Coronation Ceremony, Empty Office Spaces Hit Banking, Utah Age Law
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The first coronation in 70 years today on the podcast. Who's getting coronated and where? I think people know, and the term is crowned, Scott. Oh, thank you, Majesty. We'll take you to London for the crowning fit for a king. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News.

The coronation of King Charles III is designed to be as humble as a ceremony with a golden horse-drawn coach can be. We'll hear from British people. Just a great occasion, and it's a good time for everybody to get together and celebrate, I think. Also, while a lot of people still love working from home in their sweats, it spells trouble for banks. And the latest on the fight over one adult website that's gone dark, but just in Utah. So stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. ♪

And first, as promised, we go to London. King Charles III is being crowned at Westminster Abbey. There are tens of thousands of people waving flags along his procession route, which is a shorter one than years past.

And there are other changes to the ceremony, which is more than a thousand years old. The ceremony is shorter, too. The king will also recognize faiths besides the Church of England, which he heads. And there's a role for the public at large, in addition to aristocrats.

And there are a number of people protesting, not cheering. And Piers Lauren Frayer is in central London. Thank you for being with us here, Lauren. Thank you for having me, Scott. Help us understand and capture the atmosphere there. What's it like?

Well, it's really like a split-screen atmosphere in London. On one hand, it's pouring rain. It's kind of a dreary day. The UK is in a cost-of-living crisis. People are preoccupied with making ends meet and going about their daily lives. And on the other hand, you turn a corner and you come down to this small area around Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, and it's like millions of flags and tourists and security. There are these

royal super fans here like Richard Joseph. He goes by Joss. He drove in from Somerset. I'll just let him describe what he's wearing. What I'm wearing, a Union Jack jacket. And it's got hundreds of Union Jacks all over your blazer. Loads of little Union Jacks everywhere. And I asked Joss and his wife Kim why they slept on the sidewalk in the rain last night to get prime viewing spots along the parade route here. Just a great occasion and it's a good time for everybody to get together and celebrate, I think.

You could watch it on the telly and see more, but you won't get the atmosphere. It's also a bank holiday weekend here, a day off work Monday for most folks. So she says, you know, that's worth celebrating despite the ailing economy and the rain. Lauren, why the scale back coronation, at least compared to the one 70 years ago for Queen Elizabeth II?

Does it have to do with the alien economy? Well, the royals haven't said that explicitly, but yeah, that's how it's being interpreted. It's worth saying that even a humbler-looking coronation still looks like, to regular people, a massive, ostentatious event. I mean, the king still wears golden robes, he rides in a golden carriage.

And this is costing taxpayers upwards of $125 million. There are protesters along this route and there have been several arrests this morning. But, you know, there are things like having a gospel choir incorporating Muslim and Hindu and other faith leaders into this ceremony. I spoke to a royal expert, Judith Rowbotham, who says things like that

showed that the royals are trying to make this coronation look like the real Britain. They're seeking to project that tradition is being observed, but that the monarchy is flexible. We have now, in a way that we did not in 1953, a multicultural nation. It's not an age of automatic deference. And she says that's the challenge with this coronation, for the monarchy to look modern and look relevant.

And what about the ceremony? I mean, from what I've seen, understated is not the word. What happens when the king is crowned? So, Scott, nobody does ceremony like the British royals. Everything is gold, this horse-drawn carriage, the golden robes, the golden orb, the golden scepters.

The procession, the music, these otherworldly sound of these boy soprano voices echoing through Westminster Abbey. But the key moment here is the anointing, and it's considered sacred. It's the only part of the ceremony that's not televised. It happens behind a screen. And that is the moment. Even though Charles has been king for months since his mother passed away, it is that moment when he becomes the monarch. And Piers Lauren Frere in London.

Sounds like quite an occasion. Thanks so much. Thanks, Scott. Another banking storm is brewing, and it's largely because so many people are still working from home, which, you know, a lot of people find much more convenient. Yep. Let me get into my slippers here. But that means offices are sitting empty and companies are giving up their leases. And that spells trouble for banks, especially regional ones. And Piers Arizu-Rizvani is with us. It's good to be with you.

How are we defining the number of offices that are, what's the phrase, sitting empty? Well, with so much remote work still going, the typical office building has about half the number of people they normally do. And so companies, against this backdrop of high inflation, climbing interest rates, and tightening credit from recent banking turmoil, they're shedding a lot of office space. The commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield estimates that almost 2%.

20% of office spaces are vacant across the country right now. And that's a real milestone. It's greater than what we saw during the 2008 recession. And in some cities, the vacancy rate is much worse than that. In San Francisco, for example, where a lot of tech companies have really embraced remote work, the vacancy rate there right now is about 30%, which is a big problem for banks. Why banks in particular, in addition to real estate companies?

Well, if companies continue to give up their leases, analysts worry that those who own these office spaces won't be able to collect rent and make good on their loans from the banks. Many of those loans are coming due this year and next year. And for building owners to refinance now when interest rates are so much higher than when they took those loans out initially, you know, they're going to feel the squeeze.

I asked Kenneth Rosen, chair of the real estate research firm Rosen Consulting Group about this, and he didn't beat around the bush. I'd say the number one implication is going to be defaults and foreclosures. Now, here's the thing about defaulting on those loans.

The bulk of the $1.2 trillion in outstanding office space debt, it's owed to smaller regional banks, which, as we know, have been in the throes of some turmoil lately. Here again is Rosen on that point.

regional banks, they may face, again, issues where their capital will be eroded by these losses that may make them not as profitable or even not viable. So upshot is these regional banks are very exposed to swings in the office space sector and could take a real hit should offices remain empty. The way you explain it, Arizu, they're really vulnerable right now.

Yeah, that is true. I mean, analysts are talking about this as possibly being the next shoe to drop. Could this fallout go beyond banking? Well, you know, it certainly seems like the era of hybrid work is here to stay. Workers and employers have adjusted, and with so much economic uncertainty, companies appear reluctant to declare a full-bore return to the office anytime soon.

Now, because of this, we may continue to see high vacancy rates that have already altered the ecosystems of cities. I talked to a longtime owner of a shoe repair shop here in downtown Los Angeles the other day in the financial district. His customers have long been lawyers or consultants who used to work in some of these corporate buildings. Because so many of them still work from home, it's taken a huge bite out of his business.

And he's not sure he'll survive much longer. Many convenience stores, dry cleaners, restaurants, they're in the same boat because this return to the office everyone assumed was coming hasn't really come. And Pierre Zarazu-Rezvani, thanks so much for being with us. You're welcome. Thank you.

And just in case you're not listening to this podcast through earbuds, a warning that our final conversation is about legal wrangling over a website offering adult content. This week in Utah, a law took effect that requires all adult website users to verify their ages. And in response, the site Pornhub told users it had, quote,

made the difficult decision to completely disable access to the website in Utah. Now there's a lawsuit seeking to overturn that law, and Sage Miller, politics reporter at member station KUER in Salt Lake City, is here with the latest. Thanks for being with us, Sage. Thank you for having me. So first, break down this state law for us.

Yeah, so the law, SB 287, passed unanimously. Even the Democratic minority voted in favor of this bill. And as you said, it requires anyone who wants to access an adult content site to show that they are at least 18 years of age to do so. They could use a government record or a third-party identification service in order to check.

And they would have to provide this verification every single time they logged on to an adult content site. Bill's sponsor, Republican Senator Todd Weiler, said during a Senate committee hearing that... You should be able to have to prove you're an adult to view pornography because it's illegal for children to view it and it's illegal for adults to show it for children.

But he also added that it would be on the burden of the adult content websites to verify somebody's age. And this has absolutely upset sites like Pornhub because they say there's no way to comply with this law. Utah doesn't have a digitized government identification service to do this, whereas Louisiana that has a similar law does. So ultimately, because of this, Pornhub says they can't comply with the law, nor do they want to be held liable for not following it.

So they decided to ban access to the site for everybody in the state. Okay, so a lawsuit has been filed against this legislation or this new law. What claims does it make?

The Free Speech Coalition filed the lawsuit. It's a trade organization for the adult entertainment industry. They believe, hands down, this law is unconstitutional for various reasons. Specifically, they say it restricts freedom of speech and information by not allowing people to access these sites without handing over personal data. And if they don't want to do it, they can't access these sites, which is where the restriction to information comes from.

They also cite a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that age verification requirements, like the one instituted in Utah, are unconstitutional so long as there are less intrusive methods, such as device-level internet filters, that are available. So they say parents aren't taking the opportunity to block their children from using these sites, and therefore there should just be a larger educational campaign that teaches parents that they can, in fact, block their kids from accessing adult content sites.

But therefore, they should not have to restrict it for everybody who is of age. Mike Stabile is the director of public affairs for the Free Speech Coalition. This is what he had to say about Utah's age verification law. Eventually, they're going to have to defend this law and they're going to lose and it's going to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's a pointless exercise. You know, like I said, the precedent is clear. This is an unconstitutional law.

The Free Speech Coalition expects a hearing within the next few weeks. They're asking a U.S. district court to file an injunction against the state's law, and we will expect a decision soon. Is there concern about how kids may try to access pornography if these sites are off-limits?

On a different level, Stabile says they don't want children accessing porn just as much as Utah doesn't want that. What organizations like the Free Speech Coalition are arguing is SitePornHub is a reputable site that has content verification and fights back against revenge porn. But other sites don't do that. They believe the law will drive traffic to less reputable sites that don't have these protections that are perhaps overseas and don't have to worry about the potential liability from a Utah parent.

So actually, they say, yeah, this is going to make porn more dangerous for children because there's not going to be those barriers that exist on sites like Pornhub. Well, what's been the reaction in Utah to all of this? So Senator Todd Weiler, who was the bill sponsor, is a pretty vocal person on Twitter, and his constituents are upset.

He's been posting a slew of emails and messages he's received about this law, and people are throwing profanities at him. Others are commenting that the Utah legislature is overstepping their bounds and that Todd Weiler is an embarrassment to the state. They're pretty outspoken.

upset and some of them are like outlining pretty long emails about why this law is unconstitutional. And from what I saw, only one message he posted was applauding his efforts to protect children by blocking sites like Pornhub or requiring age verification to sites like Pornhub.

But Utahns are finding their way around this Pornhub block. Virtual and private networks or VPNs in Utah have skyrocketed. According to a recent Google trend search, Utah tops all 50 states for VPN searches by more than double. So I think this just proves people will get around government or company intervention to access what they want to access.

Sage Miller, politics reporter at KUER in Salt Lake City. Thank you so much, Sage. Thank you so much, Aisha. And that's Up First for Saturday, May 6, 2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Tomorrow on Up First, influencers. Is the online influence economy real? And is being an influencer really a viable career path?

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dee Parvez, Ed McNulty, Nishant Dehia, Raphael Nam, and Acacia Squires. It was produced by Michael Radcliffe and Fernando Naro and directed by Lauren Magaki with engineering support from Hannah Glovna. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor, our executive producer is Sarah Lucy Oliver, and our deputy managing editor...

is Jim Kane. And for a lot more like you just heard, and who wouldn't want that, along with music, books, news, turn on the radio every Saturday and Sunday morning for a weekend edition from NPR News. Find your NPR station at stations.npr.org.