Apple to Pay $113 Million Over Battery Throttling

Apple agreed on Wednesday to pay $113 million to settle an investigation by more than 30 states into its past practice of secretly slowing down older iPhones to preserve their battery life.

Apple’s practice of throttling phones was a black eye for the company when it was revealed in 2017, seeming to confirm some customers’ suspicions that their devices got slower when Apple released new phones. Apple said at the time that its software had slowed down phones with older batteries to prevent them from shutting off unexpectedly. Apple offered some customers free battery replacements in response to the controversy.

As part of its settlement with the states, Apple must be more transparent about how it manages battery life on its devices. Apple previously agreed to pay up to $500 million to affected customers to settle a separate class-action suit.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment but pointed to language in the settlement that said the agreement did not mean Apple has admitted any wrongdoing.

“Wonder Woman 1984,” the last potential blockbuster remaining on the 2020 movie calendar, will open both in theaters and on WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, HBO Max, on Dec. 25, the company announced Wednesday.

The news was expected, as many cities around the country have shut down theaters in an attempt to stem a rise in Covid-19 cases. Internationally, the film will open in theaters on Dec. 16.

Warner Bros. made the announcement four months after the studio tried to lure moviegoers back to theaters with the summer release of “Tenet” from the director Christopher Nolan. That film generated some $353 million worldwide, with only $56 million coming from U.S. audiences. The $200 million sci-fi film is expected to lose money for the studio.

With the box office so uncertain, a streaming debut should provide a boost to HBO Max, which has struggled to generate consumer enthusiasm since it started in May. WarnerMedia said “Wonder Woman 1984” would be available to stream for a month at no extra cost to subscribers, which as of last month totaled 38 million.

Offering a superhero film during the holidays, when many expect much of the country to be shut down, could be just the boon the company is looking for. (This week, WarnerMedia announced that HBO Max would be available on Amazon’s Fire Stick. It is still not available with Roku streaming technology.)

“This is an amazing film that really comes to life on the big screen, and working with our partners in the exhibition community, we will provide that option to consumers in the U.S. where theaters are open,” said Ann Sarnoff, chief executive of WarnerMedia Studios. “We realize that a lot of consumers can’t go back to the movies due to the pandemic, so we also want to give them the option to see ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ via our HBO Max platform.”

The first “Wonder Woman,” from 2017, earned $800 million worldwide. Of that, $400 million came from audiences in the United States and Canada. The sequel takes place in 1984 and reunites the director Patty Jenkins with the actors Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. Kristen Wiig will portray the villain Cheetah.

Ms. Jenkins said on Twitter on Wednesday, “We truly hope that our film brings a little bit of joy and reprieve to all of you this holiday season.”

Facebook announced in August an extension of its coronavirus-protection policy, telling employees to continue working from home until July 2021.

But the safeguard was not extended to all of Facebook’s thousands of contractors who are deployed as content moderators around the world to screen out hate speech, misinformation, sexual harassment, child abuse and other harmful content. Many of the moderators, who work for outsourcing firms like Accenture and CPL, have been called back to the office.

On Wednesday, more than 200 moderators and other Facebook workers sent an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive; Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer; and the top executives at Accenture and CPL, criticizing their treatment of content moderators. Workers in Ireland, Germany, Poland and the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Foxglove, a law firm representing the moderators.

The moderators, who are classified as contractors, said their health was being sacrificed to help Facebook respond to growing pressure from policymakers and regulators around the world who want the company to do more to clean up its platform. Without their contributions, the moderators said, Facebook cannot do the job.

“Without our work, Facebook is unusable,” the letter said. “Your algorithms cannot spot satire. They cannot sift journalism from disinformation. They cannot respond quickly enough to self-harm or child abuse. We can.”

The letter was circulated on Facebook’s internal network called Workplace. About 30 percent of the signatories included their name or contact information, while the rest asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said Cori Crider, a lawyer at Foxglove.

In the letter, the workers asked Facebook, Accenture and CPL to maximize work-from-home capabilities, particularly for those who are in a high-risk group for becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 or who live with somebody at high risk. They also called for hazard pay and improved health care and mental health support. As contractors, they are not entitled to the same benefits as full-time employees.

Facebook defended its practices, saying that a majority of its 15,000 content reviewers continue to work from home during the pandemic and that it provides health care and “well-being resources” for workers.

“While we believe in having an open internal dialogue, these discussions need to be honest,” Toby Partlett, a spokesman for Facebook, said in a statement. “Facebook has exceeded health guidance on keeping facilities safe for any in-office work.”

The letter highlights the squeeze Facebook is facing. As workers criticize the company for poor treatment, the company is under pressure to more aggressively screen out harmful material.

The workers called for the company to stop outsourcing the work to companies like Accenture and CPL and to bring the jobs in-house, where the workers would receive better pay and benefits.

“If moderators are so vital to Facebook’s business that it will ask them to risk their lives to work in offices with live Covid cases,” Ms. Crider said, “Facebook ought to employ them and give them the full rights of Facebook employees.”

• Stocks on Wall Street fell on Wednesday, as continuing worries about the spread of the pandemic overcame fresh optimism about a coronavirus vaccine.

• News of effective vaccine trials has helped lift the S&P 500 index by about 9 percent this month. On Wednesday, Pfizer said that complete results from a late-stage trial showed its vaccine was 95 percent effective with no serious side effects. The company and its partner BioNTech plan to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization “within days.”

• But exuberance about vaccines has more recently been tempered by the number of coronavirus cases climbing to records in the United States. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell more than 1 percent, giving up early gains after New York City said its public school system would shutter on Thursday because of rising cases. There have also been announcements of new shutdowns in other parts of the world, including Sweden and Australia, months before the vaccines will be widely available.

• On Tuesday, Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, cautioned that although progress toward a vaccine is good news for the medium term, it is too soon to account for it with any confidence. “Even in the best case, widespread vaccination is months in the future,” Mr. Powell said, noting that there is a risk “people will lose confidence” and pull back from economic activity in the near term as the virus spreads and they try to avoid infection.

• The aerospace giant Boeing on Wednesday received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume flights for its 737 Max. The plane had been grounded for 20 months following two fatal crashes that were blamed on faulty software and company and government failures. The gains in Boeing’s shares early in the day also faded and the stock ended more than 3 percent lower by the close of trading.

• Carnival, the cruise operator, fell 2.6 percent after it said it had canceled more cruises, including those leaving from the United States through January.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research warned on Wednesday that there were “significant downside risks” to the nation’s financial stability from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and predicted that many households and businesses might be unable to recover without additional government assistance.

In its annual report to Congress, the O.F.R. detailed the gravity of the threat that the financial system faced earlier this year as the virus unexpectedly compelled businesses to shut down across the United States and caused officials to impose stay-at-home orders around much of the country. It praised government efforts to support the economy, but suggested that substantial uncertainty remains because of the unpredictable path of the virus.

“Due to the novelty of the virus, the unknowns of its course and the response of health policy, many businesses are unsure when or even if they will resume normal operations and what new safeguards they must erect,” the report said. “Such uncertainty can weigh heavily on economic activity.”

The report from O.F.R., which was created out of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and is a bureau within the Treasury Department, comes as lawmakers and the White House have failed to find a path forward to provide additional economic relief money to millions of struggling Americans. The report said that the “considerable” monetary and fiscal stimulus implemented earlier this year did serve as a bridge to an economic recovery, but that macroeconomic risk still remains “unusually high.”

Credit risk remains one of the biggest concerns, as lenders to the commercial real estate, energy and “high touch” sectors face big losses from defaults and bankruptcies. Meanwhile, a return to elevated valuations for risky assets could lead to another round of market stress despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to stabilize markets earlier this year.

Democrats and Republicans have been divided for months over the scale of another stimulus package. House Democrats passed a $3 trillion bill in May, while Senate Republicans, concerned about mounting debt, favored a more targeted $500 billion bill that they were unable to pass.

O.F.R. noted that the federal debt is a long-term risk, but suggested that there were more immediate concerns facing the economy.

“Many households and businesses may be unable to recover absent additional government support,” the report said.

Earlier this year, as the British government was spending billions of pounds in a rush to secure masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment for its frontline workers, it was often failing to document why it chose one vendor over another, the country’s National Audit Office said Wednesday. The hasty process led to expensive mistakes and a lack of documentation to address potential conflicts of interest.

Over all, more than 8,600 contracts worth £18 billion ($23.9 billion) were awarded by the end of July for pandemic-related expenses, with 80 percent of the contracts for personal protective equipment. The report comes amid growing frustration at the escalating amount spent on private companies to help fight the pandemic, and concerns about conflicts of interest by leaders in the government’s pandemic-response teams.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday defended the government’s actions, telling lawmakers that at the start of the pandemic there wasn’t adequate personal protective equipment anywhere in the world. “Facing a very difficult situation,” he said, the government secured 32 billion masks, gowns and other items. He was responding to a question about reports of $28 million in taxpayer money going to a Spanish businessman who acted as a middleman in contracts to secure P.P.E. for Britain’s National Health Service.

The audit report said there was “a lack of transparency and adequate documentation” into important decisions, including why certain suppliers were chosen and how the government sought to identify and avoid conflicts of interest when it awarded contracts.

More than half of the £17.3 billion in new contracts were awarded without a competitive process. And suppliers that were referred by government officials and ministers were given “high priority.”

“While we recognize that these were exceptional circumstances, it remains essential that decisions are properly documented and made transparent if government is to maintain public trust,” Gareth Davies, head of the audit office, said in a statement.

The report also highlighted examples of speedy procurement leading to mistakes, including the purchase of 50 million masks for £155 million that fell short of the government’s specifications.

The National Audit Office said that should there again be a need to quickly procure a large volume of goods, the government would need to address potential conflicts of interest earlier in the process.

The consequences of President Trump’s refusal to concede the election has leaders in government and business worried. Speaking at the DealBook Online Summit Tuesday and Wednesday, they said administrative delays threaten a smooth transition that’s especially critical in a pandemic and amid economic crisis. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said she was “very worried about the transition process.”

“This is not a game,” Ms. Warren added. “People around the world, people who would do us harm, are watching what’s happening. They’re watching the delay in the transition.”

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, expressed similar dismay: “We need a peaceful transition. We had an election. We have a new president. We should support that, whether you like the election outcome or not, you should support the democracy because it is based on a system of faith and trust. ”

Refusal to concede doesn’t present just abstract threats, experts said. There are practical considerations, like the fact that the General Services Administration has so far refused to acknowledge President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win, which means the incoming administration has no access to offices, experts, funds and information it needs to manage the pandemic and to govern in January.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, noted during the summit that in 35 years he has dealt with six administrations through five transitions. “I can say that transitions are extremely important to the smooth continuity of what we are doing,” he said. “You want to have the continuity.”

Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer, similarly noted on Tuesday that working on a coronavirus vaccine approval and release during a transition is not “ideal,” adding, “It’s always better when there is clear accountability and leadership.” Pfizer on Wednesday said that it planned to seek emergency regulatory approval for its vaccine “within days”; preliminary data have shown the vaccine to be 95 percent effective.

First, the parts of the economy that were smacked hardest and earliest by job losses were ones where women dominate — restaurants, retail businesses and health care.

Then, a second wave began taking out local and state government jobs, another area where women outnumber men.

The third blow has, for many, been the knockout: the closing of child care centers and the shift to remote schooling. That has saddled working mothers, much more than fathers, with overwhelming household responsibilities.

It is a rare and ruinous one-two-three punch that’s not just pushing women out of jobs they held, but also preventing many from seeking new ones, The New York Times’s Patricia Cohen reports. For an individual, it could limit prospects and earnings over a lifetime. Across a nation, it could stunt growth, robbing the economy of educated, experienced and dedicated workers.

• The latest jobs report from the Labor Department showed that there were 4.5 million fewer women employed in October than there were a year ago, compared with 4.1 million men.

• According to the Census Bureau, a third of the working women 25 to 44 years old who are unemployed said the reason was child care demands. Only 12 percent of unemployed men cited those demands.

• The burdens of the pandemic-induced recession have fallen most heavily on low-income and minority women and single mothers. The jobless rate is 9.2 percent for Black women and 9 percent for Hispanic women, compared with 6.5 percent for women over all.

• Changes forced on women by the pandemic elicit a mixture of anxiety and hope. Many women worry that the changes will sharply narrow women’s choices and push them unwillingly into the unpaid role of full-time homemaker.

Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, underscored the impact during a webcast event on Tuesday. Citing the departure of women from the work force in “big numbers now as children stay home,” he added, “You could see women who not by preference, but by requirement, are at home, and their careers may be hurt.”