Month: February 2021

Categories
Politics

Decide Postpones Guantanamo Arraignments Over Covid Considerations

Judge Postpones Guantanamo Arraignments Over Covid Concerns

WASHINGTON – A military judge Tuesday indefinitely postponed indictments against three Guantánamo Bay prisoners who were due to appear in court for the first time after 17 years in prison. The coronavirus pandemic made traveling to the naval base too risky.

Indonesian prisoner Hambali, who has been held as a former leader of a Southeast Asian extremist group since 2003, and two accused accomplices were due to appear before the court martial on February 22nd. But Colonel Charles L. Pritchard Jr., the military judge who was due to travel to Guantanamo this week, ruled that “the various lawyers’ beliefs that travel is a serious threat to their health” was baseline.

Colonel Pritchard is the youngest military judge to join the Bank of Guantánamo Military Commissions and the youngest to postpone a trial deemed too risky in almost a year of the coronavirus repeal. The capital punishment pre-trial hearings against five men charged with planning the September 11, 2001 attacks have been delayed by a year.

The judge, court staff and attorneys in charge of the hearing began quarantine in the Washington area the weekend before a charter flight to the base Thursday.

Once there, the passengers should be quarantined individually for 14 days according to a plan worked out by the public prosecutor’s office in order to protect the residents of 6,000 inhabitants and in prison from the risk of infection.

“The risk to the health and safety of those involved in the legal proceedings due to the global Covid-19 pandemic is high,” the judge wrote in a seven-page order on Tuesday. “The government’s proposed mitigation measures lower the risk, but the risk remains.” He suggested that traveling to the base may not be safe until the end of summer.

Updated

Apr. 2, 2021, 7:52 p.m. ET

The case had been inactive throughout the Trump administration, but on day two of the Biden administration, a senior Pentagon official appointed under the Trump administration in charge of military commissions cleared the prosecution.

The defendants include Mr. Hambali, charged as Encep Nurjaman and the former leader of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, and his accused accomplices, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, who are Malaysians.

The three men were captured in Thailand in 2003 on charges of conspiracy in the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, and in the 2003 Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing in which at least 11 people were killed and at least 80 injured were indicted for their first three years on the CIA’s secret network of prisoners before being brought to Guantánamo for trial in 2006.

Military commission rules require an inmate to be tried within 30 days of the charges being approved, but the judge’s decision appeared to suspend this watch.

Colonel Pritchard, the head of the Army’s southeastern judicial district, was forced to travel to Washington last week to be quarantined before traveling to Guantánamo. In his decision, he noted that most of the people traveling to the court hearings have not yet been vaccinated against the virus, and neither have the prisoners.

He also noted Saturday’s decision by the Biden government to suspend a plan to offer vaccines to the 40 inmates in the prison this week. Under the original plan, the three defendants could have voluntarily received their February 1 shots and boosters in time for the February 22 trial.

By Tuesday, all soldiers and other service members working on the prison operation had been offered the Moderna vaccine, said Maj. Gregory J. McElwain, an Army spokesman, and declined to say how many of the estimated 1,500 troops are refused to receive this one shot. The Navy’s medical staff has been gradually vaccinating volunteers among residents of the base since Jan. 9.

This week, as part of the tiered program, the vaccines were offered to school teachers and foreign workers of the base commissioner and bars, as well as the naval forces guarding the perimeter of the base.

Prosecutors suggested that the hearing be postponed to April 3. The judge wrote that he would issue a new court order “in due course”.

Categories
Entertainment

Ricky Powell, 59, Dies; Chronicled Early Hip-Hop and Downtown New York

Ricky Powell, 59, Dies; Chronicled Early Hip-Hop and Downtown New York

Ricky Powell, the zelig from downtown New York who used his camera to document the early years of hip hop’s rise as well as a host of other subcultural scenes and the celebrities and marginalized figures who populated the city, was found dead Monday in his West Village apartment. He was 59 years old.

The death was confirmed by his manager and archivist Tono Radvany, who said a cause was still pending. Mr. Powell learned that he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year and that he had ongoing problems with his heart.

Mr. Powell – often affectionately referred to as “The Lazy Hustler” – exuded New York charm and courage. As a die-hard hiker, he hit the sidewalk with his camera and took photos of everything he liked: superstars, well-dressed passers-by, animals.

Crucially, he was about to form the Beastie Boys, which catapulted him into an unexpected career as a tour photographer and key member of the entourage, earning him a front-row seat in the global hip-hop explosion that began in the mid-1980s.

“Even though Ron Galella was his hero – he was the original paparazzi – I always told Ricky that you had a taste for Weegee, too,” said the once ubiquitous New York street photographer Fab 5 Freddy, the early hip-hop impresario and a longtime friend and photo subject of Powell. “He was always in the inner circle, one of the few – if not the only one – who took photos.”

Mr. Powell’s photographs were intimate and casual, a precursor to the spontaneous hyperdocumentation of the social media era. They often felt completely in the moment and lived it instead of watching it. His subjects were varied: Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who were captured on the street before a gallery opening; Francis Ford Coppola and his daughter Sofia at one of their early fashion shows; Run-DMC poses in front of the Eiffel Tower; a pre-superstar Cindy Crawford in a nightclub bathroom; People who sleep on park benches.

“He wasn’t trained, he didn’t know how to compose a recording, he didn’t know what an aperture was,” said Vikki Tobak, editor of the photo anthology “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop”. (2018) and curator of a traveling exhibition of the same name, which also included the work of Mr. Powell. “But you could feel his curiosity about the people he was photographing, so none of that really mattered. He made people laugh and felt good; you can see all of this in his photos. “

Ricky Powell was born in Brooklyn on November 20, 1961 and grew up primarily in the West Village. He attended LaGuardia Community College in Queens and graduated from Hunter College in Manhattan with a degree in physical education.

His mother, Ruth Powell, was a schoolteacher – he didn’t know his father – but it was mostly a habit of downtown clubs like Max’s Kansas City, which Ricky brought with her when he was a kid. She is its only immediate survivor.

“I grew up fast, dude. Fast, ”Powell says in Ricky Powell: The Individualist, a life documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. It is now planned for this year’s festival in June.

Josh Swade, director of the documentary, said Mr. Powell had raw social and cultural intelligence “because he was just out on the streets of New York defending himself in the 60s and 70s”.

Actress Debi Mazar met Mr. Powell while both teenagers were riding bikes around downtown Manhattan. They are “children of the city”. Together they went to the Paradise Garage, the Mudd Club and other hot spots. “Every door opened to Ricky,” said Ms. Mazar. “When we went to a club, we were the cool kids. He had this savoir faire, this electricity. “

Fab 5 Freddy recalled that “New York was a polarized place when we met,” but that Mr. Powell “was comfortable with black kids in a time when people weren’t just going to other places.”

He became a staple of the Fun Gallery, Danceteria, Roxy, and more, alongside graffiti writers, rappers, punk rockers, artists, and other creative eccentrics who populated New York’s vibrant, jagged downtown area. He played on the softball team of graffiti artist Futura 2000, the East Village Espadrilles.

“It was almost like he was invisible too,” said Futura, as he is now called. “He was always looking for a picture to take.”

After graduating from college, Mr. Powell sold ice cream from a street cart for a while and offered to add rum to the treat for an additional dollar. During his shift he photographed people on the street, including stars of the scene like Basquiat. He was already friends with the Beastie Boys, who had just signed a record deal with Def Jam, and one day he bought a plane ticket to accompany them on the street – they opened up to Run-DMC on the Raising Hell Tour – and never looked back.

Mr. Powell became a vital part of the Beastie Boys ecosystem – he partied hard, chased luggage at times, played one of the nerdy protagonists in the video “(You Must) Fight Your Right (To Party!)” And more. He was name checked on “Car Thief,” a track from the group’s 1989 album “Paul’s Boutique,” and was well known enough to have his own groupies.

“When he showed up, the party started,” said Radvany.

As he took photos, they quickly became essential artifacts. Mr. Powell was a documentary filmmaker for a demimonde who was often too busy living aloud to stop and think. Over the years his pictures have appeared in Paper, Ego Trip, Mass Appeal, Animal and other magazines. He also published several books, including “Oh Snap! Ricky Powell’s Rap Photography ”(1998),“ The Rickford Files: Classic New York Photographs ”(2000), and“ Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985-2005 ”(2005).

“I liked being part of the crew, just hanging out. The entourage itself, but also a photographer who takes relevant pictures at the same time, ”Powell says in the documentary. “I think you have to get a degree in humanistic behavior before you can master the two together.”

Futura said, “He had the gift of being very much a New Yorker. He embodied that for me. I know my own way. “

For several years in the 1990s, Mr. Powell had a public television show called “Rappin ‘With the Rickster,” in which he swapped a still camera for a video camera, but retained the loose, unpredictable energy it both attracted and generated his own. (A DVD of the show’s biggest hits was released in 2010.)

He had been by the Beasties’ side for a decade, but he split with them in 1995 when the group left their old noisy, disruptive, and rude ways behind. “It got ripe,” says Mr. Powell in the documentary. “They did what they did, but I still stayed me.”

After returning to New York, Mr. Powell struggled to find meaning and for a time struggled with drug addiction.

He hadn’t always been sure how to use his crucial archive of an under-documented era. “He could have turned the connections into a profitable operation,” said Swade. “But you have to show up for that.”

Eventually, he began working with Mr. Radvany, who set about organizing his archives, and partnering with brands that licensed his old work or hired him on new projects that channeled his eau de New York energy. He also shared live slide show presentations of his old pictures and told the stories behind the photos.

“When I started with him he was down and I had to help him build an income,” said Mr Radvany. “He loved social media. He was the lazy hustler – he could sit on his futon and sell prints. “

And he never moved out of his little West Village apartment, which was bursting with the vibe of life in the epicenter of the city: contact sheets, sneakers, basketball jerseys, vintage magazines and records, endless memories of the development of contemporary New York creative culture. Even after all these decades, he was one with the scene he was capturing.

“You didn’t see him as a photographer,” said Fab 5 Freddy. “He was a cool kid in the mix who took the camera out, took a few pictures, put it down and said, ‘Pass that joint over here.'”

Categories
Health

States within the US are Pulling Again Vaccine Doses from Federal Program for Nursing Houses

States in the US are Pulling Back Vaccine Doses from Federal Program for Nursing Homes

It wasn’t long before Keith Reed, an assistant health commissioner in Oklahoma, discovered a major logistical problem with the introduction of state vaccination. Week after week, Oklahoma allocated thousands of valuable doses to a federal program for nursing home patients who did not all use them. Indeed, Tens of thousands of cans sat untouched in freezers.

So his department rang an acoustic signal. It was decided to stop allocating vaccines from Oklahoma to the federal program, a partnership with private pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens to immunize residents of long-term care facilities. Instead, they would go to distribution channels that would get them into people’s arms faster.

A number of states have taken similar steps to divert care from the federal effort known as the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program. This is a vivid example of how chaotic the US vaccination effort has been. Some of the other states are Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.

Reed said moving to Oklahoma would do no harm: Walgreens and CVS have assured him that all nursing home residents in the state who needed and wanted to be vaccinated would have the first of their two shots by the end of the week.

The federal program used a formula that made it clear how many shots would be required for long-term care facilities like nursing homes, whose residents are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Another problem has arisen: a significant number of residents, and particularly workers in the facilities, are reluctant to be vaccinated.

A study published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 77.8 percent of residents and 37.5 percent of workers received the vaccine in an average long-term care facility in the first month of the program. The study says the real rate may be higher for workers as some may have been vaccinated in different settings. Even so, federal officials are particularly concerned about how many workers oppose vaccination and have stepped up efforts to change their minds.

Mr Reed said the doses Oklahoma took away from the federal program will go to thousands of Oklahomans who are 65 years or older and do not live in nursing homes.

“Our goal is to get the vaccine into someone else’s arms within seven days of receiving it from the freezer,” Reed said in an interview last week. “We just had a tough time with this amount of vaccines that were earmarked for this program when we could use this vaccine to go straight to Oklahomans.”

Nursing home residents’ advocates are watching closely for signs that the moves will hamper their vaccinations.

“If we find older adults are not getting the vaccines they need, that’s our business,” said Lisa Sanders, a spokeswoman for LeadingAge, which represents more than 5,000 nonprofit aging service providers.

Categories
Business

Watch SpaceX try to launch and land Starship prototype rocket SN9

Watch SpaceX attempt to launch and land Starship prototype rocket SN9

[This livestream has ended. A replay is available above.]

UPDATE: SpaceX’s latest prototype launched successfully, but like its previous test flight, the rocket exploded on impact during an attempted landing. Read more here.

SpaceX is preparing to launch the latest prototype of its next-generation Starship rocket in the system’s second high-altitude test on Tuesday.

The spaceship prototype Serial Number 9 or SN9 flies up to 10 kilometers or approximately 32,800 feet in altitude. The flight will be similar to the SpaceX conducted in December when the prototype SN8 took off on the tallest and longest flight to date. The SN8 flight met several development goals, including testing the system’s aerodynamics and performing a flip to orientate yourself for landing. However, the prototype exploded on impact because the missile could not slow down enough.

SN9 is made of stainless steel, with the prototypes representing the early versions of the rocket that CEO Elon Musk unveiled last year. The company is developing Starship with the aim of bringing cargo and up to 100 people simultaneously on missions to the moon and Mars.

As with SN8, the goal of the SN9 flight is not necessarily to reach maximum altitude, but rather to test several important parts of the spacecraft system. The Starship prototype stands about 150 feet tall, or about the size of a 15-story building, and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. SpaceX fires all three engines to take off, then shuts them down one by one as they approach the intended altitude.

SN9’s attempt to launch was delayed for about a week as SpaceX worked to get permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch. Its SN8 flight violated the company’s existing Starship license, The Verge reported first and the FAA later confirmed that the federal aerospace agency had denied a SpaceX exemption request to exceed the maximum public risk that allow federal safety regulations, the FAA said in a statement.

SpaceX had to investigate its non-compliance and force Musk’s company to suspend launch until the investigation was completed and the FAA signed.

“The FAA determined late Monday (Feb. 1) that SpaceX complies with all safety and related federal regulations and is authorized to conduct SN9 operations under its launch license,” the FAA said.

Key tests for the SN9 flight include turning off the engines one at a time, transferring propellant from the main tanks to the header, flipping it over for the “belly flop” reentry maneuver, and controlling the descent through the air with the missile’s four flaps.

SpaceX stressed that “the dynamic development test schedule” may result in the attempt to launch being delayed, as was the case with previous Starship launches.

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Categories
World News

Iran Agrees to Free South Korean Ship’s Crew

Iran Agrees to Free South Korean Ship’s Crew

SEOUL, South Korea – Iran has agreed to rescue the 19-strong crew from a confiscated ship flying the South Korean flag, both countries announced on Tuesday. This appeared to be the first significant gesture by the Iranians, which de-escalated the problem since the ship was seized a month ago.

The Iranian move may also have been intended to send an indirect signal to the Biden administration, suggesting that it should avoid further deterioration in relations with Iran after it deteriorated sharply under former President Donald J. Trump to have.

In return for releasing the occupation, the South Korean government said it had pledged swift action to address Iran’s complaints about its inability to access $ 7 billion in Iranian funds due to US sanctions reimposed by Mr Trump were frozen to fix.

It was not immediately apparent from the announcement when the crew members would be released. Iran said the ship and its captain would remain in custody pending an investigation into the reasons for the ship’s seizure, cited by Iranians as violating the Maritime Pollution Act.

The ship, the Hankuk Chemi, loaded with 7,200 tons of chemicals, was taken into custody by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on January 4 while on patrol in the Persian Gulf. South Korea strongly protested the seizure and the shipowner called Iran’s allegations absurd.

It soon became clear that Iran had at least partially taken into custody of the ship in an attempt to pressure South Korea, a strong American ally, over the sanctions ordered by Mr Trump after breaking on the nuclear deal between Iran and the major world powers 2015 had waived. These sanctions included blocking Iran’s access to Iranian oil revenues in the billions that were deposited with foreign banks.

Iran began disregarding its nuclear deal obligations in response to Mr Trump’s actions and threatened further steps that may include blocking international nuclear inspectors from visiting nuclear sites.

While President Biden has said he wants to rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran resumes compliance, Iran has said the United States should drop sanctions first. Neither side has publicly shown an immediate readiness to find a diplomatic solution.

Iran’s approval of the liberation of the South Korean ship’s crew, which Saeed Khatibzadeh, a State Department spokesman, described as a humanitarian gesture, however, appeared to offer a degree of flexibility on sanction-related issues.

“This could be a signal to show a willingness to resume discussions or at least ease tension and perhaps open the door to South Korea to release seized Iranian assets,” said Farhad Alavi, partner at Akrivis Law Group. a Washington-based company specializing in sanctions law.

“Likewise, I wouldn’t be surprised if President Biden were to lift or suspend less sensitive or perhaps more political sanctions from the Trump era in the coming weeks or months – something more symbolic than essential,” said Alavi.

There was no immediate comment from the Biden administration on the news about the South Korean crew members.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the decision to free the crew members was taken during a telephone conversation on Tuesday between Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and his South Korean counterpart Choi Jong-kun.

The crew consists of four South Koreans, and the other members are Burmese, Vietnamese and Indonesians, the statement said.

Mr. Choi welcomed the Iranian decision and called on the Iranian government to release the captain and ship as well.

During his telephone conversation with Mr. Araghchi, Mr. Choi promised “swift” action to deal with Iran’s complaints about the $ 7 billion confiscated.

Mr. Choi also told Mr. Araghchi that South Korea would consult American officials in Washington on the matter, the department said.

Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul and Farnaz Fassihi from New York. Rick Gladstone reported from Eastham, Mass.

Categories
Business

A Full Information to the GameStop Inventory Buying and selling Frenzy

A Full Guide to the GameStop Stock Trading Frenzy

What is GameStop, the company, really worth? Is it important? The frenzy over the troubled retailer’s stocks has scratched analysts trying to determine a company’s worth.

Robinhood, Under the Gun, brings in $ 2.4 billion: The high trading volume of its customers, many of whom were triggered by social media, has weighed on the company’s bottom line.

Silver rises with hype It’s the next GameStop, but a backlash of courage wins: The precious metal rose 11.5 percent to its highest level in eight years and then gave up some of its profits when some online investors smelled a trap.

Gensler faces the great challenge of tackling GameStop’s Wild Ride: There is broad consensus that capital markets have been distorted, but less consensus on what the SEC should do about it.

The Silicon Valley start-up that caused the chaos on Wall Street: Robinhood presented itself to investors as the antithesis of Wall Street. It wasn’t said that it relied solely on Wall Street either. Last week, the two realities collided.

Trade restrictions reverse GameStop rally and anger upstarts:: Retail investors accused a trading platform of being “dishonest” and “giving in to the elite” as new restrictions on some stock deals sparked a quieter day in the markets.

Robinhood, in need of cash, is raising $ 1 billion from its investors: The free trading app popular with young investors has been burdened by the high volume of trading in stocks like GameStop.

How to Stay Cool in the GameStop Market: Signs of irrational exuberance abound. Stay sober and invest long-term, says our columnist.

So you’ve just made a lot of money playing GameStop. Don’t forget taxes: Some investors may have made tens of thousands of dollars in profits. Depending on when they sell the stock, they could owe high capital gains taxes.

Behind the wild ride of the stock market: It wasn’t just GameStop. AMC Entertainment, American Airlines, Nokia, and Tootsie Roll Industries stocks rose last week and fell briefly.

4 Things to know about GameStop Insanity: It was a strange time in the stock market when a video game retailer suddenly became the focus of attention.

How options trading could fuel a stock market bubble: An increase in individual investors is betting that stocks will rise. This craze has a growing impact on the regular stock market.

Categories
Health

Honeywell CEO on mass Covid vaccination website in North Carolina

Honeywell CEO on mass Covid vaccination site in North Carolina

More than 20,000 people were vaccinated against Covid-19 last weekend at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The idea for the three-day event came during a humble walk, according to Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell International.

“In the Covid era, one of the more social things you can still do is go for a walk outside with some of your friends,” Adamczyk said on Squawk Box on Tuesday. One weekend, Adamczyk said he was walking with Carolina Panthers President Tom Glick and Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods, who both live in his neighborhood.

The men discussed the introduction of Covid vaccinations in the US, which started more slowly than expected from mid-December, Adamczyk recalled. “We said, ‘You know, maybe we could help here. Maybe we could work together as a team.'”

Atrium Health, as a non-profit healthcare system with 42 hospitals, could of course direct the actual administration of the vaccines, Adamczyk said. The Panthers are now well experienced in handling large crowds at Bank of America Stadium, where David Tepper’s NFL franchise plays its home games.

Honeywell could bring its logistics and sales expertise, as well as its technological capabilities, to the table more broadly, Adamczyk said. Put all three Charlotte-based organizations together, he said, and “we think we can do something really different.”

“I have to thank our mayor, [Vi Alexander Lyles,] thank our governor, [Roy Cooper,] for actually shooting ourselves because it could have been a disaster, “said Adamczyk. But it turned out to be a success, he said.

The goal was to deliver 19,000 vaccines at the stadium event, a spokesman for Atrium Health told CNBC. In the end, more than 20,000 were administered. The week before, Honeywell, Atrium Health, and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, the company that holds Tepper’s ownership of the Panthers, also worked together on a vaccination site at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where more than 15,000 shots were fired.

The pace of vaccinations in the US has improved in recent weeks and the number of doses given now exceeds the number of confirmed Covid cases since the pandemic began. As of Monday, a total of 32.8 million doses had been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including just over 6 million Americans who both received two-dose vaccinations. 26.4 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the United States, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

The event at Bank of America Stadium was vaccinated every 4.5 seconds on average, Adamczyk said. “The other statistic that I think is really important here is that 30% are from communities of colored people.”

“We did it in three days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” he added. “Twelve hours a day, 20,000 people. See if we could do it and set up 50 or 100 such locations across the country.”

Adamczyk acknowledged that vaccine supply restrictions may currently prohibit this vision, but was confident that those restrictions would ease in the coming weeks and months.

“Ultimately, this becomes a queuing problem, and the right and most efficient way to solve the queuing problem is to have very large, very efficient distribution centers that are all over the country, across the states, and very quickly take them in the arms of the people, “said Adamczyk.

“We have to get back to life, we have to go back to good economic times and the fastest way the economy can recover is to get people vaccinated,” he added.

Categories
Business

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) This autumn 2020 earnings miss

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Q4 2020 earnings miss

A woman with facemas leaves a Chipotle Mexican grill restaurant with her take-away order in Monterey Park, California on January 14, 2021.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

Chipotle Mexican Grill reported Tuesday that sales in the same store rose more than 5% in the most recent quarter, driven by higher digital orders and the return of Carne Asada.

Given the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the company declined to provide a forecast for revenue growth in the same business in fiscal 2021, but it expects a strong first quarter.

Chipotle’s shares fell 3% in expanded trading. The stock hit an all-time high of $ 1,553.55 on Tuesday.

The company reported for the quarter ended December 31st, versus Wall Street’s expectations, based on an analyst survey conducted by Refinitiv:

  • Earnings per share: $ 3.48 adjusted versus expected $ 3.73
  • Revenue: $ 1.61 billion versus $ 1.61 billion expected

Chipotle reported net income of $ 190.9 million, or $ 6.69 per share, for the fourth quarter, compared to $ 72.4 million, or $ 2.55 per share, last year. The company posted an income tax benefit of $ 3.77 for the quarter.

Without an income tax benefit, corporate reorganization expense, and other items, Chipotle earned $ 3.48 per share and fell short of what Refinitiv interviewed analysts had expected.

Net sales increased 11.6% to $ 1.61 billion and were in line with expectations.

Sales in the same store increased by 5.7%. The return of the Carne Asada in September has boosted demand. In addition, digital sales nearly tripled, accounting for nearly half of the company’s quarterly sales. In Chipotle’s second and third quarters, online sales more than tripled.

So far, sales in the same store in January are up 11%. And if the pandemic doesn’t worsen, the company expects first-quarter revenue growth in its mid-to-senior teens.

The company also said it increased menu prices for delivery orders. Third-party apps like DoorDash charge restaurants a commission that affects their profits. Chipotle had said in previous quarters that the higher incidence of supply orders sparked by the crisis had hurt profit margins.

The company opened 61 new locations, moved two restaurants and closed one in the quarter. Chipotle expects to open around 200 new restaurants in fiscal 2021, provided there is little construction and delays related to the crisis are allowed.

Read the full report here.

Categories
Politics

Elizabeth Warren asks Robinhood to elucidate GameStop commerce restrictions

Elizabeth Warren asks Robinhood to explain GameStop trade restrictions

Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Robinhood Tuesday to explain why trading in glowing GameStop stocks was restricted after hedge funds suffered huge losses in a short period of time.

Warren, D-Mass., Noted that last week the online broker abruptly changed the trading rules for individual investors in certain stocks on its fee-free platform, while hedge funds and institutional investors on Wall Street continue to operate in GameStop, Koss , AMC, Entertainment, Express, Naked Brand Group and other companies.

“Robinhood has a responsibility to treat its investors honestly and fairly and to provide them with access to the market according to a transparent and uniform set of rules,” Warren wrote in her letter to Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev.

“It is deeply disturbing that the company may not do this,” wrote Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

The letter asked Robinhood to disclose what resulted in severe trading restrictions being imposed on video game retailer GameStop and the rest of the stocks, and whether its hedge fund investors or other financial services partners who had large stakes in such trading supported the decision of the App companies influenced.

Robinhood had severely restricted purchases of a handful of stocks, so in some cases customers could only buy a single stock. In addition, the margin requirements for certain stocks and options have been increased.

“The public deserves a clear account of Robinhood’s relationships with major financial corporations and the extent to which those relationships could undermine their commitments to their customers,” Warren wrote.

The Senator also wrote that she was “concerned that Robinhood included compulsory arbitration clauses in their client agreement, suggesting that investors will not have sufficient opportunity to pursue their claims and seek relief.”

In the past week, at least 18 lawsuits have been filed against Robinhood over trade restrictions.

Warren wrote that forcing these allegations into “secret arbitration denies customers a fair hearing, undermines public accountability, and hinders efforts to have a thorough and complete understanding of what happened”.

“Investors harmed by Robinhood’s trading restrictions should be able to argue their case in court rather than in closed camera proceedings too often directed against claimants,” she wrote.

A Robinhood spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Warren’s letter.

Warren’s letter came the same day Robinhood said it would allow customers to purchase up to 100 GameStop shares while lifting restrictions on AMC and Koss and lifting restrictions on BlackBerry and Genius Brand.

GameStop shares rose 400% last week and rose more than 1,600% through January as a group of investors on Reddit’s WallStreetBets discussion group hyped the stock.

The massive surge in the share price, in turn, put brief pressure on hedge funds who had bet that GameStop’s share price would fall, so these funds had to buy shares to cover the losses on their positions. These purchases, in turn, added upward pressure on the share price and further exacerbated hedge fund losses.

Short sellers lost nearly $ 20 billion in GameStop positions last month due to the shortage.

Short sellers bet on a stock by borrowing stocks and then selling them. A short seller hopes that the price of the stocks will then fall so that the short seller can pocket the price difference when they later buy stocks to replace those they borrow.

However, when prices go up, a short seller must buy stocks to replace the borrowed stocks at a higher price than they initially sold. This situation results in a loss for the short seller.

Many individual traders and politicians on both sides of the aisle have criticized Robinhood’s decision to restrict purchases of certain stocks like GameStop that are at the center of the controversy.

Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, told CNBC last week that his company capped 13 stocks on Wednesday as a risk management decision to protect the company and its investors.

Tenev said the decision was based in part on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s net capital rules and clearinghouse deposit requirements that brokers must adhere to.

Last week’s high trading volume put pressure on online brokers like Robinhood, which clients have to pay in cash when they close a position.

The brokers also needed additional cash to provide their clearing facility with additional capital and to protect trading partners from excessive losses.

GameStop stock prices fell Tuesday, falling 51% to about $ 110 per share from noon.

This sharp drop follows a drop of more than 30% during Monday’s regular market session.

GameStop’s share price closed at $ 325 per share on Friday.

If GameStop closes at its current level, the two-day loss would be roughly 66%.

Categories
Health

Moderna’s Easy Repair to Vaccine Provide: Extra Doses in Every Vial

Moderna’s Simple Fix to Vaccine Supply: More Doses in Each Vial

Moderna is asking U.S. regulators to agree to what could be a remarkably simple proposal to speed up Americans’ immunization against the coronavirus: fill the empty space in the vials with up to 50 percent more doses.

The Food and Drug Administration could decide in a matter of weeks whether Moderna, a Massachusetts-based biotech company that develops one of two state-approved Covid vaccines, can increase the number of doses in its vials from up to 15. Moderna has ramped up production of its vaccine, but the process of filling, capping and labeling millions of tiny vials has proven to be a roadblock. The company could produce more if regulators allow it to make fuller vials, Ray Jordan, a Moderna spokesman, said late Monday.

While it’s not clear how quickly Moderna could adjust its production, any spike could be extremely welcome news in the campaign to contain a pandemic that has killed more than 443,000 people in the US alone.

“That just makes a lot of sense,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who was Assistant Secretary of Health for Preparedness and Response under President Barack Obama. If Moderna can use the same size vial and the same production lines that are already running, she said, “It’s a relatively simple and straightforward solution.”

Moderna has given up about 46 percent of the vaccine previously administered in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The remainder comes from Pfizer-BioNTech, the only other vaccine developer to receive emergency clearance.

Both vaccines require two doses, and both companies have promised to deliver 200 million doses by July. That would be enough to cover roughly three-quarters of the nation’s adults. If Moderna can deliver cans faster, that schedule could accelerate.

The Biden administration is looking for a way to strengthen production, for example for obstacles in the “filling and finishing” phase of production. Although this stage of the nuts and bolts receives less attention than the manufacturing process of the vaccine itself, it has been identified as a production limitation for years.

Moderna has discussed the possible change with the Food and Drug Administration but has not yet provided manufacturing data for support, according to those familiar with the discussions. Federal regulators may be receptive to the idea of ​​more doses in each vial, but could prevent a 50 percent increase and instead approve a more modest number of additional doses.

The industry standard has long been 10 doses per vial, and federal regulators may fear that having too many extra punctures by needling the rubber cover of the vial and the time it takes to extract more doses increases the risk of contamination of the vaccine with Bacteria could increase.

At some point, too much liquid can cause a vial to break. Moderna has tested what happens when additional doses are added and found the limit to be 15, according to people familiar with the company’s operations and not authorized to speak publicly.

Moderna’s proposal for a five dose increase was previously reported by CNBC.

Packing more vaccines in each vial is one of several options the White House and health officials are considering to ramp up production before spring, when authorities expect a renewed spike in infections from emerging variants of the coronavirus. Some ideas, such as combining fractions of doses left over in vials, have been suggested and discarded.

Pfizer is unable to increase the amount of vaccine in its vials because its manufacturing is geared towards a specific vial size that can only hold about six doses. Moderna’s vial is large enough to hold more than the 10 doses currently allowed, so it can add more without creating a new production line.

When asked about Moderna’s proposal, a White House spokesman said Monday that “all options are on the table”.

Prashant Yadav, who studies healthcare supply chains at the Washington Center for Global Development, said Moderna could potentially make more of its vaccine “relatively quickly” if it were given the green light to add doses to each vial.

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Answers to your vaccine questions

Am I eligible for the Covid vaccine in my state?

Currently more than 150 million people – almost half of the population – can be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision on who goes first. The country’s 21 million healthcare workers and three million long-term care residents were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials asked all states to open eligibility to anyone over 65 and adults of any age with medical conditions that are at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying of Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the end of the line. If federal and state health authorities can remove bottlenecks in the distribution of vaccines, everyone over the age of 16 is eligible as early as spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are ongoing. It can take months before a vaccine is available to anyone under the age of 16. For the latest information on vaccination guidelines in your area, see your state health website

Is the Vaccine Free?

You shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, despite being asked for insurance information. If you don’t have insurance, you should still get the vaccine for free. Congress passed law this spring banning insurers from applying cost-sharing such as a co-payment or deductible. It consisted of additional safeguards prohibiting pharmacies, doctors, and hospitals from charging patients, including uninsured patients. Even so, health experts fear that patients will end up in loopholes that make them prone to surprise bills. This may be the case for people who are charged a doctor’s visit fee with their vaccine, or for Americans who have certain types of health insurance that are not covered by the new regulations. When you get your vaccine from a doctor’s office or emergency clinic, talk to them about possible hidden costs. To make sure you don’t get a surprise invoice, it is best to get your vaccine at a Department of Health vaccination center or local pharmacy as soon as the shots become more widely available.

Can I choose which vaccine to get?How long does the vaccine last? Do I need another next year?

That is to be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event just like the flu vaccination. Or the vaccine may last longer than a year. We’ll have to wait and see how durable the protection from the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers will track down vaccinated people to look for “breakthrough cases” – those people who get Covid-19 despite being vaccinated. This is a sign of a weakening of protection and gives researchers an indication of how long the vaccine will last. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of people who have been vaccinated to see if and when a booster shot might be needed. It is conceivable that people might need boosters every few months, once a year, or just every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data.

Does my employer need vaccinations?Where can I find out more?

But he said it wasn’t an instant change. “I don’t think Moderna has a surplus,” he said.

Dr. Lurie, an advisor to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, known as CEPI, said that during the federal government’s H1N1 swine flu response, the problem of filling and completion created a “major bottleneck” with a limited supply of vaccines.

She said that at the start of the coronavirus pandemic at CEPI, there was discussion about which vial size would be suitable for mass vaccination: five, 10 or 20. Last year, a global shortage of glass vials became apparent due to negotiations between the federal government and vaccine manufacturers , which added further stress to drug companies developing coronavirus vaccines.

Mr Yadav said the finish-and-fill process has been automated to prevent contamination and ensure precise dosing of the microgram. It can fill up to 1,000 vaccine bottles per minute at top speed, he said.

A 15-dose vial made a compromise, he said. There could be more waste if healthcare professionals run out of people to be vaccinated and have to discard the remaining doses. But during a raging pandemic, experts said that could be a risk federal health officials would take.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who led the Trump administration’s vaccine development program and is an advisor to the Biden administration through next week, said other big drug companies like Merck or GlaxoSmithKline could potentially be able to end some of the fill and leg burden.

“It’s a more general type of manufacturing activity,” he said.

French drug maker Sanofi announced last week that it would produce more than 100 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine starting this summer to meet demand in Europe. Company employees said Sanofi will fill and package vials at a Sanofi facility in Frankfurt, near BioNTech’s German headquarters. BioNTech, Pfizer’s German partner, developed the vaccine.