The pandemic is accelerating global cord cutting, with worldwide pay-TV market subscribership likely to decline slightly this year to 1.07 billion, ABI Research said Wednesday. Cancellation of many live sports events resulted in fans dropping their pay-TV packages, it said. Cord cutting had been largely occurring in mature markets with high broadband penetration, but the economic effects of the pandemic are also driving cord cutting in emerging markets, it said. Those losses are likely temporary, with sports fans returning and pay-TV growth in emerging markets beyond the pandemic, it said: The global subscriber base is expected to hit 1.1 billion by 2025. The Diffusion Group said Wednesday it sees more than half of U.S. broadband homes without an MVPD service by 2025, with pay-TV services losing 36% of their 2020 subscriber base. Between 2015 and 2020, they lost 9.5%, TDG said. Currently, 27% of U.S. broadband households are without an MVPD service.

Wide availability of 5G smartphones will drive fifth-generation adoption to 2.3 billion users by 2024, projected Credit Suisse Monday. The launch of the first 5G iPhone “is set to be a key catalyst for 5G uptake,” especially in the U.S., it said. Apple jumped into the 5G era Tuesday, introducing four 5G iPhones (see 2010130043). “While applications are potentially exciting, there is no 5G ‘killer app’ for mass market consumers as yet, in the way that streaming media was for 4G uptake.” Most 5G launches so far focused on high-volume data bundles and handsets, rather than apps, limiting expected revenue growth through 2024, the analysts said.

Global supply chains are confronting an “evolution” that will completely change how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) organize and run their organizations, reported Gartner Thursday. A good supply chain in the past was “efficient and powerful,” but it must now be “agile and fast,” it said. Uncertainty is the new “constant” in supply chains, said Gartner. No one knows "where the next competitor will come from and what their impact will be,” it said. Nearly half of CSCOs Gartner canvassed expressed concern “that their business is at risk of being disrupted in the coming years, with the greatest risk coming from nontraditional businesses such as startups,” it said. Uncertainty from the U.S.-China trade war remains a looming threat that won’t go away soon, it said. “More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concern about future pandemics, after shutting down global supply chains and trade routes.” The ongoing uncertainty “calls for a new approach to supply chain management,” it said. “CSCOs must build more flexible and resilient networks that can respond effectively to global shocks and disruptions -- be it caused by nature or a competitor.”

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security extended by two weeks to Nov. 9 comments on its pre-rule on foundational technologies (see 2010050039), says Friday's Federal Register. It clarified the agency will accept “confidential business information” if commenters follow certain guidelines such as that they “clearly identify” that private portion and justify its nondisclosure.

Thailand imposed a “full prohibition” on e-waste imports from the U.S., Australia, Japan and other developed countries, reported the Basel Action Network Tuesday. It's among green groups urging a ban for years and is now calling on the Thai government for “vigorous enforcement of the law.” After China began banning e-waste imports two years ago, “many traders simply moved highly polluting waste operations” to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand, said BAN. It used GPS trackers to monitor e-waste flows across the world, discovering “numerous” shipments ending up in Thailand from Germany and Australia, it said. It called on all countries to impose import bans. “Once your country and countryside becomes a target of the global waste traders it is too late to prevent the destruction they can cause," said BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett. Thailand's embassy in Washington didn't comment right away.

IQiyi “substantially completed” an internal review and uncovered no "evidence that would substantiate the allegations” from short-seller firm Wolfpack Research that the company committed fraud well before its 2018 initial public offering by inflating revenue and subscriber data (see 2008140003), said iQiyi Monday. Known as the Netflix of China, it will continue cooperating with the SEC investigation, it said. It’s “unable to predict the duration, outcome or impact of the SEC investigation,” it said. “No surprise” that iQiyi again denied guilt, emailed Wolfpack founder Dan David. “We're looking forward to the SEC's investigation, which will prove wrongdoing." The agency didn’t respond to questions.

“Facts are facts,” and "the international community will not be fooled by the lies” of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Friday. Pompeo accused the Chinese government Thursday of subjecting women to “forced abortion, forced sterilization, and involuntary implantation of birth control devices” as part of its campaign “against Uyghurs and members of other minority groups.” He further accused the Chinese Communist Party of continuing to use “censorship and arbitrary detentions to crack down on the freedoms of expression and association of China’s women’s rights advocates.” Pompeo’s allegations are “completely unfounded,” said the ministry spokesperson. “The Chinese government protects the rights and interests of all ethnic minorities in equal measure, with preferential population policies toward minority groups, including Uyghurs.” Women in the U.S., “in direct contrast,” still face “systemic, prevalent and institutional discrimination and threat,” and are “21 times more likely to die” from gun violence than women in other “high-income countries,” he said. The State Department didn’t respond to questions.

The Section 301 lawsuits are an important check on the government's imposition of tariffs despite the recent claims of a domestic industry group, a customs lawyer told us. Kenneth Rapoza, an industry analyst with the Coalition for a Prosperous America, had disparaged lawyers representing companies challenging Lists 3 and 4 of the Section 301 tariffs (see 2009300028). "Importers and Exporters, Domestic Producers and the population at large have a right to expect proper federal enforcement of Trade Laws," said Simon Gluck lawyer Chris Kane in an email and on LinkedIn Thursday. "Attorneys play an indispensable role in seeing that happens. In the last BIG case, attorneys protected the rights of U.S. exporters, including the members of Mr. Rapoza’s employer, to retrospective refunds of and prospective dispensation from the Export Harbor Maintenance Tax all the way to U.S. Supreme Court and thereafter. That’s how it works in our legal system," he said.

State Department final guidance expands on the initial definition of human rights due diligence and offers red flags and due diligence considerations for exporting surveillance technology. The department didn't significantly narrow its definition for surveillance items despite industry requests. It deleted a suggestion that companies incorporate a “kill switch” to remotely deactivate a device if a company is concerned it's being misused. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation comments last year warned a kill switch could be used for “censorship or other negative purposes.” Snooping tech can be misused if exported to “foreign government end-users or private end-users that have close relationships with governments that do not demonstrate respect for human rights,” State said Wednesday. The U.S. restricts shipments to China over the country’s mass surveillance and detention of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang.

The Coalition for Prosperous America, supporting Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on China, complained Tuesday about the "cadre of legal firms" suing the Trump administration over tariffs on goods from Lists 3 and 4A (see 2009220027). "The equivalent of tariff ambulance chasers" recruited the companies to file the lawsuits, blogged Kenneth Rapoza. The analyst mentioned Sandler Travis, which said in a recent client notice there's still time to file similar challenges, and noted the role of Sandler Travis lawyer Lenny Feldman as co-chair of the Customs and Border Protection's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. The blog post highlighted Akin Gump, which filed the first lawsuit, for being the largest lobbying operation in Washington and representing ZTE. The law firms didn't comment Wednesday.