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Our newspapers are 100% sourced from sustainably certified mills.GOT A TIP FOR US? SUBMIT IT AT WSJ.COM/TIPSIn France, companies’ use
of temp workers rose to 16.8%
of employees in 2018 from
14.5% in 2009. A Page One arti-
cle on Nov. 18 about Europe’s
job market incorrectly said
16.2% and 13%, respectively.
Also, the share of workers in
temporary employment in the
Netherlands increased to 21.5%
in 2018 from 18.3% in 2009; in
Italy, it rose to 17% from 12.5%.The article incorrectly gave the
figures as 20.1%, 16.4%, 16.5%
and 10.8%, respectively.FreedomWorksis an off-
shoot of a group founded by
Charles and David Koch. An
item about the Patriot Act in
the Washington Wire column
on Saturday said that
FreedomWorks was founded
by Charles and David Koch.Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles by
[email protected] by calling 888-410-2667.CORRECTIONSAMPLIFICATIONS
volved were unlicensed driv-
ers—meaning they hadn’t been
vetted by the regulator with a
criminal-background check or
for their driving ability. At least
one ride involved a driver
whose license had been revoked
by the regulator, TfL said.
The regulator said it
couldn’t disclose how many
overall rides those 14,000 vio-
lations came from—citing
commercial sensitivity for
Uber. It said, though, the num-
ber of customers affected was
significant.
TfL said Uber told the regu-
lator about the unauthorized
accounts this summer, but TfL
found the problem to be wide-
spread after further investiga-
tion. TfL said Uber fixed the
loophole in October, but that it
still didn’t have the confidence
to grant it a license because
drivers might find other ways
to get around restrictions in
the app.
“If not that loophole, a dif-
ferent loophole might be ex-
ploited,” a TfL spokesman said.
The regulator said Uber’s
drivers in London had also been
using vehicles without correct
insurance in place, and that
overall it was concerned that
Uber’s app could be manipu-
lated. It added that it wasn’t
confident that Uber could keep
its passengers safe “while man-
aging changes to its app.”
Uber said it would appeal
the regulator’s decision, which
it called “extraordinary and
wrong.” The company said it
had been strengthening its
driver identification processescity. “It does a good service. It
employs a lot of young men
who are mostly immigrants,”
he said. Mr. Papineau, 72 years
old, said he believes Uber is
being treated unfairly by the
TfL. “The ban is working to
the interests of the traditional
black cabs,” he said, adding
that Uber is more convenient
and more affordable by com-
parison.
Uber shares fell 1.5% in New
York on Monday.
Shares are down by more
than a quarter since Uber’s ini-
tial public offering. Last Au-
gust, the company reported a
quarterly loss of $5.2 billion,
its biggest ever, due to costs
related to its IPO and heavy
competition in its interna-
tional markets.
London is one of Uber’s
most important markets glob-
ally. When it pushed into the
city, it met stiff resistance
from black-cab drivers.
It survived a series of legal
challenges to become a part of
everyday life for many London-
ers. Many have embraced it as
a middle ground between the
city’s extensive and cheap—but
creaky and jammed-to-capac-
ity—public transportation, and
the relative luxury of hailing a
black cab.
Today, though, it faces a
bevy of new rivals like Bolt
Technology OU, an Estonian
ride-hailing app that launched
in London four months ago.
—Sam Schechner in Paris
and Sarah E. Needleman
in New York
contributed to this article.officials lauded Uber generally
for what it said was progress
improving the company’s in-
ternal issues.
Monday’s ruling, however,
shows how the company—in a
similar vein to other big tech
companies—is now facing
questions about its ability to
police the behavior of others
on its platform. It couldn’t be
determined if the issue was a
significant problem elsewhere,
and Uber declined to comment
about other markets. The com-
pany said, however, its techni-
cal and operational fix was be-
ing rolled out globally.
Transport for London, or
TfL, the city’s main transporta-
tion regulator, said it had
found 14,000 instances in late
2018 and early 2019 in which
unauthorized drivers swapped
their own photos with those of
authorized drivers on Uber’s
platform, allowing them to pick
up riders themselves. A TfL
spokesman said in some cases
it believed drivers were using
the loophole to allow people
they knew to use their own ac-
counts to pick up riders.
TfL said all 14,000 rides
identified were uninsured and
that two of the 43 drivers in-ContinuedfromPageOneUber Loses
Its License
In London
U.S. WATCH
CAPITOL HILL
Impeachment Report
To Be Delivered Soon
House investigators could turn
over a report laying out the evi-
dence for impeaching President
Trump to the House Judiciary
Committee as early as next
week, setting the stage for the
House to vote on the matter be-
fore the end of the year.
In the letter to House Demo-
crats on Monday, House Intelli-
gence Committee Chairman
Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) said the
three panels leading the impeach-
ment probe had started compil-
ing the document. He wrote that
the report would be “transmitted
to the Judiciary Committee soon
after Congress returns from the
Thanksgiving recess.”
While the House Intelligence,
Foreign Affairs, and Oversight
committees have so far led the
impeachment inquiry, the Judi-
ciary Committee is tasked with
holding its own set of hearings
and drafting articles of impeach-
ment for the full House to then
consider. The House returns Dec.
3 from Thanksgiving recess.
—Andrew Duehren
FLORIDA
Prison Sentence for
Mar-a-Lago Trespass
A Chinese woman was sen-
tenced to eight months in prison
for unlawfully entering President
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman
handed down the sentence
against Yujing Zhang at a hearing
Monday in Fort Lauderdale. Ms.
Zhang, 33 years old, was arrested
in March after trying to enter the
grounds of the Mar-a-Lago resort.
She was convicted in September.
Prosecutors insinuated the
case could have broader national
security implications in a classi-
fied submission to the judge. In
the end, Ms. Zhang was con-
victed only of unlawful entry
and of making false statements
to the U.S. Secret Service. She
was never charged with any es-
pionage-related offense.
—Byron Tau
SUPREME COURTAppeal Denied in Case
Featured on PodcastThe Supreme Court rejected a
Maryland man’s bid for a new
trial based on information uncov-
ered by the podcast “Serial.”
The justices didn't comment
Monday in leaving in place a 4-
ruling by Maryland’s highest
court that denied a new trial to
Adnan Syed, who was convicted
of strangling a high-school class-
mate. Syed is serving a life sen-
tence after he was convicted in
2000 of killing 17-year-old Hae
Min Lee and burying her body in
a Baltimore park.
Syed’s lawyers had argued
that his trial lawyer’s failure to
investigate an alibi witness vio-
lated his right to competent legal
representation. “We are deeply
disappointed by the Supreme
Court but by no means is this
the end of Adnan Syed,” defense
attorney C. Justin Brown said.
Maryland Attorney General
Brian Frosh in a statement said
the evidence against Syed was
“overwhelming.”
Millions of people learned
about Syed when the podcast
“Serial” dedicated its entire first
season to the case in 2014.
—Associated PressNEW YORKOrthodox Archdiocese
Ex-Official ArrestedThe former head administra-
tor of the Greek Orthodox Arch-
diocese of America was arrested
Monday on charges of embez-
zling over half a million dollars
from the organization.
Jerry Dimitriou, 55, of Green-
lawn, N.Y., was freed on $150,
bail after he was charged with
two counts of wire fraud. He
oversaw construction of a new
church and Sept. 11 shrine at the
World Trade Center until the proj-
ect ran out of money in 2017.
Nathaniel Z. Marmur, Mr.
Dimitriou’s lawyer, said his client
“has dedicated his life to the
church, and we look forward to
all the facts coming to light.”
—Associated PressPresident Trump honored the
military canine injured in the
raid that killed Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
hailing the Belgian Malinois as
“incredible.”
The dog, named Conan, ap-
peared Monday in a Rose Garden
ceremony. First lady Melania
Trump and Vice President Mike
Pence also joined in the event.“So this is Conan. Right now,
probably the world’s most fa-
mous dog,” Mr. Trump said.
The president said he had
also met with the soldiers in-
volved in the raid and had
given Conan an award. He
called Conan “so brilliant, so
smart.”
Conan was sent into a tun-
nel to subdue Baghdadi duringthe raid on a compound in
Syria last month. Baghdadi det-
onated a suicide vest, killing
himself and three children.
Parts of the tunnel collapsed
on Conan, injuring the dog, but
Conan has since been treated
and is back to active duty.
Mr. Trump tweeted a photo
of the dog shortly after the
raid and praised the canine asbeautiful and talented during
his speech announcing Bagh-
dadi’s death.
The soldier who also serves
as Conan’s handler didn’t ac-
company the dog during the
Rose Garden event. The handler
participated in the Baghdadi
raid, which was classified, and
therefore can’t appear in public.
—Vivian Salamaover the past two months and
that it would soon introduce
“facial matching” to prevent
what it called photo fraud.
In September, Uber said it
was working on a security en-
hancement that would require
drivers to look at their smart-
phone camera and blink, smile
and turn their head to verify
their identity.
“We have fundamentally
changed our business over the
last two years and are setting
the standard on safety,” said
Jamie Heywood, Uber’s re-gional manager for Europe.
Paul Loberman isn’t so sure.
An Uber user who lives in a
suburb of London, he said he
would now have second
thoughts about the service, out
of concern that its drivers’
identifies could be false. The
48-year-old financial-services
worker described the matter
as a public-safety issue.
“What happens if there’s an
accident or worse?” he said.
Mr. Loberman also said he
won’t use Uber anymore, “cer-
tainly not in London.”
David Papineau, a philoso-
phy professor at King’s College
London, doesn’t want Uber to
have to stop operating in theLondon has become
one of the company’s
most important
markets globally.U.S. NEWS
war—justified those cuts.
“Monetary policy is now
well positioned to support a
strong labor market and return
inflation decisively to” the
Fed’s 2% target, said Mr. Pow-
ell in remarks Monday evening
at the Greater Providence
Chamber of Commerce. “If the
outlook changes materially,
policy will change as well.”
Mr. Powell said the eco-
nomic outlook had remained
favorable this year largely be-
cause the Fed had quickly ad-
justed its policy stance.
The central-bank chief has
repeatedly cited risks from
global growth and trade un-certainty, together with muted
inflation, in explaining why
the Fed was lowering its
benchmark rate, which is cur-
rently in a range between 1.5%
and 1.75%. The central bank
raised rates four times in 2018
based on expectations infla-
tion would strengthen as solid
hiring gains pushed unemploy-
ment lower.
In his speech Monday, Mr.
Powell walked through a sepa-
rate justification for the rate
reductions: how a reassess-
ment of the economy’s pre-
sumed momentum last year
warranted rate cuts as it be-
came clear the economy mightnot have been so strong.
For example, the Labor De-
partment in August previewed
a forthcoming revision to job
creation for the year ended
March 2019 that suggests the
economy over this period
added an average of 170,
jobs a month, instead of the
initially reported 210,000.
“While this news did not
dramatically alter our outlook,
it pointed to an economy with
somewhat less momentum
than we had thought,” Mr.
Powell said. The revisions
serve as a reminder that “we
never have a crystal clear real-
time picture of how the econ-omy is performing.”
Mr. Powell said the Fed
continually re-examines its
outlook about the economy’s
underlying growth, including
the labor market’s capacity to
employ workers without gen-
erating more inflation and the
short-term rate of interest
that neither spurs nor slows
growth—sometimes called the
neutral rate of interest.
This year, economists inside
and outside the Fed have low-
ered their estimates of the
neutral rate and the unem-
ployment rate consistent with
stable inflation.
A lower neutral rate meansthe Fed’s short-term rate set-
ting provided “somewhat less
support for employment and in-
flation than previously be-
lieved,” Mr. Powell said. A lower
unemployment rate consistent
with stable prices “would sug-
gest that the labor market was
less tight than believed.”
Those developments “were
not a game changer for policy,
but they provided another rea-
son why a somewhat lower
setting of our policy interest
rate might be appropriate,” he
said.PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Federal
Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell said the central bank
cut interest rates this year in
part because officials con-
cluded the economy wasn’t as
strong as anticipated when the
Fed lifted rates last year.
The central bank signaled
last month it was done cut-
ting rates for now after mak-
ing its third quarter-percent-
age-point reduction since
July. Officials have said a
slowdown in business invest-
ment and global growth—am-
plified by the U.S.-China trade
BYNICKTIMIRAOS
Fed Cuts Reflect More Bearish Outlook
Dog in Baghdadi Raid Is Honored and Praised at White House
ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS Fed is close to filling two staff
jobs overseeing markets.... B©Photograph: patriceschreyer.comCOLLECTIONVilleret
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