead mink were lost from lorries on to Christmas Day. The national lockdown
Danish roads, and after millions of the will last until early January.
to order second lockdown creatures were buried, they first started Strains are starting to show in the
to resurface bloated by gases and then it healthcare system. Hospitals in Copen-
transpired the graves were too close to hagen are postponing all non-urgent
Richard Milne, drinking water supplies, potentially operations to free up capacity.
Nordic and Baltic Correspondent
contaminating them. Mr Paludan said Denmark was now in
Denmark, one of the star performers in “The mink case is a serious problem a difficult position and it was unclear
Europe’s first wave of Covid-19, is having for her. It may be that it will follow her whether such a relatively short lock-
a chastening November and December. for the rest of her political career,” said down would be sufficient to reduce the
First came the botched cull of its 17m Tim Knudsen, professor emeritus of infection rate enough. “Once the ball
mink, which continues to have political, political science at Copenhagen Univer- rolls, it spreads so fast,” he added.
legal, economic and environmental sity. He added that Ms Frederiksen What is unclear is what impact it will
repercussions. Then this week Danish could still face an impeachment court have on Ms Frederiksen and her minor-
prime minister Mette Frederiksen over the affair, and that the scandal had ity government. Prof Knudsen said the
ordered a second national lockdown way she had centralised power inside
from Christmas Day as cases of corona- the government meant she might be the
virus continued to spiral. Millions of buried most powerful leader Denmark had
mink resurfaced,
“I think we became overconfident,” ever had. “She wants to be identified
bloated by gases,
said Soren Riis Paludan, professor in the with all the successes. When something
and graves were
department of biomedicine at Aarhus found to be close goes wrong it’s difficult to find scape-
University. “We thought we could man- to water supplies goats. The most likely outcome might be
age it the Danish way. The Danish men- more political conflicts. She risks being
tality is: when there’s a storm around reintroduced party politics into the Cov- in the middle of a minor storm if
the world it’s a slight wind in Denmark. id-19 response, ending a long period of another thing goes wrong,” he said.
We thought we had the magic formula.” consensus. Parliament has already So far, only agriculture minister
Denmark’s path mirrors that of its ordered an independent investigation. Mogens Jensen has lost his job because
southern neighbour Germany: decisive Prof Paludan said the mink scandal of the mink scandal. But the Danish
action in the first wave brought plaudits had overshadowed the second wave for press continues to uncover details about
for it and Ms Frederiksen, who carved a most of November with perhaps disas- who inside the government knew what
reputation for taking bold decisions as trous consequences. The number of and when.
one of the first European leaders to close Covid-19 cases per capita in the country Mr Paludan argues that the centre-
borders and schools in March. has tripled in the past month and is right opposition is in an awkward posi-
In this autumn’s second wave, the catching up with that of Sweden, even if tion. It criticised Ms Frederiksen all
Social Democrat prime minister tried to Denmark has far fewer positive tests autumn for imposing too many restric-
find more of a balance, imposing restric- than its neighbour. “It loops back to tions. The prime minister has conceded
tions in some areas but keeping schools mink: for three weeks we didn’t discuss that mistakes were made on mink but
and businesses open. the number of cases going up. It took the that the threat of Covid-19 was real and
Then came the mink scandal. Ms Fre- focus away from the pandemic and, demanded action.
deriksen again tried to project a tough under the radar, the number of cases For now, opinion polls have shifted
image, saying at the start of November went up,” he added. relatively little, reflecting the weak state
that all mink needed to be killed over Now it is serious. “The winter months of the opposition. “In the first wave, it
fears that they carried a coronavirus may well be the most difficult,” Ms Fred- was very much, ‘We are doing so well’,
mutation, and that there would be no eriksen said on Wednesday. Shopping and ‘Look at what is happening in Swe-
debate about it. centres closed on Thursday, all children den’,” Prof Paludan said. “Now we don’t
But the cull has descended into farce. still at school will be sent home from do that much.”
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:World Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:43 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 3, 1
4 ★ FTWeekend 19 December/20 December 2020
INTERNATIONAL
Washington Hard power
Trump China order faces Treasury backlash EU stokes
conflict fears
by agreeing
Department seeks to Mr Trump issued an order last month Russell. But many investors have been The state department raised concerns tion before Mr Trump leaves office on
dilute ban on investing in barring US investors from holding waiting for guidance from the Treas- last week about the number of subsidi- January 20 and is replaced by Joe Biden. €5bn foreign
shares in companies that the Pentagon ury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to aries of the blacklisted companies that Roger Robinson, a former NSC official
groups with military ties put on a list of groups suspected of help- determine whether they need to sell were included in stock and bond indi- who believes Washington should take a
military fund
ing the People’s Liberation Army. shares in the 35 listed Chinese compa- ces. It said the subsidiaries of 24 of the tougher stance on Chinese companies in
The effort is part of a broad push in nies and their subsidiaries. 35 Chinese companies on the Pentagon US capital markets, said the Treasury
Demetri Sevastopulo — Washington
Washington to counter China’s “mili- Three people familiar with the debate list were included in a big securities was trying to dilute the impact of the
The US Treasury has been accused of tary-civil fusion” strategy, which com- said the Treasury wanted to exclude index. Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, executive order.
attempting to water down an executive pels Chinese companies to share tech- subsidiaries from the ban but that the also warned about the “military-civil “Treasury is reportedly insisting on Michael Peel — Brussels
order from Donald Trump that bars nology with the PLA. The Trump effort had been fiercely resisted by the fusion” programme, with his depart- narrowing, diluting and otherwise
The EU will for the first time gain pow-
Americans from investing in Chinese administration believes that the strat- state department and Pentagon, which ment’s data suggesting money flowing defanging key provisions of the order,”
ers to send military aid and equipment
companies with suspected ties to the egy means US investments in Chinese have argued that not listing them would into index funds “supports Chinese said Mr Robinson, who runs RWR Advi-
to foreign conflicts under a contentious
country’s military. companies are aiding Beijing and significantly weaken the impact of companies involved in both civilian and sory Group, a risk consultancy. “It
€5bn European Peace Facility.
The move has provoked furious oppo- threatening America’s national security. Mr Trump’s order. military production” that were also appears to demonstrate more interest in
sition from the Pentagon and state MSCI, an index provider, this week The National Security Council, Treas- involved in repressing human rights. protecting Wall Street’s fees and Bei- The fund, which member states agreed
department and sparked a heated dis- removed the Chinese companies from ury and state department declined to One of the people familiar with the sit- jing’s interests than scores of millions of to in principle yesterday, reflects a push
pute over one of the Trump administra- its indices in response to the order, after comment. The Pentagon did not uation said the debate was the last big unwitting American retail investors and to build more “hard power” and widen
tion’s final anti-Beijing policies. a similar move by rivals including FTSE respond to a request for comment. fight over China inside the administra- our national security.” the EU’s influence in international con-
flicts. Its champions insist recipients of
the money — including governments
and regional and international organi-
sations — will be vetted carefully.
Freeze frame
But non-governmental organisations
warned that the money risked fuelling
Storms hit war and rights abuses around the world
and marked a shift towards a militarised
approach in the bloc’s foreign policy.
US north-east
The political agreement allows the EU
to move ahead with a facility designed to
help make the bloc a “more effective
and responsive global security pro-
vider”. It will allow the EU to augment
A motorist spent 10 hours trapped in its overseas security and defence mis-
his car without heat under 4ft of sions with the “supply of military and
snow as the US north-east suffered its defence-related equipment, infrastruc-
first big storm of the season. ture or assistance” on request.
Kevin Kresen, 58, had skidded off The EPF, first proposed in 2018 by
the road in Owego, New York, last Federica Mogherini, then EU foreign
week and his car was buried under an policy chief, reflects bloc anxieties
immovable mass of snow. The driver
made several 911 calls until a New ‘There is a high risk that
York state police sergeant dug him
arms and ammunition
out. He was suffering from frostbite
and hypothermia. provided under the EU
“If you do not have to be on the
flag will be misused’
roads, please don’t travel,” said
Andrew Cuomo, New York governor,
who declared a state of emergency about its marginalisation on some inter-
for 18 counties. AP, Glenville, New York national security matters because of its
limited common military capabilities.
Josep Borrell, Ms Mogherini’s succes-
New York State Police/AP
sor, said in June that “virtuous soft
power” was “no longer enough in
Senior posts. Climate portfolio today’s world” and needed to be com-
plemented with a “hard power”.
Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign min-
Kerry role risks causing tension in Biden team
ister, said the money would allow the EU
to “contribute to the resilience of part-
ner countries in Africa and the neigh-
bourhood”. The EU is active in several
African countries, including Mali,
of the US on the world stage as it seeks to targets, whether transitioning from coal A spokesman for the Biden transition of the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown where it has a training mission in sup-
Special envoy position creates
unwind the isolationism of Donald to clean energy or clamping down on team said it would “be premature for us University. port of a long-running campaign by gov-
unusual power dynamic with Trump’s presidency. methane emissions. to weigh in on logistics at present” when Kelly Sims Gallagher, former climate ernment and French forces against mili-
“It’s an atypical relationship,” John There is little doubt that Mr Blinken is asked about these arrangements. adviser to Mr Obama, said the challenge tant Islamist groups in the Sahel region.
new US secretary of state Podesta, former counsellor to Barack the most senior of the pair: he will be the Mr Kerry is also likely to meet heads would be determining the level of prior- “The EPF is a fundamental invest-
Obama and a climate advocate, told the first cabinet member in the presidential of state who are senior to the foreign ity accorded to climate issues within for- ment in peace and stability that will
Financial Times, although he insisted line of succession behind Kamala Har- ministers that Mr Blinken will work eign policy. “How is climate integrated allow the EU and its partners to effec-
Katrina Manson and Demetri the pair would find “a modus operandi ris, the vice-president, and two others. with. “Kerry is the kind of guy who will in regional strategies and policies? How tively and flexibly address international
Sevastopulo — Washington
Myles McCormick — New York to work together”. Yet Mr Kerry has been afforded a level see presidents and prime ministers, not does climate rank in importance in crises,” Mr Maas said.
As secretary of state, Mr Kerry drew of prestige that is unusual for a presi- the energy minister,” said Mr Podesta. terms of lists of priorities for bilateral However, NGOs have pointed to
When John Kerry was US secretary of criticism for what some saw as his out- dential envoy. He will attend White Mr Kerry told NBC News last week relationships?” she asked. alleged atrocities by government forces
state during the second term of the sized ego and the belief in his personal House meetings with fellow national that he respected and understood “the By putting climate change at the fore- in Mali and to the military coup there in
Obama administration, his deputy was ability to forge powerful relationships to security principals, an arrangement lines that are drawn within the state front of his foreign policy, Mr Biden has August as examples of the difficulty in
Antony Blinken, a Washington veteran resolve global problems. But he is also designed to make climate change — and department and the administration”, in set the stage for Mr Kerry to wield out- ensuring the funds will be well used.
steeped in the foreign policy establish- seen as an optimistic centrist with a Mr Kerry — central to US foreign, response to concerns that world size influence in areas beyond his remit. “The decision to provide arms and
ment. long-held interest in tackling climate security and economic policy. leaders might reach out to the For instance, Mr Biden’s team is ammunition under the EPF represents a
Now Mr Kerry is coming back into change who likes to build alliances. Mr Kerry might also be given an better known Mr Kerry rather already asking what role Mr Kerry will fundamental shift in EU foreign policy,
government as special presidential “Kerry will be the ‘secretary of world’ office on the lavish seventh floor than Mr Blinken. play in setting China policy. Republican from promoting peace and human
envoy on climate change, a role in which and Blinken will be the secretary of of the department, which is nor- Friends and colleagues and Democratic Asia experts — who rights to boosting the combat capability
he will be subordinate to Mr Blinken, state,” quipped Kevin Book, managing mally reserved for top officials describe Mr Blinken as a laid- want the administration to take a tough of repressive states and unaccountable
who has been picked by president-elect director at the ClearView Energy Part- and the secretary of state, accord- back professional who will be stance towards the country — worry Mr security forces,” said Lucia Montanaro,
Joe Biden as secretary of state. ners consultancy, adding that Mr Kerry ing two people briefed on the confident he has the president’s Kerry is not hawkish enough on Beijing head of the EU office of Saferworld.
Mr Blinken’s seniority to his erstwhile would relieve Mr Blinken from covering arrangements. And if he ear, but his role may be com- and that he might argue against aggres- “There is a high risk that arms and
boss could create an unusual power the climate portfolio. is on an overseas plicated by the presence sive action on issues such as human ammunition provided under the EU flag
dynamic: if the relationship were to Mr Book said Mr Kerry was “a shoo-in trip designated as a of his former boss. rights in order to secure climate deals. will be misused or diverted into the
become fraught, it would threaten to for the job” because he helped negotiate presidential mis- “Any time you have “Kerry will want to go to Beijing very wrong hands.”
undermine Mr Biden’s effort to put cli- the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global sion, he may be eli- a former secretary of early on. He will want to prioritise An EU official insisted there were “all
mate change at the forefront of his for- warming, which the Trump administra- gible to travel by US state playing a big, progress on climate over most other kinds of guidelines and safeguards” to
eign policy agenda and combat what he tion withdrew from. military aircraft. overlapping role with things in the US-China relationship,” prevent the EU being pulled into wars or
has described as “one of the most press- Mr Kerry will spearhead not only the the current [one] . . . said one former Obama administration supporting oppressive regimes. The
ing threats of our time”. US’s return to the deal on the first day of John Kerry will there’s bound to be official. bloc said any military assistance would
Any rancour between the pair could the incoming administration but he is be at the heart some risk of tension Managing Mr Kerry’s approach to be “embedded in a clear and coherent
also complicate the Biden administra- also expected to push other countries to of US foreign between them,” said China would, he added, be “one of the political strategy and will be accompa-
tion’s attempt to improve the standing adopt more ambitious domestic climate policy Jeff Colgan, director biggest challenges for” Mr Blinken. nied by thorough risk assessments”.
Central bank Rising death toll
BoJ reviews monetary policy after Covid shock Sweden announces tougher pandemic curbs
Robin Harding — Tokyo “Given that economic activity and Overnight on Thursday, interest rates Richard Milne ing of alcohol was prohibited after 8pm. son, head of the public health agency.
prices are projected to remain under stayed on hold at negative 0.1 per cent. Nordic and Baltic Correspondent Non-essential workers should work at Sweden’s unique approach to
The Bank of Japan has launched a
review of its monetary policy for the downward pressure for a prolonged The BoJ’s targets for purchases of real Sweden announced its toughest meas- home for a month, the premier said. Covid-19 compared to the rest of Europe
first time since 2016 after the Covid-19 period due to the impact of Covid-19, the estate and equity funds were also ures yet against coronavirus, including Mr Löfven denied the measures were has attracted attention and criticism,
shock crushed hopes of achieving its bank will conduct an assess- unchanged. its first recommendation to use masks too little, too late, insisting that Sweden with King Carl XVI Gustaf saying this
2 per cent inflation target. ment . . . with a view to supporting the The central bank’s policy meeting as its death toll continues to increase. was sticking to its strategy of making week that the country had “failed”.
economy and thereby achieving the came the same day that new inflation “the right decisions at the proper time”. His comments followed a damning
Expected to report in March 2021, the price stability target of 2 per cent,” the data for November showed the headline Stefan Löfven, prime minister, yester- “A very serious lockdown wouldn’t interim report from Sweden’s independ-
review will consider the potential for central bank said. consumer price index was down 0.9 per day announced a range of restrictions ent commission investigating its han-
“further effective and sustainable The launch of the review came as the cent compared with a year ago. from Christmas Eve, including the clo- ‘A very serious lockdown dling of coronavirus, which said the
monetary easing”, beyond the large- BoJ said it would extend its special coro- Stripping out volatile fresh food and sure for a month of secondary schools country had failed to protect its elderly
wouldn’t have an effect in
scale asset purchases and negative navirus loan programmes by another energy prices, the index was down and many municipal services, while population, blaming centre-left govern-
interest rates used since 2013 and 2016, six months to September 2021 and 0.3 per cent compared with a year ago, entrance to shops and gyms would be the long run . . . people ment and previous administrations.
respectively. adjust the terms to make them more and unchanged from the previous restricted and masks recommended on Mr Löfven said “the king expressed
wouldn’t put up with that’
The decision to launch a review high- flexible. month on a seasonally adjusted basis. public transport. what we all feel” about the high number
lights the depth of the central bank’s Its programme to buy an additional Under governor Haruhiko Kuroda, “This year, Christmas has to be differ- of deaths in Sweden, but that attributing
concern over this year’s slide back ¥15tn ($145bn) in corporate bonds and the BoJ has made a determined effort to ent. The situation is still serious . . . The have an effect in the long run because responsibility for that was difficult.
towards deflation and its inability to commercial paper, which was split revive inflation, purchasing govern- situation in hospitals is very strained,” people would not put up with that . . . Sweden was caught unawares by the
achieve its mandated price stability 50:50 between the two asset classes, will ment bonds worth more than 100 per Mr Löfven said. Locking down a society is also a burden strength of the second wave of Covid
goals. It did not signal whether it hoped be allocated flexibly according to mar- cent of gross domestic product and cut- Sweden has been the only country in on the population,” he added. after Anders Tegnell, state epidemiolo-
to ease policy further or simply sustain ket conditions. ting interest rates below zero. Europe to resist a formal lockdown in Sweden had resisted a recommenda- gist, repeatedly said during the spring
its current trajectory for the long term. The BoJ will also extend its offer of But while Japan has recorded an both waves of Covid-19, but its latest tion to wear masks, with health authori- and the summer that it would be spared
It said there would be no change to cheap loans to help banks finance small improved macroeconomic perform- measures move it closer to a de facto clo- ties saying it might stop people social compared with its neighbours.
“yield curve control”, under which it and midsized companies through the ance, it has struggled to change public sure of large parts of its society. distancing. “We do not believe that it Sweden has had about 1,700 deaths in
purchases government bonds as needed pandemic, removing an upper limit of expectations of stagnant prices, no Other measures included restricting will have a very decisive effect but it can the past month, compared with about
to keep 10-year yields around zero per ¥100bn per institution to encourage matter how great the monetary the size of groups meeting in restaurants have a positive effect on public trans- 100 each for Finland and Norway, each
cent. take-up of the scheme. stimulus. and bars to four people, while the serv- port at certain times,” said Johan Carl- of which has half of its population.
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:World Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:43 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD3 USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 4, 1
19 December/20 December 2020 ★ FTWeekend 5
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Ad Page Time: 18/12/2020 - 10:53 User: william.baxter Page Name: AD CARTIER, Part,Page,Edition: LON, 5, 1
6 ★ FTWeekend 19 December/20 December 2020
FT BIG READ. SECURITY
The attack on an IT software group gave its perpetrators access to government and business networks
around the world and again exposed the weakness of their digital defences to sophisticated hackers.
By Hannah Murphy, Helen Warrell and Demetri Sevastopulo
U ntil this week, SolarWinds discouraging, morale-sapping, it’s
Cyber space’s
was a little known IT soft- frankly a bit embarrassing,” says Ciaran
ware group from Texas. Its Martin, who stepped down earlier this
deserted lobby has a year as head of the UK’s National Cyber
framed magazine article Security Centre, the defensive arm of
from a few years ago when it was on a list signals intelligence agency GCHQ, and
‘silent cold war’
of America’s “Best Small Companies”. now a professor at the University of
Now the Austin-based company is at Oxford’s Blavatnik School.
the heart of one of the biggest and most One key lesson from this attack, say
startling cyber hacks in recent history, cyber experts, is that defences among
with ramifications that extend into the the majority of western institutions are
fields of geopolitics, espionage and simply not strong enough. In particular,
national security. organisations have not paid enough
For nine months, sophisticated state- attention to the security of software
backed hackers have exploited a ubiqui- suppliers — such as SolarWinds — in
tous SolarWinds software product in their supply chain.
order to spy on government and busi- Prof Martin says securing the supply
ness networks around the world, chain is the “hardest nut to crack”
including in the US, UK, Israel and Can- because there is neither a globally-rec-
ada. Wielding innovative tools and tra- ognised set of software security stand-
decraft, the cyber spies lurked in email ards, nor any form of enforcement if
services, and posed as legitimate staff- these are not met.
ers to tap confidential information “If you’re the chief information secu-
stored in the cloud. rity officer in a company or US govern-
The bombshell revelations have sent ment and you need to buy software how
18,000 exposed SolarWinds customers do you know what’s good?” asks Prof
scrambling to assess whether outsiders Martin. “We have to accelerate on the
did indeed enter their systems, what the long hard road to fixing [our supply
damage was and how to fix it. chain defences] and if this doesn’t
The sprawling operation targeted prompt us to, I don’t know what will.”
some of the US government’s most sen- Others apportion the blame in part on
sitive data. The commerce and energy inaction from the government and
departments both admitted they had weakness in their own systems. “I don’t
been compromised although the latter think the security measures taken after
said it has no evidence of intrusions into
its nuclear weapons management net- ‘It is going to take months
works “so far”. Numerous other federal
to ascertain the full
agencies have acknowledged that they
are inspecting for fallout. impact and actually be
But the true scale of the ongoing cam-
paign and its motivations are not yet — successful at ejecting
and may never be — known. There are
the adversaries’
indicators that it may be part of an even
broader campaign that extends beyond
the SolarWinds software. Experts have the OPM hack were at all sufficient, or at
been swift to point a finger at Russia, all helpful,” says Mr Alperovitch. “We
had spent literally hundreds of millions
of dollars on systems that did nothing to
Microsoft has protect us here.”
identified 40
compromised Disarmament framework
customers including
Many questions remain unanswered.
government
agencies For example, there is no clarity on how
SolarWinds, whose shares have fallen
which has wielded similar tactics in past to great lengths to cover their tracks. [control], user IDs and passwords and deeply alarmed, in fact downright With the US by more than 25 per cent since last Fri-
cyber operations, though officials have John Hultquist, director of intelligence credentials that look like normal scared,” Mr Blumenthal wrote on Twit- commerce and day, was hacked in the first instance.
refused to confirm a suspected culprit. analysis at FireEye, the cyber security employees’,” says Theresa Payton, ter on Wednesday. energy US officials and cyber experts admit
The massive hack has shone a light on company which was itself a casualty of former White House chief information Many cyber experts believe the attack departments that American spy agencies — notably
the vulnerability of US government the attack, says the hackers did not want officer and chief executive of cyber bears the hallmarks of a Russia-backed both admitting the NSA — are constantly engaged in
agencies and many of the world’s big- to exploit every opportunity for fear of security consultancy Fortalice Solu- campaign. One person who had been they had been exactly the same kind of hacking of
gest companies to cyber intrusions via raising suspicion. “This is about quality tions, who dubs this level of access the briefed on the investigation says there compromised, overseas governments that they pub-
the long tail of vendors they rely on for over quantity. Every organisation they “God’s door”. “You can hijack dormant were clues buried in the hackers’ lan- many cyber licly rail against back in Washington.
IT services. SolarWinds is one of hun- access endangers their access — which accounts, you can inject documents, you guage and coding that pointed to Rus- experts believe James Lewis, a cyber security expert
dreds of relatively unknown companies risks the entire operation,” he says. can change things.” sian perpetrators. the attack bears at the Center for Strategic and Interna-
that provide software to governments One western security official says The US Cybersecurity and Infrastruc- Some have pointed specifically at the hallmarks of tional Studies think-tank, argues that
and business for their networks. “This is there is already evidence the hackers ture Security Agency warned that it will APT29, a prolific hacker group backed a Russia-backed hacks have become inevitable and that
the most consequential cyber espionage conducted detailed reconnaissance on be “highly complex and challenging” for by the SVR, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence campaign. Some it is critical for the US government to
campaign to date,” says Dmitri Alpero- the organisations they had breached, victims to actually eject the perpetra- Service, which has previously been are pointing the think more about how it could change
vitch, co-founder of security group and depending on what they found, tors from their systems. linked to the theft of emails from the finger at a group the risk calculation in a way that makes
CrowdStrike who now runs the Sil- would then decide which victims to pri- “Can you imagine if you found out Democratic National Committee ahead backed by Russia and China less likely to conduct
verado Policy Accelerator think-tank. oritise. Microsoft, also a victim of the that six months ago somebody was in of the 2016 US election. One person with Moscow’s attacks on the US. This should be a pri-
“It is going to take months to ascertain hackers, said on Thursday that it had your house and now you’re trying to fig- knowledge of the hack suggested it Foreign ority for the incoming Biden adminis-
the full impact and actually be success- identified 40 customers that had been ure that out?” says Ms Payton. “The could also be a sister unit to APT29. Intelligence tration, he adds.
ful at ejecting the adversaries,” he adds. “targeted more precisely and compro- forensic evidence gets damaged and Service “We have to stop thinking of cyber as
Supply chain risk — FT montage
“And there’s going to be phase 2 which is mised through additional and sophisti- destroyed.” somehow unique. This is part of a larger
understanding how we have failed to cated measures”. “If it is [Russian foreign intelligence], The SolarWinds hack is the latest in a conflict with Russia and China. We have
understand that this intelligence opera- Michael Chertoff, chairman of the they will not run away once detected,” long line of increasingly advanced cyber two giant espionage campaigns aimed at
tion was taking place . . . but also [to] Chertoff Group, a security consultancy, says Suzanne Spaulding, security expert attacks over a period of more than a dec- the US. One [Russia] is looking for polit-
figure out how we’re gonna rebuild our who served as secretary of homeland at the Center for Strategic and Interna- ade since China first penetrated Penta- ical effect, and the other [China] is look-
cyber security in government.” security in the Bush administration, tional Studies think-tank. “If you think gon and White House networks. Wash- ing to steal technology.”
says that “our adversaries’ hacking they’re out of your system, they may ington received a big wake-up call in Many experts call for international
A ‘silent cold war’
skills have also gotten better and they have just gone deeper into hiding. They 2015 after it discovered that China had accords around responses to global
The adversaries first broke through have become more aggressive”. He adds: have in the past been combative — we obtained sensitive data on several mil- cyber attacks, as a preventive measure.
their victims’ defences by injecting “There is a bit of a silent cold war in the may have a battle on our hands.” lion government employees by hacking Google chief executive Sundar Pichai
malicious code into the patches of Solar- cyber space domain.” US officials have been evasive when it the Office of Personnel Management. argues that governments need to draw
Winds’ Orion product between March The hackers leveraged other novel comes to attributing the attacks. Only But the severity of the SolarWinds up a cyber framework that is “the equiv-
and June of this year. This meant that as techniques to impersonate trusted Richard Blumenthal, Democratic sena- attack and the wide net of victims have alent of internet disarmament”. He
some 18,000 SolarWinds clients users and access highly sensitive infor- tor from Connecticut, has publicly sin- prompted soul-searching among the adds: “I’m not saying it’s going to be
updated their software, they unwit- mation, according to a rare advisory gled out Russia as the main culprit, after cyber security community, US govern- easy, but it has to be on the agenda of the
tingly introduced a hidden backdoor for published by the US National Security he and other members of Congress ment and corporations. “The main G20, given how important digital infra-
attackers to come in. Agency on Thursday. received a classified briefing from intel- implication for me is to underline the structure is becoming.”
Once inside, the hackers were able to “If you have unfettered access, you ligence officials. “Today’s classified weakness of much of the west’s cyber Additional reporting by Miles Kruppa
move around at will, undetected, going can create your own administrator’s briefing on Russia’s cyber attack left me defences and in that respect it’s a bit and Richard Waters
Obituary
I n 1993, the football coach Gérard over the heads of his teammates. The In 1976, he took over as coach at Noeux- But Houllier’s greatest success was at
Houllier published a book with Bulgarians counter-attacked and les-Mines, then in the French third divi- Liverpool. In the summer of 1998, he
French coach Jacques Crevoisier, a sports psy- scored. France lost the game 2-1. sion. Houllier took the club into the sec- joined as joint coach, alongside Scouse
chologist, setting out his manage- Houllier’s reaction after the game was ond division and missed out on promo- stalwart Roy Evans. That uneasy
rial philosophy. “When you’ve lost a uncharacteristically vitriolic. By giving tion to the first by a whisker in 1981. arrangement didn’t last long and soon
who took
match, that is when praise is impor- the ball away, he said, Ginola had “sent His success working with a small Houllier was in sole charge of the team.
tant,” they wrote. “It is necessary to crit- an Exocet missile through the heart of budget at Noeux-les-Mines led to a job He oversaw a revamp of the squad and
Liverpool to icise the bad act without condemning its French football and committed a crime at first division RC Lens, again in promoted several talented young play-
author.” against the team”. In 2012, after Houl- France’s industrial north. The team fin- ers, including Steven Gerrard, Michael
Jean-Pierre Lancry, a physiotherapist lier had repeated the criticism in a ished fourth in Houllier’s first season Owen and Jamie Carragher, all of whom
historic wins
who worked with Houllier at the French memoir published the previous year, and qualified for European competi- prospered under his tutelage.
football club US Noeux-les-Mines in the Ginola sued him for defamation. A tion. In 1985, he became coach of Paris His annus mirabilis was 2001, when
late 1970s, remembered his style with French court threw the case out. Saint-Germain, leading them to the first Liverpool won five trophies: the League
fondness. “When there was a problem Gérard Houllier was born in Thér- league title in their history in his first and FA Cups, the Uefa Cup, the Euro-
with a player, he never tried to solve it in ouanne in the Pas-de-Calais in northern season. Still, he lasted less than three pean Super Cup and the Charity Shield.
Gérard Houllier the heat of the moment,” Lancry told France in 1947, the son of Francis, a years at PSG before being sacked for He suffered a heart attack at half-time of
Football manager France 3 television. butcher, and Gisèle. He trained as a poor results midway through the 1987/8 a game against Leeds the following sea-
However, there was one notorious teacher in the region while playing ama- season. In 1988, he joined the French son, and, although his health recovered,
1947-2020
occasion on which Houllier, who has teur football with Hucqueliers. In 1969, Football Federation as assistant to he was unable to drive the team to such
died at the age of 73, failed spectacularly he left France to spend a year teaching Michel Platini, then coach of the Houllier’s annus mirabilis was 2001 heights again. He left Liverpool in 2004.
to heed his own advice. In November in England at a comprehensive school national team. when Liverpool won five trophies After two successful years as coach of
1993, he was coach of the French near Anfield, the home of Liverpool Despite the trauma of the defeat by Olympique Lyonnais, and a brief stint
national team, which needed a draw football club. His sojourn there left him Bulgaria, Houllier left a lasting mark on back in England at Aston Villa, he spent
against Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes with a fondness for the English game French football while on the staff of the ‘When there was a the last decade of his career as a peripa-
in Paris in order to qualify for the World and a love of Liverpool, a club he would FFF. In 1996 he coached a talented tetic sporting consultant for the Red
problem with a player,
Cup the following summer. later manage with some distinction. under-18 team to the European champi- Bull group. When Houllier’s death was
As the game entered the final minute, Unlike many coaches of his genera- onship. The side included Thierry he never tried to announced this week, Gerrard, himself
the score was 1-1. The French winger tion, Houllier never played football pro- Henry and David Trezeguet, who would now a coach, said: “I’ve got an awful lot
David Ginola received the ball near the fessionally. After returning to France in go on to become members of the senior solve it in the heat to thank the man for.”
corner flag. But rather than retain pos- 1970, he found his first coaching job at French squad that won the World Cup
of the moment’
session, he sent an aimless cross soaring Touquet-Paris-Plage, an amateur club. two years later. Jonathan Derbyshire
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Features Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:48 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: BIGPAGE, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 6, 1
19 December/20 December 2020 ★ FTWeekend 7
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Ad Page Time: 18/12/2020 - 10:53 User: william.baxter Page Name: AD WORKDAY, Part,Page,Edition: LON, 7, 1
8 ★ FTWeekend 19 December/20 December 2020
Letters Email: [email protected]
Include daytime telephone number and full address
Corrections: [email protected]
If you are not satisfied with the FT’s response to your complaint, you can appeal
to the FT Editorial Complaints Commissioner: [email protected]
SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER 2020
How companies can
spend their cash wisely
Businesses should use the funds they have raised this year with care
Thousands of companies will not sur- vival, with hopefully enough money
vive the financial stress caused by the left over to think about the investment
coronavirus. One of the ironies of the or restructuring needed to meet not
pandemic, however, is that some will just the changes wrought by the pan-
emerge from the crisis with more cash demic, but also other challenges, in
resources than before the virus struck. particular the battle against climate
A splurge of debt and equity issuance change. Paying down debt — and
means companies — including banks — improving credit ratings — should be a
have so far raised more than $6.37tn priority. The pandemic has exposed
globally from investors this year, the risks of operating with stretched
according to data provider Refinitiv. balance sheets. A recent survey of glo-
Some of this borrowing has been to bal fund managers found that 44 per
help those worst-hit by the virus cent still wanted chief executives to use
weather the storm, which despite the cash flows to improve their balance
Keeping it local is the way to survive in a globalised economy
good news on vaccines, will continue sheets. Increasing capital expenditure
for many months at least. A case in was a close second at 42 per cent.
point is Carnival, the cruise operator, For the remainder, executives will
which has raised more than $10bn — need to think carefully about how their
including, for the first time this year, firepower is deployed. Ploughing it into Your feature on the utility furniture furniture was to be delivered. This the replacement of local self- refusal of economists, along with
via a bond offering that is not secured productive investment is important. permit (“The home in 50 objects #22: would now seem extreme, but it does sufficiency by monocrops in cocoa in scientists in other fields, to consider
against the company’s ships. Rolls- Some will be able to take advantage of Utility furniture permit (1948)”, House emphasise how much more local life South America. value as well as price, ignoring Oscar
Royce, the aero-engine maker, and the financial conditions to make bold & Home, FT Weekend, December 12) was 60 or 80 years ago. A similar phenomenon has been Wilde’s oft-quoted dicturm that “a fool
IAG, the European airline holding com- moves — launching the long-planned touches on an issue which is Maybe a bigger and more important noted in Ladakh with the development is someone who knows the price of
pany, have also called on their share- takeover of a rival, branching out into a underrated by economists and the left issue than globalisation is of roads, which apparently led to the everything and the value of nothing”.
holders and lenders to put in place the new market area or capturing a new (and indeed the right). “delocalisation”, which has led to ending of food self-sufficiency with Arguably it is this that explains why
buffers they will need to survive. technology. US technology stocks, Your article noted that pieces of monocrops and monoculture, distant foodstuffs being brought in from only now are we waking up to the
Others, though, are simply making including Apple and Microsoft, are furniture had to be produced as near as conglomerates and corporatism and outside (for which money then had to issues of pollution, global warming and
hay while the sun shines on them. Cen- among the top holders of cash. possible to where they would be sold, subservience at local economic levels. be earned). the extinction of species.
tral banks responded to the pandemic Payouts to investors are already and that the relevant vouchers were to This featured in a book review in your The lack of attention to these Benjamin Hargreaves
by pushing interest rates to record lows making a comeback. This year has be used within 15 miles of where the pages many months ago, concerning matters is partly the result of the London SW6, UK
and by rushing into the market to buy been the worst for dividends since the
up government — and in some cases financial crisis as companies every-
corporate — bonds. That has had the where suspended or cut payouts to Tinker, tailor, soldier December 12) told us much about the The revolving doors of between these roles but changing their
effect of making the interest rates conserve cash, depriving millions of reviewer’s sympathy for the troubled behaviours as they do so.
. . . journalist? commerce and politics
available to sound companies that wish retail investors of income and hitting artist’s life-threatening illnesses. It said Mr Vandevelde’s article describes
to borrow even lower. The surge in cap- retirement savings. The ability to With the spy genre once more in the rather less about her work. Mark Vandevelde (“Path from public what happens when they do not.
ital raisings has been accompanied by a resume dividends is welcome, but news (Obituary, John le Carré, Ms Emin’s output of hastily drawn service to private riches erodes trust”, Valerie Iles
rush of initial public offerings, notably executives should think harder before December 15) I surely can’t be alone in sketches and eye-catching slogans — The Top Line, FT Weekend, December London N5, UK
by opportunistic technology groups considering share buybacks; before the detecting a clandestine operation the neon scrawl at King’s Cross St 12) draws attention to a phenomenon
Let’s hear it for Macca
tapping into the market momentum. pandemic some companies, in particu- under way at FT Weekend, with Simon Pancras which reads “I want my time well described by Jane Jacobs, the
Companies in the US have raised a lar in the US, used borrowed cash to Kuper as an agent provocateur run by with you” — was, for the reviewer, American-Canadian author and and The Muppets
record $149bn this year through IPOs. buy back their own stock. UK Independence party controllers. unmoving. But movement or affection campaigning urbanist, in her 1993
Even the London market has witnessed One legacy of Covid-19 will be a long From deep cover in the Paris office, is not Ms Emin’s style or intention. book Systems of Survival. Helen Brown’s intriguing review of
a rebound in activity despite the uncer- list of corporate winners and an even he painstakingly crafts pro-Remain She will be remembered more for In what is a dialogue on the moral “Mah-Nà Mah-Nà” (“An absurd
tainty over Brexit. longer list of losers. The stock market columns so unremittingly grim, so what she says about herself and her foundations of commerce and politics earworm made popular by The
The question now is what these cash- rally may not last and debt is unlikely appallingly depressing that they can difficult life, than for her harshly she distinguishes between two Muppets”, Life of a Song, Life & Arts,
rich companies will do with their new to stay cheap for ever. If the winners are have but one outcome — to push barren aesthetic. “syndromes” of behaviour: the FT Weekend, December 12) neglected
wealth. For the Carnivals and Rolls- to stay ahead, they will need to spend waverers and fence-sitters into the Nick Kochan guardian syndrome and the to mention that it was sung by both
Royces of this world the question is sur- their new fortunes wisely. cheery embrace of former Ukip leader London N8, UK commercial syndrome, both necessary Liverpool and England football fans in
Nigel Farage (aka N). for society to function justly and honour of midfielder Steve
Don’t get me started on
Last week’s piece was his finest yet, effectively, but each necessarily kept McManaman: “McManaman, do do do
and a worthy swansong (“What world the family Christmas! distinct from the other. If the do do; McManaman, do do do do!”.
is Brexit being launched into?”, boundaries become blurred, the result James Priestman
Magazine, FT Weekend, December 12). Reading Joy Lo Dico’s column (“I’ll be is a “monstrous hybrid”. London W7, UK
Measuring economies’
I therefore predict a January 1 home for Christmas if only in my The virtues of the commercial
Bowled over by
exfiltration: Agent Kuper will don his dreams”, Opinion, Life & Arts, FT syndrome include: honesty, initiative,
tweeds, tuck his shooting stick under Weekend, December 12) I was voluntary agreements, easy a book review
impact on the planet
his arm, and disappear into a Cotswolds reminded of a sister of mine who, collaboration with strangers,
manor house for afternoon tea and a returning on a flight from Dublin to respecting contracts, thrift, dissent for This is a brief note from the Old Enemy
final debriefing. Mission accomplished! London after “The Christmas”, and the sake of the task. By contrast, those to say how greatly I enjoyed Ed Smith’s
Andrew Stokes having settled in her seat turned to the of the guardian syndrome include: review of Ramachandra Guha’s The
UNDP has adjusted its index to include the environmental toll Hong Kong passenger alongside her and loyalty, largesse, exerting prowess, Commonwealth of Cricket (“For the love
attempting polite conversation, asked: shunning commerce, being exclusive, of cricket”, Books, Life & Arts, FT
Emin’s confessions beat
Deciding which is the top-performing The effects are biggest for the richest “Where are you going back to?” He adhering to tradition, respecting Weekend, December 12). Book reviews
economy is not easy. Rank by income countries. The adjustment knocks Nor- her barren aesthetic replied ferociously. “Anywhere hierarchy, deceit for the sake of the don’t always touch the heart of the
per person and top of the list are those way off the top spot it would otherwise the f . . . out of here!!”. task, and fatalism. matter; this did with great empathy so
that offer tax advantages to attract cor- have occupied; the impact of its sizea- Jackie Wullschläger’s homage to Tracey Rituals are difficult for some. These can be kept distinct when thank you for that.
porate relocations (Luxembourg, Ire- ble oil production on the planet means Emin (“A refusal to shut up in the face Patsy Berney people remain wholly in commerce or Peter Thomas
land and Singapore), or those rich in it falls 15 places. This is not quite as of death”, Life & Arts, FT Weekend, Balbriggan, County Dublin, Ireland guardian roles, or by people moving Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
fossil fuels (Norway, the United Arab steep a fall as coal-producing Australia,
Emirates and Qatar). Alternative down 72 places, or Singapore’s 92-place
measures, such as the UN Develop- drop. Canada and the US fare badly too.
Lie about my
ment Programme’s human develop- In fact, fossil fuel exporters including The young family next door. not to be easily cowed. But then, one. What were the Tier 2 lockdown
ment index, see others rise up the rank- the UAE, Qatar and Kazakhstan all That’s what she called us. I laughed whatever age I’ve been, it’s always rules — table for six with food and a
age? I’m too old
ings. Norway and Ireland still come top drop substantially. Luxembourg is the and corrected her: we’re a couple, we been the wrong one for what I’ve 10pm finish — other than a normal
but northern European countries, such biggest loser, however, since its com- have young children, but we’re not wanted to do — go to the pub, get the night out?
as Sweden and Germany, gain ground, muter-based economy uses a lot of for that exactly young. glamorous job, have children. There are advantages to getting
as do the rich English-speaking coun- material resources relative to its popu- This year, we both hit our half- For years, I eyed people who do older. Many big decisions — on family,
tries such as Australia, Canada and lation; the Grand Duchy falls 131 century and maybe it’s the four-year- things in the correct and age- career, children — have been made.
New Zealand. places. old trailing behind me, a hesitant appropriate order — grad trainee job, There is also something amazing in
Metrics of this kind are important No country’s HDI score goes up manner or a lack of gravitas, but late-twenties wedding, early-thirties having got this far. As my son said,
not because they reveal anything new because all economies do at least some people often assume I’m younger kids — with a degree of suspicion. most dinosaurs only lived to 50.
about the world but because they can damage to the environment. But some than I am. Just weeks from a big What was missing in their soul Looked at from that perspective,
change our perspective. “What gets rich European countries — France, birthday, I wondered if instead of to allow them to hit every mark it’s ridiculous to be embarrassed by
counted counts,” as the saying goes. In Italy, Spain, the UK and Portugal — gain putting my neighbour — a 54-year-old with such choreographed old age.
an era focused on rankings and quanti- places in the adjusted table thanks to a with two adult children — straight, precision? Am I the only one to ever I was once told — at a party in west
fying performance, measurements relatively low proportion of fossil fuels I should stay silent. Actors hide mess up? Africa where none of the important
focus minds. The idea behind the UN used in their energy mix, and service- their age because they don’t want Each age requires a degree of fakery. people would speak to me — that no
index, now in its 30th year, was to based economies that use fewer raw to be typecast. Maybe I don’t either. As a teenager, I feigned interest in one would take me seriously until I
present a different take on economic materials. A planetary-adjusted Who needs to know your real age obscure indie bands. Now it’s the reached 50, that only then would I be
progress. Rather than simply measure human development index is just the anyway? world of interiors. So maybe I should able to live my life on my own terms.
the ability to produce things the HDI latest of many attempts to update Not recruiters, a friend tells me, just pretend to be 35. In most cases, it The world, or at least Europe, is
looks at what a country achieves: national accounting to capture a though they can join up the dots wouldn’t be a lie, just be a failure to getting older. In this sense I am not
alongside a measure of national broader concept of wellbeing — not on your LinkedIn profile to hazard correct. out of touch. I am part of a growing
income, the index includes life expect- only the level of prosperity but how a decent guess. Or even managers, But the real judge of age — the demographic. Maybe, finally, I am
Notebook
ancy and educational outcomes. sustainable it will be in the future. who assume that once you pass young — can suss out the truth. I where it’s at.
The UNDP’s latest adaptation of its The corporate world, too, is looking 40 you’ll be stuck in your ways operate on, let’s say, a less frenetic Still, it is hard to shake the dread of
HDI shakes up the league table once to new kinds of accounting that reflect by Orla Ryan and too distracted by childcare frequency. I don’t — as my kids do — moving into an older age bracket. I
again. The agency’s 2020 report, pub- broader social goals. The Harvard Busi- to focus. jump out of bed and run up and down always loathed ticking the 35-44 box
lished on Thursday but covering ness Review’s impact-weighted Maybe not even colleagues, who the stairs twice just to burn off the on surveys instead of the 25-34 one.
human progress in 2019, includes a accounts initiative calculates how assign you negative traits on the basis early-morning buzz. They know my Just as I made myself tick the right
ranking that takes into account coun- much companies would be worth if of your age. Stay put for too long and real age. box, I can’t bring myself to lie about
tries’ impact on the planet. This, say they had to pay the full cost of environ- you’re a stick-in-the-mud. Move There are other signifiers. The my age. I don’t have the guile or the
the authors, adjusts the index for the mental damage they cause; many around and that looks a bit suspicious. music really is too loud, I tell them as I energy to keep up the pretence.
era of the Anthropocene — a proposed would see all their earnings wiped out. I can’t be the only 50-year-old to find turn down Radio 1 and try to tune the Maybe that’s because I’m getting old.
new geological epoch that reflects how In 2015, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief junior jobs appealing, but you’re radio back into the discussions and I wish the cheaper Saga insurance
humans are transforming their world. executive, went from first to 87th in the supposed to make way for the young, documentaries on Radio 4. for the over-fifties made up for the
By factoring in carbon emissions and magazine’s ranking of best-performing not try to take their jobs. I look at people who go on pub huge sense of loss. But I’m not sure
an economy’s material footprint — the CEOs after adjusting for environmen- And it’s that fluidity I miss. If there’s crawls and wonder why someone that it does.
volume of raw materials used divided tal, social and governance factors. an ideal age, I’d peg it at 35, young would leave a nice seat in one place to
by population — the UNDP has Working out who belongs at the top is enough to have potential, old enough go to another where you may not get [email protected]
adjusted for planetary pressures. tricky; making it there is even harder.
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Features Time: 18/12/2020 - 19:05 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: LEADER USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 8, 1
19 December/20 December 2020 ★ FTWeekend 9
Opinion
Modern day trustbusters have Facebook in their sights
between the FTC’s Facebook complaint self-interest to promote the common Standard Oil an insurmountable advan- tive journalist named Ida Tarbell. That Today, though, we are witnessing the
William
and the attacks on another era-defining good. But Rockefeller understood, tage over its rivals and, by 1879, it had year, she began publishing a series of backlash. Facebook’s recent controver-
Magnuson monopoly, Standard Oil. better than others, what companies near-complete control of the industry, articles for McClure’s Magazine that sies — from its handling of personal
In the 19th century, new technologies were competing for. To him, the accounting for 90 per cent of all of described Standard Oil’s deceptive data, to its use in disinformation
spawned a generation of millionaires, ultimate goal was to win, to crush America’s refining capacity. business practices, its anti-competitive campaigns, to allegations that it stokes
ushering in a Gilded Age. None was competitors and sell all the products. If “The day of combination is here to agreements and its legislative manoeu- political polarisation — have tarnished
more prominent than John D Rockefel- they were very good at it, they could stay,” Rockefeller proudly vring. Her damning conclusion: “Mr its reputation. The FTC’s lawsuit is just
B ig Government is finally tak- ler, whose mammoth oil conglomerate beat their rivals out of existence and announced. “Individualism has gone, Rockefeller has systematically played the beginning. The EU, with its vigorous
ing on Big Tech. Last week, in grabbed staggering levels of market stop having to compete entirely. never to return.” with loaded dice, and it is doubtful if — critics would say overzealous —
the most momentous anti- share using suspect tactics. An economist might point out that there has ever been a time since 1872 enforcement of competition law, could
trust lawsuit in a generation, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s even a monopoly has to continue to when he has run a race with a competi- well be next.
the US Federal Trade Com- 2008 email saying that “it is better to “compete”, in a theoretical sense, lest There are lessons for tor and started fair.” The last lesson speaks to the
mission accused Facebook of unfair buy than compete” recalls, to an new entrants come in and woo away its The company had beaten its competi- future. The government broke up
today’s tech giants in
competition and asked a federal court to uncanny degree, Rockefeller’s screeds customers. But, as Rockefeller knew tors but lost the war of public Standard Oil, but before long it started
break it up. This week, the EU proposed against “ruinous competition”. very well, it is a lot easier to stamp out the early 20th-century opinion. President Theodore Roosevelt to reassemble itself. The fragments
sweeping new rules forcing big technol- That makes it worthwhile to look at new companies than it is to compete launched an investigation of the com- would soon emerge as Exxon, Chevron
break-up of Standard Oil
ogy companies to take more responsi- what happened the last time govern- with established ones. pany and, in a landmark ruling in 1911, and Mobil, new corporate giants with
bility for policing content on their web- ments took on a company of this size One of his favourite tactics was the the Supreme Court ordered Standard sprawling new empires. The same thing
sites and refrain from anti-competitive and power. Rockefeller was a consum- railroad rebate. Oil companies relied on Rockefeller had beaten his competi- Oil broken up. happened to the seven regional tele-
practices or face billion-dollar fines and mate student of capitalism, which then, railroads to ship their oil to market and tors into submission. But he had not That story provides important phone companies known as Baby Bells
break-up threats. as now, is based on the idea that every- so profits depended on the price of rail- taken into account Smith’s point about lessons for us about Facebook’s past, that were created out of the 1980s
We are witnessing a struggle between one is better off if companies compete road freight. So Rockefeller negotiated the common good. Standard Oil’s present and future. Just like Standard break-up of AT&T.
Facebook and its regulators that will with one another to provide better special deals using Standard Oil’s size as deceptive and bullying tactics beat Oil, Facebook’s history of controlling its If Facebook is shattered into a thou-
determine nothing less than the future products and sell them for less. Adam leverage to get lower rates for his own rivals, but undermined claims that the core platform and buying out small sand pieces, watch those pieces.
of the internet and our data. Smith called this the “invisible hand”, a oil. He even convinced railroads to corporation was good for the nation as a start-ups before they grew to be rivals,
They say that data is the new oil, and it powerful force that in a free market pay him any time they allowed a com- whole. And, in 1902, Rockefeller was as described by the FTC, has proved The writer is an associate professor at Texas
is hard not to be struck by the parallels leads individuals acting in their own petitor to use their lines. This gave undone by a “muckraking” investiga- remarkably successful. A&M Law School
FT montage/Dreamstime
The Sussexes have learnt
to tell their own story
Duchess of Sussex, has greater celebrity
than ordained.
Second, one of the disciplines of a con-
stitutional monarchy is that its mem-
bers have to keep their mouths shut or
express themselves carefully. The
Queen has occasionally “let in daylight
upon magic”, as the Victorian historian
Walter Bagehot put it, but mostly keeps
I n a speech broadcast from Cape her feelings hidden.
Town on her 21st birthday in 1947, The greater the celebrity, the harder
Queen Elizabeth pledged that “we this is, as the glamour, travails and death
must give nothing less than the of Diana, Princess of Wales proved. In
whole of ourselves” in making the announcing their “transition” from full-
Commonwealth “an even grander time royalty this year, the Sussexes cited
thing”. Her speech, with its appeal to their wish to remove “the supposed
duty, restraint and service, features in ‘public interest’ justification for media
the new season of the Netflix drama The intrusion” into their lives.
Crown. It is debatable whether pursuing
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are tabloids in the courts to block stories
offering all of themselves in a different they regard as invasions of privacy or
way, this week unveiling a deal for their libellous is wise; I doubt it. But the larger
production company Archewell Audio point is that the couple have seized
to make podcasts and shows for Spotify. power over how they are portrayed, not
“Hi guys, I’m Harry”, “And I’m Meghan,” only with legal actions but by becoming
the couple greeted listeners in a trailer their own producers.
for a holiday special they will host. They are not alone. Individuals with
The Sussexes, who also signed a pro- names and expertise can now go direct
duction deal with Netflix this year, are to fans. The trend runs from the
podcast royalty, alongside stars includ- publishing of newsletters on Substack to
ing Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan, the performers being sponsored on
US comedian and martial arts commen- Patreon; the internet provides a means
tator. They have translated their “pas- of distribution for a personal brand.
sion for meeting people and hearing A low-rent version is OnlyFans, a UK
A global economic reset
their stories” into a franchise. site that enables minor celebrities and
In terms of reach and earnings power, performers to share photos and videos
it is a canny move to exchange the — of them wearing little, in many cases
restrictions of the house of Windsor for — with subscribers. They are drawn by
the distribution platforms of Netflix and
is not as simple as it sounds
Spotify. Making your own shows and
controlling your own image are easier Duke and duchess’s
when not constrained by royal protocol.
podcast deal with Spotify
It equally says something wider about
celebrity and the media: the performer’s shows how celebrities are
power has outstripped that of publisher
seizing control of the media
We may have been handed a miraculous fix, but the path to recovery will still be long and broadcaster. Celebrities once relied
on others to assemble an audience, but
stars such as Prince Harry and his wife the control it offers and the fact that
dling of the Covid-19 pandemic that left We cannot count on rapid growth to buy debt, sits idly on their balance Meghan Markle can do it themselves. they keep 80 per cent of revenues.
Adam
us needing a miracle. With the arrival of help us pay that debt. Nor will inflation sheets in the form of bank reserves, The British monarchy is a media plat- The Sussexes, with their deals at Spot-
Tooze vaccines, we may be able to tame coro- come to our rescue to eat away at its real which show no sign of spilling over into form of a traditional kind — the individ- ify and Netflix, are at the posh end of the
navirus through mass inoculation, but value. Europe, like Japan before it, lives real spending that might trigger infla- ual is less important than the collective scale. But they are clever enough to
that will not shield us from the wider under the shadow of deflation. But what tionary pressure. brand. The Queen would not express it know that fans now crave more from
consequences of our failure or simply we do have going for us, in the absence of How we choose to handle this fragile in this way, but much of the loyalty it celebrities than a few red-carpet shots
reset us to pre-pandemic prosperity. serious inflationary risk, is a newfound equilibrium poses the most important commands from citizens stems from its and magazine interviews — they
I t’s a surprise, but 2020 is not ending Too often when we think of historical freedom in setting monetary and decision facing global economies as we expertise in mass communication and demand at least a glimpse of intimacy.
on a totally gloomy note. Perhaps it “restarts” — whether Franklin Roo- financial policy. look for paths to recovery. The answer live entertainment. One study of female US students who
will be a V-shaped recovery after sevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, the 1944 For all the influence of John Maynard will be a test of our politics as telling, in The Sussexes’ wedding in 2018, filled followed celebrities on social media
all, where V stands for vaccine. By Bretton Woods conference that under- Keynes and the introduction of welfare its own way, as the response to the pan- with pageantry and symbolism and found that they became more attached
holding out the promise of an immi- pinned so much of our system of global states, those who dealt with the finan- demic itself. broadcast globally, was a prime exam- to those who shared aspects of their per-
nent return to the “before time”, the economic governance, the Marshall cial aftermath of the second world war There will be those who are uncom- ple. Meghan Markle already enjoyed sonal lives and showed some humanity.
news of the vaccines has transformed Plan to kickstart postwar recovery, or were conventional in their attachment fortable with this fact. They will claim, some fame from acting in the “It makes them more real if they joke
the outlook. Markets are exuberant and the UK’s welfare state — we remember to a modified version of the gold stand- as the UK prime minister Margaret series Suits; the family’s capacity to com- and stuff . . . It’s like, ‘OK, they are
there is brave talk of a global economic the sunny highlights while ignoring the ard — currencies were pegged to the dol- Thatcher did in the 1980s that “there is mand attention for its members made it human too,’” said one.
rebound next year. bombed-out, exhausted, contentious, no alternative” to returning to a path of much greater. The couple has learnt the lesson,
Never has the world depended to such financially stretched background from financial sustainability by way of urgent But from the celebrity perspective, starting off their trailer with some
a degree on the success of a single scien- which reconstruction was launched. Too often, when we think austerity measures. But the slogan being part of the monarchy has two Anglo-American flirtation. “[You] say it
tific research programme. It is hard not In 2021, the aftermath of the pan- masked a choice then, just as it did in drawbacks. First, it is strictly ranked. because I think it sounds really nice with
of historical ‘restarts’
to think of Winston Churchill’s immor- demic may not be as bad as that. But it is 2010, when the UK’s coalition govern- Prince Harry has fallen to sixth in line to your accent,” the duchess said. Their
tal line about the Battle of Britain: never going to be tough — and we should rec- we remember only ment, along with the rest of the G20, the throne, thanks to Prince William’s podcast was pilloried by the MailOnline
was so much owed by so many to so few. ognise that now if we want to have any engaged in a disastrous round of three children, and can do nothing to for being “toe-curling”, but I detect a
the sunny highlights
The problem with that glorious hope of making a sustained recovery. belt-tightening. The result was to stunt alter that — he is not a pop star who can note of professional rivalry.
mythology is that it downplays the The pandemic has greatly intensified the recovery. top the charts with another hit. Given a choice between royalty and
defeats that put the UK in the perilous existing inequality. In the US this winter, lar, which was convertible to gold. This We should learn from that mistake The drama of rank, and the strains it celebrity, the couple has picked (with
position it was in in 1940 and made the millions face unemployment and desti- stemmed the risk of inflation but the this time around and forgo austerity imposes on the individuals who get some hedging) the latter. It shows as
road to victory so arduous. As a counter- tution. The social crisis in Europe, so far results were repeated crises, as foreign measures in favour of generous crisis pushed to the margins of succession and much about the media as the Sussexes
point, consider the disturbing associa- contained by furlough schemes and exchange reserves ran perilously low. To relief for those most in need, and long- prominence, play out across several that they are now the narrators.
tions brought to mind by Robert Har- emergency loans, is only just beginning. contain those risks, fiscal discipline was term investment in the transition to series of The Crown. The tension is
ris’s novel about Adolf Hitler’s last-gasp Businesses in their tens of thousands tight in the decades after 1945. green energy. intense when one member, such as the [email protected]
miracle weapon, the V2 rockets. have gone under. We, by contrast, are heirs to the col- Scientists may have provided much of
Hurtling across the English Channel Not only is Brexit likely to cause more lapse of Bretton Woods in the 1970s. The the world with a miraculous fix for its
at three times the speed of sound, there chaos in January, but national lock- money in which today’s governments botched handling of the pandemic, but
was no defence against these ballistic downs around the world have thrown owe their debts is fiat money: in other there is no magic bullet for the problem Top reads at FT.com/opinion
missiles. Besieged Londoners got by the global trading system out of sync. words, they make it themselves. of recovery. The next financial move is
with a mixture of superstition, oblivi- Mountains of containers are piled up in Interest rates are at rock bottom. up to us to decide. Let us avoid embrac-
ousness and the latest in radar and the wrong places. In the poorest parts of There is no rush to repay the bonds. ing false necessities for a second time. 3 There is no stock market bubble 3 Activist chief executives are focusing
ballistics. But for all the terror they the world hundreds of millions face Central banks have warehoused vast The bigger question is whether rock- on the bottom line
instilled, the rockets could not save intensifying hunger. And supervening quantities of them, which means that The writer is the author of ‘Crashed: How a bottom interest rates will revert to ‘normal’ Progressivism may last only as long as it
Hitler’s war. all that is the largest surge in public debt we effectively owe the debt to ourselves. Decade of Financial Crises Changed the and, if so, when, writes Martin Wolf boosts share prices, writes Brooke Masters
In 2020, it was our disastrous mishan- since the war. The cash they conjured into existence to World’

DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Features Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:35 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: COMMENT USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 9, 1
10 ★ FTWeekend 19 December/20 December 2020
Carbon conundrum Offset tactics are Further afield Foreign investors rush back
dividing the airline industry to emerging markets
— THE TOP LINE, PAGE 11 — MARKETS, PAGE 13
Sony pulls prized game after Deutsche Bahn debt rise
prompts state aid charge
‘worst-case scenario’ launch
Erika Solomon — Berlin that hand out more than €250m of aid
Javier Espinoza — Brussels must make sure that it is not distorting
Germany has been accused of provid- the market.
3 ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ hit by glitches 3 Developer CD Projekt Red’s shares slide ing unfair state aid to Deutsche The commission must wait for Berlin
Bahn, Europe’s largest railway com- to present its package before it can
pany, in a complaint to the European assess its next steps, according to people
Commission. familiar with the matter. One person
said that if FlixMobility is right about its
Transport provider FlixMobility has complaint, the commission could act
filed the complaint, saying Berlin has before the package is presented.
delayed a request to Brussels to allow a “We do not oppose state aid for Deut-
€5bn capital increase to Deutsche Bahn sche Bahn in principle, but the competi-
because of fears it will be rejected for tive balance in the market needs to be
breaking state aid rules. preserved to the benefit of the entire
At the same time, Berlin is repeatedly sector,” said André Schwämmlein, Flix-
lifting Deutsche Bahn’s debt ceiling, Mobility founder and chief executive.
enabling it to raise more money in Deutsche Bahn said: “The accusations
bonds in the markets that investors con- are unfounded and simply not accurate,
sider state-backed, according to the partly because the complainant is com-
Munich-based transport provider. paring apples and oranges.
Germany’s Bundestag on Wednesday “In view of the factual situation, we
agreed to raise Deutsche Bahn’s debt look forward to the upcoming discus-
ceiling once more to €32bn and plans a sions with composure.”
further increase to €35bn next year as it The German transport ministry said
tries to help the company deal with its FlixMobility’s complaint should be put
biggest ever losses. to the EU and would add no further
FlixMobility, which partners with pri- comment.
vate bus and train operators across The country’s commission on monop-
Europe and the US, says the lifting of the olies has also raised concerns about the
debt ceiling gives Deutsche Bahn an debt, requesting several measures to
unfair competitive advantage. ensure fair competition. This included
The company says the commission lowering track fees for private compa-
would be likely to impose measures to nies as well as improving financial
ensure fair competition, as countries transparency and data sharing.
Banks
Lloyds axes staff bonuses after
lender suffers profit plunge
Nicholas Megaw and Stephen Morris are short of the commitments we made
London to ourselves and our shareholders.”
A ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ booth attracts crowds at a California games event last year. PlayStation store customers are being offered refunds — Mike Blake/Reuters Lloyds Banking Group has cancelled all The memo added that Lloyds would
staff bonuses for 2020 because of a consider offering staff “recognition
sharp fall in profits caused by the coro- shares” in the company next year to
Leo Lewis — Tokyo joint chief executive, said the suspen- “until further notice”, Sony said. that a platform provider like Sony navirus pandemic. help offset the blow of the cancelled
Dave Lee — San Francisco sion was “temporary” and that there Microsoft did not respond to a request would need to be really angry with the bonuses. Lloyds’ bonus pool is normally
Sony stunned the games market by were no current discussions about for comment about whether it would developer and desperate to protect their In a memo sent to staff on Thursday and set at about 5 per cent of underlying
removing Cyberpunk 2077 from its Microsoft also pulling the game from its follow suit. reputation as a platform. Quality is such seen by the Financial Times, Lloyds’ profit. But the bank said in its latest
online PlayStation store a week before online store. Sony said it did not have a timeline for a big issue that Sony will have seen no people and property director Matt Sin- annual report that it would not pay any
Christmas and offering full refunds to He noted that gamers can “continue reinstating the game. CD Projekt Red other choice. My guess is that Microsoft nott said the bank would not meet the bonus if its underlying profit was more
disappointed customers, after one of the to purchase physical versions of the has promised to release fixes for the will follow.” minimum profit threshold to pay any than 20 per cent below its initial target.
most expensive and anticipated titles in PlayStation edition in retail and mail game in January and February. The game’s release comes just one “group performance share” awards. The bank returned to profit in the
industry history was hit by glitches. order stores”. month after the launches of two next The slash to the bonus pool — which third quarter, but its pre-tax profit for
Analysts in Tokyo said that it was the The game, which was first teased in a The game, which was generation consoles — Sony’s Play- was worth £310m last year and £465m the first nine months of the year was still
first time that Sony had pulled a so- trailer in 2013, is one of the most antici- Station 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X in 2018 — highlights the particular chal- down 85 per cent year-on-year after
first teased in a trailer in
called “triple-A” title from its download pated in history, despite repeated — and was seen as a showcase title. The lenges facing lenders that do not have loan loss provisions pushed it to a loss in
store. delays. More than 8m people ordered it 2013, is one of the most period ahead of the Cyberpunk 2077 investment banking operations to offset the first half.
The move was a “humiliation” for CD on consoles and PCs before its release, launch, however, generated speculation pressure in the retail banking market. Low interest rates are expected to
anticipated in history
Projekt Red, the Polish studio that pro- anticipating a success similar to the stu- that it may have been rushed to market, Lloyds’ rival Barclays, for example, is weigh on retail banks’ profitability even
duced Cyberpunk 2077, a dystopian dio’s previous game, the melancholic despite known quality issues. preparing to boost its payouts after its after the worst of the pandemic has
thriller starring a digital Keanu Reeves, fantasy adventure Witcher 3, which sold “We are working hard to bring Cyber- Among those expressing frustration investment banking unit benefited from passed, and Lloyds has announced more
costing around $60 and forecast to sell 28m copies. punk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as with the game on Twitter was Elon market volatility. than 1,900 job cuts since September to
30m copies over the next two years. But gamers reported serious issues soon as possible,” CD Projekt Red wrote Musk, Tesla chief executive. “Despite the good news about the vac- help cut costs and deal with the pres-
CD Projekt Red’s Warsaw-traded with Cyberpunk 2077, such as crashes, on Twitter yesterday. In October, Amazon’s game studio cine rollout, like most of our peers our sure. The bank added that it would give
shares tumbled as much as 20 per cent visual glitches and malfunctioning “It’s the worst-case scenario for CD took the decision to cancel its own title year-to-date business performance con- above-inflation annual pay rises to a
yesterday, with the stock down 40 per mechanics almost immediately after it Projekt Red,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo- Crucible just six months after its release, tinues to be challenging,” Mr Sinnott majority of staff, with a focus on those
cent since the game was released. launched on December 10. based analyst and games industry con- following a poor reception. said. “While we have returned to profit, on lower salaries.
Adam Kicinski, the game studio’s The game would not be on sale sultant. “Before you pull a game like Additional reporting by James Shotter we are not where we expected to be and See Lex
Technology. Competition
Antitrust regulators set their sights on fast-growing Apple Pay
“Apple Wallet is a killer app — more of keen to put Apple Pay high on their list. makers access to its devices’ NFC chips ually separate it from other choices.” are far larger than Apple in peer-to-peer
The fintech has been thrust
a killer app than much of the world “It is clear to me that there is a very large for non-payment functions. Such tactics may conflict with regula- payments and most have Android and
on to the front lines by really understands right now. And it’s appetite toward pursuing antitrust Another issue is that Apple Pay’s Wal- tions proposed by the EU this week iOS apps, giving them a wider market.
absolutely going to become a battle- cases towards Apple,” he said. “There is let app comes pre-installed and cannot under which Big Tech companies must But Apple is linking its services in
pandemic safety measures ground for regulators in the future.” political momentum behind it.” be deleted, unlike rival payment tools not promote their services above those ways that might expand its reach, offer-
In June, the European Commission The potential competition issues for such as PayPal, and Apple goes to some of rivals on the platforms they operate. ing rewards on its credit card, for
opened a formal antitrust probe into Apple Pay revolve around how Apple lengths to encourage its use. If Apple avoids regulatory pressure, instance, that accumulate in a user’s
Patrick McGee — San Francisco Apple Pay and this month competition blocks its rivals from using the near- “Make Apple Pay the default payment its payments arm could eventually over- wallet, encouraging future peer-to-peer
Apple’s next antitrust battle is shaping regulators in the Netherlands launched field communication technology (NFC) option when possible,” Apple says in an take the App Store in terms of revenue, payments to flow out of Apple’s wallet
up to be over Apple Pay, the digital wal- their own investigation. Philip Lowe, on iPhones and Apple Watches, which online guide for app developers. “If said Arik Shtilman, chief executive of rather than Zelle or Venmo.
let, as the Covid-19 pandemic turbo- Australia’s central bank chief, recently enables tap-and-go payments. Apple Pay is enabled, assume the person Rapyd, a fintech services group in Lon- Making Apple Pay stickier will help
charges use of contactless payments. said Apple’s approach to payments was “Apple only giving the consumer one wants to use it. Consider presenting the don. The App Store earned Apple more Apple expand into more “value-added
The company has spent much of 2020 “raising competition issues”. option in how to use that technology to Apple Pay button as the first or only than $20bn of net revenue in the past 12 services” such as Buy Now, Pay Later
fighting allegations of anti-competitive Apple Pay allows users to store their pay for services is what will get the payment option, displaying it larger months, according to Sensor Tower. schemes, predicted Jaime Toplin, pay-
behaviour in its App Store. By contrast, payment card details on their iPhone or attention of regulators,” said Jonathan than other options, or using a line to vis- “Easily it could have a much bigger ments analyst at Insider Intelligence.
its financial services business has Apple Watch and to pay by tapping on a Osborne, a former federal prosecutor in impact on revenue than the App Store,” Alipay and WeChat Pay have already
attracted little attention in the US, mer- terminal. It is used by 507m people, Florida and attorney with Gunster. said Mr Shtilman. “There is no reason shown how to expand from contactless
iting only a passing mention in a 450- according to analysts at Loup Ventures, Apple claims the restriction is about why it can't grow at a compound rate payments to microloans, wealth man-
page report by Congress’ antitrust sub- or roughly half of all iPhone users, up security. Ms Bailey told Brussels in [and] get to tens of billions of dollars in agement, insurance and paying bills.
committee in October. from 67m four years ago. December that Apple wants to keep all 10 years.” More modestly, analysts at It is unclear if Apple holds such ambi-
But Apple Pay is growing fast as con- Apple takes an estimated 0.15 per user data private. “We don’t store or Evercore ISI suggest Apple Pay fees tions. But when Tim Cook, chief execu-
sumers try not to touch buttons or han- cent fee on each transaction, and ana- have access to your original bank card could amount to $6.5bn by 2024. tive, was asked about Apple Pay in Octo-
dle cash because of the coronavirus. Jen- lysts at Bernstein estimated, before the or credit card number — and neither But Apple Pay has yet to make a dent ber, his excitement was clear. “Apple
nifer Bailey, head of Apple Pay, said this pandemic, that it would facilitate one in does the merchant,” she said. “So when in big markets such as China, where Ali- Pay is doing exceptionally well,” he told
month that contactless payments have 10 credit card transactions by 2025. In a you buy something using Apple Pay, pay and WeChat Pay dominate, and investors. Covid-19 had put the US “on a
gone from “being a convenience to a survey, Visa found that nearly half of Apple doesn’t know what you bought, or Mexico, where 85 per cent of people use different trajectory” in adopting con-
matter of public health.” consumers “would not shop” at stores where you bought it.” Android smartphones. “It’s cool and it’s tactless. “So we are very bullish about
Jason Gardner, chief executive of Cali- that fail to offer touchless checkout. Rivals, she said, might use “a techni- great but it’s not the only game in town,” this area. There are more things Apple
fornia-based payments platform Mar- Thomas Vinje, partner at Clifford cal architecture that’s ultimately less said Thomas Olsen, a Bain consultant. can do in this space. And so it’s an area of
qeta, said: “They are really building out, Chance, the law firm, who has worked private and less secure”. But critics point In the US and Europe, Google, Sam- great interest to us.”
within the Apple Pay team, a financial on Spotify’s competition complaint out that Apple does allow carmakers, Apple blocks rivals from technology sung, Starbucks, Venmo, Zelle, Square Additional reporting by Javier Espinoza
services juggernaut.” against Apple, said EU regulators are hotel companies and gym equipment that enables tap-and-go payments and Amazon offer digital wallets. Some in Brussels
—
DECEMBER 19 2020 Section:Companies Time: 18/12/2020 - 18:47 User: cathy.pryor Page Name: CONEWS1, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 10, 1