Month: June 2021

Categories
Politics

Justice Dept. to Sue Georgia Over Voting Legislation

Justice Dept. to Sue Georgia Over Voting Law

The Justice Department is suing Georgia over a comprehensive electoral law passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature, a Congressional official said Friday, a key move by the Biden administration to counter state-level electoral restrictions in place since the 2020 election.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was expected to announce the lawsuit late Friday morning.

The lawsuit is among the highest-profile enforcement actions launched under the Voting Act since the Supreme Court gutted a key provision in 2013 that allowed the Justice Department to prevent states from passing laws that facilitate discrimination against voters.

The lawsuit shows that the Justice Department, under the von Biden administration, intends to use the remaining tools at its disposal to aggressively oppose government actions it regards as potentially disenfranchised minority voters.

Mr Garland said earlier this month that the ministry would use all available tools to tackle voter discrimination.

The lawsuit comes days after Republicans in Congress blocked the most ambitious federal voting law in a generation, which dealt a blow to Democrats’ efforts to get the vote. President Biden and the Democratic leaders pledged to continue working to enforce state voting laws.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit is expected to accuse Georgia law of effectively discriminating against non-white voters and is intended to show that Georgia lawmakers intended to do so.

Georgian law introduced a number of new restrictions on electoral access and dramatically changed the balance of power in the electoral administration. The bill followed an election in which Georgia, a once reliably red state, turned blue in the presidential race for the first time in nearly 40 years, followed by two quick consecutive Senate seats, moving from Republicans to Democrats.

Georgia was the epicenter of former President Donald J. Trump’s months of efforts to overturn the election results. Picking up on numerous false conspiracy theories about the Georgia elections, he went on to claim that despite three separate recounts and audits – including one entirely manual – it reconfirmed the results, was fraudulent.

Critics were quick to cry that the law was rooted in the former president’s falsehoods and intended to reverse the democratic wave in Georgia, targeting the state’s absentee voting scheme, which was approved by Republicans in 2005, but the preferred method was voting for Democrats in the 2020 election amid the pandemic.

Categories
Entertainment

At Ailey’s Spring Gala, Completely different Sorts of Hope

At Ailey’s Spring Gala, Different Kinds of Hope

Uplift is what people expect from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. And so it is no surprise that for its spring gala — this spring of all springs — the company focused explicitly on themes of hope, promise and the future.

What’s pledged is delivered, with much of the roteness that comes with reliability. But the Ailey company’s official hope doesn’t entirely eclipse a more troubled and therefore trustworthy kind, supplied mostly by the troupe’s increasingly important resident choreographer, Jamar Roberts.

The one-hour gala, available free on the company’s website until Saturday night, is a typical Ailey product. Like other troupes, Ailey needs to ask for donations and make a case for its importance, but here the asking and endorsing are done by Alicia Keys and Michelle Obama. Attractive dancers and adorable students plug themselves. As part of an earnest tribute to Washington, the company’s “second home,” Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, makes an appearance; and Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, likens Ailey to the organization he runs. It’s cross branding.

Three company members — Ghrai DeVore-Stokes, Chalvar Monteiro and Kanji Segawa — debut their first choreographic efforts, each tackling one of the three theme words. These pieces look like first efforts, without much distinctive juice or spark. Each is filmed in a striking New York location — the Vessel at Hudson Yards, a basketball court in St. Nicholas Park, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park — but the generic quality of the choreography is heightened by generic music, courtesy of a commercial licensing service. (A budget measure? At least in Monteiro’s “Promise,” the most stylish of the three, the music is generically funky.)

The opener, “For Four,” a new piece by the company’s artistic director, Robert Battle, is more intriguing. Battle explains that the four-person work “speaks to the pent-up energy over the last year and a half,” and says that it’s a manifestation of being “free to express ourselves.” With all its spinning and attitudinizing to a jazz track by Wynton Marsalis, it can seem like simple release. But there’s also a darker, more desperate undertone, a hint of having to perform.

In the middle, Renaldo Maurice writhes in a floor projection of an American flag. At the end, while the other three dancers strike Black Power poses, he rolls on the ground in a circle. Something more than pent-up energy is being expressed.

That something more is less hidden in Roberts’s contribution, a solo tribute to the civil rights hero John Lewis called “In Memory.” Silhouetted against a white brick wall, Roberts crosses the screen, bending and rising to a piano version of “Precious Lord.” The matador strength and strain of his stance, and the way his body bends, deliver more of the pain and majesty of Lewis’s struggle than Rep. Clyburn’s words in praise of his late friend.

Then “In Memory,” by far the strongest part of the gala program, suddenly ends. It’s only an excerpt, alas. Fortunately, more of Roberts’s recent work can be found elsewhere. An Ailey virtual program for Cal Performances, released earlier this month and available on demand through Sept. 8, features his new “Holding Space.”

In it, the members of an ensemble are silhouetted in lines against blue light (by the excellent Brandon Stirling Baker). Their movements are a little mechanical but with an irregular rhythm and stretch that suggest an imminent breaking down or breaking free. Later, the dancers take turns inside a cube of scaffolding on rollers, while other dancers move the cube around. Those attendants are holding a space for the soloist, but it’s an ambiguous one: maybe a space of healing, maybe a cage.

This is a difference between Roberts and the newbie choreographers of the gala program. His choreography — individual, original and freshly contemporary in feel — says something, even as it resists paraphrase. “Holding Space” ends with a backlit vision of apotheosis, which if it’s uplifting, is shaded by what precedes it and is thus earned.

The concern with confinement has been a running theme in Roberts’s work. It was there in “Cooped,” the remarkable short film he made on his iPad at the start of the pandemic for Works & Process. Accompanied by bagpipes and drums, his tightly framed body expressed, with a terrible beauty, a sense of emergency that was of the moment, but also deeper and older.

It’s an idea he’s expanded in “Colored Me,” a film he made during a fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Again, his body is tightly framed, but now his image is blurred and shadowed. His dancing is intercut with a slow release of text: Zora Neale Hurston’s well-known quote, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” By the end, he has thrown himself against a sharp white background, filling the frame in a fetal position.

Like “Cooped,” “Colored Me” resonates both broadly and narrowly. The quote comes from Hurston’s essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” and the dance could be seen as exploring what it might mean to be free to express oneself, how it might feel. I wonder if among the many kinds of confinement on Roberts’s mind lately, one might be the Ailey expectation of uplift. He seems to be resisting it productively.

With “In Memory,” “Holding Space” and “Colored Me,” Roberts has not only confirmed that he is one of the vital choreographers at work and one of the most spellbinding makers of dance film — he has confirmed that he is an artist. And for people who care about art, that is a sign of hope.

Categories
Health

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Friday, June 25

5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday, June 11

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to start their trading day:

1. Wall Street is heading for its best week in months

A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York on April 16, 2021.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

US stock futures rose Friday, the day after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs, fueled by President Joe Biden’s signing of an infrastructure deal with a bipartisan group of senators. The Dow also rose Thursday, gaining 322 points, or nearly 1%, heading for its best weekly gain since March. The 30-share average is about 1.6% off its record high in early May after last week’s worst weekly decline since October. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their best weeks since April.

  • Dow stock Nike rose 13% in the premarket and is likely to open at an all-time high. The athletic shoe and apparel giant topped estimates for quarterly earnings and sales late Thursday. Nike saw a 73% increase in direct sales through its apps and websites. Nike’s stock pop is responsible for much of the surge in the Dow futures.
  • Virgin Galactic is up 14% after the FAA was given the green light to fly passengers into space. “The commercial license we held since 2016 remains in place, but is now approved to carry commercial passengers when we are ready,” Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, told CNBC.

2. The Fed’s most popular inflation indicator is hot

3. Infrastructure compromise includes $ 579 billion in new spending

US President Joe Biden speaks after a bipartisan meeting with US Senators on the proposed framework for the Infrastructure Bill on June 24, 2021 at the White House in Washington.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The bipartisan infrastructure compromise includes $ 579 billion in new spending, of which $ 312 billion will be used on transportation projects such as roads, bridges and trains. The plan also puts $ 266 billion into non-transport infrastructure, including power, water and broadband internet improvements. Only $ 15 billion goes into infrastructure for electric vehicles and electric buses and public transportation, a fraction of what Biden originally proposed. How they should pay for all of this remains under discussion. The Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill want to pass the bipartisan framework along with a larger bill to address more of their priorities without a Republican vote.

4. The search for survivors of the building collapse in Florida continues

This aerial view shows search and rescue workers working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021.

Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

Biden has promised to provide federal aid, if requested, in finding survivors of a partial collapse of a beachfront condo outside of Miami. At least one person was killed and nearly 100 people are still missing. Officials did not know how many people were in the tower when it collapsed in Surfside at around 1:30 a.m. ET early Thursday morning. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said the rescue teams would “do anything to save lives. Authorities did not say what might have caused the collapse.

5. Chauvin could be sentenced for decades on Floyd’s death

A woman reacts following the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of the death of George Floyd, on April 20, 2021 at BLM Plaza in Washington, DC.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is convicted Friday of the murder of George Floyd’s death in a case that sparked worldwide outrage and a racial reckoning in America. Legal experts predict that Chauvin, 45, could live to be 20 to 25 years old. He was convicted of accidental second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter. While he is widely expected to appeal, Chauvin is also facing trial on federal civil rights charges along with three other dismissed officials whose state trials are pending.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow the whole market like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with coronavirus coverage from CNBC.

Categories
World News

U.S. inventory futures rise because the S&P 500 heads for its finest week since April

Stocks drift higher at open, S&P 500 trades just under record

US stock futures rose Friday, with the S&P 500 heading for its best week since April as a comeback from last week’s swoon caused by worries over a more restrictive Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 89 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.2%.

The S&P 500, which closed on a record Thursday, is up 2.4% this week, which would be its best gain since early April. The Dow is up 2.7% this week and the Nasdaq is up 2.4% since last Friday.

Nike stock rose 12% in pre-trading hours, which helped boost sentiment for the Dow. The company reported profits and revenues that exceeded Wall Street estimates. Digital sales have also increased by 41% since last year and by 147% compared to two years ago.

Caterpillar shares rose 2.6% on Thursday on optimism about an infrastructure deal. The shares were up another 1% in the pre-trading session on Friday.

On the flip side, FedEx was down 4% in pre-trading on Friday, despite outperforming it in gains and gains. FedEx also gave a strong outlook for the year.

Major US bank stocks rose after the Federal Reserve announced that the industry could easily weather a severe recession. The Fed announced when it released the results of its annual stress test that the 23 institutions in the 2021 test had remained “well above” the minimum capital requirement during a hypothetical economic downturn. The decision paved the way for banks to increase dividends and buy back more shares that were suspended during the pandemic.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo gained 1.4% and 2%, respectively, early on.

Investors will be on the lookout for a key inflation indicator on Friday morning when the Department of Commerce releases its core consumer spending index. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect prices to have risen 3.4% year over year in May. Economists also estimate that prices rose 0.6% from April to May.

The index tracks price movements across a wide range of goods and services. It is also generally viewed as a broader measure of inflation as it captures changes in consumer behavior and has a broader scope than the Department of Labor’s consumer price index.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322 points and the S&P 500 hit a new high of 4,266.49 after up 0.6%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose to a new record of 14,369.71 as investors continued to invest in growth stocks. Cathie Wood’s flagship fund, ARK Innovation, gained 1.5% and performed well for the year.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the White House had signed an infrastructure deal with a non-partisan group of senators. Legislators have worked for weeks to put together a roughly $ 1 trillion package that could get through Congress with support from both parties. Among other things, the framework provides for new expenditures of 579 billion US dollars for transport such as roads, bridges and rail, the infrastructure for electric vehicles and electric mass transit.

Last week the Dow fell 3.5% and the S&P 500 lost 1.9% as the Federal Reserve extended its rate hike schedule.

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Categories
Health

Tips on how to Train within the Summer time Warmth

How to Exercise in the Summer Heat

We also should accustom ourselves, slowly, to unfamiliar swelter, Dr. Gibson says, a process known to exercise scientists as acclimatizing, which involves working out sometimes, by choice, when the day is warmest. This approach helps to condition our bodies to better cope with the heat. Once acclimatized, we will sweat earlier and more abundantly than before, dissipating internal heat better and leaving us feeling bouncier and less fatigued.

Acclimatizing should be gradual, however. To start, slather on sunscreen, fill a water bottle, head outside after about 10 a.m., when temperatures intensify, and try to complete a gentler version of your standard workout, says Carl James, a senior physiologist at the National Sports Institute in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and co-author of the review. If you usually run for 30 minutes, for instance, maybe jog for 20, and monitor how you feel. If your heart seems to be racing, he says, or you feel lousy, “slow down.”

After a few acclimatization sessions, you should notice your clothes and skin are drenched, Dr. Gibson says. Congratulations. “Earlier and more profuse sweating is a great sign that heat adaptation is taking place,” he says. Most of us acclimatize after about five to 10 hot workouts, he adds, although women, who tend to sweat less freely than men, may require an extra easy session or two to be fully prepared for harder workouts in the heat.

After each acclimatization session, head for the showers, but dial up the heat. Standing under a warm shower spray or soaking in a hot bathtub for 10 minutes or so after a sweltering workout prompts our bodies to continue acclimatizing, Dr. Gibson says. “It extends the stimuli for heat adaptation,” he points out, “and is therefore welcome and beneficial.”

An icy beverage before a hot workout “will help with hydration and provide a combination of perceptual and actual cooling,” Dr. Gibson says. Aim to drink about 16 ounces of cold fluid 20 minutes or so before you head out. Drinking closer to the session’s start could cause stomach upset during your workout.

Categories
Politics

Rudy Giuliani is suspended from training regulation attributable to Trump statements

Rudy Giuliani is suspended from practicing law due to Trump statements

A New York court suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in the state on Thursday, citing his “false and misleading statements” about the electoral defeat of former President Donald Trump.

The suspension, which will take effect immediately, is a blow to 77-year-old Giuliani, a former New York mayor who was once a senior Justice Department official and US attorney in Manhattan.

It also happens that criminal investigations against Giuliani in connection with his work in Ukraine are being carried out by the same federal prosecutor’s office.

Since Trump’s defeat in November, the former president and his lawyer have made false claims about the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election victory. They claim, without evidence, that Trump was cheated of a victory by widespread electoral fraud in key states.

Giuliani’s false statements about the Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania elections – all states Biden won – were cited in the crushing, 33-page suspension order issued by a five-person appeal panel of the New York State First Judicial Department . This division includes the Bronx and Manhattan, where Giuliani’s law firm is located.

The suspension, ordered the day before his 52nd anniversary as a licensed attorney in New York, was requested by the Attorney Grievance Committee for the First Judicial Department.

Giuliani’s suspension is temporary pending the outcome of a full formal disciplinary hearing.

Giuliani criticized in an interview with NBC News outside his apartment in the Upper East Side that it was “ridiculous” that he would be disciplined without such a hearing.

“Everything I said [the election] comes from one witness, sometimes from two or three witnesses, ”said Giuliani. “I have affidavits from you. I have video, I have audio. And instead of looking at it, listen to the Democrats’ false allegations. “

However, the court’s order states that “the preliminary suspension is a serious remedy, available only in situations where there is an immediate need to protect the public from” violations of the professional code by a lawyer.

The court flatly denied Giuliani’s claims that the investigation into his conduct in representing Trump after the 2020 election violated his right to freedom of expression in the First Amendment.

“We conclude that there is undisputed evidence that the defendant, in his capacity as attorney for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed re-election attempt, has made demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the made public in 2020 ”, it says in the order.

The court also said that Giuliani’s “false statements were made to inappropriately support respondent’s account that widespread electoral fraud stole his client’s victory in the 2020 presidential election in the United States”.

“We conclude that the defendant’s conduct immediately jeopardizes the public interest and warrants a temporary suspension of the legal practice pending further proceedings before the attorney’s complaints committee.”

Examples of conduct cited in the warrant included Giuliani’s repeated false claims to a Pennsylvania federal judge after Election Day that Trump’s campaign “pursued an allegation of fraud” in an election-related lawsuit “when it was undeniably not the case. “

Instead, according to the order, the campaign raised an equivalent claim to protection that was “not based on fraud at all”.

Another example cited by the order was the repeated assertion by Giuliani, in an effort to discredit election results, that “the dead in Philadelphia ‘voted'”.

Giuliani claimed at various times that the ballot papers of 8,021 dead were cast, “while he also gave the figure as 30,000”.

“As an anecdotal figurehead to prove this point, he repeatedly stated that the famous heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier continued to vote years after his death.

Indeed, the ruling added, “The public records filed on this motion clearly show that the defendant’s testimony is false. Public records show that Pennsylvania formally suspended Mr. Frazier’s voting rights on February 8, 2012, three months after his death. “

Giuliani had also falsely claimed on several occasions that Pennsylvania had received more postal ballot papers than the state sent out prior to the election.

In response to the court’s inquiry, the ruling stated that Giuliani had “not denied that his factual statement that only 1.8 million postal ballots had been requested was untrue”.

“His defense is that he did not knowingly make this false statement,” the order reads. “Respondent claims he relied on an unidentified member of his’ team ‘who’ accidentally picked up information from the Pennsylvania website that incorrectly listed the information.”

But the court found, “There is simply no evidence to support this statement. For example, there is no affidavit from this alleged team member who is not by name or otherwise identified, nor is there a copy of the website that allegedly provided false information. “

In a statement, Giuliani’s lawyers said: “We are disappointed with Appeals Department’s decision to suspend Mayor Giuliani before granting a hearing on the alleged issues.”

“This is unprecedented as we believe our client is not currently a threat to the public interest,” said a statement by John Leventhal and Barry Kamins, both retired judges.

“We believe that once the issues are fully investigated at a hearing, Mr. Giuliani will be reinstated as a valued member of the legal profession which he has served so well in his many roles for so many years.”

Giuliani said in the interview outside his home: “I did not have the opportunity to be heard … how can you say I would have lied without a hearing, you did not question me.”

“If you are to say that I said something irresponsible, you have to give me a chance to defend myself … Courts cannot rule on the basis of newspapers,” said Giuliani. “I’m personally concerned about the country … only Trump attorneys are investigated.”

“Somebody has to fix this double standard justice system. I might as well be in East Germany or in Iran,” he said. I wish I were in a state that is not controlled by a party or in a city that is controlled by a party. “

Trump said in a statement that Giuliani was targeted “because he fought a fraudulent election”.

“It’s nothing like a witch hunt, and they should be ashamed,” said Trump, referring to Giuliani a “great American patriot,” “the greatest mayor in New York history,” and “the Elliot Ness of his generation.” on the prohibition agent portrayed in the television series and film “The Untouchables”.

Giuliani’s son Andrew, a former White House adviser to Trump currently seeking the Republican nomination for New York governor, said the suspension was “unacceptable” and the product of judges appointed by Democratic governors, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, whom Andrew tries to relieve.

“This goes after one of President Trump’s closest allies, and that’s exactly what it is,” said Andrew Giuliani in a video posted on his Twitter account. “I stand by my father. In the end, he did everything according to the book.”

The complaint to the Attorney Grievance Committee was filed by Manhattan Democratic Senator Brad Hoylman. “I’m happy” about the suspension, he said.

“The lawyer profession is sacred and noble,” Hoylman said in a statement. “And there can be no place in the profession for those who try to undermine and destroy the rule of law, as Rudy Giuliani has so blatantly done.”

The suspension order was issued hours before a lawyer from Giuliani appeared in Washington federal court for a hearing on his offer to dismiss a $ 1.3 billion libel suit against him by Dominion Voting Systems.

Giuliani’s claims about Dominion were cited in the suspension order.

This voting machine company accuses Giuliani of “irreparable damage” to the business while “cashing in” the “big lie” that the Trump race was stolen by widespread fraud.

Giuliani’s attorney in the case filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in April, arguing in part that Dominion’s lawsuit had not been brought in accordance with due process standards.

Dominion has filed separate, multi-billion dollar defamation suits against MyPillow and the company’s pro-Trump CEO Mike Lindell and pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell.

Additional coverage from CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger

Categories
Health

UK carefully watched with its vaccine program and surge in circumstances

UK closely watched with its vaccine program and surge in cases

New Yorkers, 12 and older, will be vaccinated on June 13, 2021 at the St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx of New York City, United States.

Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

LONDON – The UK has one of the highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the world but is seeing a new surge in coronavirus cases, largely due to the Delta variant, which originally came from India.

Experts say the latest UK data will be given a lot of attention as it could be an editorial for others. And there are fears that where the UK is now performing, others – like the US – may follow suit.

“All eyes (are) on the UK Covid trends,” said Kallum Pickering, Senior Economist and Director of Berenberg Bank, in a statement on Tuesday.

“Great Britain, with its high vaccination rate but an increasing number of infections recorded daily, has developed into a test case for whether a mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 can bring” [an] End of the repeated cycles of lockdowns and other harsh social distancing protocols that have had a devastating impact on the global economy since the pandemic began in early 2019, “he said.

Pickering noted that medical data suggests that the UK’s high vaccination rate has severely weakened the link between registered Covid infections and complications from the disease, which supports the bank’s claim that “Britain can weather the new wave of infections without having to tighten the restrictions and “with only limited economic damage.”

Pickering said the data indicated that this wave of infections was different from the previous ones, with the number of registered infections increasing more slowly than the previous wave, and that despite the increase in cases, there has been no clear increase in deaths.

Second, he found that new admissions to the hospital had risen less than the registered infections – and much less than during the winter wave.

Reopening on track?

Deutsche Bank research strategist Jim Reid noted on Wednesday that while there is “persistent concern” about the spread of the Delta variant, “the only good news is that the age distribution of cases in the latest wave has moved significantly lower compared to the previous “. Waves.”

Younger age groups are affected by the virus much less often than older people. But the longer the boys remain unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, the virus is allowed to spread and possibly more variants can emerge.

So far, the vaccines have been shown to be resistant to new variants and remain largely effective in preventing serious Covid-19 for fully vaccinated people. An analysis published by Public Health England last Monday found that two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech or AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines were highly effective against hospitalizations from the Delta variant.

In order to fully vaccinate more people, the UK government has postponed the lifting of the remaining Covid restrictions in England until July 19. She has insisted that the lifting of restrictions on that date is still on track despite the proliferation of the Delta variant.

“The risk that the reopening could be reversed remains low,” said Pickering von Berenberg.

“The UK is far from where medical capacity could be stretched to the point where new restrictions would be required,” he noted, adding that the continued rapid introduction of vaccines in the coming weeks could even lead to that the daily infections run on a plateau before it falls afterwards.

“While the pandemic is far from over and potential new variants that render the current generation of vaccines ineffective are a serious risk, recent virus and vaccine developments support our positive economic outlook for the UK and other advanced economies,” he said.

Winter wave?

What will come later this year when the flu season starts is more uncertain. England’s chief medical officer warned last week that the coming winter will continue to be difficult for the country’s health system despite the country’s successful coronavirus vaccination program.

In a speech to the NHS Confederation last Thursday, England Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the current wave of Covid infections due to the Delta variant is likely to be followed by a further surge in winter.

Covid-19 “didn’t bring us its final surprise and there will be a few more [variants] over the next period, “he said, according to Sky News. He added that it would likely be five years before there are vaccines that could highly” hold the line “against a range of coronavirus variants.

And until then, new vaccination programs and booster vaccinations are necessary. Some countries, like the US and UK, have already signaled that they could introduce Covid-19 booster vaccinations within a year, but pressure is mounting on governments to mobilize refresher programs – not an easy task given the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the pandemic , Vaccines and variants.

Categories
World News

Assured in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

Confident in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

By Richard C. Paddock and Rick Gladstone

Western powers have imposed sanctions. Neighboring countries have implored the military to restore democracy. More than 200 human rights groups have called for an arms embargo. And last week, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a blunt rebuke aimed at isolating the generals.

The diplomatic pressure has done little to change the situation in Myanmar.

The military dictatorship now ruling the Southeast Asian nation has brushed aside the entreaties and threats, even as the country of 54 million people hurtles toward paralysis and possibly civil war that could destabilize the region. Confident in its impunity after a Feb. 1 coup, the putschists have stretched diplomacy to its limit.

Not initially. Many people in Myanmar had hoped for intervention by the United Nations or perhaps the United States in the period immediately following the coup, which upended a November election victory by the civilian leadership and escalated into a brutal repression. Pro-democracy protesters carried signs that read “R2P,” or “Responsibility to Protect,” referring to a 2005 United Nations doctrine affirming the responsibility of nations to protect populations from such egregious crimes.

But diplomatic efforts at the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the 10-nation regional body known as ASEAN, have largely fizzled.

The country, formerly known as Burma, was run by the military for decades after a coup in 1962, and the generals in charge never really embraced the idea of democracy. The Constitution they adopted in 2008 paved the way for the election of civilian leaders but ensured the military’s complete autonomy and veto-power over major constitutional amendments.

Thant Myint-U, an American-born Burmese historian and grandson of U Thant, the former United Nations secretary general, wrote in a recent edition of Foreign Affairs that the Myanmar army’s need for total power is ingrained.

“It is led by an officer corps that cannot imagine a Myanmar in which the military is not ultimately in control,” he wrote.

The coup leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, appears to have secured vitally important allies — China and Russia — insulating Myanmar from any interventionist steps. The general also oversees a powerful patronage network built around two military-owned conglomerates and his family’s businesses. A democratic system could imperil them.

The United Nations Security Council, the 15-member body that is empowered to take coercive action, has issued only mildly worded criticisms since the coup, at least partly reflecting resistance to anything stronger by China and Russia. Chinese diplomats have recently referred to Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as Myanmar’s leader. He also was treated well in a visit to Russia this week.

Human rights activists have expressed exasperation at what they view as the Security Council’s failure on Myanmar.

“The council’s occasional statements of concern in the face of the military’s violent repression of largely peaceful protesters is the diplomatic equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and walking away,” Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said last month in joining more than 200 other groups in demanding the council impose an arms embargo.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution denouncing the coup on Friday, an exceedingly rare gesture that grew partly out of the Security Council’s inaction, and it was deemed a success by Western diplomats who said Myanmar’s military had now been ostracized.

But the resolution’s language was weakened to ensure more yes votes — and even then, 36 countries abstained. Analysts said the vote was unlikely to persuade the junta to negotiate with its domestic adversaries.

Nonetheless, said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, the resolution was “at least a clear signal of international disapproval for the coup and will make it harder for the junta to normalize its relations with the outside world.”

ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has tried to mediate. But its efforts have done more to help Gen. Min Aung Hlaing consolidate his authority than to restore democracy.

The military’s takeover compelled ASEAN to convene a meeting in April, to which they invited Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

ASEAN practices noninterference in the internal affairs of members and did not formally recognize the general as Myanmar’s new leader. But his red-carpet arrival for the meeting, held in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, was repeatedly trumpeted by Myanmar’s state-run media as recognition of his leadership.

ASEAN conspicuously did not invite anyone to represent the deposed leadership, which now calls itself the National Unity Government, or anyone else from the pro-democracy movement.

The leaders agreed on what they called a “Five-Point Consensus,” including the immediate cessation of violence, constructive dialogue to find a peaceful solution and ASEAN’s appointment of a special envoy to facilitate mediation.

While member nations Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore pushed for ASEAN to take firm action, strong measures were resisted by Thailand, said Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore. (Thailand’s government is headed by a former general who took power in a 2014 coup.)

The consensus made no mention of freeing political prisoners, who now number more than 5,000 and include the country’s elected civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi would normally have attended such a meeting.

ASEAN has yet to name the special envoy. So far, the main outcome of ASEAN’s diplomatic effort has been to damage its own credibility. Myanmar protesters have been burning the ASEAN flag at demonstrations.

The winners of the November election were scheduled to be sworn into office on Feb. 1. But that morning, soldiers swept through the capital city, Naypyidaw, and arrested many of the elected officials. Some who escaped have since formed the National Unity Government, which has declared itself Myanmar’s legitimate government.

Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun, who refused to cooperate with the junta, now represents the National Unity Government. While the world body continues to regard him as Myanmar’s ambassador, no country has formally recognized the National Unity Government.

In a departure from the stance of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the National Unity Government has formed alliances with ethnic armed groups that have long battled the Myanmar military. And in a move that could win support from Western countries, the National Unity Government has called for ending discrimination in the country, and for the Rohingya to receive full citizenship. The persecuted Muslim minority was targeted by the military in a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing that forced more than 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

Seeing futility in diplomacy, the National Unity Government also has formed an army that has made small-scale attacks against pro-military targets, raising the prospect that Myanmar could face a protracted civil war.

Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, who has repeatedly been blocked from visiting the country, warned of increased violence in remarks to the General Assembly after its recent vote. “Time is of the essence,” she said. “When we look back in 10 years, we should not regret having missed an opportunity to put this country back on the path of democracy.”

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Politics

Pence, Diverging From Trump, Says He Was ‘Proud’ to Certify Election

Pence, Diverging From Trump, Says He Was ‘Proud’ to Certify Election

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday night made his most forceful attempt yet to separate himself from his former boss, Donald J. Trump, on the issue of certifying the 2020 election results.

Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Mr. Pence defended the constitutionally mandated role he played in certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, when a violent mob of Trump loyalists — some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” — stormed the Capitol while the president did nothing for hours to stop them.

“I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Mr. Pence said, noting that as vice president, he had no constitutional authority to reject or return electoral votes submitted to Congress by the states. “The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

It was the furthest that Mr. Pence, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has gone yet in defending his role that day or distancing himself from Mr. Trump, to whom he ingratiated himself during their four years together in office.

In the speeches Mr. Pence has delivered since leaving the White House, he has gone out of his way to praise Mr. Trump and his agenda, even reiterating some of the former president’s grievance-fueled messaging that latches onto the country’s culture wars.

On Thursday night, Mr. Pence argued that “critical race theory,” a graduate school framework that has found its way into K-12 public education, was effectively “state-sanctioned racism.”

And he spent much of his speech reciting what he said were Mr. Trump’s accomplishments on many issues, including free trade, border security and relations with China. “President Trump changed the national consensus on China,” he said.

Mr. Pence also compared Mr. Trump to former President Ronald Reagan.

“He too disrupted the status quo,” Mr. Pence said. “He challenged the establishment. He invigorated our movement and set a bold new course for America.”

But so far, Mr. Pence has only tiptoed around the issue of how to remain the loyal soldier while distancing himself from the events of Jan. 6.

Speaking at the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Manchester, N.H., this month, Mr. Pence admitted that he and Mr. Trump might never see “see eye to eye” about the Capitol riot, stopping short of criticizing one view over another.

On Thursday night, he declined to state firmly that he and Mr. Trump had lost the 2020 election, a reality that the former president has continued to deny.

“I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election,” Mr. Pence said. “I can relate. I was on the ballot. But there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes in this moment. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country.”

Whether Mr. Pence will succeed in having it both ways — being viewed as an ally and a critic of Mr. Trump — remains to be seen. Polls show that a majority of Republican voters believe that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election and buy into his baseless claims about voter fraud.

Mr. Pence is also testing the patience of a man who still looms over the political landscape and the Republican Party. While Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence have spoken several times since leaving office, Mr. Trump has showed flashes of frustration with his former loyal No. 2.

In private and at a Republican National Committee donors event at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s resort in Florida, shortly after a book deal for Mr. Pence was announced, the former president has mocked Mr. Pence for certifying President Biden’s Electoral College victory, according to people familiar with the discussions as well as a detailed description of the remarks that evening.

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Entertainment

Get to Know Disney’s Snow White Star Rachel Zegler

Get to Know Disney's Snow White Star Rachel Zegler

Rachel Zegler is ready to make her mark on Hollywood! After landing the lead of Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, the 20-year-old was recently cast as Snow White in Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Rachel, who is Colombian-American, is the latest Disney princess of color, joining the ranks of Elena from the animated series Elena of Avalor and Halle Bailey who is starring as Ariel in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid. Seeing as Rachel is fairly new to the spotlight, why not take a moment to learn more about her? Keep reading for a few fun facts about Disney’s newest princess!