THIS BARBIE GOT ON REPUBLICANS’ BAD SIDE: An image shown in the background of the upcoming “Barbie” movie due out later this month is riling up Republican lawmakers and sparking accusations that filmmakers cowed to Chinese censorship to promote the movie, POLITICO’s Daniella Diaz reports. — “The detail in question is a dashed line drawn on a map off the coast of Asia that critics have identified as the nine-dash line, a contested maritime boundary that Beijing draws more than a thousand miles off its own coast to claim the vast majority of the South China Sea as its territory.” — “Warner Bros. Film Group, which produced the movie, said Thursday the map is not intended to ‘make any type of statement.’ Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who leads a select House panel aimed at countering the influence of China, said the map ‘illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors.’” — “‘While it may just be a Barbie map in a Barbie world, the fact that a cartoonish, crayon-scribbled map seems to go out of its way to depict the PRC’s unlawful territorial claims illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors,’ Gallagher said in a statement to POLITICO. ‘I hope Warner Brothers clarifies that the map was not intended to endorse any territorial claims and was in fact, the work of a formerly plastic anthropomorphic doll.’” — “The line, nine-dash or not, has made waves far beyond U.S. political circles,” resulting in a ban on screenings of the movie in Vietnam, with the Philippines potentially following suit over the detail. “The nine-dash line, which was rejected by an international tribunal in 2016, comes within hundreds of miles of both nations’ coasts and the two countries, along with others in the region, say the Chinese maritime border threatens their sovereignty.” — Though Warner Bros. denies that the Barbie doodle is meant to have any significance, the episode is just the latest fodder fueling China hawks’ contention that Hollywood, like other major global corporate entities, is too conciliatory to Beijing in order to maintain access to Chinese markets. — That criticism isn’t coming solely from Republicans, with the Pentagon issuing new rules last month aimed at curbing Chinese influence on films that use resources from the U.S. military. HAPPY ESG MONTH: “A trio of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to three top U.S. asset managers on Thursday saying their efforts to combat climate change with sustainable investing may violate U.S. antitrust laws,” our Jasper Goodman reports. — Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and antitrust subcommittee Chair Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), along with Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), “asked the leaders of BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street to turn over documents related to their sustainable investment commitments,” contending that the firms’ pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions could amount to illegal "collusive agreements" that may have “harmful effects on Americans’ freedom and economic well-being” by limiting investment in fossil fuels. — The lawmakers also fired similar letters off to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. The inquiry comes as Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are set to kick off a slate of hearings deriding the rise of ESG-conscious investing and the Biden administration’s support for such practices. ACROSS THE POND: “Nearly 500 days into the Russian invasion, Western businesses are less spooked by the violence and increasingly intrigued by the money-making prospects in Ukraine, especially now that it’s officially a candidate to join the EU,” my POLITICO Europe colleague Sarah Wheaton reports. “And a growing supply of lobbyists is ready to meet demand from a range of deep-pocketed sectors, from defense and infrastructure to energy and pharma.” — “The formulation is clear: Forge government connections and solidify your reputation with pro bono work now, then use that to show the prowess of your network when potential paying clients come along later.” — “In some ways, Kyiv is a lobbyist’s dreamland. Politicians are eager to woo businesses, offering them the chance to influence regulations from the ground floor that could help future clients. ‘We need hundreds and thousands of companies to come to us,’ President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told corporate representatives last week as he backed a platform to ‘constantly talk’ with business interests.” — The increased interest doesn’t negate the fact that “the country is still a war zone,” but influence peddlers aren’t letting that deter them. “A lot of the bomb shelters have WiFi,” Myron Wasylyk, who just opened a Ukraine office for his firm, told Sarah. “Initially skeptical that anyone would want to hire a lobbyist with the invasion still raging, Wasylyk said he’s now confident that the operation will be in the black by 2024.” FREQUENT FLIER: “Air DeSantis keeps flying — and questions keep mounting about who is paying for it,” our Sally Goldenberg and Gary Fineout report, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying to New Hampshire for a campaign swing this week “that coincided nearly exactly with the path of a private plane connected to a wealthy supporter.” — “Daniel Doyle, Jr., who runs a printing company in Central Florida, owns a plane whose flight path lines up with DeSantis’ July 4 trip to the Granite State, according to public records. Neither DeSantis’ presidential campaign nor representatives for Doyle would say if DeSantis was aboard. It’s a recurring pattern where DeSantis and the organizations assisting him remain quiet about who is bankrolling his travels and his frequent use of private charter jets.” — “DeSantis jumped into the race for president in late May and has kept a steady stream of appearances in early-voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina. Flight records show that the same chartered jet flew from Tallahassee to Nevada to California and back that mirrored DeSantis’ travel to those destinations in June, while that chartered jet was used to fly from the Florida state capital to Eagle Pass, Texas, where DeSantis rolled out his immigration proposal.” PELOSI HEALTH AIDE JUMPS TO BROOKINGS: Wendell Primus, who served as senior health policy and budget advisor to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, has left the Hill to join Brookings Institution’s Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy. He’ll spearhead a project that explores what types of policies could "improve social insurance and safety net programs for the elderly and individuals with disabilities while also lowering the nation’s federal budget deficit," the organization said in a statement. — Primus worked for Pelosi for two decades and played a role in crafting the Affordable Care Act, the pandemic relief packages and the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to that, spent time at the Joint Economic Committee, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Department of Health and Human Services.
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