Month: December 2020

Categories
Business

Biden, Calling Covid Reduction Invoice a ‘Down Fee,’ Urges Extra Reduction

Biden, Calling Covid Relief Bill a ‘Down Payment,’ Urges More Relief

“Joe Biden called this a first step, a down payment – we knew we would visit again and we would have a better chance with a Democratic president who does science,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview, adding added that “we will have the presidential leadership.”

However, discussions about another bailout package will be a first test of Biden’s approach to working with Congress and his optimism about the prospect of bipartisan legislation in a highly polarized era. Barely a month before his inauguration, he still doesn’t know what the balance of power in Congress will look like when he takes office, and the House Democrats will face a significantly smaller majority in 2021.

Even if the Democrats win both runoffs for the Georgian Senate seats on Jan. 5 and gain control of the Chamber, the Senate’s current rules require some support from Republicans to ensure that legislation clears the Chamber. If Republicans hold on to at least one of these seats, Mr Biden will have to contend with a majority in the Republican Senate.

As he pursues another package, he will also face the prospect of finding an elusive compromise on two of the most difficult policy provisions: a direct stream of funding to state and local governments, for which he has repeatedly expressed his support, and a Republican demand for comprehensive liability protection against Covid-related lawsuits for companies, schools and other institutions. After roughly eight months of debate between the two sides, the congressional leaders finally agreed to remove both provisions from the final $ 900 billion deal.

The Republicans on Capitol Hill have begun to tacitly acknowledge Mr. Biden’s public request for a different package. After spending more than $ 3 trillion this year to help the economy and battle families, businesses, and institutions, several Republicans are resistant to yet another major package at the start of 2021.

“If we look at the critical needs now and things improve next year, when the vaccine hits the market and the economy picks up again, you know the need may be less,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota Republicans No. 2 in the Senate, told reporters last week before the deal hit.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has refused to initiate another round of relief despite not ruling out another round of negotiations.

Categories
Health

Pfizer nears take care of U.S. authorities for extra doses

Pfizer nears deal with U.S. government for more doses

The U.S. government is about to sign a deal with Pfizer for up to 100 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine, sources told CNBC’s Meg Tirrell on Tuesday.

The deal could be announced on Wednesday, according to a source. The New York Times reported the news first.

Pfizer declined to comment, saying the company “could not comment on confidential discussions that may be taking place with the US government.” The U.S. Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news comes after Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla told CNBC last week that the company is negotiating with the federal government to provide an additional 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses next year.

Pfizer and the US are working out the timing details, Bourla said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Dec. 14. The company could provide many of these cans in the third quarter of 2021, but the U.S. government is pushing for them in the second quarter, he said.

“We’re working very cooperatively to find a solution and allocate that 100 million [doses] in the second quarter if possible or in many of them, “Bourla said, adding that the company has not yet signed an agreement with the US.

Unlike other drug companies, Pfizer did not accept federal funding to develop or manufacture its vaccine. Pfizer has already signed a contract with the US government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed, enough to vaccinate 50 million people. Under the agreement, the Americans will receive the vaccine for free.

The initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine are limited as production begins. Officials predict it will be months before everyone in the US who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated. The U.S. shipped 2.9 million doses of the vaccine last week and plans to ship 2 million doses of that vaccine this week, according to General Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer’s target for vaccine launch of 50 million doses worldwide by the end of the year was only half of its originally planned 100 million. In a statement, Pfizer said there were several factors influencing the number of estimated doses, including increasing the size of a vaccine at an “unprecedented” pace.

The US government has criticized Pfizer in recent weeks, stating that the drug company kept federal officials “at bay” throughout the manufacturing process for its vaccine.

Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told CNBC on Thursday that he would like the federal government’s relationship with Pfizer to change.

“You’re part of Operation Warp Speed, but … it’s a different relationship” than the government deals with Moderna and other federal drug companies that have received federal funding, Azar told CNBC’s Squawk Box in an interview. “We pull together, give [Pfizer] A guaranteed purchase that allows them to make capital investments has a predictable buyer, but we don’t have full visibility into their making because they kept this a bit more on-market. “

Categories
Politics

Trump calls for greater stimulus checks in Covid reduction invoice

Trump demands bigger stimulus checks in Covid relief bill

United States President Donald Trump attends a medal ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on December 3, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

In a stunning tweet Tuesday night, President Donald Trump called the US $ 900 billion Covid Aid Bill passed by Congress an inappropriate “disgrace” and called on lawmakers to make a number of changes to the measure, including larger direct payments to individuals and families.

Trump also suggested that his administration could be the “next administration,” despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden. The relief bill passed by Congress on Monday was partially negotiated by a senior Trump administration official, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trump himself has not been in the talks since before the elections.

The president’s tweet, which included a video discussing what he thought the law’s many shortcomings are, including overseas funding, came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the measure. The foreign aid provision is part of a $ 1.4 trillion move to maintain government funding that has been combined with the Covid Relief Act.

Trump did not threaten a veto in the video and was expected to sign the laws along with the bill to keep the government open. The legislation passed both Houses of Congress with a majority with a veto-safe majority.

“I’m asking Congress to change this bill and increase the ridiculously low $ 600 to $ 2,000 or $ 4,000 for a couple,” Trump said in the video.

In another twist, House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, one of Trump’s political arch enemies, agreed to his request for $ 2,000 in payments. “The Democrats are ready to unanimously bring this to the ground this week. Let’s do it!” she tweeted.

Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The package includes, among other things, increased unemployment benefits, more small business loans, a direct payment of $ 600 to individuals, and funds to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.

Legislators wanted to avoid phasing out unemployment programs that would result in 12 million people losing benefits the day after Christmas. They also tried to prevent an eviction moratorium from expiring. Without the moratorium, tens of millions of people could lose their homes by the end of the month.

The amount of direct payments was a major sticking point in the final bill, which came after months of failed talks and false starts while the economy struggled to recover and hundreds of thousands of Americans died from the coronavirus.

GOP Senator Josh Hawley and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is negotiating with Democrats, had called for $ 1,200 checks for individuals, which would have matched what the government sent to people in the earlier stages of the pandemic this spring.

Mnuchin told CNBC earlier this week that people could get stimulus checks as early as next week.

Trump also said if Congress fails to deliver the aid package it desires, it will be left to the next administration.

“And maybe I am that administration and we will make it,” he said.

Trump lost to Biden in the November election. However, the president continued to falsely insist that he did indeed win the election and that he was the victim of widespread electoral fraud. Several judges have denied Trump and Trump’s efforts in court to overturn Biden’s victory.

Later on Tuesday, Trump hit the Republican leadership of the Senate, particularly McConnell and the Senate majority whip, John Thune, RS.D. McConnell and Thune have said the Senate would not stand in the way of confirming Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

Categories
World News

France Quick-Tracks Citizenship for Frontline Employees

France Fast-Tracks Citizenship for Frontline Workers

PARIS – Nine months after its president declared “war” on the coronavirus, France announced Tuesday that it had accelerated hundreds of citizenship applications from foreign frontline workers who excelled in battle.

“Foreign workers gave their time and acted for all of us during the Covid crisis,” said Marlène Schiappa, France’s junior minister for citizenship. “Now it is up to the republic to take a step towards them.”

The beneficiaries include not only healthcare workers, but also garbage collectors, housekeepers and cashiers, said Ms. Schiappa.

The fast-tracking measure is a notable departure from a country that has been introducing increasingly stricter immigration rules. Citizenship applications can take years to complete, and the number of naturalizations has decreased over the years.

According to statistics from the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, around 48,000 people acquired French citizenship through naturalization last year, which is around 18 percent fewer than in 2015.

The government launched the measure in September as France prepared for a second wave of the pandemic. It was announced on Tuesday that around 700 foreigners who were exposed to possible coronavirus infection through their work have since been put on the fast lane of naturalization.

Aziz Youssef, a Tunisian-born physiotherapist who immigrated to France in 2014, said that obtaining citizenship through naturalization was “an obstacle course”. He remembered that he had submitted an application for the first time at the end of 2016 after completing his degree in physiotherapy – and received an appointment a year later.

Mr Youssef, who said he visited dozens of isolated patients during the first wave of the pandemic, had expected his application to be completed by 2022. However, after learning of the government’s new exemptions for frontline workers, he reported to the local authority authorities who hastened him. His penultimate interview took place in early December.

“Everything was accelerating very quickly,” said Youssef, adding that he saw the acceleration as “a form of recognition for a job well done”.

The first wave of coronavirus in France nearly destroyed the country’s health system – and frontline workers were at higher risk than most. Therefore, Ms. Schiappa asked regional officials to expedite citizenship applications for foreign workers among them.

Updated

Apr. 21, 2020, 6:49 am ET

“You have actively participated in the national efforts with commitment and courage,” wrote Ms. Schiappa in a letter to the regional authorities.

With more than 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths and nearly 2.5 million reported coronavirus infections, France has taken a heavy toll on the pandemic. With infection rates not falling as fast as predicted, the French government recently decided to delay easing some lockdown restrictions.

More than 70 applicants have been granted citizenship since September, and 693 more are in the final stages of the process, authorities said. Although their nationality has not been made public, the beneficiaries are mainly health and social workers, shop workers and civil servants.

There are several ways to obtain citizenship in France: through marriage; by birth in France or a French parent; and through naturalization. In this latter case, the applicant must have lived in the country for at least five years – or two years for immigrants with a qualification obtained in France – have stable resources and be considered integrated into French society.

In September, Ms. Schiappa also ordered officials to reduce the length of stay in France required to obtain citizenship through naturalization from the usual five years for “great service” to two years.

Didier Leschi, director of France’s Immigration and Integration Office, said the rapid action was part of a “long tradition dating back to the French Revolution of granting citizenship to the country’s benefactors”.

Mr Leschi added, however, that this was partly against this tradition, which generally only applied to individual and exceptional cases. “A joint effort has been rewarded here,” he said.

This was not the first time in recent years that France has deviated from its strict naturalization rules in order to reward laudable actions. In September 2018, Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant from Mali, was made a French citizen after heroically rescuing a 4-year-old boy who was hanging from a balcony.

Mr Youssef, the physiotherapist, said he is now waiting for his final interview, which will test his historical and cultural knowledge of France.

“This pandemic showed that France needs these people: doctors, surgeons, key workers,” said Youssef.

Categories
Entertainment

One Large Pop Star + One Large Pop Star = an Simpler Path to No. 1

One Big Pop Star + One Big Pop Star = an Easier Path to No. 1

If you’re looking for a single week to capture the history of pop music this year – or maybe make big hits in the streaming era – zoom in on April 26, 2020.

Since March, the time has passed cloudy. So if you need a refresher, this was the week America officially topped a million cases of Covid-19. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work after his own battle against the virus and White House officials reassured the American public that the President of the United States had not actually proposed injecting bleach into the bloodstream.

In the music world, the news was more benevolent. On April 29, Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion released a remixed, collaborative version of “Savage,” the boastful Megan solo track that had already taken TikTok by storm. Two days later another came: Doja Cat’s summery “Say So”, now with additional verses from her stylistic ancestor Nicki Minaj. Billboard watchers embarked on an epic chart fight, if only because everything else in the world was unimaginably depressing.

After the numbers for the Hot 100 table on May 16 were determined, Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj’s “Say So” prevailed, with Megan and Beyoncé’s “Savage (Remix)” finishing in second place. It was a victory for everyone four: This marked the first time four black women finished top two on Billboard’s Hot 100 table. And two weeks later, when “Savage (Remix)” rose to number 1, this feeling of a shared coronation was even more noticeable.

Uniting the fan army, these high-profile duets were the latest iteration of one of the top pop trends of the year. From May 16 through August 8, every song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 was a paired collaboration. In a year that sanctioned social distancing and loneliness, our pop stars banded together like never before.

OK, maybe not like never before. Musical collaborations are common in every era, and it’s no coincidence that all three of the longest-reigning No. 1 Hot 100s of all time are the product of multiple artists: the country rap handshake of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus 2019 Remix “Old Town Road”; The global juggernaut “Despacito” from 2017, originally published by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, then received an English-language boost with a remix by Justin Bieber. and Mariah Carey and Boyz II. 1995 All-Star Tear Rider “One Sweet Day,” a Voltron-like union of two R&B powerhouses from the 1990s.

If a single genre can address multiple gen reformats, cultural backgrounds, and fandoms, it has the potential to shift more units – that’s just simple math. But in a pop music moment dominated by streaming numbers, passionate Stan communities, and algorithmic skill, it becomes even clearer why A-list collaborations have proven to be the safest chart betting. Let’s call it the Avengers era of pop music.

Take “Rain on Me”, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s house-pop team, for example, which ranked # 1 on June 6th, a week after “Savage (Remix)”. This was the second single from Gaga’s album “Chromatica” after “Stupid Love”, a dance floor thumper that scored respectably, if not spectacularly, on the Hot 100 and reached number 5. “Rain on Me” easily topped it. It now more than doubles the tracks on “Stupid Love” on Spotify (474 ​​million versus 213 million for the first single) and is rapidly approaching the number of games on Gaga’s biggest hit, “Bad Romance” (485 million). What’s better than Lady Gaga’s little monsters gathering behind a single? Little monsters and grandes arianators gather behind a single one.

Alone or in twos, Grande has been an exceptionally successful artist in the streaming economy, which also means she’s a desirable power duo partner. Justin Bieber found this out when “Stuck With U,” their quarantine-themed charity single, topped the list on May 23rd (the week between remixes “Say So” and “Savage”). Someone who didn’t feel particularly benevolent to the song was rapper and provocateur 6ix9ine, who heavily criticized Billboard when his comeback track “Gooba” debuted two spots after jail, despite being the weekly list who led streaming songs.

Billboard weighs more purchases than streams, but 6ix9ine accused Bieber and Grande of trying to “buy” their way to # 1. Included in the rapper’s otherwise insignificant review was the challenge that faced any solo artist who was now to compete with affiliated duos of superstars and the combined strength of their fan base. When it came time to release his next single, “Trollz”, 6ix9ine called his most famous ally, Nicki Minaj, to work on a remix and, of course, to summon the support of her fearsome, almighty fan army. the Barbz. Punctually, the couple’s “Trollz” remix debuted at the top of the charts on June 27, giving 6ix9ine its first No. 1 career.

Neither “Trollz” nor “Stuck With U” stayed at # 1 for more than a week. But one song that managed to balance attention and perseverance is perhaps the mother of all 2020 collaborations, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s wonderfully libidinal “WAP”. As the third No. 1 hit of the year with two black women, “WAP” was a strong show of solidarity between two contemporaries who – had appeared a generation or two ago when many people in the music industry believed in themselves A fulfilling lie, that only one successful female rapper could exist at a time – possibly being played off as rivals against each other. Instead, “WAP” shows that they show their different but complementary musical personalities and that they survive the reactionary, conservative backlash to the track more mildly than they could have done on their own.

“Empowerment” is one of the most virtuous buzzwords in modern pop music, and it’s easy for labels to turn these collaborations into naturally positive feel-good narratives of mutual support. And given how white and masculine the Hot 100 has been skewed over the past few years, it’s certainly refreshing to see so many black and female artists triumph while supposedly rejecting the idea that they are inherently competitive others are. But, especially in a year when touring wasn’t a viable source of income, collaborative hits also seemed like smarter business strategies in the streaming era of falling returns.

The ultimate testament to the ubiquity of the power collaboration is the way certain fan communities boast of the opposite. For example, when BTS’s first English-language single “Dynamite” hit # 1 later in the year, it was a frequent failure to wonder why they’d made it without “Features”. Most pop actions react in the same and opposite ways. Perhaps the next trend or next year’s most coveted hit flex is solo # 1.

Categories
Business

Dr. Fauci, Azar obtain Moderna’s Covid vaccine as rollout begins

Dr. Fauci, Azar receive Moderna's Covid vaccine as rollout begins

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The director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, US Secretary of Health Alex Azar and other senior health officials are expected to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna on Tuesday morning.

The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, is also said to be shot. According to the NIH, six health care workers at the NIH Clinical Center will also receive the Moderna vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use last week.

It is the agency’s first delivery of 100 doses, NIH said, and additional NIH Clinical Center health care workers will receive the vaccine after the public event. The agency expects to get a larger shipment from the state of Maryland next week for more frontline healthcare workers.

The event comes after a series of public vaccination ceremonies were held as the first doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were distributed across the country. Senior US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and President-elect Joe Biden, have received their vaccines at television events.

Fauci has long said that he will take the vaccine publicly as soon as it becomes available to encourage Americans to get the vaccine.

Read CNBC’s live updates for the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak.

Categories
Business

Markets Rebound After Stimulus Bundle Is Handed: Reside Enterprise Updates

Small business owners protest in Los Angeles on December 12th. Congress provided $ 285 billion in additional credit to help small businesses.

stimulus

Recognition…Ringo Chiu / Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

The pandemic relief bill includes $ 285 billion through March 31 for additional credit under the Paycheck Protection Program – the government’s small business program created under the CARES Act – while removing the restriction that put more than $ 100 billion in the summer. Dollars not spent. Stacy Cowley of the New York Times shares what we know based on the outline of the law that circulated among Congressional officials on Monday:

  • The new credit relief bill provides a second cash infusion for those meeting stricter conditions: Borrowers with fewer than 300 employees who have seen a 25 percent year-over-year revenue decline in at least one quarter could apply for an additional loan of up to $ 2 million Qualify dollars.

  • Hotels and food service companies are eligible for larger loans this time, up to 3.5 times their average monthly payroll. Other borrowers, in turn, would be limited to 2.5 times their payroll.

  • Listed companies will not be eligible for the new loans, removing a provision that caused public outcry as restaurant chains, software companies and drug makers, among others, received taxpayer-funded loans.

  • The new bill expands the list of expenses that could be paid for with a loan, which was previously mainly limited to payroll, rent, and utilities. Companies could now use the money to buy supplies from their suppliers, buy protective equipment for their employees, or repair property damage “due to public disruption,” according to a summary by the House Small Business Committee.

  • The plan would allow business owners who received tax-free loans under the program to claim deductions for expenses they paid for with loan proceeds.

  • The bill would also provide the Small Business Administration with $ 50 million for audits and other anti-fraud measures in the program, which was a significant problem in the first round of funding.

  • The bill contains other relief measures that are not specifically part of the paycheck protection program but could still help many small businesses. This includes a $ 15 billion grant fund for closed theaters, museums, zoos, and venues for live events, and $ 12 billion for community development financial institutions that provide loans and grants to people and communities who often don’t are able to get traditional banks to do business with them.

Categories
Health

‘Every Day Is Vital’: South Korea’s 11th-Hour Battle with Covid

‘Each Day Is Critical’: South Korea’s 11th-Hour Battle with Covid

SEOUL, South Korea – Intensive care beds are unavailable in several provinces in South Korea to treat the rapidly increasing number of Covid-19 patients. As of Monday, the government confirmed that only 42 beds were available nationwide. There were just six in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to half the country’s population and the majority of recent infections. If you

The recent explosion of coronavirus cases in South Korea has put the country at risk in ways it has not seen since the pandemic began. When cases cannot be brought under control and the burden on hospitals continues to worsen, the government can, for the first time, impose Level 3 restrictions, which are the highest level of socially distant rules before a lockdown in South Korea.

In a country that was a role model for the rest of the world for most of the year, a silent fear has spread. The streets of Seoul are getting emptier every day. Supermarkets have reported brisk sales of instant noodles and meal sets. Restaurant owners are concerned that they will be forced to close their doors to customers who only order takeout.

And now the virus is even harder to contain.

“Unlike in the past, this time around, the virus seems to be popping up everywhere and no place is safe,” said Myeong Hae-kyung, a head nurse at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu who served on the front lines when the city was the epicenter of the city first coronavirus outbreak in the country earlier this year.

“In the last few days my life has only switched between hospital and home. I’m scared of going anywhere, ”she said.

This wave focuses on hospitals in South Korea. The country’s goal is to have hospital beds available to patients within one day of being diagnosed with the disease.

However, as of Sunday, 368 patients were waiting at home in the Seoul metropolitan area to be assigned to beds. Last week, a patient died at home in Seoul while waiting for a hospital bed. Another died at home in Seoul on Sunday.

The number of intensive care patients tripled this month to 274 on Monday. At the weekend, South Korea reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 patients for five consecutive days, a record.

“We must secure hospital beds for seriously ill patients as if we were waging a war,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday. “Every day is critical.”

The rise in infections has created a bottleneck as health officials struggle to allocate a limited number of beds to patients. The government has ordered state and private general hospitals to convert at least one percent of their licensed beds to treat critically ill Covid patients.

Updated

Dec. Dec. 22, 2020 at 5:18 am ET

Health officials expect the bottleneck to decrease significantly in the coming week as more beds become available. The success of the effort will help determine whether the government increases social distancing restrictions to level 3, below which more than 2 million additional businesses would close or dramatically curtail their operations.

“As you can see, people don’t come in,” said Lee Jeong-ae, a restaurant owner in north Seoul, as she pointed to empty tables in her restaurant. “People who suffer most from social distancing are small business owners like us.”

Ms. Lee sells fish soups, fried pork, and other Korean dishes. She recently began preparing for new restrictions by addressing bulk orders for plastic containers, as restaurants like hers are only allowed to sell take-away under Level 3 guidelines.

The Seoul metropolitan area is still below level 2.5, schools, gyms, karaoke rooms, bars and other high risk facilities are closed. Restaurants, cinemas, hairdressing salons and many other shops remain open but must close before 9 p.m.

As of Monday, South Korea has reported 698 deaths in 50,591 cases. The aggressive campaign to “test, track and treat” patients has kept death rates comparatively low. But epidemiologists have urged the government to put level 3 restrictions in place before it’s too late.

Unlike previous waves of the virus with large clusters that officials could target and track, the most recent wave has spread across numerous small clusters in nursing homes, churches, prisons, saunas, and small private gatherings, making it difficult to contain.

Dr. Eom Joong-sik, who treats Covid-19 patients at Gachon University’s Gil Hospital in Incheon, a populous port city west of Seoul, said the current problems were due to the government, despite its reputation as a leader in being the EU could not plan ahead pandemic.

“Experts had already warned that if there was a wave in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to half the country’s population, hospital beds could become scarce and the government would have to develop a plan for this scenario,” said Dr. Eom. “Right now, not only are we struggling to secure hospital beds in the metropolitan area, but we’re also struggling to move patients to hospitals as we see hundreds of new patients every day.”

President Moon Jae-in, proud of his administration’s strategy of keeping as much of the economy going while fighting the pandemic, was reluctant to approve Level 3. Instead, the government has stepped up its testing and isolation campaigns and gradually introduced new social distancing rules.

67,000 people were tested for the virus every day over the past week, ten times more than in October. In Seoul and the surrounding cities, the government has added 134 temporary test stations to encourage people to get free tests even when they have no symptoms, in hopes of “preventively” isolating asymptomatic cases.

As part of the government’s efforts to stop people from spreading the disease over Christmas and New Years, birthday parties and other private gatherings of five or more people will be banned in the Seoul metropolitan area from Wednesday.

An annual Christmas Eve gathering around a Christmas tree in Seoul City Hall Square has been canceled. Large churches have put up their usual Christmas decorations but appear abandoned as prayer services with more than 20 people have been banned. The United Christian Churches of Korea have urged believers to celebrate the holidays at home by sharing Christmas carols with friends on social media.

“We will prepare carefully to introduce Level 3 if necessary,” said Son Young-rae, a health ministry spokesman. “But we hope the government and the people can work together to control the wave without going there.”

Categories
Politics

Why ‘Pivot Counties’ That Caught With Trump Could Be a Warning for Democrats

Why ‘Pivot Counties’ That Stuck With Trump May Be a Warning for Democrats

That year, Mr Trump again carried the district. In 2022, Cartwright said, a Trump-style Republican could win the Pennsylvania’s governor and Senate elections nationwide. “A lot of it depends on how life is two years from now,” he said.

Another region that reflected the postponements of the recent election, Saratoga County, New York State, was home to one of Mr. Biden’s pivotal feats in a pivot county. Mr Trump won there four years ago with 3.2 points. Mr. Biden won last month with 5.4 points for an overall swing of 8.6 points.

County Democrats chairman Todd Kerner attributed the turnaround to concerns from college graduates in the affluent suburbs of Albany, on the county’s southern end.

Jim Esterly, a retiree in Clifton Park, NY, was one of them. Four years ago, he said, he was taken on by Mr. Trump’s TV role in “The Apprentice”.

“I said,” Here’s a man who’s a businessman, “said Mr. Esterly.” He had deals that failed but he came back. I don’t know how he got the ship up, but I said Running the country is like running big business. “

For Mr. Esterly (68), who had managed a municipal sewage treatment plant, disillusionment set in early on. “He didn’t believe in climate change,” he said, citing the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. “When Covid hit he was more than stupid, didn’t believe his experts soon enough and then said, ‘Maybe we have to do something’ and then ignored it.”

Mr Esterly voted for Mr Biden this year and he had plenty of company in the suburb of Clifton Park. Mr. Biden won nearly 3,000 more votes in town than Ms. Clinton in 2016. Mr. Trump only increased his support there by about 500 votes.

Categories
World News

New Covid pressure leaves UK remoted, 1,500 vehicles stranded at border

New Covid strain leaves UK isolated, 1,500 trucks stranded at border

The French borders have been closed at the entrance to the port of Dover because of a new COVID-19 strain in the Eastern Dock, where the cross-channel port is located. Ferries to Calais in France will depart on December 21, 2020. Kent, UK.

Andrew Aitchison | In pictures via Getty Images

French and British officials are working to lift a ban on freight traffic imposed by France amid fears across the continent of a new strain of coronavirus identified in the UK

France activated the 48-hour border closure on Monday and 1,500 trucks were stuck in Kent on Tuesday morning that couldn’t leave the UK, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said Tuesday.

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has urged drivers not to travel through the affected counties of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire. Passenger ferry and freight services also ceased in the major ports of Dover and Portsmouth, leaving several thousand ferry travelers stuck.

Meanwhile, more than 40 countries have ceased transport links with the UK after a variation in the coronavirus – which health officials say could be up to 70% more transmissible – was sweeping the country.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has effectively canceled Christmas plans for much of the country, subjecting around 17 million people to strict lockdown rules. The coronavirus has already killed more than 67,000 people in the UK

Patel told the BBC on Tuesday morning that “a solution” to the freight disruption is to be found between Britain and France.

“You will hear about developments and updates later today,” she said, adding that part of the consideration was having truck drivers tested for Covid-19 in ports. Any resolution would have to be agreed by Johnson and French President Emmanual Macron and would start on Wednesday, said the French European Minister.

Transport for goods coming to the UK from France was still ongoing, a Eurotunnel representative said Monday evening, and unaccompanied cargo trailers could still be shipped to France, Shapps said. The current ban applies to accompanied cargo.

The news and the Christmas blackout have sparked panic buying and resulted in empty supermarket shelves in some parts of the UK. Shapps said stores were still well stocked, but major UK chain Sainsbury’s warned that if the disruption persists, there could be shortages of certain fresh foods in a matter of days.

The crisis comes just nine days before the UK ends its transition period with the European Union after voting to leave the bloc in 2016. At the time of writing, neither side had reached a new trade agreement.