Potential recusal of Jonathan Kanter in DOJ’s case against Google could draw Senate Judiciary Committee attention during his confirmation to lead the department's Antitrust Division (see 2107200070). Some experts told us last week there’s a stronger case for Kanter’s recusal than requests for FTC Chair Lina Khan's disqualification from cases involving Amazon and Facebook (see 2107160052). Senators told us they’re reviewing Kanter’s record.

AT&T and Washington, D.C., area builder JBG Smith signed a letter of intent to work together on “the first 5G Smart City at scale” at the National Landing development, with deployments starting early next year. “5G, with local area compute edges, could make National Landing a prototype for smart cities of the future,” the companies said Tuesday: “The area could also enhance offerings in mobility and self-driving vehicles, immersive retail and entertainment, and building automation and environmental sustainability.”

AT&T and Washington, D.C., area builder JBG Smith signed a letter of intent to work together on “the first 5G Smart City at scale” at the National Landing development, with deployments starting early next year. “5G, with local area compute edges, could make National Landing a prototype for smart cities of the future,” the companies said Tuesday: “The area could also enhance offerings in mobility and self-driving vehicles, immersive retail and entertainment, and building automation and environmental sustainability.”

AT&T and Washington, D.C., area builder JBG Smith signed a letter of intent to work together on “the first 5G Smart City at scale” at the National Landing development, with deployments starting early next year. “5G, with local area compute edges, could make National Landing a prototype for smart cities of the future,” the companies said Tuesday: “The area could also enhance offerings in mobility and self-driving vehicles, immersive retail and entertainment, and building automation and environmental sustainability.”

An amicus brief from a group of domestic agricultural goods producers reared its head in a second case over when the six-year limitations period begins for a customs bond. A group of surety associations should not be able to argue in the case due to their role in "abetting the new shipper bond disaster," the producers argued in their July 16 amicus brief that was granted permission to be filed in the case (United States v. Aegis Security Insurance Co., CIT #20-03628).

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said there is now political support to move forward on an agreement to curb subsidies that lead to overfishing. The draft text has been blessed by all the heads of delegations in Geneva, she said in a news conference July 15.

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said there is now political support to move forward on an agreement to curb subsidies that lead to overfishing. The draft text has been blessed by all the heads of delegations in Geneva, she said in a news conference July 15.

The FCC approval Friday of AT&T's spinoff of its North American video distribution business came with no conditions. See also our news bulletin here. The International and Wireless bureaus order approving transfer of some satellite, earth station and private land mobile radio licenses said that since TPG Capital, which is buying a 30% stake in the spinoff, has no significant video programming or distribution assets, New DirecTV poses "no adverse effect on market concentration or likely competitive or public interest harms." Staff said no one had challenged AT&T and TPG assertions that the $7.8 billion deal announced in February (see 2102240046) would make New DirecTV more competitive through dedicated management, an ability to focus solely on the video business and the addition of capital and resources. Network affiliates had sought a condition requiring provide local-into-local service into all designated market areas (see 2105040055). The bureaus' order said nothing in the record points to New DirecTV having any less incentive to carry local broadcast channels and the affiliates didn't put forward evidence or a good theory showing New DirecTV would have different competitive pressures in those markets post transaction. Indie programmer RMG had urged that New DirecTV be required to allocate at least 1% of its channel lineup for rural-focused programming and be barred from removing rural content from its post-spinoff programming lineup. The order said the spinoff doesn't raise vertical integration concerns that New DirecTV would discriminate against unaffiliated programmers or change the incentives behind DirecTV program carriage decisions. AT&T said it "appreciate[s] the FCC’s prompt review and approval."

In a report accompanying the spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, House appropriators said they still want a briefing on its efforts to improve automated cargo processing, including scanning at land ports of entry. The report directs the agency to provide the briefing within 60 days of the spending bill's signing. They also asked for a brief within 60 days on how CBP's two-year-old strategy to interdict opioids is going, and what they will do next. They noted that since 2018, Congress has provided more than $200 million in support of interdiction, including money for international mail and consignment facilities, and that it expects CBP and the U.S. Postal Service to have higher capture rates. They also asked for a report within 120 days on whether duties on imported aluminum are being properly assessed when the aluminum "exempt from certain tariffs" is entering the U.S. The report does not say whether they are concerned that aluminum from countries not covered by Section 232 is being wrongly taxed, or whether parties that have exclusions are not receiving the benefits of the exclusions. A press aide did not respond to questions on this part of the report by press time.

With nearly 3.6 million households enrolled in the emergency broadband benefit, experts want the FCC to release additional data about enrollment rates and subsidy amounts to better evaluate EBB effectiveness. Others said also in interviews last week the commission should revisit the rules to require more frequent reporting from participating providers to forecast when the program may end.