Month: May 2021

Categories
Business

As Trillions Circulation Out the Door, Stimulus Oversight Faces Challenges

As Trillions Flow Out the Door, Stimulus Oversight Faces Challenges

WASHINGTON – Legislators allocated more than $ 5 trillion in relief supplies last year to help businesses and individuals ease the pandemic. The scale of these efforts, however, puts a serious strain on a patchwork surveillance network designed to track down waste and fraud.

The Biden administration has taken steps to improve accountability and security measures that the Trump administration has rejected, including more detailed and frequent reporting requirements for those who receive funds. However, monitoring of the money was made difficult by prolonged turf battles. the lack of a centralized, fully operational system for tracking the use of funds; and the speed with which the government has tried to disburse aid.

The scope of oversight is high as the Biden administration oversees the end of the bailout the Trump administration disbursed last year, on top of the $ 1.9 trillion bailout that the Democrats approved in March. Much of that money is gradually flowing out the door, including $ 21.6 billion in rental aid, $ 350 billion for state and local government, $ 29 billion for restaurants, and a $ 16 billion grant fund – dollars for live event companies such as theaters and music clubs.

The funds are said to be tracked by a variety of overseers, including congressional bodies, inspectors general and the White House budget office. But the system has been plagued by disagreement and, until recently, disorder.

President Biden has selected a longtime economic advisor, Gene Sperling, to be his Tsar of Pandemic Aid. Mr. Sperling, who twice chaired the National Economic Council, has made efforts to improve the oversight architecture and draws on alongside the Government Accountability Office and the Administration and Budget Office.

“When you have a bailout plan, there will be some tension between striving for perfection and meeting the fundamental goals of the law of removing the funds in time to reduce child poverty, keep people in their homes, small businesses and Save restaurants and daycare, ”said Sperling in an interview. “You just have to do everything in your power to find a strict and right balance.”

However, the dispersion of supervisory functions has created conflicts and complicated supervision.

In late April, Brian D. Miller, appointed by President Donald J. Trump as Treasury Department’s Special Inspector for Pandemic Recovery, released a damning report accusing other tax officials of preventing him from conducting a fuller investigation.

Mr. Miller was selected to oversee the Treasury-administered aid programs. However, agency officials believed his job was to track down just a $ 500 billion pot for the Federal Reserve’s emergency loan programs and airline and corporate funding that are vital to domestic security. Mr Miller said that the tax officials were initially cooperative during the Trump administration, but that after the transition to the new administration began, his access to information dried up.

After Mr. Miller’s requests for program data were denied, he contacted the Department of Justice’s Legal Department, which ruled against him last month. His 42-strong team has little to do.

“Instead of trying to squeeze people out, let us all welcome if they roll up their sleeves and want to take control,” Miller said in an interview.

White House officials denied his concerns, insisting that they remain committed to solid oversight and transparency. Finance claimed that Mr. Miller tried work outside of its jurisdiction, saying it would “continue to ensure that all of our inspectors-general, congressional committees, and other regulatory agencies have the information they need”.

“President Biden has made it clear to his team that oversight is a key priority,” said Ron Klain, White House chief of staff. “That means coordinating and integrating across government to ensure that tax dollars are spent as intended and in the service of the needs of the American people.”

So far, large cases of fraud and waste represent a relatively small percentage of 2020 initiatives and have been largely limited to small business lending efforts like the Paycheck Protection Program and Catastrophe Loans for Economic Violation. However, federal oversight experts and oversight groups say the exact extent of the problems in the bipartisan bill to ease over two parties in March 2020 is difficult to determine due to inadequate oversight and accountability reports.

Mr. Miller has followed cases of business owners who have been double dipped in bailouts, such as airlines taking out small business loans and also receiving payroll bailouts. The inspector general of the Small Business Administration said last year that the agency had “lowered the barriers” and that 15,000 loans for economic disasters totaling $ 450 million were fraudulent.

Updated

May 12, 2021, 7:36 p.m. ET

The Government Accountability Office also added small business loan programs to its “high risk” watchlist in March, warning that a lack of information on who is receiving aid and inadequate safeguards could lead to far more problems than reported. The report identified “deficiencies in all components of internal control” in the oversight of the Small Business Administration and concluded that officials “need to demonstrate tighter controls on program integrity and better management.”

The Government Accountability Office had 896,000 errors from lenders that were not investigated by the Small Business Administration and cited problems with loan approval monitoring, follow-up reports, and contractor monitoring. The agency, now led by Biden officers, recently responded with a proposal to revise many, but not all, of its procedures.

Oversight veterans and some lawmakers say they want the Biden government to take a more coherent approach and be more transparent.

“It’s just amazing how little oversight there is,” said Neil M. Barofsky, who was the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program from 2008-2011, said of the failure to empower and enable them to do their jobs take care of. “

Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren said she pushed hard for more control last year over believing Trump administration officials had conflicts of interest. Despite improvements, she said the Biden administration could do more.

“I’ve kept pushing for more control – we have some of it, but not all of what we need,” said Ms. Warren. “We’re talking about hundreds of billions here.”

She added, “The Biden administration is definitely doing better, but there is no substitute for transparency and control – and we can always do better.”

In a meeting with Mr. Sperling, a policy maker with limited oversight experience, Mr. Biden issued a blunt instruction: “You’d better work closely with IGs, like I did,” he said, according to one person who gave the story to Mr. Sperling continue later. Later, at his first cabinet meeting, the president urged his agents to work with inspectors.

White House officials said the current oversight system, which relies most heavily on the independent inspectors-general already serving in federal agencies, works efficiently even with the occasional turf fight.

Mr. Sperling holds regular meetings with Michael E. Horowitz, who chairs the Pandemic Aid Committee, as well as officials from the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Management and Budget. They also urge states and municipalities to publish performance reports that explain how the money received is being used.

However, Mr Biden’s team is equally concerned about placing too much burdens on the hard-hit beneficiaries, and Mr Sperling is particularly concerned about the slow pace of the programs that are providing $ 25 billion to housing emergency aid approved last year should be.

Watchdog groups are concerned that speed could compromise accountability.

Under Mr Trump, the Bureau of Administration and Budget, which is responsible for setting guidelines in federal agencies, declined to comply with all reporting requirements under the 2020 economic stimulus plan, which provided for the collection and release of data about companies that received federal loans had included small business loan programs.

To some observers, Mr Biden’s Household Bureau hasn’t moved fast enough to reverse Trump-era politics. Instead, Mr. Sterling’s team is working on a series of complex benchmarks tailored to individual programs that are included in the $ 1.9 trillion relief bill that will be released sequentially over the coming months.

“When it came to reporting from recipients, the Trump administration said, ‘We don’t have to do any of this,” said Sean Moulton, senior policy analyst with the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan oversight group. “We’re seeing improvements under the Biden administration , but they also basically say, ‘We’re not going to collect this information either.’ That’s not good enough. “

Since last year, Mr. Horowitz, whose group includes the 22 Inspectors General, has argued that detailed spending information is needed in order to make adjustments to the criteria, direction and design of future relief efforts.

“We need sufficient data to assess the impact and impact,” he said in an interview. “Did this provide the kind of support that was intended? That’s what you need to know, apart from the obvious question of whether or not people stole money. “

Some of the guards also faced internal disagreements. The Congressional Oversight Commission, a bipartisan group set up to track how the Treasury Department uses money on Federal Reserve credit facilities and other funds, has been hampered by disagreements over a program to shore up troubled state and local governments.

The legally required report to Congress was delayed by weeks, and a member of the panel, Bharat Ramamurti, accused his Republican colleagues of stalling the group’s work. Mr Ramamurti has since left to work for the Biden administration and the five-member panel now has three commissioners and no chairman. The last report was only 19 pages.

Categories
Entertainment

‘Titanic’ Is My Favourite Film. There, I Mentioned It.

‘Titanic’ Is My Favorite Movie. There, I Said It.

I had a date a year ago and the guy asked me what my favorite movie was. A simple question, but I stammered. His brow furrowed. “Didn’t your profile say you love movie quotes?”

I didn’t want to reveal the truth – at least not anytime soon – so I hid behind the Criterion Collection (“La Strada”, “Rebecca” etc.). Then a scene flashed in my head – a hint of music, a huge hat: “You can blow about some things, Rose, but not about the Titanic!”

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets; My secret is that I love Titanic. This has been true since I was 10 years old crying uncontrollably on my mother’s lap in a darkened theater. Like the on-screen kids saying goodbye to the doomed steamer, I marveled at the magnitude of what passed before my eyes: a full history lesson and a devastating romance between a first-rate passenger named Rose (Kate Winslet) and a dreamer below deck called Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). Until then, my cultural diet consisted of Rodgers and Hammerstein singalongs and the Disney canon. “Titanic” – delighted, tragic, real – was an awakening. In just over three hours, the film colored all my ideas about adult life: love, loss, female struggle, the unbreakable bond of a string quartet.

For my child, “Titanic” was incredibly big: it felt like the film encompassed the entire mysterious realm of human life. It was clearly the most powerful experience I’ve ever had with a work of art – but I was 10 years old. I couldn’t fully understand this feeling of transcendence, so I kept looking at it. I saw the film three times when it was released in 1997. The following year when it came out on VHS – a fat brick of a box set neatly split into two happy and sad acts – I routinely popped up in the fore-iceberg with duct tape to enjoy with my after-school snack. I began to focus on improbable features of the film and enjoyed the banal dialogue of its supporting characters: the clueless gray beards (“Freud? Who is he? Is he a passenger?”); the poetry of the bridge (“Take them to sea, Mr. Murdoch. Let’s stretch their legs”); the snobbery of Rose’s mother (“Depending on the class, will the lifeboats be seated? I hope they aren’t too full”).

As I matured, I stopped looking around regularly, but the movie kept playing in my head. I was a melancholy indoor girl myself, and Rose perfectly expressed my teenage boredom: “Same close people, same pointless chatter.” Even in the face of more complex ideas and challenges – like the difficulties of gender politics or the problems of class – I supported me to their casual wisdom and brilliant sentimentality. The movie’s unsubtle gender commentary was starting to feel revolutionary. (“Of course it’s unfair,” says the cool matriarch as she pulls the strings on her daughter’s corset. “We’re women.”) In the late 1990s, everyone I knew adored the Titanic, but I felt it in my heart My own love affair was special.

It was clearly the most powerful experience I’ve ever had with a work of art – but I was 10 years old.

However, late-night jokes and two decades’ worth of revisionist hot takes have shrouded my feelings of affection in deep shame. (Just last month, “The Iceberg That Sank Titanic” appeared on Saturday Night Live complaining, “Why are people still talking about it?”) The older I got, the more my continued admiration felt like some sort of typo in my development, a box I accidentally checked when applying for adulthood. I told myself it was just a guilty pleasure. How could it be anything else? To say that “Titanic” is my favorite movie would be like saying that my favorite picture is the “Mona Lisa”: it suggests a lack of discernment.

But for me the breadth of the film is just right. What snarky critics don’t appreciate is that the movie is a meme because it’s a masterpiece. The film has become a cultural shortcut, a way of talking about ideas bigger than ourselves – mythical subjects like hubris, love, and tragedy – while also making a joke. (Has any line captured our collective quarantine mood more than that old chestnut “It’s been 84 years …”?) It also won 11 Oscars.

Last January, for the first time in ten years, I decided to watch the film from start to finish. When I was young – 1 year in my tape – I was blinded by the spectacle of the film. And yes, watching one more time, I fell for it all the old ways: Jack’s good looks, Rose’s Edwardian hiking suit, the allure of a real party. But as the camera panned over the sleeping elder Rose, I sobbed and saw the images of her life after the Titanic – riding on the beach, climbing a flying machine in Amelia Earheart cosplay, posing in a glamor shot on set.

After a year of great loss, the pathos of this moment struck me differently. Don’t worry about her heart – her life went on. She survived a disaster and led a life so full that the experience became just a memory. It was the message in a bottle that I needed, one of many the Titanic has sent me over the years. I imagine that I will receive this news forever – even as an old lady, warm in her bed.

Jessie Heyman is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue.com.

Categories
Politics

Biden says count on excellent news in subsequent 24 hours

Biden says expect good news in next 24 hours

UPDATE, 5:15 p.m. ET: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm just announced that the Colonial Pipeline is resuming gas pipeline operations.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Wednesday he was expecting good news “in the next 24 hours” of the ongoing cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline that has been hampering fuel deliveries to the east coast in recent days.

“We have been in very close contact with Colonial Pipeline, the area you are talking about – one of the reasons gasoline prices are rising,” Biden said at an event on Wednesday afternoon.

“I think you will be hearing good news in the next 24 hours. And I think we will get this under control.”

The remarks came as Americans in the southeast and mid-Atlantic faced pump fuel shortages from late Monday, which showed little sign of deterioration until Wednesday afternoon. Panic buying in some states exacerbated supply chain problems.

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“I’ve meanwhile made it easier for us to lift some of the restrictions on the transportation of fuel, as well as access to the US military that provides fuel, and vehicles to get it there, places where it’s badly needed becomes.” “said Biden.

The Biden administration’s recent moves, according to the White House, represent a large-scale mobilization of the government to respond to the crisis that began when Colonial informed federal authorities on Friday that it had been the target of a ransomware attack .

The government said Tuesday it would initiate a “comprehensive federal response” to restore and secure US energy supply chains.

The attack forced the company to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of pipeline, cutting off nearly half of the fuel supply on the country’s east coast.

The attack on Colonial Pipeline was traced back to a hacking group called DarkSide, an organized group of hackers set up on the ransomware as a service business model. This means that the DarkSide hackers develop, market and sell ransomware hacking tools to other criminals who then carry out attacks.

DarkSide is believed to operate out of Russia, but the White House has said there is no evidence to date that the attack was state sponsored or directed by the Kremlin.

The question that remains open is how Colonial Pipeline is solving the attack, including whether Colonial paid the ransom that hackers typically demand in these scenarios.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday refused to answer specific questions about the collaboration between Colonial Pipeline and the Biden administration, but said the company and relevant authorities are working closely together.

The Department of Energy leads the federal government’s response in coordination with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. A FireEye Mandiant spokeswoman confirmed to CNBC that the US cybersecurity company is working with Colonial Pipeline following the incident.

The national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline rose to $ 2.985 on Tuesday, up 6 cents over the past week, according to the AAA.

However, regionally, the price increases were sharper, noted AAA. In South Carolina, for example, gasoline prices have increased more than 6 cents since Monday and 13 cents last week. In Georgia, drivers paid $ 2.87 a gallon on Tuesday, an increase of more than 10 cents in just one day and 17 cents a week.

An increase of 3 cents per gallon would bring the average US sales price to its highest level since November 2014.

“We are currently seeing full-fledged panic in a few places that I suspected we could see,” said Tom Kloza, head of global energy analysis at OPIS. “There aren’t enough drivers to get trucks from terminals filled with gasoline to gas stations. We see a lot of gas stations running out. Georgia appears to be Ground Zero.”

Kloza said he expected gasoline prices to rise, but not to spike. The bigger problem is that gasoline will be scarce in the area as it will take some time to replace once the pipeline is turned on and the outages could continue.

Gasoline in the pipeline travels at only 5 miles per hour.

CNBC’s Eamon Javers, Amanda Macias and Patti Domm contributed to the coverage.

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Categories
Business

Portugal lodges face excessive demand after UK adjustments quarantine

Portugal hotels face high demand after UK changes quarantine

Beach goers sunbathe and swim on a beach in Portimao, Algarve Region, Portugal.

NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

LONDON – Following an announcement, the tables have turned for the Portuguese hotel industry.

The UK government said on Friday that travelers from England will no longer need quarantine on their return from Portugal from May 17. You must have a Covid PCR test within two days of your arrival in the UK. However, this is a much simpler process than the rules that apply to other destinations.

Although the rules could change depending on the evolution of the epidemiological situation, British tourists quickly took the opportunity to book a vacation abroad.

It was “absolute madness in terms of (booking) inquiries,” said Katya Bauval, sales manager at the Vila Vita Parc hotel in the Algarve in southern Portugal, over the phone to CNBC.

She said “the demand for bookings has literally tripled since Friday”.

Portugal’s largest hotel chain, Pestana, has seen a similar rush for reservations. “Bookings have increased significantly,” Jose Theotonio, CEO of Pestana Hotel Group, told CNBC on Wednesday.

Pestana said demand had increased 250% since Friday and outside booking companies had increased 475%. Consumers mainly choose locations in the Algarve and Porto Santo, a small island in the Madeira archipelago.

Consumer preference is “clearly sunny destinations,” said Theotonio.

This signal from the UK government has motivated other bookings.

Jose Theotonio

CEO of the Pestana Hotel Group

Portugal also appeared to benefit from the inclusion of relatively fewer other popular European holiday destinations on the UK’s least restricted “green list”.

Spain, Italy and Greece – to name just a few of the other competing destinations in southern Europe – have not yet been added to the UK’s top traffic light list. Instead, these countries have been left on the UK’s “amber” list. If British tourists travel to Spain, Italy or Greece, they must self-isolate for 10 days upon their return.

“It was an advantage for Portugal that Greece and Spain are not on the list,” said Bauval.

“Motivated other bookings”

Portugal has become a hotspot for international visitors in recent years. In 2019, the country welcomed 24.6 million visitors – a 7.9% year-over-year increase, according to the country’s national statistics bureau.

The UK was the largest market for tourist stays in Portugal, accounting for 18.8% of the total number of overnight stays in the country. Germany followed with 12.3% of the total stays and Spain with 11%.

A woman sunbathes on a beach in Sagres, Algarve region, Portugal on July 29, 2020. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has promised to visit the Algarve every week this summer to help the regions struggling with the tourism sector to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the British government decide to do so to add mainland Portugal to their travel blacklist. (Photo by Pedro Fiúza / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

But the country’s tourism industry stalled after the coronavirus. The summer season started later in 2020 and was much slower compared to previous years. Portugal was also forced to introduce a second lockdown at the beginning of 2021 as the number of Covid infections had increased sharply. However, the strict measures have now been relaxed.

“This signal from the UK government has motivated other bookings,” Theotonio also said, noting that the recent surge in demand has also come from tourists in Germany, Spain and the domestic market.

US tourists will take longer to get back

There is also a common characteristic in recent hotel bookings: its immediacy. Visitors have mainly booked stays for May and June.

This type of booking is “even more important”, Theotonio says, as it reduces the likelihood that people will have to cancel their plans.

Portugal has also attracted many non-EU visitors in recent years. In 2019, the number of American tourist stays increased by 21.3%. an increase of 16.8% over China; and a 14.9% increase from Brazil.

However, it will take longer for this request to come back.

“We believe it will take some time,” said Bauval, explaining how Vila Vita Parc had to shift its focus to attract more Europeans after the coronavirus pandemic.

This despite the announcement by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that vaccinated Americans will be able to visit Europe this summer.

“We have no illusions,” Theotonio said, expecting only a “gradual” return to pre-pandemic activities.

Tourists pull their luggage en route to a hotel on Villamoura Beach in Villamoura, Algarve, Portugal.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Categories
Health

Seychelles most vaccinated nation on Earth however Covid-19 has surged

Seychelles most vaccinated nation on Earth but Covid-19 has surged

A woman with an umbrella walks in a street in the capital Victoria of the Seychelles.

Valery Sharifulin | TASS | Getty Images

Seychelles worries world health experts after a surge in Covid-19 cases in fully vaccinated people.

The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that it would review coronavirus data from the Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, after the Ministry of Health said in the week leading up to May 8 that more than a third of people were positive tested for Covid-19 had been fully vaccinated.

It is believed that the Seychelles have so far carried out a very successful vaccination rollout. It can boast of having the highest percentage of people vaccinated against Covid-19 in the world, above Israel and the UK

The majority of people vaccinated have received China’s Sinopharm vaccine (approved by WHO for emergency use last Friday) as well as the AstraZeneca shot (known locally as Covishield, a version made in India). Overall, the Seychelles, with a population of over 97,000, recorded just under 8,200 cases and 28 deaths during the pandemic.

On Monday, the Seychelles Ministry of Health reported a sharp increase in the number of cases. Of the 120 new cases reported on April 30, a week later, over 300 cases were recorded a day on May 7 and May 8, respectively.

Of all positive cases, the Department of Health said 63% were either not vaccinated or were only given a dose of SinoPharm or Covishield, but 37% of new infections were in people who received both doses.

The ministry found that 80% of patients in need of hospital treatment had not been vaccinated and were more likely to be people with comorbidities. It added that “almost all” of the critical and severe cases requiring intensive care had also not been vaccinated. To date, none of the patients who died with Covid-19 had been fully vaccinated.

To date, 57% of those who received two doses have received Sinopharm and 43% have received Covishield, the Seychelles Ministry of Health said. It is unclear which vaccine was given to people who were fully immunized but then tested positive for Covid.

While new cases flattened on May 7 and 8 (with 317 new cases reported and 314 cases), the Ministry of Health said, “The transmission rate remains high and is worrying.”

The situation has certainly alarmed experts, especially since 60% of the total population of Seychelles has been fully vaccinated. In addition, 86% of the Seychelles target population for vaccination – 70,000 people – have been fully vaccinated to date, according to data from the ministry.

What the WHO thinks

On Monday, WHO director for Immunization, Vaccines and Biologics, Dr. Kate O’Brien, in a briefing, that the WHO is in direct communication with the Ministry of Health of the Seychelles and that the situation is “a more complicated situation than the top situation”. Line messages. “

“As mentioned earlier, the vaccines are very effective against severe cases and deaths. Most of the cases are mild cases. What is also important is that a significant proportion, over 80% of the population, has been vaccinated. But as we know … occur some of the reported cases occur either shortly after a single dose or shortly after a second dose, or between the first and second dose. “

She said that in this particular situation a very detailed assessment is required, “what the situation is like, first, what pressures are circulating in the country, second, if the cases occur in relation to the time someone has been dosed, third, how.” hard they are of the cases. “

‘Only through this type of assessment can we judge whether or not it is vaccination failure or whether it is more about the nature of the cases occurring, the milder end of the cases, and then the timing of the cases relative to the timing of the doses given to individuals. This assessment is ongoing and we are supporting and working with the country to understand the situation. “

CNBC has asked WHO for an updated comment on the situation in Seychelles but has yet to receive a response.

Effectiveness of the vaccine

The WHO has repeatedly warned that vaccination alone would not be enough to stop the pandemic, but would rather be another weapon in the arsenal to fight the virus.

Restrictions on social contact as well as good personal hygiene are still seen as a basis for preventing the spread. Last week, the Seychelles placed restrictions on some social gatherings and public spaces to curb the spread.

The situation of the islanders is a reminder that no coronavirus vaccine currently in use has been proven to be 100% effective in preventing Covid-19 infection. Still, all vaccines currently approved for use by the WHO have been shown to be very, if not extremely, effective in preventing serious Covid infections, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths falling sharply in countries with advanced vaccination programs like the UK

With a third wave of cases and new virus variants that could lead to further deaths and economic devastation, time is of the essence to get life-saving vaccines approved and distributed worldwide. The more available, the better.

On Friday, the WHO approved the state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company SinoPharm for emergency use. This could accelerate the use of the shot in the WHO COVAX program, which aims to give poorer countries access to vaccines.

WHO said the addition of the SinoPharm vaccine had “the potential to rapidly accelerate access to Covid-19 vaccines for countries that want to protect health workers and vulnerable populations.”

It noted that the WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Immunization Experts had completed a review of the vaccine and recommended it on a two-dose regimen, three to four weeks apart, for adults aged 18 and over based on all available evidence.

“The effectiveness of the vaccine in symptomatic and hospital illnesses was estimated to be 79%, all ages combined,” it said. However, it was found that “few older adults (over 60 years of age) have participated in clinical trials, so efficacy in this age group could not be estimated”.

In March, AstraZeneca released an updated clinical trial date showing the vaccine is 76% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infections. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were found to be 95% effective.

Categories
Business

Shares Drop for a Third Day as Inflation Issues Improve

Drivers line up at a QuickTrip filling station in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Here’s what you need to know:

Stocks on Wall Street dropped for the third consecutive day on Wednesday as new data on consumer prices added to investors’ concerns that inflation could upend the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep interest rates low to bolster the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent, pushing its losses this week to 4 percent. It was the benchmark index’s worst day since February and its worst three-day performance since October.

The drop came after the Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index climbed 4.2 percent during the month, from a year earlier, the fastest pace of increase since 2008. From March to April, prices increased 0.8 percent.

Analysts had been expecting a high annual increase, given the comparison to last April, when the economy was cratering amid the early stages of the Covid crisis and price growth slowed to a crawl. But the report still caught them off guard.

“While the high levels were expected, not many were expecting them to be this high,” wrote analysts at Bespoke Investment Group in a note on Wednesday.

The worry for stock investors is that persistently hotter-than-expected inflation readings could force the Fed — which is supposed to focus on price stability as well as employment — to lift interest rates earlier than expected to.

Analysts agree that the Fed’s willingness to keep interest rates low has been a key driver of the stock market’s gains of more than 80 percent since March 2020; higher interest rates can discourage risk taking in the markets, and when concern about inflation dominates it can hit the highest-flying stocks hard.

On Wednesday, yields on long-term Treasury bonds — which are driven by expectations about both inflation and how the Fed may shift interest rates — rose sharply. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.695 percent. It was as low as 1.50 percent late last week.

The Fed has signaled that it intends to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future, and has said that it will likely disregard signs of sharp price increases as the economy reopens from the virus, and will view them as transitory.

But on Wednesday, technology stocks, which are particularly sensitive to concerns about rising rates, were hit harder. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.7 percent, bringing its losses for the week to more than 5 percent.

In the oil markets, West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, rose 1.2 percent, to $66.08 a barrel.

Gasoline prices continued to rise as the Colonial Pipeline, a 5,500-mile conduit stretching from Texas to New York, remained closed because of a ransomware attack. The AAA motor club said Wednesday that the national average price had reached $3.008 a gallon, up about 2 cents from Tuesday’s average price and 8 cents from a week ago. A year ago, the average price was $1.854. The pipeline operator said it began to restart operations Wednesday evening.

Credit…Megan Varner/Getty Images

Panic over the shutdown of a vital fuel pipeline in the United States has driven Americans to search for gas for their vehicles, causing several thousand gas stations across the nation to run out of fuel. Hundreds of others are limiting sales.

State officials in the Southeast have made efforts to stabilize the flow of gas, but consumers have become gripped by a fear that there could be a gas shortage. Many have turned to social media to vent, posting videos and pictures of long lines and empty pumps at filling stations. Some have begun comparing President Biden to President Jimmy Carter, who was the nation’s leader when gas lines rattled the country after the Iranian revolution and other Middle East troubles.

But the energy crises of the 1970s were caused by embargoes, the revolution and declining production. Experts say the reaction to the pipeline outage is somewhat out of proportion with the actual risk.

“The oil and gasoline is there,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Tufts University. “We can pump it manually, we can carry it by truck, and the government and other entities can hire ships. And we have oil in inventories.”

Officials in states with the longest gas lines are asking for calm. “I’m urging everyone to be careful and be patient,” said South Carolina’s attorney general, Alan Wilson.

“Remember when it wasn’t a good idea to panic buy toilet paper last year? Please don’t do it with gas now,” the Virginia Department of Emergency Management tweeted on Wednesday.

At the White House, officials said that they were taking steps to make it easier to send fuel by ship, rail or truck, but acknowledged that those measures would take time.

The frenzy came after the Colonial Pipeline, which runs 5,500 miles from Texas to New Jersey, was shut down on Friday after a ransomware attack. Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday evening that it had begun restarting the flow of fuel.

David E. Sanger contributed reporting.

Sales of Bitcoin helped Tesla’s bottom line in the first quarter.Credit…Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Three months after Tesla said it would begin accepting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as payment, the electric carmaker has abruptly reversed course.

In a message posted to Twitter on Wednesday, Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said Tesla had suspended accepting Bitcoin because of concern about the energy consumed by computers crunching the calculations that underpin the currency.

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment,” Mr. Musk wrote. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and Mr. Musk trumpeted the company’s plan to accept the currency. Tesla later sold about $300 million of its Bitcoin holdings, proceeds that padded its bottom line in the first quarter.

“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy,” Mr. Musk wrote on Wednesday, referring to the process through which new Bitcoin is created.

The price of Bitcoin dipped slightly after the announcement, according to Coindesk.

As cryptocurrencies explode in value, the amount of energy used by the digital currencies is increasingly under scrutiny. Some estimates put the energy use of Bitcoin at more than the entire country of Argentina.

“Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind, and so it’s not a great climate thing,” Bill Gates said in February.

Mr. Musk also said on Wednesday that Tesla was “looking at other cryptocurrencies” that use a fraction of the energy consumed by Bitcoin. Mr. Musk has been a promoter of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke but that has exploded in value. In an appearance on “Saturday Night Live” last week, Mr. Musk referred to Dogecoin as a “hustle.” Dogecoin fell by nearly a third in price on the night of the show.

The Tamar Platform, left, is about 12 miles away from the Gaza Strip.Credit…Ahikam Seri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With fighting raging between Israel and Palestinian groups, Chevron, the American energy giant, said Wednesday that it had shut down a major offshore natural gas facility in the eastern Mediterranean on orders from the Israeli government.

“In accordance with instructions received from the Ministry of Energy, we have shut-in and depressurized the Tamar Platform,” Chevron said in a statement.

The company said that it was continuing to supply customers through another platform in Israeli waters called Leviathan that also processes gas from an offshore field.

Chevron acquired a 25 percent stake in the Tamar Platform and its gas field and wells through its $4 billion acquisition of Noble Energy last year. The deal was the first entry of a major Western oil company into exploration and production of oil and gas in Israeli waters.

The Tamar Platform is about 12 miles from the Gaza Strip, where militants have been launching rockets toward Israel and Israel has been aiming airstrikes. Leviathan is further away. The two gas facilities are major sources of fuel for the Israeli economy, especially for electric power generation.

In recent years the international oil industry has begun to consider the Eastern Mediterranean region as a potential major hub for natural gas. Israeli gas has also served to increase the country’s energy independence and strengthen economic ties with former enemies like Egypt and Jordan, which are customers for the fuel.

Last month Delek Drilling, one of Chevron’s Israeli partners, said that it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell its share of Tamar to Mubadala Petroleum, an arm of the government of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for around $1 billion. The United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords signed in August.

“This is an area that looks as if it could have the resource quality and the scale to become a pretty significant energy province,” said Mike Wirth, Chevron’s chief executive, in an interview last year.

Snap announced on Tuesday that it had suspended Yolo and LMK, two anonymous messaging services, within the Snapchat app in response to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

The lawsuit accuses Snapchat, Yolo and LMK of “creating, maintaining and distributing anonymous messaging apps to teens that are inherently dangerous and defective, and for falsely promising the enforcement of safeguards.” Yolo and LMK are developed by other companies and integrate into Snapchat using an integration provided by Snap.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Carson Bride, 16, who committed suicide last year after being bullied and threatened on Snapchat, Yolo and LMK, according to the suit filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiffs in the case are his mother, Kristin Bride, and the Tyler Clementi Foundation, which works to combat bullying.

A representative from Snap wrote in an email to The Times that the company was suspending Yolo and LMK “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community” while it investigates the claims.

LMK and Yolo both maintain separate apps outside of Snapchat. As of Wednesday, LMK is still available for download on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. Yolo was not available in either store.

Snapchat, which had 280 million daily active users as of late March, allows vetted developers to integrate their apps through a portal called Snap Kit. Small companies can access bigger audiences through these partnerships, and Snapchat can add new functions to its app without having to develop each one.

Yolo and LMK allow users to post questions — “What color suits me best?” or “Does this outfit look good?” — on Snapchat Stories, to which other users can respond anonymously. Yolo and LMK also have features in their stand-alone apps that allow anonymous messaging in group chats.

Greg Henrion, one of the founders of Yolo, dismissed concerns about bullying on the platform in an interview with TechCrunch in 2019. “We’re strict on moderation,” he said. “When looking at the reviews about bullying, it’s like nothing compared to any other anonymous app. I think we solved 90 percent of the problem.”

Yolo and LMK did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit argues that the anonymous messaging apps have been known to cause harm for decades and that the existence of bullying on LMK and Yolo was “foreseeable.”

Yik Yak, an anonymous messaging app created in 2013, shut down in 2017 after becoming associated with bullying, discriminatory speech and threats of bomb and gun violence. Other anonymous platforms, like ask.fm and Kik, have been linked to suicides by young people and sexual abuse cases. In 2018, Pew Research Center reported that 59 percent of teenagers experience cyberbullying.

Rylee Hinds, a high school senior, does coursework while a crew installs broadband internet in her family’s home in Mantachie, Miss., in February.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Millions of low-income Americans became eligible on Wednesday for an emergency discount on high-speed internet service and devices to get online, an effort aimed at providing relief to families that have struggled during the pandemic as school, work and health care have moved online.

The Federal Communications Commission’s subsidy program, the Emergency Broadband Benefit, can be used for $50 monthly discounts for individuals on SNAP or Medicaid, recipients of Pell grants, and families with children on free and reduced-price lunch plans. Low-income households on tribal lands can apply for $75 in monthly broadband subsidies. The program also allows for a one-time $100 subsidy for a laptop or tablet.

The F.C.C. said 825 broadband providers have agreed to offer the discounts.

The program, which Congress approved $3.2 billion for late last year, is one of several efforts to bring broadband internet to all American homes. The F.C.C. earlier this week also approved a $7.2 billion program to give students high-speed internet access through schools and libraries. President Biden has promised to make broadband affordable and available for all and has proposed a $100 billion effort to connect every rural and low-income home to high-speed internet service.

The Emergency Broadband Benefit program comes late in the pandemic, with schools and workplaces beginning to open again. The delay was largely because of wrangling over details of the subsidies in Congress and at the F.C.C. during the Trump administration. And it’s unclear what will happen once the one-time emergency benefit fund runs out.

The program will end either when the $3.2 billion fund is depleted or six months after the Department of Health and Human Services declares an end to the pandemic.

“High-speed internet service is vital for families to take advantage of today’s health, education, and workplace opportunities,” Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chair of the F.C.C., said in a statement. “And the discount for laptops and desktop computers will continue to have positive impact even after this temporary discount program wraps up.”

Lina M. Khan would join the would join the Federal Trade Commission as antitrust regulators mount a campaign against the power of the largest tech companies.Credit…Pool photo by Graeme Jennings

The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of Lina Khan to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate that would make Ms. Kahn, a prominent critic of the tech giants, one of its most powerful regulators.

The nomination of Ms. Khan, 32, has buoyed progressive hopes that President Biden will try to rein in Silicon Valley. At her confirmation hearing in April, Ms. Khan said that she saw a “whole range of potential risks” associated with the tech companies’ abilities to take over markets and dominate them.

Mr. Biden also appointed Tim Wu, a legal scholar who has pushed for antitrust action against the tech companies, to an economic policy role in the White House. Mr. Biden has yet to say who will lead the F.T.C. or the Justice Department’s antitrust division during his administration.

Ms. Khan would join the commission as antitrust regulators mount a campaign against the power of the largest tech companies. The F.T.C. last year filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of cornering the market through acquisitions of small companies like Instagram and WhatsApp. The agency has also been investigating Amazon, and the Department of Justice last fall filed its own antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Ms. Khan’s ascendence to the F.T.C. would cap a quick rise. She came to prominence in law school, when she wrote a law review note charting how Amazon’s power exposed flaws in the way judges had enforced antitrust law. After law school, she worked for a progressive member of the F.T.C. and helped write a House Judiciary Committee report criticizing the sweeping power of the tech giants. Last year, Ms. Khan also joined Columbia Law School as a professor.

Some conservatives have worried that she would be too heavy-handed in regulating industry. Four Republicans specified that they were voting against her nomination.

Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, voted for her nomination but said he shared some concerns about Ms. Khan.

“I believe she is focused on addressing one of the most pressing issues of the day: reining in the big social media platforms,” he said. “However, I do remain concerned that a broadly over-regulatory approach as an F.T.C. commissioner could have a negative effect on the economy and undermine free-market principles.”

Shopping for books in Barcelona last month. Spain’s economy, hit hard during the pandemic, is expected to grow nearly 6 percent this year.Credit…Pau Barrena/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The economic outlook has brightened considerably across Europe after lockdowns restricted growth at the start of the year. Now, economists foresee the complete recovery by the end of next year from the early effects of the pandemic.

The British economy grew 2.1 percent in March from the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The reopening of schools was one of the biggest reasons for the larger-than-expected jump in economic growth, as well as a rise in retail spending even though many stores remained closed because of lockdowns.

The statistics agency estimated that gross domestic product fell 1.5 percent in the first quarter, slightly less than economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted, while the country was under lockdown with nonessential stores, restaurants and other services such as hairdressers shut.

Though the British economy is still nearly 9 percent smaller than it was at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, the Bank of England forecasts it to return to that size by the end of this year.

The European Commission also upgraded its forecasts for the region on Wednesday. It predicted the European Union economies would grow 4.2 percent this year, up from a forecast of 3.7 percent three months ago. Germany’s economy is forecast to grow 3.4 percent this year and Spain, which suffered Europe’s deepest recession last year, is expected to grow nearly 6 percent.

“The E.U. and euro area economies are expected to rebound strongly as vaccination rates increase and restrictions are eased,” the commission, the executive arm for the European Union, said on Wednesday. The recovery will be driven by household spending, investment and a rising demand for European exports, it said.

Still, despite the optimistic outlook, the commission warned that the risks were “high and will remain so as long as the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic hangs over the economy.”

Even as millions of people were vaccinated, the number of new coronavirus cases globally reached a peak in late April as the pandemic has struck especially hard in India. The uneven distribution of vaccines around the world and the emergence of new variants has the potential to set back the recovery.

The National Institute Of Economic and Social Research in London said on Monday that it did not expect the British economy to return to its prepandemic size until the end of 2022, predicting a slower recovery than the central bank.

Economists at the institute expect lower global growth because of uncertainty about the global vaccine rollout and lingering doubts about the end of the pandemic inducing more people to hold onto their savings, rather than spend it.

SoftBank reported a net profit of more than $36 billion for the year ending in March.Credit…Philip Fong/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The comeback continued for SoftBank on Wednesday, as the Japanese technology investment firm posted a net profit of more than $36 billion for the year ending in March.

Yet a recent slide in confidence in technology stocks could make it more difficult for Masayoshi Son, the founder of the technology conglomerate turned investment powerhouse, to keep up the momentum after what seemed like an impossible change of fortune.

Last May, SoftBank was in crisis after posting a loss of more than $12 billion. Its big bets on Wall Street favorites, like WeWork, the troubled office space company, and Uber, resulted in huge losses.

But it was not down for long. Riding high on a post-pandemic stock boom, SoftBank has since notched seemingly unthinkable gains. When compared with its previously released figures, the year-end results implied a profit for the first three months of 2021 alone of more than $17 billion.

In a live-streamed press event Wednesday, Mr. Son opened by showing a photo of the humble town where SoftBank began, before calling the huge earnings numbers “lucky plus lucky plus lucky.”

SoftBank Group’s net income

Mr. Son told investors on Wednesday that he would not deny that he is a gambler. But he said he regretted some decisions. The question now is whether his current run of luck can continue.

SoftBank’s profit, mostly paper gains from increases in investment values, was based heavily on a jump in the price of South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang after it listed earlier this year. Results were also lifted by strong share price rises from other SoftBank investments, DoorDash and Uber.

The share price of all three companies has fallen sharply over the past month on a broader pullback in technology shares, in part related to fears over inflation out of the United States.

Investors appeared more interested in the broader tech sell off than Mr. Son’s luck, as SoftBank’s shares fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday, despite the solid gains.

Margrethe Vestager, an executive vice president at the European Commission, announcing Amazon’s $300 million tax bill in 2017.Credit…Emmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Amazon on Wednesday won an appeal against European Union efforts to force the company to pay more taxes in the region, illustrating how American tech giants are turning to the courts to beat back tougher oversight.

The General Court of the European Union struck down a 2017 decision by European regulators that ordered Amazon to pay $300 million to Luxembourg, home of the company’s European headquarters and where regulators said the company received unfair tax treatment. The court said regulators did not sufficiently prove that Amazon had violated a law meant to prevent companies from receiving special tax benefits from European governments.

The decision, which comes as European Union and American officials attempt to reach a global tax agreement that could result in higher levies against tech companies, undercuts an effort by Margrethe Vestager, an executive vice president at the European Commission, who issued the Amazon penalty and has led efforts to force big tech firms to pay more in taxes. The companies have been criticized for using complex corporate structures to take advantage of low-tax countries like Luxembourg and Ireland. In 2020, Amazon earned 44 billion euros in Europe, but reported paying no taxes in Luxembourg.

Tech companies are using the courts to fight European regulators trying to rein in the industry’s power. Last year, Apple won an appeal against Ms. Vestager to annul a decision to repay about $14.9 billion in taxes to Ireland, where the company has a European headquarters. That case is now before the European Union’s highest court.

Google has appealed three decisions and billions of dollars in fines issued by the European Commission over anticompetitive business practices related to its search engine, advertising business and Android mobile operating system.

More legal battles may loom, as regulators have issued preliminary charges against Apple and Amazon for violating antitrust laws.

On Wednesday, Amazon cheered the decision by the Luxembourg-based court.

“We welcome the court’s decision, which is in line with our longstanding position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment,” Conor Sweeney, a company spokesman, said in a statement.

Ms. Vestager said the European Commission would study the Amazon ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

“All companies should pay their fair share of tax,” Ms. Vestager said in a statement. “Tax advantages given only to selected multinational companies harm fair competition in the E.U.”

Thomas Plantenga, Vinted’s chief executive, in 2019. The company, an online marketplace for secondhand clothes, recently raised funding that put its valuation at $4.24 billion.Credit…Vinted-Investment/via Reuters

The pandemic revealed just how important e-commerce is to the future of the global fashion industry. In a year of lockdowns, millions of shoppers turned online to satisfy their desire for clothes, accelerating a shift toward digital sales and rapid growth for many e-commerce companies.

This week, two leading European names announced their latest funding rounds, as investors look to capitalize on the expansion of the online fashion market.

Lyst, a London-based online fashion platform with 150 million users, said it had raised $85 million ahead of a planned initial public offering. In 2020, the company — which acts as an inventory-free search portal for high-fashion brands and stores to sell to trend-focused online shoppers — said it had seen a 1,100 percent increase in new users on its app. It said the company has a gross merchandise value of more than $500 million.

Appetite for secondhand fashion also boomed in the last year, as more shoppers looked to declutter wardrobes, earn cash by selling old clothes and became more aware of the environmental impact of the industry.

Vinted, which is based in Lithuania, says it is Europe’s largest secondhand fashion marketplace with more than 45 million members globally. On Tuesday, the company said it had raised 250 million euros in a Series F funding round, giving the start-up a valuation of 3.5 billion euros, or $4.24 billion.

“We want to replicate the success we’ve built in our existing European markets in new geographies and will continue investing not only to improve our product, but also to ensure we continue to have a positive impact,” said Vinted’s chief executive, Thomas Plantenga.

Credit…Alvaro Dominguez

Today in the On Tech newsletter, Shira Ovide asks: When have Jeff Bezos’ ideas and his relentlessness to pull them off been helpful, and when have those same qualities led Amazon astray?

Categories
World News

China autonomous driving agency WeRide valued at $3.Three billion after funding

China autonomous driving firm WeRide valued at $3.3 billion after funding

A fleet of WeRide robot axles is shown. The company has been testing its robot axis in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou since 2019.

We drive

GUANGZHOU, China – WeRide autonomous driving company raised new funds to value the company at $ 3.3 billion.

The Nissan-backed startup did not disclose the amount it raised, but said it was “hundreds of millions” of dollars from venture capital investors such as IDG Capital and Sky9 Capital. A number of other supporters and existing investors attended the round.

Tony Han, CEO of WeRide, said in a statement that the new funds will be used for research and development as well as commercialization “with the aim of ensuring comprehensive autonomous mobility in the future.”

WeRide is one of the many China-based companies aggressively pushing to be a global leader in autonomous driving.

In 2019, a Robotaxi project was opened in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where the headquarters are located. The public has been able to use the service in a specific area of ​​the city since last year.

In April, WeRide received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to conduct driverless tests on public roads in San Jose.

The company competes with other startups like Pony.ai, which raised $ 267 million in November, and AutoX. Larger tech companies, including internet giant Baidu and hail-fighting company Didi, are also exploring the space.

WeRide’s final round of funding is based on an injection of $ 310 million in January.

WeRide’s CEO previously told CNBC that he predicts that large-scale application of robotaxis will occur between 2023 and 2025. He said WeRide will start making money from the business from 2025.

The company doesn’t make cars. Instead, the autonomous drive systems are sold to other car manufacturers.

Categories
Health

C.D.C Confirms Extra Instances of Uncommon Blood Clot Dysfunction Linked to J.&J. Vaccine

C.D.C Confirms More Cases of Rare Blood Clot Disorder Linked to J.&J. Vaccine

Federal health officials have now confirmed 28 cases, including six in men, of a rare bleeding disorder in adults who have received the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the vaccination safety bureau at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presented the new cases on Wednesday at a CDC advisory board meeting

The number is an increase from the 15 confirmed cases that were all women reported at the meeting last month.

Although officials have now identified a handful of cases in men, women – particularly between the ages of 30 and 49 – appear to be at increased risk. “The trend is that women in all age groups have higher reporting rates than men,” said Dr. Shimabukuro at the meeting.

Patients with the rare but serious disorder develop blood clots, often in the brain, as well as low levels of platelets, components of the blood that promote clotting. The disorder is a “rare, clinically serious, and potentially life-threatening condition,” said Dr. Shimabukuro.

Last month, after reports first emerged that six women who had received the vaccine had developed the disorder, federal health officials recommended discontinuing use of the vaccine during the investigation. They lifted the suspension 10 days later and warned the vaccine label of possible risks that suggest that there is a “plausible” link between the vaccine and the disease.

22 of the confirmed cases so far involved women and six men. All were adults between the ages of 18 and 59 who received the vaccine before the national break. (Another case was also recorded in a 25-year-old male who participated in the clinical trial.)

Three people have died and four remain in the hospital, including one in intensive care. No new deaths have been documented since last month’s meeting, said Dr. Shimabukuro.

The overall risk remains extremely low. More than 9 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have now been administered in the United States.

There were 12.4 cases per million doses in women between 30 and 39 years of age and 9.4 cases per million doses in women between 40 and 49 years of age, the two demographics that appear to be at greatest risk. There were fewer than 3 cases per million doses in older women and men of all ages.

Of the 28 confirmed cases, 12 people who developed the disorder had obesity, 7 had high blood pressure, 3 had diabetes, and 3 were taking estrogen, although it is not yet clear whether any of these factors could significantly increase the risk of the disorder.

Officials will continue to look for cases of the coagulation disorder in vaccinated people, said Dr. Shimabukuro.

There were no confirmed cases of coagulation disorder after the Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, which use a different technology, said Dr. Shimabukuro.

Categories
Business

Bitcoin (BTC) value falls after Tesla stops automobile purchases with crypto

Bitcoin (BTC) price falls after Tesla stops car purchases with crypto

Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China – Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped from the entire cryptocurrency market after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the electric vehicle maker would stop buying cars with bitcoin.

According to Coinmarketcap.com, the value of the entire cryptocurrency market was around $ 2.43 trillion at around 6:06 a.m. Singapore time on Thursday when Musk made the announcement.

By 8:45 a.m., market cap had dropped to around $ 2.06 trillion and wiped out around $ 365.85 billion. The market has reduced some losses. Since Musk’s tweet, the cryptocurrency market had lost $ 165.75 billion in value at around 9:22 a.m. Singapore time.

In February, Tesla announced in a filing for approval that it had purchased $ 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and planned to accept the cryptocurrency for payments.

Citing environmental concerns Thursday, Musk said Tesla was “concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, particularly coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

Bitcoin is not issued by a single entity such as a central bank. Instead, it is maintained by a network of so-called “miners”. These miners use specially designed computers that use a great deal of energy to solve complex math puzzles in order to make Bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin’s energy consumption is higher than in some individual countries.

At around 9:34 a.m. Singapore time, Bitcoin fell more than 12%, falling below the $ 50,000 mark for the first time since April 24, according to CoinDesk data. Despite the recent decline, Bitcoin is still up over 400% in the past 12 months.

Other cryptocurrencies Ether and XRP were also significantly lower.

Musk was a big advocate of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin and has helped drive prices up over the past few months.

Tesla CEO said the company will not sell Bitcoin and intends to use it for transactions “once mining moves to more sustainable energy.”

Bitcoin has piqued interest over the past year as companies like Square and Tesla announced Bitcoin purchases and large institutional investors entered the cryptocurrency space. Large investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also been looking for ways to give their wealthy clients exposure to Bitcoin.

Categories
Politics

Biden Indicators Government Order to Bolster Federal Authorities’s Cybersecurity

Biden Signs Executive Order to Bolster Federal Government’s Cybersecurity

WASHINGTON – As the east coast suffered the effects of a ransomware attack on a major oil pipeline, President Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that set tough new standards for the cybersecurity of software sold to the federal government.

The move is part of an overall effort to strengthen the defense of the United States by encouraging private companies to practice better cybersecurity or at risk of being banned from federal treaties. However, the bigger effect may come from what, over time, might look like a government safety rating for software products, similar to how cars get a safety rating or restaurants in New York get a health safety rating.

The contract comes amid a wave of new cyberattacks that are more sophisticated and far-reaching than ever before. Last year, around 2,400 ransomware attacks hit corporate, local and federal agencies in blackmail schemes that block or publish victims’ data unless they pay a ransom.

The most pressing fear is an attack on critical infrastructure, a point that Americans who panicked to buy gasoline became clear this week. A ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline’s information systems forced the company to shut down a critical pipeline that has been supplying 45 percent of the east coast’s gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for several days.

While every president since George W. Bush has issued new guidelines to strengthen the country’s digital defenses, Biden’s command is designed to dig deep into the private sector. And it’s far more detailed than any previous effort.

For the first time, the US will require all software purchased by the federal government to meet a set of new cybersecurity standards within six months. Although companies would have to self-certify, violations would be removed from federal procurement lists, which could affect their chances of selling their products in the commercial market.

The contract also sets up an incident review board, much like the teams that investigate aircraft accidents to learn lessons from major hacking episodes. The White House dictates that the first incident investigated will be the SolarWinds hack, in which Russia’s leading intelligence agency changed the computer code of an American company’s network management software. It gave Russia broad access to 18,000 agencies, organizations, and companies, mostly in the United States.

The new regulation also stipulates that all federal agencies must encrypt data, regardless of whether it is stored or transmitted – two very different challenges. When China stole 21.5 million files via federal employees and contractors who had security clearance in place, none of the files were encrypted so they could be easily read. (Chinese hackers, investigators later concluded, encrypted the files themselves – so as not to be discovered when they sent the sensitive records back to Beijing.)

Previous efforts to set minimum standards for software failed at Congress, particularly at a major showdown nine years ago. Small businesses have said the changes are not affordable and larger businesses have resisted an intrusive role the federal government plays in their systems.

But Mr Biden decided it was more important to act quickly than try to fight for broader mandates on Capitol Hill. Its staff said it was a first step, and industry officials said it was bolder than expected.

Updated

May 12, 2021, 7:36 p.m. ET

Amit Yoran, the executive director of Tenable and a former cybersecurity officer in the Department of Homeland Security, said the question everyone was wondering was whether Mr. Biden’s orders would stop the next Colonial or SolarWinds attacks.

“No politics, government initiative or technology can do that,” said Yoran. “But that’s a good start.”

Government officials have complained that Colonial had poor defenses, and although it built a hard shell around its computer networks, it had no way of monitoring an adversary who got inside. The Biden administration hopes that the standards set out in the Executive Ordinance, which require multifactor authentication and other protective measures, will become widespread and improve security worldwide.

Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised the order but said it should be followed by Congressional action.

Mr Warner said the recent attacks “have shown what has become increasingly apparent in recent years: that the United States is simply unwilling to fend off government sponsored or even criminal hackers who intend to compromise our systems for profit or espionage.” “

The new order is the first major public part of a multi-faceted review of defense, offensive, and legal strategies against opponents around the world. However, this arrangement focuses solely on deepening the defense in hopes of deterring attackers because they fear they will fail – or are at greater risk of being detected.

The Justice Department is setting up a new task force to take over ransomware. Now that it has been discovered in recent months that such attacks are more than just blackmail, they can topple economic sectors.

Mr Biden announced sanctions against Russia for the SolarWinds hack, and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there would be “invisible” consequences as well. So far, the United States has not taken similar action against the Chinese government because it was believed to have been involved in another attack and exploited loopholes in a Microsoft system used by large corporations around the world.

The Executive Order was first drafted in February in response to the SolarWinds intrusion. This attack was particularly nifty because hackers working for the Russian government managed to modify the company’s under development code that unsuspectingly distributed the malware in an update to its software packages. It was discovered during Mr Biden’s transition and led him to state that he could not trust the integrity of the federal computer systems.

Established under the Executive Ordinance, the review body is jointly chaired by the Minister of Homeland Security and a private sector official, based on the specific episode currently being investigated, in order to attract industry executives who fear the investigation could be fodder for lawsuits .

Since it was created by executive order rather than an act of Congress, the new body will not have the same extensive powers as a security body. However, officials remain confident that this will be helpful in identifying vulnerabilities, improving security practices, and pushing companies to invest more in improving their networks.

Much of the executive order focuses on information sharing and transparency. The aim is to reduce the time it takes for organizations that have been hacked or discover vulnerabilities to share this information with the Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Security Agency.