Month: March 2021

Categories
World News

A Inexperienced Wave? Mexico’s Marijuana Market Could Be Middling

A Green Wave? Mexico’s Marijuana Market May Be Middling

MEXICO CITY – Mexico, a country that has been shaped by cartels for decades, is about to take an important step in drug policy. This week the House of Commons approved a landmark law legalizing recreational marijuana that would make it the world’s largest legal drug market.

Given that legalization is far from certain to garner Senate and President approval, many in the business world are predicting a Mexican green boom: a newly legal industry, tens of thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in profits for savvy entrepreneurs and welcome tax revenue for the US government.

However, many business analysts and economists are cautious, warning that the cannabis industry here is more of a green slip than a boom. The opening of a legal market is more legal and symbolic than economic in nature, they argue, citing relatively low domestic demand and low export opportunities for the product as well as seemingly restrictive regulatory measures.

“It’s hard to see any obvious far-reaching implications for the Mexican economy,” said Jeffrey Miron, an economist at Harvard University. “You will see a small drag on measured GDP,” he added, “but the people who claim that legalization will make this a big boost to the economy make no sense at all.”

But industry sponsors are excited about the prospects.

The cannabis industry “is finally going to generate income in terms of employment, in terms of the local economy, in terms of taxes,” said Erick Ponce, a Mexican entrepreneur and president of the Cannabis Industry Promotion Group, a local research and advocacy group.

“We definitely see it as a major economic boom for the country, especially in the middle of a pandemic,” added Ponce.

The Mexican marijuana industry could be worth up to $ 3.2 billion annually, and big cannabis companies like Canada’s Canopy Growth are already watching the market, according to a January report by a cannabis data analytics firm, New Frontier Data.

But Canada can be a cautionary story. Ahead of its own legalization in 2018, investors and analysts predicted a surge in cannabis cash, but the deal was not a sweeping success.

In the final quarter of 2020, the country’s national statistics agency estimated that consumers were spending Canadian $ 918 million (about $ 736 million) on legal weed products, significantly less than predicted prior to legalization. The result was sluggish and most manufacturers are still reporting losses running into the millions. In December, Canopy Growth announced it was closing five facilities and laying off more than 200 employees to accelerate profitability.

“The green rush part didn’t happen,” said Michael Armstrong, associate professor at the Goodman School of Business at Brock University in Ontario. “It was a positive boost for Canada, but by no means a dramatic one.”

Official figures show that Canada, with a much smaller population, has many more regular users than Mexico: Before legalization, around 15 percent of Canadians said they had smoked marijuana in the past three months, according to the national statistics bureau, a consumer base of more than 5 million potential users.

In contrast, a 2016 study by the Mexican government found that only about 1.2 percent of the population aged 12 to 65 said they had smoked a pot in the previous month, and 2.1 percent, about 1.8 Million, last year.

Legalization advocates argue that such numbers are misleading: in a country like Mexico, where the majority of the population is against weed legalization, many people do not admit to smoking it.

“Cannabis is a problem with stigma, with taboo,” said entrepreneur Ponce. “We don’t really know the impact of the local market because there are no real statistics.”

But even if surveys underestimate the number of potential consumers, most experts downplay the size of the market in Mexico.

“I don’t think there will be much demand,” said Jorge Javier Romero Vadillo, political scientist at the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico. And “I don’t think this regulatory process will significantly increase demand.”

Romero said the new law’s stringent licensing requirements for the cultivation, packaging and sale of marijuana could keep smallholders and sellers out of the legal market.

“With the rules they want to apply, which are very restrictive, they are going to open a tiny market,” he said. “They are rules that are so strict, with a barrier to entry that is so high that few will choose to enter the legal market.”

California, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, had similar teething troubles: In the first year of legalization, legal vendors in the state sold $ 500 million less than the previous year when it was licensed for medical use only.

According to Daniel Sumner, director of the Center for Agricultural Issues at the University of California at Davis, strict regulations and high taxes kept the majority of California producers and sellers in the gray or black market. In many communities, marijuana-related businesses have faced severe local opposition.

Sales have increased significantly recently as the number of licensed growers and vendors has gradually increased and the state introduced cannabis taxes of $ 1 billion last year, according to Sumner.

“It’s a formidable business,” he said, but “it’s a drop in the ocean” in the context of California’s annual budget of more than $ 200 billion.

With a relatively small consumer base and complex regulatory measures, Mexico’s recreational market is unlikely to come close to that, analysts say.

Instead, some industry leaders say the real money in Mexico may be in medical cannabis, which has been legal in Mexico since 2017, as well as industrial hemp, which is also regulated in the new bill and could be used to make anything from plastics to paper.

“The marijuana market is a very small market,” said Guillermo Nieto, president of the National Cannabis Industries Association, a Mexico City-based trade group. “Agriculturally, liking industrial hemp legalization won’t help us.”

In the short term, some business people say Mexico’s biggest gains could be doing what Mexico is already best at: manufacturing – in this case, possibly cannabis products such as supplements and cosmetics.

Still, the biggest impact may be more symbolic than monetary: As the largest economy to legalize the drug to date, Mexico, home to around 128 million people, could encourage other countries, including its northern neighbor, to follow suit.

“Sometimes it’s nerve-wracking to be the first to step into a pond that could be infested with sharks,” said Miron, the Harvard professor. “But when four or five other people have done it and it’s okay, more people will try.”

Categories
Entertainment

Take heed to 5 of the World’s Latest, Wildest Devices

Listen to Five of the World’s Newest, Wildest Instruments

What does someone have to invent a new instrument? If you ask the finalists of this year’s Guthman Musical Instrument Contest, you will get different answers – including boredom, curiosity and frustration.

The creative impulse is often triggered by the question: what if a piano could sing? How does a guitar learn to play microtones? Can a keyboard instrument be taught to overturn like a cello? Some of the participants had to expand their skills to include wood carving or soldering. One sought help from his plumber; another from his Lego-obsessed 7-year-old.

In a normal year, finalists can bring their creations to life in front of a live audience. Although the annual competition, organized by the Georgia Institute of Technology, was held online this year, the videos submitted by entrants allowed viewers to immerse themselves in a world of ingenuity. The university announced the winners on Friday.

Guitarist Kaki King, one of the judges, said in an interview that it was nearly impossible to compare and evaluate entries that contained a harp-guitar hybrid and an electronic khipu that was knotted on an ancient Andean encryption method Strings based. King said what ultimately guided them was the tactile attraction and magnetism of an invention.

“As a player, writer and composer,” she said, “you have a desire to put your hand on something, and that determines the measure of its value.”

Here are five highlights of the competition, brand new members of the huge family of instruments.

Ulfur Hansson (Reykjavik, Iceland)

The design for Ulfur Hansson’s electromagnetic harp came to him during a monotonous college course. He logged into a computer graphics program and drew a scribble: a circular line that winds inward and gathers in the center in a heart-like shape.

“It was definitely vision over sound,” Hansson said in a telephone interview. This winding diagram, the result of a mathematical relationship, now adorns the flat wooden surface of a shield-like structure that hides 24 strings that were made to vibrate by electromagnets. The magnets can be activated by buttons engraved in the front panel or by remote access via a computer, causing an ethereal hum like a ghost organ.

Since the strings can vibrate either at their fundamental frequencies or at one of the harmonics of their overtone series, the Segulharpa is “kind of chaotic,” said Hansson, who carved four of the instruments and soldered the electronics by hand. “It just keeps evolving when you play. You can feel that it is shaping itself. “

David Shea, Monica Lim and Mirza Ceyzar (Melbourne, Australia)

Experimental pianists have long played with hand-held electromagnetic devices called e-bows, which vibrate the strings of the piano without direct contact. There are prototype pianos with a built-in electromagnetic component, but their size and cost keep them out of the reach of most performers.

Composer David Shea dreamed of an instrument that would transform any concert grand piano into an electromagnetic piano capable of both traditional sounds and steady drones of electronic music. “I thought, could there be a travel version that is modular and can be constantly adapted by anyone who plays it?” he said in a video interview with Monica Lim, a fellow pianist and composer who helped shape the design.

Their groundbreaking idea was a mini-computer for each note that hovers over the string without touching it. A pianist can play both the electromagnetic component and the traditional keyboard at the same time – “a dialogue,” said Shea, “between the old and the new” – or in a duet with another person (or a computer) using the drones Sing brings. The device is portable and easy to install.

“It’s more like one layer sitting on top of the other, more percussive sound activated from the keyboard,” Lin said.

Atlas Cogulu, Tolgahan Cogulu and Rusen Can Acet (Istanbul)

Tolgahan Cogulu has been teaching the guitar to play new notes for years. “I love the guitar,” he said in a recent video interview. “I can’t play my own music, though.”

Turkish music is based on microtones, while traditional guitar has frets that arrange the pitch according to western vocal systems. In 2008, Cogulu designed a microtonal guitar with movable frets, but it continues to be a specialty instrument.

One day, his young son Atlas made a Lego replica of his father’s microtonal fingerboard. Cogulu immediately saw its potential. “It’s a miracle idea,” he said. “It’s the most popular toy in the world and the most popular instrument. And when you combine them it becomes a microtonal guitar – because you can move the frets on the Lego studs. “

Rusan Can Acet, engineer and PhD student at Istanbul Technical University, had the idea of ​​3D printing a base plate for the fingerboard. The Lego pieces snap into place and a set of movable 3D printed frets are attached on top. Production was almost ridiculously cheap, said Cogulu, and only stopped briefly when they had used up all of the thin, square one-off pieces in Atlas’s Lego collection that are essential to their design.

In class with his students, Cogulu discovered that he had come across a tool for teaching music theory. With its movable frets, the microtonal Lego guitar makes the changing intervals visible in various Western, Turkish and Balinese modes. Cogulu and his team are making the 3D printable files available to everyone for a modest contribution. He also plans to build pre-assembled versions that he hopes will be useful in music schools.

Clark Battle (United States)

“I’m basically an unreasonable cellist with guitar envy,” said Clark Battle. As an improviser, he admired the chordal flexibility of a piano or guitar. But, as he explained in an email exchange, he was unwilling to give up the flexible pitch of his chosen instrument, the cello. He began to wonder what a piano could look like that would allow a musician to vibrate and push notes – as you can on the cello.

The result is the Evolano – a “further developed piano”. The instrument has keys, action and hammers like a piano aligned along a central ruler. The strings move with the keys and slide over a curved fret that sets the pitch. Chords are played the traditional way of a keyboard by pressing multiple keys. By moving the hands, the entire chord structure can move smoothly like a cello glissando.

Battle said his study of kung fu impressed him on the importance of “respecting the natural vertical symmetry of the human body.” Regarding the sound, he added: “To be honest, I had no expectations of the tonal aspects of the instrument. Since there is no precedent for tonality, it would sound like what it did. “

Steve Parker (Austin, Tex.)

Steve Parker’s musical instruments make no sound. Instead, this trombonist uses brass instruments as sculptural hearing aids. His inspirations are the early 20th century military sound location devices – some referred to as war chambers – that were used to detect approaching enemy aircraft before the invention of radar. Parker’s instruments emit a similar threat, with yards of Seussian tubing ending in the exposed bells of trombones and sousaphones.

Parker’s devices – some portable, others attached to a gallery wall – become part of compositions that play with the dimensionality of sound. They also associate music with aggressive listening modes like surveillance and espionage.

“They’re picture frames – but they’re more than that,” said Parker in a video interview from the American Academy in Rome, where he is currently a fellow. “They don’t just choose and amplify certain sounds. They also resonate at certain frequencies. Since the instrument vibrates when the sound hits it, it harmonizes it in a subtle way. “

Parker says the effect on the listener is disoriented. He likes how the repurposed marching band instruments – rich in associations with warfare, protests and modern gladiator sports – can be turned into tools for listening together. And he enjoys the “piece of bricolage” with which instruments are dismantled and their components are soldered with copper pipes from the hardware store. As he did so, he said, “I’ve become quite friendly with my plumber.”

Categories
Politics

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen aids DA Vance felony probe

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen aids DA Vance criminal probe

Michael Cohen, former attorney for President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Oversight Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on Wednesday, February 27, 2019.

Matt McClain | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Senior officials in the Manhattan Attorney’s Office this week asked ex-President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen to return for his eighth interview with the firm, which is conducting a far-reaching criminal investigation related to the Trump Organization.

One person familiar with the case said that when Cohen was interviewed for the seventh time by officials via videoconference earlier this week, he was asked to be available for a face-to-face interview at DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office soon.

Cohen, who is now an avowed enemy of Trump, agreed, the person said.

Cohen declined to speak to CNBC, as did Vance’s spokesman Danny Frost. A Trump Organization spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The interest in speaking to Cohen repeatedly comes because Vance has strengthened its investigative team, recently gained access to Trump’s financial records, and reportedly broadened the scope of his investigation to investigate Trump’s longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg and the Sons of Weisselberg.

One of these sons works for the Trump Organization and runs the company’s Central Park ice rinks. The other works for Ladder Capital Finance, which has borrowed Trump’s company nearly $ 300 million in connection with four buildings in Manhattan. Vance is known to watch the Trump organization rate its buildings.

These developments, as well as Vance’s long-awaited announcement on Friday that he will not seek re-election this fall, have sparked speculation that the prosecutor will attempt to indict Trump or officials at his company in the coming months.

Vance’s investigation originally focused on how the Trump organization recorded hush money payments made or facilitated by Cohen, prior to the 2016 presidential election, to two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and playboy model Karen McDougal.

When Cohen pleaded guilty to financial financing violations and other crimes in 2018, he told a federal judge that he arranged these payments on Trump’s orders to calmly approve the women over their allegations of having sex with Trump hold. The former president denies the women’s claims.

Cohen later testified to Congress that the Trump Organization would inflate and deflate the value of real estate assets to either gain favorable loan and insurance terms or to reduce the amount of taxes owed on them.

These Cohen allegations are now being investigated in both Vance’s investigation and a civil investigation by Attorney General Letitia James.

Vance court records suggest that his investigation is investigating possible “insurance and banking fraud by the Trump organization and its officials” and possible tax crimes.

Vance last month hired Mark Pomerantz, a private practice criminal defense attorney, as a special assistant prosecutor to work solely on the Trump investigation.

Pomerantz’s career included a stint as head of the criminal justice department of the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, where he was responsible for securities fraud and organized crime cases.

Pomerantz was one of the investigators who spoke to Cohen about the video call this week, along with Vance and other top officials in the office, NBC News reported.

The DA office also kept the consulting firm FTI to analyze Trump’s financial records.

In February, shortly after Pomerantz was hired, the US Supreme Court rejected Trump’s efforts to prevent Vance from obtaining his tax returns and other financial records from his longtime accountants through a grand jury subpoena.

The investigators received these documents immediately.

Cohen began working with Vance’s investigation in 2018 before being sentenced to three years in prison for his crimes in 2019.

Investigators from the district attorney’s office visited him at federal prison in Otisville, New York.

Cohen was released from prison last May on fear of being particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 due to several health problems.

He was thrown back in jail in July after defying demands from federal probation officers not to publish a book about Trump or anyone else while he was serving the remainder of his sentence.

About two weeks later, Cohen was released again after an outraged federal judge declared that he had been the victim of retaliation by the Bureau of Prisons for failing to meet this condition. Cohen later published his book on Trump called “Disloyal”.

Since then, Cohen has not only moderated the investigation with Vance, but also hosts a podcast, Mea Culpa, whose guests include other Trump critics such as Daniels and Rosie O’Donnell.

Audio Up, which produces the podcast, touted it Friday as “the fastest growing podcast in the world” with “5 million downloads”.

Categories
Business

Invitae CEO Sean George on way forward for genetic testing, well being care

Invitae CEO Sean George on future of genetic testing, health care

Invitae’s shares rose over 25% this week, a sharp rise after Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood called the company one of their most underrated stocks in a CNBC interview on Monday.

Invitae was the eleventh largest holding in Wood’s flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), as of Thursday, giving it a heavier weight than better-known companies like DocuSign and PayPal.

The closely watched investor and company are known for their strategy of investing in “disruptive innovation” and a strong performance over the past year has resulted in billions of new dollars pouring into Ark’s family of funds.

In a CNBC interview on Friday, Invitae’s CEO outlined the genetic testing company’s mission and long-term goals, and provided some insight into why Wood is optimistic about its prospects.

“Genetic information is fundamental to improving people’s health outcomes and reducing costs. We tirelessly pursue the idea of ​​integrating this information into general medical care and daily use,” said Sean George on Closing Bell. He co-founded the San Francisco-based company in 2010, which went public in 2015.

Invitae achieved total annual sales of USD 279.6 million in 2020, compared to USD 216.8 million in the previous year. Net loss increased $ 608.9 million last year compared to $ 242 million in 2019.

While genetic information can be an effective tool in combating a variety of diseases, George says high costs have historically limited availability, and therefore potential impact. However, recent innovations in gene sequencing would have laid the foundation for better accessibility. He compared it to semiconductor improvements that helped boost the computer and networking industries in the 1970s and early 1980s.

“That has … enabled application providers like us to change what was considered a rationed good in healthcare in the past – genetic information, a kind of niche, test by test, sample by sample building of the laboratory industry – to something that looks a lot more like an information industry, “said George.

George, who holds a Ph.D. In molecular genetics, Invitae hopes to take its tests to the point that patients and doctors can proactively use them in large numbers. That way, even if the cost of each test is cheaper, Invitae can generate enough resources to be successful as a company, he said.

“The enormous importance and central importance of genetic information in health care will – I am sure in the next five to ten years – be in the foreground in order to receive the right therapy earlier for people who can benefit from it.” , identify people at risk and put in place surveillance and prevention modalities to safely delay, if not prevent, disease outbreaks and, in general, provide a basic understanding of the risk that exists in families, “he added.

Ark Invest has positions in a number of companies working on medical innovation beyond Invitae. Wood’s company has dedicated an ETF, the Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG). As of Thursday, these will include Teladoc, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. Invitae is also represented in this fund, currently the 16th largest participation.

Invitae’s shares closed Friday’s session down 0.5% at $ 42.70. Despite the stock’s big gains this week, it remains below its all-time high of $ 61.59 on December 14. It has grown by almost 260% in the past 12 months.

Categories
Health

Biden Takes First Tentative Steps to Handle International Vaccine Scarcity

Biden Takes First Tentative Steps to Address Global Vaccine Shortage

WASHINGTON – President Biden was under heavy pressure on Friday to donate excess coronavirus vaccines to nations in need to otherwise address global shortages and partnered with Japan, India and Australia to increase global manufacturing capabilities Expand vaccines.

In an agreement announced at the so-called Quad Summit, a virtual meeting of the heads of state and government of the four countries, the Biden government pledged to provide financial support to enable Biological E, a large vaccine manufacturer in India, to manufacture at least 1 Billion doses of coronavirus to help vaccines by the end of 2022.

This would fix acute vaccine shortages in Southeast Asia and beyond without risking the domestic setback of exporting cans in the months ahead as Americans demand their shots.

The United States has fallen far behind China, India and Russia in the race to adopt coronavirus vaccines as an instrument of diplomacy. At the same time, Mr Biden is accused of hoarding vaccines from global health lawyers who want his government to route supplies to nations in need desperately seeking access.

The president insisted that Americans come first and has so far refused to make any specific commitments to free US-made vaccines, despite tens of millions of doses of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca’s vaccine idling in American manufacturing facilities .

“If we have a surplus, we will share it with the rest of the world,” Biden said this week, adding, “We will first make sure that the Americans are taken care of first, but then we will try the rest of the world to help. “

In fact, the president still has a lot of work to do domestically to keep the promises made in the past few days: All states must question all adults for vaccinations by May 1st so that enough vaccine doses are available by the end of May to vaccinate every American adult, and that by July 4th, if Americans continue to follow public health guidelines, life should return to a semblance of normalcy.

Vaccine supplies seem on track to meet these goals, but the president still needs to put in place the infrastructure to manage the doses and overcome reluctance in large parts of the population to take them.

Still, Mr Biden has also made restoring US leadership a core part of his foreign policy agenda after his predecessor’s alliances frayed and relations with allies and global partners strained. His Foreign Secretary, Antony J. Blinken, said in a recent BBC interview that a global vaccination campaign would be part of this effort. Washington is “determined” to be an “international leader” in vaccinations.

Foreign policy experts and global health activists see clear diplomatic, public and humanitarian reasons for this.

“It’s time for US leaders to ask themselves: When this pandemic is over, do we want the world to remember America’s leadership in helping distribute life-saving vaccines, or will we leave that to others?” said Tom Hart, the North American executive director of One Campaign, a nonprofit founded by U2 singer Bono and dedicated to eradicating global poverty.

The federal government has bought 453 million surplus doses of vaccine, the group says. She has asked the Biden administration to share 5 percent of their doses overseas when 20 percent of Americans have been vaccinated, and gradually increase the percentage of divided doses as more Americans receive their vaccines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13.5 percent of people in the United States who are 18 years of age or older were fully vaccinated as of Friday.

The authoritarian governments of China and Russia, less affected by national public opinion, are already using vaccines to expand their sphere of influence. As the Biden government plans its strategy to counter China’s growing global clout, Beijing is polishing its image by shipping vaccines to dozens of countries on multiple continents, including Africa, Latin America, and the Southeast Asian backyard in particular.

Russia has been providing vaccines to Eastern European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a time when Biden officials want to unify the European Union against Russian influence on the continent.

“We may be outdone by others who are more willing to share, even if they do so for cynical reasons,” said Ivo H. Daalder, former NATO ambassador and president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “I think countries will remember who was there for us when we needed them.”

Updated

March 12, 2021, 5:39 p.m. ET

In the face of worrying and highly contagious new varieties in the US and around the world, public health experts say vaccinating people overseas is necessary to protect Americans too.

“It has to be sold to Americans to keep Americans safe over the long term, and it has to be sold to a highly divided, toxic America,” said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert with Centers for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that’s impossible. I think Americans are beginning to understand that in a world of variation, anything that happens outside of our borders increases the urgency to act really quickly. “

Mr Blinken also said this to the BBC: “Until everyone in the world is vaccinated, nobody is really completely safe.”

The quad vaccine partnership announced at the summit on Friday includes different commitments from each of the nations, according to the White House.

In addition to supporting the Indian vaccine maker, the US has pledged at least $ 100 million to bolster vaccination capacity overseas and support public health efforts. Japan is “in discussion” to provide loans to the Indian government to expand the production of vaccines for export and will support vaccination programs for developing countries. Australia will allocate $ 77 million for vaccine provision and delivery assistance with a focus on Southeast Asia.

The four countries will also form one  Quad Vaccine Experts Group by  Top scientists and government officials who will work to overcome production hurdles and funding plans.

Mr Morrison said the government deserves “some credit” for the effort, adding, “It shows diplomatic ingenuity and speed.” However, a spokesman for One Campaign, which focuses on extreme poverty, said his group would still see a plan for the United States’ vaccine supply, noting that Africa had given far fewer doses per capita than Asia.

Mr Biden’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production helped the United States produce up to a billion doses by the end of the year – far more than needed to vaccinate the roughly 260 million adults in the United States.

What you need to know about the vaccine rollout

A government-brokered deal to see drug company Merck manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, which the president celebrated in the White House on Wednesday, will help achieve that goal. Also on Wednesday, Mr Biden directed federal health officials to source an additional 100 million doses of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

The government has stated that these efforts are aimed at having enough vaccines for children, booster doses, to face new varieties and unforeseen events. Jeffrey D. Zients, Mr Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, told reporters Friday that the Johnson & Johnson-Merck deal would also “expand capacity and ultimately benefit the world”.

Not only did Mr Biden resist the urge to dump excess doses, but he also criticized the Liberal Democrats for blocking a motion by India and South Africa for a temporary waiver of an international intellectual property agreement that would make it easier for poorer countries to access generic versions of Coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

“I understand why we should prioritize our supply to Americans – it was paid for by American taxpayers, President Biden is President of America,” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Liberal Democrat from California. “But there is no reason to prioritize the profits of pharmaceutical companies over the dignity of other countries.”

Mr Biden recently announced a $ 4 billion donation to Covax, the international vaccine initiative supported by the World Health Organization. David Bryden, director of the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, a nonprofit that supports health workers in low- and middle-income countries, said money was also urgently needed to train and pay these workers to administer vaccines overseas.

However, that donation and the Quad’s announcement of financial support for vaccine production on Friday fell short of the urgent demands of public health advocates for the United States to provide ready-to-use doses that can be quickly injected.

However, the quad’s focus on Southeast Asia most likely reflects an awareness of China’s gratitude in the region for Beijing’s focus in its vaccine distribution efforts.

If Mr Biden is widely viewed as helping the world recover from the coronavirus pandemic, that could become part of his legacy when President George W. Bush made a huge investment in public health funding in the 2000s the AIDS crisis in Africa responded. More than a decade later, Bush and the United States continue to be revered across much of the continent for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), which the government said has spent $ 85 billion and saved 20 million lives.

Michael Gerson, a former Bush White House speechwriter and policy advisor who helped shape the Pepfar program, said its impact has been both moral and strategic and that the program has been “an enormous amount of money to the United States.” goodwill “in Africa.

“I think the principle here should be that the people who need it most should get it, no matter where they live,” he said. “There is little moral sense in giving the vaccine to a healthy American 24-year-old in front of a front-line worker in Liberia.”

But he added, “It’s very difficult for an American politician to explain.”

Ana Swanson contributed to the coverage

Categories
Business

HBO Max Plans International Enlargement: Stay Updates

“The problems that beset journalism today are caused in part by a fundamental lack of competition in the search and ad tech markets that are controlled by Google,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Lawmakers on Friday debated an antitrust bill that would give news publishers collective bargaining power with online platforms like Facebook and Google, putting the spotlight on a proposal aimed at chipping away at the power of Big Tech.

At a hearing held by the House antitrust subcommittee, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, emerged as a leading industry voice in favor of the law. He took a divergent path from his tech counterparts, pointing to an imbalance in power between publishers and tech platforms. Newspaper ad revenue plummeted to $14.3 billion in 2018 from $49.4 billion in 2005, he said, while ad revenue at Google jumped to $116 billion from $6.1 billion.

“Even though news helps fuel search engines, news organizations frequently are uncompensated or, at best, undercompensated for its use,” Mr. Smith said. “The problems that beset journalism today are caused in part by a fundamental lack of competition in the search and ad tech markets that are controlled by Google.”

The hearing was the second in a series planned by the subcommittee to set the stage for the creation of stronger antitrust laws. In October, the subcommittee, led by Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, released the results of a 16-month investigation into the power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The report accused the companies of monopoly behavior.

This week, the committee’s two top leaders, Mr. Cicilline and Representative Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado, introduced the Journalism and Competition Preservation Act. The bill aims to give smaller news publishers the ability to band together to bargain with online platforms for higher fees for distributing their content. The bill was also introduced in the Senate by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat of Minnesota and the chairwoman of that chamber’s antitrust subcommittee.

Global concern is growing over the decline of local news organizations, which have become dependent on online platforms for distribution of their content. Australia recently proposed a law allowing news publishers to bargain with Google and Facebook, and lawmakers in Canada and Britain are considering similar steps.

Mr. Cicilline said, “While I do not view this legislation as a substitute for more meaningful competition online — including structural remedies to address the underlying problems in the market — it is clear that we must do something in the short term to save trustworthy journalism before it is lost forever.”

Google, though not a witness at the hearing, issued a statement in response to Mr. Smith’s planned testimony, defending its business practices and disparaging the motives of Microsoft, whose Bing search engine runs a very distant second place behind Google.

“Unfortunately, as competition in these areas intensifies, they are reverting to their familiar playbook of attacking rivals and lobbying for regulations that benefit their own interests,” wrote Kent Walker, the senior vice president of policy for Google.

Union members canvassing at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala.Credit…Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida became the most prominent Republican leader to weigh in on the unionization drive at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., with a surprising endorsement of the organizing effort on Friday.

“The days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are over,” Mr. Rubio wrote in an opinion piece published in USA Today.

“Here’s my standard: When the conflict is between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values, the choice is easy — I support the workers,” he continues. “And that’s why I stand with those at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse today.”

More than 5,800 workers at the Amazon warehouse, outside Birmingham, are voting by mail this month to decide whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Last week, President Biden posted a video message on Twitter referring to the vote in Alabama and espousing on the importance of unions in helping build the middle class, while excoriating employers who interfere in unionization efforts. He did not mention Amazon by name, but his remarks followed reports that the online retailer was engaged in aggressive anti-union tactics.

“We welcome support from all quarters,” the union’s president, Stuart Appelbaum, said in a statement. “Senator Rubio’s support demonstrates that the best way for working people to achieve dignity and respect in the workplace is through unionization. This should not be a partisan issue.”

Mr. Rubio, who recalls marching in a union picket line with his father, a hotel bartender, accused Amazon of expressing “woke” values, while bowing to Chinese censorship. And he warned the company not to expect Republicans to come to its rescue and condone its anti-union efforts.

“Its workers are right to suspect that its management doesn’t have their best interests in mind,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “Wealthy woke C.E.O.s instead view them as a cog in a machine that consistently prioritizes global profit margins and stoking cheap culture wars. The company’s workers deserve better.”

A recut of “Justice League” by Zack Snyder is among the films available on HBO Max as AT&T looks to build out its streaming service.Credit…Warner Bros. Pictures

HBO Max is going global.

The new streaming platform, currently only available to U.S. subscribers, will launch in 61 other markets starting in June.

The company also plans to launch an advertising-driven streaming service in the United States at the same time. The announcements came Friday as part of a broader presentation outlining a set of goals for AT&T, which owns HBO.

The company hopes to reach between 120 million and 150 million total customers for HBO Max and its traditional HBO TV channel by the end of 2025, a more ambitious target compared with its previous goal of 75 million to 90 million.

The company also expects between 67 million and 70 million customers by the end of 2021. It had 61 million as of the end of December, but the number of people actually watching HBO Max is much smaller. About 41.5 million customers are in the United States, and of that group about 17.2 million have HBO Max accounts. That suggests that of the company’s new subscriber target, not all of them will necessarily be streaming HBO Max.

The company has a complicated setup around HBO Max. People can sign up for the service directly, and those who already pay for the premium cable channel through their cable or satellite provider also have access, but not everyone has set up their streaming account. The service is also offered for free or at a reduced price to AT&T’s wireless customers.

The jump into international markets shows how aggressively AT&T needs to expand its streaming enterprise. The addition of an advertising-based service means the company sees an opportunity to capture the ad dollars that have started to move away from traditional television. It’s unclear if the ad-supported version will be free or whether it will only be available at a reduced price from HBO Max’s current $15 per month cost.

Jason Kilar, the chief executive of WarnerMedia, the unit that manages HBO, said the service is expected to start making money after 2025. It should generate about $15 billion in sales by that year, he added.

HBO Max has become a key part of AT&T’s overall strategy to keep and grow mobile customers, so losing money is less of an immediate concern if it helps AT&T retain its core wireless subscribers. Mr. Kilar emphasized HBO Max’s value to the phone business, citing that 25 percent of HBO Max customers have come via AT&T.

He ended his presentation with a cliché from the Warner Bros. film archives: “It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Simon Hu, the chief executive of Ant Group, at a conference in Shanghai in September. Mr. Hu asked to resign for personal reasons, the company said.Credit…Cheng Leng/Reuters

The chief executive of Ant Group, the Chinese internet finance giant, has stepped down, the company said on Friday, a move that came in the middle of a business overhaul meant to address regulators’ concerns about its rapid growth.

Ant said its chief executive, Simon Hu, had asked to resign for personal reasons. The company’s chairman, Eric Jing, was named as Mr. Hu’s replacement, effective immediately. Mr. Jing, who will remain Ant’s chairman, previously served as chief executive until December 2019, when Mr. Hu took over the post.

Hundreds of millions of people in China use Ant’s Alipay app to make everyday payments, sock away savings and shop on credit. Ant, which was spun out of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, has faced rising scrutiny from China’s government, and officials scuttled the company’s plans last year to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The company had been preparing to raise more than $34 billion by listing its shares in November, in what would have been the largest initial public offering on record. Instead, days before Ant’s shares were scheduled to begin trading, Chinese officials summoned company executives — namely, Mr. Hu, Mr. Jing and Jack Ma, Alibaba’s co-founder — to discuss regulation. The I.P.O. was halted soon after, and financial watchdogs said Ant had taken advantage of gaps in China’s regulatory system and ordered it to revamp its business.

Mr. Hu joined Alibaba in 2005 and was president of its cloud division from 2014 to 2018. He joined Ant as president that year before becoming chief executive in 2019. Mr. Jing, also an Alibaba veteran, has been Ant’s executive chairman since April 2018. They are both members of the Alibaba Partnership, the company’s club of elite management partners.

Ford Motor said two members of the Ford family have been nominated to join the automaker’s board of directors, replacing one family member who is retiring and an independent director who has chosen not to seek re-election.

Alexandra Ford English, 33, daughter of Ford’s chairman, Bill Ford, and Henry Ford III, 40, son of Edsel B. Ford II, a current board member, are expected to be elected to the board by shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on May 13. Both are great-great-grandchildren of Henry Ford, who founded the company in 1903.

Ms. English is a director in corporate strategy at the company. Henry Ford III is a director in investor relations.

They will replace Edsel Ford II, 72, who is retiring after being on the board since 1988, and John C. Lechleiter, 67, who joined Ford’s board in 2013 and is a former president of Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company.

Although the Ford family only owns a small portion of the company’s common stock, it retains effective control of the automaker though Class B shares with super-voting rights.

A banner for the South Korean retailer Coupang hung in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, the day the company’s shares began trading.Credit…Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange, via Associated Press

The stock of Coupang, a start-up in South Korea that is sometimes called the Amazon of South Korea, drifted after trading publicly for the first time in New York on Thursday.

Coupang — the company’s name is a mix of the English word “coupon” and “pang,” the Korean sound for hitting the jackpot — was founded by a Harvard Business School dropout and has shaken up shopping in South Korea, an industry long dominated by huge, button-down conglomerates.

The initial public offering raised $4.6 billion and valued Coupang at about $85 billion, the second-largest American tally for an Asian company after Alibaba Group of China in 2014. Coupang’s shares rose 6.6 percent on Friday as trading began but ended the day down 2 percent.

Coupang is South Korea’s biggest e-commerce retailer, its status further cemented by people stuck at home during the pandemic and those in the country who crave faster delivery. In a country where people are obsessed with “ppalli ppalli,” or getting things done quickly, Coupang has become a household name by offering “next-day” and even “same-day” and “dawn” delivery of groceries and millions of other items at no extra charge.

The electric Endurance pickup truck made by Lordstown Motors. An investment firm claimed the company had inflated the number of orders for its pickup trucks.Credit…Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Shares of Lordstown Motors, an electric-vehicle start-up, fell more than 19 percent on Friday after an investment firm claimed the company had inflated the number of orders for its pickup trucks and overstated its technological and production capabilities.

The revelations are the latest to call into question the promises made by an electric vehicle company that has gone public by merging with a shell company that has a stock market listing, cash and no operating business. Lordstown, which gained prominence by buying a former General Motors factory in Ohio to make electric trucks for commercial users, completed its merger with a shell company and started trading on the stock market in October 2020.

In a lengthy post on its website, the investment firm, Hindenburg Research, said that Lordstown’s claim of having 100,000 “pre-orders” for its electric pickup truck included tens of thousands from small companies that do not operate fleets, and others who merely agreed to consider buying trucks but made no commitment to do so. Hindenburg said it had bet against Lordstown’s stock by selling its shares short, a maneuver used by some professional investors when they believe a stock is overvalued and poised to fall.

“Our conversations with former employees, business partners and an extensive document review show that the company’s orders are largely fictitious and used as a prop to raise capital and confer legitimacy,” Hindenburg said.

A Lordstown spokesman said the company was working on a response to the report.

One company that Lordstown said was prepared to buy 14,000 trucks, E Squared Energy, appears to be based in an apartment in Texas, have two employees and owns no vehicles. Hindenburg also unearthed a police report that showed a Lordstown prototype caught fire and burned to a shell during a test drive in January in Michigan.

On Friday morning, Lordstown shares were trading at just over $14 a share, down from their close the previous day of $17.71.

Former President Donald J. Trump hailed Lordstown in 2018 when it agreed to buy a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that General Motors had closed, and former Vice President Mike Pence participated in an unveiling of the company’s truck in June. In September, Mr. Trump hosted Lordstown’s chief executive, Steve Burns, at the White House and praised the company’s technology.

Hindenburg Research gained prominence last year when it released a report saying Nikola, an electric truck start-up, and its executive chairman, Trevor Milton, had mislead investors and exaggerated the capabilities of that company’s technology. The revelations resulted in Mr. Milton’s departure from Nikola, and prompted General Motors to scale back a partnership with the company.

Nikola denied some of Hindenburg’s claims but recently acknowledged to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Mr. Milton had made statements that were “inaccurate in whole or in part.”

Target will cease operations in the City Center building in downtown Minneapolis, relocating 3,500 employees.Credit…Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Target, a fixture in downtown Minneapolis, is giving up space in a large office building there, becoming the latest company to permanently allow its staff to spend more time working from home.

The retailer told employees it would cease operations in the City Center building in downtown Minneapolis and that the 3,500 employees working there would relocate to other nearby offices, while also working from home part of the time. More than a quarter of Target’s corporate employees in the Minneapolis area work in the City Center building.

“This change is driven by Target’s longer-term headquarters environment that will include a hybrid model of remote and on-site work, allowing for flexibility and collaboration and ultimately, requiring less space,” the company said Thursday.

Office landlords across the country have been struggling to retain tenants as the pandemic drags on and companies realize their staff has been able to work effectively in a remote setting. Empty office buildings are putting a squeeze on city budgets, which are heavily reliant on property taxes.

Salesforce, the software company based in San Francisco, adopted a flex model in which most of its employees would be able to come into the office one to three days a week. In a bet that more people would work from home after the pandemic ends, Salesforce acquired the workplace software company Slack in December.

After the move, Target said it would still occupy about three million square feet of office space in the Minneapolis area.

“It’s not easy to say goodbye to City Center, but the Twin Cities is still our home after all these years,’’ Target’s chief human resources officer, Melissa Kremer, said in an email to employees.

Microsoft offices in Beijing. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, which has operated in China by conforming to the authoritarian government’s tight restrictions on the internet.Credit…Wu Hong/EPA, via Shutterstock

LinkedIn has stopped allowing people in China to sign up for new member accounts while it works to ensure its service in the country remains in compliance with local law, the company said this week, without specifying what prompted the move. A company representative declined to comment further.

Unlike other global internet mainstays such as Facebook and Google, LinkedIn offers a version of its service in China, which it is able to do by hewing closely to the authoritarian government’s tight controls on cyberspace.

It censors its Chinese users in line with official mandates. It limits certain tools, such as the ability to create or join groups. It has given partial ownership of its Chinese operation to local investors.

In 2017, the company blocked individuals, but not companies, from advertising job openings on its site in China after it fell afoul of government rules requiring it to verify the identities of the people who post job listings.

The backdrop to the suspension of new user registrations is not clear. The government has previously blocked internet services that it believes to be breaking the law. In 2019, Microsoft’s Bing search engine was briefly inaccessible in China for unclear reasons. Microsoft also owns LinkedIn.

By: Ella Koeze·Data delayed at least 15 minutes·Source: FactSet

  • The S&P 500 inched further into record territory on Thursday, rising 0.1 percent. The index gained 2.6 percent this week, its best weekly performance since early February.

  • The Nasdaq composite fell 0.6 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.9 percent.

  • The yield on 10-year Treasury notes jumped as much as 10 basis points, or 0.1 percentage points, to 1.64 percent, its highest level in more than a year.

  • Higher interest rates and tighter central bank policies are now considered to be the single biggest threat to so-called risk assets, mainly stocks, according to a Bank of America survey of fund managers. Investors have grown concerned that the stimulus bill and economic rebound will trigger inflation, prompting central banks to pull back on stimulus measures.

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.3 percent, while the FTSE 100 index in Britain rose 0.4 percent.

  • Data published on Friday showed that the British economy declined 2.9 percent in January as the country entered its third lockdown, shut schools and left the European Union single market and customs union. Separate data for the same month showed the largest monthly drop in trade since records began in 1997. Exports to the European Union dropped 40 percent and imports fell nearly 30 percent. Some of the fall is because of stockpiling at the end of last year, but many businesses struggled to keep trading as they dealt with new customs requirements.

Shoppers wait in line at an outlet mall in Southaven, Miss. on Saturday. Many Americans are set to benefit from the new economic relief plan.Credit…Rory Doyle for The New York Times

The economic relief plan that is headed to President Biden’s desk has been billed as the United States’ most ambitious antipoverty initiative in a generation. But inside the $1.9 trillion package, there are plenty of perks for the middle class, too.

An analysis by the Tax Policy Center published this week estimated that middle-income families — those making $51,000 to $91,000 per year — would see their after-tax income rise by 5.5 percent as a result of the tax changes and stimulus payments in the legislation. This is about twice what that income group received as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Here are some of the ways the bill will help the middle class.

Americans will receive stimulus checks of up to $1,400 per person, including dependents.

The size of the payments are scaled down for individuals making more than $75,000 and married couples earning more than $150,000. And they are cut off for individuals making $80,000 or more and couples earning more than $160,000. Those thresholds are lower than in the previous relief bills, but they will still be one of the biggest benefits enjoyed by those who are solidly in the middle class.

The most significant change is to the child tax credit, which will be increased to up to $3,600 for each child under 6, from $2,000 per child. The credit, which is refundable for people with low tax bills, is $3,000 per child for children ages 6 to 17.

The legislation also bolsters the tax credits that parents receive to subsidize the cost of child care this year. The current credit is worth 20 to 35 percent of eligible expenses, with a maximum value of $2,100 for two or more qualifying individuals. The stimulus bill increases that amount to $4,000 for one qualifying individual or $8,000 for two or more.

After four years of being on life support, the Affordable Care Act is expanding, a development that will largely reward middle-income individuals and families, since those on the lower end of the income spectrum generally qualify for Medicaid.

Because the relief legislation expands the subsidies for buying health insurance, a 64-year-old earning $58,000 would see monthly payments decline to $412 from $1,075 under current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

One of the more contentious provisions in the legislation is the $86 billion allotted to fixing failing multiemployer pensions. The money is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income.

The legislation gives the weakest plans enough money to pay hundreds of thousands of retirees their full pensions for the next 30 years.

Categories
Business

Henry Ford’s great-great grandchildren nominated to automaker’s board

Henry Ford's great-great grandchildren nominated to automaker's board

Ford Motor Co. is showing a new 2021 Ford F-150 Pickup Truck at the Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan on September 17, 2020.

Rebecca Cook | Reuters

DETROIT – Two great-great-grandchildren of Ford Motor founder Henry Ford have been appointed to the company’s board of directors, the automaker announced on Friday.

Alexandra Ford English, 33, is the daughter of Ford CEO Bill Ford. She is currently a director of corporate strategy for the company, responsible for strategic business, connectivity and digital networking plans.

Henry Ford III, 40, is the son of Ford board member Edsel B. Ford II, 72, who plans to step down from the board in May. Ford III is currently a Director in Ford Investor Relations.

Ford Motor Company announced today that Alexandra Ford English and Henry Ford III have been nominated for election to the company’s board of directors at its annual general meeting on May 13th.

Source: Ford Motor Co.

“I am delighted and proud to have a new generation of Ford family leaders who believe in serving the company and making sure it remains a successful and positive force in the world for years to come,” said Bill Ford in a statement.

The second seat on the open board would replace the former managing director of KPMG International, John Lechleiter (67), who, according to the company, decided not to stand for re-election in May.

Both English and Ford III will stand for election to the company’s board of directors at the annual general meeting on May 13th.

Categories
Health

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine suspended in some international locations over blood clot fears

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine suspended in some countries over blood clot fears

A health worker holds a box of the AstraZeneneca vaccine at the Bamrasnaradura Institute for Infectious Diseases in Nonthaburi Province on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Chaiwat subprasome | SOPA pictures | LightRocket via Getty Images

LONDON – The coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has been exposed in a number of countries in Europe and Asia after reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people.

However, many other nations have defended their use of the shot and announced that they will continue their respective vaccination campaigns.

Thailand became the first Asian country to stop using the sting on Friday due to safety concerns, shortly after Denmark announced a two-week hiatus from its nationwide rollout after reports of blood clots and a death.

In a setback to the battered vaccination campaign in Europe, seven other countries have also suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot: Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Austria and Italy have since announced that they will no longer use certain batches of the vaccine as a precaution.

The European Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency, stressed Thursday that there was no evidence that the shot was causing blood clots, adding that the vaccine’s benefits “continue to outweigh the risks”.

The EMA acknowledged that some member states had stopped using the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, but said vaccinations may continue to be given while a clot investigation is ongoing.

By Wednesday, around 5 million people in Europe had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Of this number, 30 cases of so-called “thromboembolic events” were reported. These cases relate to blood clots that form in the blood vessels and block blood flow.

AstraZeneca said the vaccine has been extensively studied in Phase 3 trials and peer-reviewed data confirms the shot is “generally well tolerated.”

Why do countries pause vaccination campaigns?

The Thai Ministry of Health announced on Friday that it would temporarily postpone the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The shot is reportedly labeled a “good vaccine” but is said to be suspended for safety investigation.

Kiattiphum Wongjit, permanent secretary of the health ministry, said the Southeast Asian country may suspend its vaccination campaign as it has largely controlled a second wave of Covid cases through quarantines and border controls, according to Reuters.

A press conference will be held on March 12, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand, to temporarily suspend the introduction of vaccination against AstraZeneca Covid-19 in Thailand.

Xinhua | Rachen Sageamsak via Getty Images

The country of nearly 70 million people has so far recorded around 26,600 cases and 85 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The decision of Thailand to suspend the planned launch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was due to start on Friday, was made following the decision of the Danish health authority.

“It is important to emphasize that we have not decided against the AstraZeneca vaccine, but are putting it on hold,” said Soren Brostrom, director of the National Health Agency in Denmark, on Thursday.

“There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective. However, we and the Danish Medicines Agency need to respond to reports of possible serious side effects from both Denmark and other European countries.”

Many high-income countries have chosen to continue rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for safety reasons.

The UK, France, Australia, Canada and Mexico are among the nations that have tried to reassure citizens about the vaccine’s benefits and have announced that they will continue their respective vaccination campaigns.

“An analysis of our safety data of more than 10 million records has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis in any particular age group, gender, batch or country with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.” said an AstraZeneca spokesman.

“In fact, the number of these types of events observed is significantly lower in vaccinated people than would be expected in the general population.”

What do the experts say?

The EMA’s safety committee is investigating the problem, but has determined that there is currently no evidence that the vaccination caused blood clots. It should be noted that these are not listed as side effects of this vaccine.

The European Medicines Agency also noted that the data available so far showed that the number of blood clots in vaccinated people is no higher than in the general population.

“Reports of previously received blood clots are no greater than the numbers that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population,” said Dr. Phil Bryan, Vaccine Safety Director for the UK Medicines and Health Products Agency.

“Public safety will always come first. We will continue to examine this issue carefully, but the evidence available does not confirm the vaccine is the cause. People should still get their COVID-19 vaccine when prompted become.” Said Bryan.

Peter Brownsea, a Southampton resident, receives the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from a member of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service at a temporary vaccination center at the Basingstoke Fire Station in Hampshire, southern England, while crews continue to answer 999 emergency calls.

Andrew Matthews | AFP | Getty Images

Stephen Evans, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “The problem with spontaneous reports of suspected vaccine side effects is the tremendous difficulty in distinguishing a causal effect from a coincidence.”

“This is especially true when we know that Covid-19 disease is very closely related to blood clotting and that there have been hundreds, if not many thousands of deaths caused by blood clotting as a result of Covid-19 disease. That first thing to do is to be absolutely sure that the clots were not caused by any other cause, including Covid-19, “added Evans.

How does the vaccine work?

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is designed to prevent coronavirus in people aged 18 and over. It’s made up of an adenovirus that has been modified to contain the gene to make a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The most common side effects of the shot, which does not contain the virus and cannot cause Covid, are typically mild or moderate and improve within a few days after vaccination.

In late clinical studies, the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot was found to have an average of 70% effectiveness in protecting against the virus.

A recent study by Oxford researchers found that the Covid vaccine was 76% effective at preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose and that the effectiveness rate actually increased with a longer interval between the first and second dose.

– CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

Categories
Politics

Jaime Herrera Beutler Is Undaunted

Jaime Herrera Beutler Is Undaunted

Ms. Herrera Beutler’s parents, a white mother and a Mexican-American father, made politics a part of their lives from the start.

They raised her with her two siblings and three cousins ​​in southwest Washington and taught Mrs. Herrera Beutler up to the ninth grade, partly to keep her close to her Christian faith. As part of the curriculum, children were required to go to the state capitol each year and march for candidates in local parades.

When she was a teenager, she knew she wanted to get into politics.

She graduated from the University of Washington in 2004 and served as Legal Counsel to Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In six years she had been elected to Congress herself, a spike dubbed meteoric in the local news media. When Ms. Herrera Beutler was first elected in 2010, along with a number of other Republican women, she was 31 years old and she was the first Spanish person to represent Washington in Congress.

Before her strong stance on Mr Trump this year, Ms. Herrera Beutler’s biggest moment on national news media came in 2013 when she announced that the baby she was expecting would be first diagnosed with Potter Syndrome – a rare one – and to This is a fatal condition that can develop during pregnancy if there is insufficient amniotic fluid in the uterus.

The day she was diagnosed, including an anatomy scan that showed the baby had no kidneys, was “the worst 24 hours of my life,” recalled Herrera Beutler, adding that she was “like a grave “Felt. She went public to share the burden and find treatment, and deliberately gave interviews for outlets like People Magazine in hopes of reaching the broadest and most apolitical audience possible.

Ms. Herrera Beutler received replies from parents around the world and found a doctor at Johns Hopkins University who injected saline into her amniotic fluid cavity. It worked. Abigail, named after Abigail Adams, was born at 29 weeks of age, spent months in the neonatal intensive care unit, and then received dialysis for two years before receiving a kidney transplant from her father, Daniel Beutler.

Categories
World News

Treasury yields increased following stimulus, vaccine information

Dow rises 80 points as market tries to build on February's rally

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Source: The New York Stock Exchange

The yield on 10-year government bonds reached its highest level in over a year on Friday. This is a sign of optimism on an economic comeback, but it also reflects heightened fears of inflation after the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package came into effect.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark Treasury note rose 9 basis points to 1.619% at 9:40 am CET and briefly reached 1.642%, its highest level since February 2020. The yield on the 30-year treasury bond rose 10 basis points to 2.382%. The returns move inversely to the prices and 1 basis point equals 0.01%.

“The bearish of bonds was compounded by Biden’s return to normal time update. The president has outlined a path out of the pandemic that would bring the US back to some semblance of normality by July 4th,” said Ian Lyngen, rate strategist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in an email on Friday.

“While last week the Friday afternoon bear pattern has been a significant challenge that has been felt for much of this year, when we think about the information on offer, there is little else we can do to prevent the higher variance in returns the remaining price movements in other markets. “

The yield curve between the 2-year rate of return and the 10-year rate of return reached 1.486%, the highest spread since September 2015.

The yield curve for government bonds is the interest rate difference between different maturities of bonds. When it gets steeper it is considered a positive sign for the economy. Meanwhile, a flattening curve is seen as a warning of economic weakness.

The volatility in returns weighed on US stocks, with the S&P 500 falling 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost more than 1% on concerns about rising interest rates.

Government bond yields rose after Biden signed the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Thursday afternoon.

The plan calls for direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans. Direct deposits will come into Americans’ bank accounts as early as this weekend, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.

In addition to announcing his plan to make Covid vaccines available to all adults ages 18 and older, Biden said in his first prime-time address Thursday night that hopefully Americans should be able to gather in small groups around the to celebrate the fourth of July.

Yields were also higher after the number of weekly new jobless claims fell lower than expected on Thursday, reaching 712,000 for the week ended March 6, down from the estimate of 725,000.

The 10-year yield has been rising rapidly lately, increasing from 1% since late January amid concerns about rising inflation. These concerns were compounded by fears that the US government’s tax relief package, in addition to reopening the economy, could stimulate it too quickly and cause prices to rise.

Investors will watch out for the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates over the next week and for comments on the central bank’s stance on rising bond yields.

“If the bond sell-off intensifies ahead of the March 17th FOMC decision, the Fed may have to finally take action against the movement in government bond yields,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, told clients. “The Fed has clearly been sticking to the script that tighter financial conditions or disorderly markets would warrant action. If yields stay at a rapid rate, they will get clamor.”

There are no auctions on Friday.

– with reports from Jesse Pound, Yun Li and Tom Franck of CNBC.