EUROPEAN MIDDAY BRIEFING : Stocks Stuck Ahead of -2-

LONDON-While the rest of the world is trying to stamp out the Covid-19 Delta variant, British researchers are making progress growing a carefully controlled batch in a lab that they hope to use to infect volunteers in studies.

The effort marks a new phase in the U.K.'s human challenge trials, the only Covid-19 studies in the world intentionally exposing participants to the virus with the goal of developing new vaccines and treatments. Other researchers are also isolating and growing Covid variant specimens for study. U.S. government-funded scientists are producing variants for research, but not for use in humans, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official said.

Unlike Clinical Trials, New Covid-19 Study Needed Only a Few Volunteers

Medical studies often use thousands of volunteers. But sometimes good things come in small packages-like a handful of people willing to contract a deadly virus.

Researchers in the U.K. have deliberately infected 30 volunteers with the virus that causes Covid-19, in the first human challenge study of the disease. Infecting the volunteers-who are healthy, unvaccinated and range in age from 18 to 30-will allow the scientists to observe in real time how the virus attacks the body and, from the moment of exposure, how the immune system responds.

Axel Springer to Acquire Politico

Axel Springer SE has agreed to buy Washington, D.C., publisher Politico, expanding the German publisher's portfolio of U.S.-based media holdings.

The deal is valued at more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.K. Plans New Post-Brexit Privacy Rules to Ease Data Sharing

The U.K. government plans to relax its privacy rules and strike new data transfer agreements with the U.S. and other countries in a move to reform data regulations since leaving the European Union last year.

New British data protection rules would differ from the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, according to the government's proposal published Thursday. The nature of those changes will be crucial for determining whether the U.K. can maintain a separate data agreement completed in June with the EU that requires British privacy standards remain equivalent to the union's rules. U.K. officials will have the tricky task of balancing the legal changes with the requirements for remaining within EU guidelines.

Biden to Face Pressure on Iran Nuclear Deal in Meeting With Israel's Bennett

TEL AVIV-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is set to meet President Biden for the first time Friday at the White House, where he is expected to make the case that Washington should back off from reviving a deal to curtail Iran's nuclear program.

The meeting was initially scheduled to take place on Thursday but was rescheduled, the White House said, amid the unfolding news from Afghanistan.

In Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan, Al Qaeda-Linked Haqqani Network Rises to Power

After taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have pledged to be a responsible member of the international community that doesn't pose a threat to any country's security.

However, the Islamist movement's victory in Afghanistan has elevated its most radical and violent branch, the Haqqani network. Having perpetrated some of the deadliest attacks of the 20-year war, the network-unlike the broader Taliban-has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. since 2012.

GLOBAL NEWS

Fed Conference Agenda Points to Policy Challenges in 'Uneven Economy'

The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank last week scrapped plans to gather at the foot of the Tetons outside Jackson Hole, Wyo., for its annual economic policy conference amid rising concerns about health threats posed by the Delta variant-a reminder of how the Covid-19 pandemic continues to pose considerable uncertainty for the U.S. economy despite the broad availability of highly effective vaccines.

China Plans to Ban U.S. IPOs for Data-Heavy Tech Firms

SINGAPORE-China plans to propose new rules that would ban companies with large amounts of sensitive consumer data from going public in the U.S., people familiar with the matter said, a move that is likely to thwart the ambitions of the country's tech firms to list abroad.

In recent weeks, officials from China's stock regulator have told some companies and international investors that the new rules would prohibit internet firms holding a swath of user-related data from listing abroad, the people said. The regulators said that the rules target companies seeking foreign initial public offerings via units incorporated outside the country, according to the people.

China Industrial Profits Grew at Slower Pace in July

Profits at China's industrial firms grew at a slower rate for a fifth consecutive month in July, as the pandemic-driven distortions in the year earlier figures reduce, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

July's industrial profits were up 16.4% from a year earlier. In the first seven months of 2021, China's industrial profit grew 57.3% from a year earlier, compared with a 66.9% increase in the first half of the year, official data showed.

Fed Officials Say Time for Tapering Is Nearing

Three Federal Reserve officials said in separate television interviews Thursday that the time to cut back on central-bank bond-buying stimulus is looming.

With inflation running at unexpectedly high levels and uncertainty about whether it will moderate next year, "we want to get going on taper, get the taper finished by the end of the first quarter next year," Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said on CNBC. Mr. Bullard was giving his view on when the Fed should wrap up its bond-buying stimulus totaling $120 billion a month.

Kerry to Press China to Stop Financing Coal-Fired Energy Projects

U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry plans another trip to China next week, where he will press Chinese leaders to declare a moratorium on financing international coal-fired projects, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beijing hasn't funded any new foreign coal plants or investments this year-the first time that has happened since China embarked on its infrastructure Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, according to a recent study by the Beijing-based International Institute of Green Finance.

Biden Says U.S. Will Respond to Kabul Attacks; 'We Will Hunt You Down'

WASHINGTON-President Biden said the U.S. would seek retribution for the attacks Thursday in Afghanistan that killed at least 13 American service members and dozens of Afghans and promised to continue evacuation efforts.

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," Mr. Biden said during remarks Thursday evening at the White House as an already fraught humanitarian and political crisis worsened.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-27-21 0600ET