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Retail Gross sales Had been Flat in April

Retail Sales Were Flat in April

Retail sales were flat after a brisk March last month, the Department of Commerce said Friday as Americans resumed their final round of government economic reviews.

The April number was a slowdown from the previous month, as retail sales rose 10.7 percent as vaccinations increased and people outside their homes became more comfortable and spent more money on clothing, restaurants, bars and sporting goods. Retail sales, which saw a record decline at the start of the pandemic just over a year ago, have been closely watched as monthly measures of the health of the economy and consumer attitudes.

Morgan Stanley economists had expected retail sales to grow smaller in April compared to March, based on the distribution of stimulus checks. Around 83 percent of this last round was distributed in the second half of March.

This is a developing story. Check for updates again.

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UK prepares surge vaccinations to sort out Covid variant from India

Oxford to launch human challenge trial to study immune response

Caroline Nicolls will receive an injection of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine administered by Sister Amy Nash at Madejski Stadium in Reading, west of London, on April 13, 2021.

STEVE PARSONS | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – UK is preparing to have vaccinations and tests carried out in areas where the new variant of Covid-19, first discovered in India, is spreading.

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC TV on Friday that the government would “bend” its vaccination program to target more doses to the hardest hit areas, while second doses could be brought forward.

In a statement late Thursday, the UK Department of Health and Welfare announced that a new surge rapid response team of 100 nurses, health advisors and environmental health officers would be deployed to Bolton, a town on the outskirts of Manchester. where variant B1.617.2 spreads quickly.

“While there is still no clear evidence that this variant has a greater impact on disease severity or evades the vaccine, the rate of growth matters and the government is considering additional measures if deemed necessary, including the best possible Using the vaccine role-out to best protect the most vulnerable in the context of the current epidemiology, “the department said in the statement.

Surge testing, along with improved genome sequencing and contact tracing, is also being rolled out to other areas across the country.

Data on the new variant, released Thursday by Public Health England, showed the number of cases across the UK rose from 520 last week to 1,313 this week, with most cases in the north-west of England and some clusters concentrated in London.

New restrictions cannot be ruled out

The introduction of vaccines in the UK was one of the fastest in the world. Almost 70% of the adult population have received at least one shot to date. Vaccines are currently available to people over the age of 38. However, the government has stated that they could be made available to younger people in multi-generational households.

The next phase of England’s exit from the lockdown is slated for Monday, when the conviviality, hospitality and indoor entertainment will resume.

However, Health and Welfare Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement Thursday that the government is “monitoring the situation very carefully and does not hesitate to take further action if necessary”.

With the special unit in Bolton, surge tests have already been carried out in 15 areas across England, with more than 800,000 tests distributed.

“As outlined in the roadmap, we cannot rule out the possibility that economic and social restrictions will be reimposed at local or regional level if there is evidence that they are necessary to contain or suppress a variant that escapes the vaccine”, said the DHSC.

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Lies on Social Media Inflame Israeli-Palestinian Battle

Lies on Social Media Inflame Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In a 28-second video posted on Twitter this week by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian militants appeared to be launching rocket attacks on Israelis from densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

At least, Ofir Gendelman, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, said the video. But his tweet with the footage, which was shared hundreds of times as the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis escalated, wasn’t from Gaza. It wasn’t even that week.

Instead, the video he shared, which can be found on many YouTube channels and other video hosting sites, was from 2018. According to captions in older versions of the video, militants were shown, the rockets not from Gaza but from Syria or Libya fired from Syria.

The video was just misinformation circulated on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media this week about the increasing violence between Israelis and Palestinians when Israeli military forces attacked Gaza early Friday. The false information included videos, photos, and text clips that allegedly came from government officials in the area. Earlier this week, unfounded claims were made that Israeli soldiers had invaded Gaza or that Palestinian mobs were raging through sleepy Israeli suburbs.

According to an analysis by the New York Times, the lies were amplified as they were shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook and spread across WhatsApp and Telegram groups with thousands of members. The effects of the misinformation are potentially fatal, disinformation experts said, creating tension between Israelis and Palestinians when suspicions and suspicions were already high.

“Much of this is a rumor and a broken phone, but it’s being shared right now because people are desperate to share information about the developing situation,” said Arieh Kovler, a Jerusalem political analyst and independent researcher who studies misinformation . “What makes it more confusing is that it’s a mix of false claims and real stuff that is being attributed to the wrong place or time.”

Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook, which own Instagram and WhatsApp, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Christina LoNigro, a spokeswoman for WhatsApp, said the company has put limits on how many times people can forward a message in an attempt to contain misinformation.

The Times found several misinformation this week spreading through Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods and activist WhatsApp groups. One, which appeared as a block of Hebrew text or an audio file, contained a warning that Palestinian mobs were preparing to descend on Israeli citizens.

“Palestinians are coming, parents protect their children,” said the message, which specifically pointed to several suburbs north of Tel Aviv. Thousands of people belonged to one of the Telegram groups where the post was shared. The post then appeared in several WhatsApp groups that had tens to hundreds of members.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Updated

May 14, 2021, 5:05 p.m. ET

The Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. There were no reports of violence in any of the areas named in the message.

Another post earlier this week, written in Arabic and sent to a WhatsApp group of over 200 members, warned that Israeli soldiers would invade Gaza.

“The invasion is coming,” read the text that asked people to pray for their families.

Arabic and Hebrew language news sources also appeared to reinforce some of the misinformation. Several Israeli news outlets recently discussed a video showing a family with a wrapped body going to a funeral to drop the body when a police siren sounded. The video was cited by news organizations as evidence that Palestinian families held false funerals and exaggerated the number of people killed in the conflict.

In fact, the video appeared on YouTube over a year ago and may have featured a Jordanian family holding a fake funeral, according to the title of the original video.

Clips from another video showing religious Jews ripping their clothes as a sign of devotion were also broadcast on Arabic-language news sites this week. The clips were cited as evidence that Jews faked their own injuries during clashes in Jerusalem.

That was wrong, according to The Times analysis, the video was uploaded multiple times to WhatsApp and Facebook earlier this year.

There is a long history of misinformation between Israeli and Palestinian groups, with false allegations and conspiracies increasing in moments of heightened violence in the region.

In recent years, Facebook has removed several Iranian disinformation campaigns in an attempt to fuel tension between Israelis and Palestinians. Twitter also shut down a network of fake accounts in 2019 that was smeared on opponents of Mr. Netanyahu.

The grainy video Mr Gendelman shared on Twitter Wednesday, allegedly showing Palestinian militants launching rocket attacks on Israelis, was removed Thursday after Twitter labeled it “misleading content”. Mr. Gendelman’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Gendelman also appears to have misrepresented the content of other videos. On Tuesday, he posted a video on Twitter instructing three adult men to lie down on the floor with their bodies being arranged by a nearby crowd. Mr Gendelman said the video showed Palestinians staging bodies for a photo opportunity.

Mr Kovler, who traced the video back to its source, said the video was posted on TikTok in March. The accompanying text states that the footage shows people practicing for a bomb drill.

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Brazil fears third Covid wave as Bolsonaro faces parliamentary inquiry

Brazil fears third Covid wave as Bolsonaro faces parliamentary inquiry

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is undergoing a congressional investigation into the mismanagement of the pandemic.

Andressa Anholete | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Health experts fear the Brazilian Covid-19 disaster could get worse in the coming months, while a parliamentary investigation into the government’s response to the pandemic is likely to increase political pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro.

South America’s largest country, previously known for its leadership skills in health crises, has grown into an international pariah amid the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil has had the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in the world outside the US, has lagged behind on vaccinations and still lacks an effective and coordinated public health response to the outbreak.

An official investigation, approved by the Brazilian Supreme Court, opened late last month to look into the government’s handling of the pandemic, which killed more than 430,000 people. The investigation could pave the way for Bolsonaro’s impeachment, though analysts say political opponents of the right-wing leader may prefer to contest the president in the October 2022 election.

Bolsonaro has reportedly said he was “not concerned” about the investigation. A Brazilian government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly spoken out against public health measures, which have become a political battleground in Brazil, and continues to oppose any lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus.

“The current unrestrained epidemic will not be overcome without a dramatic change in direction,” said Dr. Antonio Flores, Infectious Disease Specialist and Covid Medical Advisor at the Medecins Sans Frontieres aid group in Brazil.

He said that if life goes on normally, “with such a high daily incidence, all you can expect is a new wave of cases, an additional thousands of deaths and more pressure on the already stretched health system.”

A gravedigger walks among the graves of COVID-19 victims at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, on April 29, 2021.

MICHAEL DANTAS | AFP | Getty Images

His comments echo warnings from other health experts that Brazil could soon experience a third wave of Covid infections in the coming weeks. It is feared that the country’s weak vaccination efforts will not be enough to prevent a new surge in the winter months of June through September, when indoor gatherings and activities are particularly risky.

Flores told CNBC that all available public health measures should be stepped up “as soon as possible” and that the country’s vaccination campaign needs to be accelerated. He added the need to put in place an effective testing and traceability system, as well as coherent guidelines on public health restrictions.

“A crucial element in next year’s elections”

By May 12, according to statistics from Our World in Data, around 15% of Brazil’s 211 million inhabitants had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. Chile has now vaccinated nearly 46% of its population with at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, reflecting one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Brazil’s lower vaccination rate means millions of people across the country and beyond its borders are at risk from more than 90 variants of the coronavirus currently circulating in the country – in addition to any new mutations that may emerge.

Brazil’s Covid vaccination campaign is in stark contrast to its response to the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, when 92 million people were vaccinated against the virus in just three months. The main difference this time around, analysts say, is Bolsonaro’s refusal to take a science-led approach to addressing the health crisis.

This is a very dangerous government, but since it was democratically elected, very little can be done at the moment to push back.

Ilona Szabo

President of the Igarape Institute

The Pan American Health Organization announced on Wednesday that nearly 40% of all global Covid-related deaths reported in the past week have occurred in the Americas. Almost 80% of the intensive care units in the region are currently staffed with patients. PAHO director Carissa Etienne warned it was clear the broadcast “is far from being controlled,” even as the US and Brazil report reductions in some cases, Reuters reported.

Brazil recorded more than 74,000 cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, after peaking at over 100,000 daily infections in April. In terms of infection numbers, it remains the third worst Covid-affected country in the world after the US and India.

“I think while the situation in India has gotten significantly worse lately, the numbers in Brazil have risen to a very, very high level. The country has actually been in a collapse for months,” said Oliver Stuenkel, Associate Professor of International relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, said CNBC by phone.

A man will be vaccinated against Covid-19 by a health worker in a remote area of ​​Moju, Para state, Brazil on April 16, 2021.

JOAO PAULO GUIMARAES | AFP | Getty Images

“What is really so fascinating is that (former US President Donald) Trump and to some extent (Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi are paying a political price. Bolsonaro has been able to and has not retained fairly high political support by a combination of factors done. ” however, had to pay for it because its strategy of avoiding responsibility has so far been remarkably successful, “he added.

Analysts said the government’s investigation into treatment for the pandemic will typically take around three months, but the process can take much longer.

Stuenkel said he expected the investigation to take about six months since “the real goal is to hammer home the news on the evening news that Bolsonaro was to blame”.

“Essentially, I think the investigation will be vital because if the investigation cannot change public opinion at this point, after 400,000 people have died and basically the health system has finally collapsed, basically nothing can .. . For me the crucial element is next year’s election, “he added.

What happens next?

Earlier this week, former Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired over a year ago after resisting Bolsonaro’s push to use the malaria drug chloroquine as a covid treatment, testified ahead of a parliamentary inquiry.

Mandetta said Bolsonaro was fully aware that the treatment had no scientific basis. Former US President Donald Trump had also pushed for the use of the related drug hydroxychloroquine amid the pandemic, despite a lack of scientific evidence.

“Unfortunately, this is a very dangerous government, but since it was democratically elected, very little can be done right now to push back,” said Ilona Szabo, president of the Igarape Institute, a think tank based in Rio de Janeiro.

Szabo said that while she did not believe the investigation would have “immediate” political implications, “it is important that what happens today has ramifications for the future.”

“It is proven that they are responsible and that most of the deaths were preventable,” said Szabo.

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Colonial Pipeline Paid Roughly $5 Million in Ransom to Hackers

Colonial Pipeline Paid Roughly $5 Million in Ransom to Hackers

In a separate ransomware attack on the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, hackers said the price offered by the police was “too low” and this week posted 250 gigabytes of the department’s data online, including databases of gang members become.

In his remarks on Thursday, Mr Biden used the Colonial Pipeline hack as further evidence that the United States needs to improve its critical infrastructure and urged lawmakers to end its $ 2.3 trillion proposal for road rebuilding, Support bridges, pipelines and other projects.

Republicans have defied the size of Mr Biden’s proposals, accusing the president of wanting to levy taxes to pay for things they don’t see as infrastructure, like housekeeping programs. Mr Biden has suggested raising taxes for wealthy people and businesses to pay for his expenses, but has said he is open to other ideas.

“I am ready to negotiate, as I indicated to members of the House and the leadership yesterday,” said Biden. “But it is clearer than ever that doing nothing is not an option.”

Gasoline prices in South Carolina and Georgia rose around 3 cents Wednesday through Thursday, about half what it had in the past few days. But prices in Tennessee, which depend on an offshoot of the pipeline, rose 6 cents to $ 2.87 for a gallon of regulars. Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of regular guests rose by 2 cents to $ 3.03, according to the AAA car club.

Gasoline supplies vary from state to state along the pipeline, partly because some locations have more storage than others. New Jersey was only 1 percent missing from gas stations early Thursday morning, while more than half of gas stations in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina ran out of fuel, according to GasBuddy, a fuel monitoring app. Friday is traditionally the biggest day for gasoline sales.

It will likely take at least a whole weekend for supplies to return to normal at all gas stations as it will take some time for fuel to flow through the pipeline.

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Airways begin repairing Boeing 737 Max planes grounded by electrical drawback

Airlines start repairing Boeing 737 Max planes grounded by electrical problem

United Airlines aircraft, including a Boeing 737 MAX 9 model, are pictured at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on March 18, 2019.

Loren Elliott | Reuters

Boeing announced Thursday that shipments of 737 Max planes would resume “within a week” after federal officials approved a fix to an electrical problem while US airlines begin repairing dozen of grounded jets.

The Federal Aviation Administration cleared the repair of the manufacturing defect that put more than 100 aircraft into service last month.

Boeing had halted shipments of Max planes it had already manufactured to solve the problem. This has been the company’s most recent obstacle in generating much-needed money.

Boeing stock closed 0.8% after briefly rising to session highs of more than 3%.

The Max planes were on the ground worldwide for 20 months until last November after two fatal crashes. The electrical problem has nothing to do with issues that resulted in the grounding after the crashes between March 2019 and November 2020.

The airlines have been keen to get the planes back in service to meet the resurgent demand for travel as more and more customers are vaccinated against Covid-19 and the attractions reopen.

United Airlines has begun repairs to the aircraft and expects the 17 affected Max jets “to be put back into service in the coming days when we complete our inspection process and ensure that these aircraft meet our strict safety standards”. The Chicago-based airline has a total of 30 Maxes in its fleet.

American Airlines has also started repairs and expects its 18 Max planes that need to be repaired to be back in service in the next few days. Southwest Airlines said work on each aircraft will take two to three days and that “it will take about three weeks to complete compliance work”.

The Dallas-based Southwest has 32 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft that were grounded last month out of a total fleet of 64.

The FAA announced April 29 that it is investigating how the electrical problem occurred. Officials said the manufacturing flaw that occurred after a design change in 2019 resulted in inadequate electrical grounding in some areas of the cockpit, which could ultimately affect systems such as engine ice protection if left unchecked.

The agency also said it is reviewing the Boeing process for minor design changes.

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Delta would require that new staff be vaccinated.

Delta will require that new employees be vaccinated.

Delta Air Lines requires new employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, but exempts current employees from this mandate, making it one of the first large companies to meet such a requirement.

“Any person who comes to Delta in the future, a future employee, will require the vaccination before they can sign up with the company,” said Ed Bastian, the airline’s executive director, in a CNN interview Thursday evening.

While current employees will be exempt, Mr Bastian said he expected 75 to 80 percent of the airline’s workforce to be vaccinated anyway and that he would “strongly encourage” the rest to do so. Unvaccinated employees could face some restrictions, such as not being allowed to work on international flights, he added.

Such decisions are difficult for large companies. On the one hand, requiring vaccinations for all workers would reduce workers’ fear of returning to the office and help the country achieve herd immunity, which would support economic recovery. On the other hand, it raises privacy concerns and could risk a backlash or even litigation.

In January, United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby told employees in a video forum that he supported the idea, but added that the airline could not “realistically be the only company” to do so. Nobody followed suit, and United never acted.

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Coinbase CFO on crypto buyers, dogecoin and rising competitors

Coinbase CFO on crypto investors, dogecoin and growing competition

Coinbase Global released its first quarterly report as a public company on Thursday, showing a surge in business with growing public interest in investing in digital coins.

Despite fierce speculation about cryptocurrency and a multitude of offers, the asset class is volatile. After going public more than a month ago, Coinbase crypto exchange stocks are down 38% from Bitcoin’s high from Bitcoin’s high.

In an in-depth post-graduation interview with Jim Cramer on Mad Money, Alesia Haas, Coinbase’s Chief Financial Officer, spoke about a number of important topics related to digital currency.

Below is information from the questions and answers:

What do cryptocurrency investors buy?

“Usually bitcoin is the first coin people are interested in,” she said. “The other crypto assets on the platform are seeing an increasing volume of trading assets on our platform, so we think that as time goes on, more and more users are engaging with more and more crypto assets, and that’s what we’re looking at looking forward.”

Is Cryptocurrency Regulation Necessary?

“We have relied on regulation since our inception,” said Haas, emphasizing that the company believes regulation will bring confidence to the market. “We love working with regulators. We want to level the playing field and we welcome regulation. We believe it is a benefit to our business, not a burden.”

What does Elon Musk’s reversal in Bitcoin and the volatility in crypto say about the assets?

“I think crypto is here to stay. I think crypto is volatile, however, and you can see that we respond to a tweet, that we respond to one-off headlines,” Haas said. “This is a long-term investment. We believe we are just beginning to see the potential of crypto, but it could be a bumpy journey and we could see days going up and down like we have seen in the past. “

Investors should take Dogecoin Seriously?

“We leave that up to our users to decide. We are a platform. We want to offer all assets that meet our listing standards and we hope to be the place where you can trade anything you want to trade,” said Haas. “That’s not the case today. We’re slow. We need to add more assets. We’re making big investments to improve the speed of our asset additions, but the market is clearly speaking.”

Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, and other financial firms have taken crypto moves. Concerns about competition?

We welcome them. Three years ago when we were the only crypto company we were a little lonely out there, and now that we see most fintechs embracing crypto and big financial services companies, it just really means that Crypto has arrived. This is going mainstream. This is here to stay, but it’s evolving, “Haas said.

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Amid Financial Turmoil, Biden Stays Centered on Longer Time period

Amid Economic Turmoil, Biden Stays Focused on Longer Term

Administrative officials are confident that recent hikes in used cars, airfares, and other industries will prove temporary and that employment growth will pick up again as more working-age Americans are vaccinated against Covid-19 while regaining access to childcare during working hours. They say Mr Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package, which he signed in March, will boost employment growth in the coming months.

Officials also said it was appropriate for the president to look beyond the current crisis and press ahead with efforts to strengthen the economy over the long term.

The two halves of Mr. Biden’s $ 4 trillion agenda, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, are based on the return of the economy to a low unemployment rate where essentially any American who wants to work can find a job may, Cecilia Rouse, said the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in an interview.

“The American rescue plan was rescue,” said Dr. Rouse. “It was intended as a stimulus as we work through this hopefully once a century, if not longer, pandemic. The American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan say, look, this is behind us, but we knew there were structural problems in our country and in our economy. “

Mr Biden’s plans would raise taxes for high earners and corporations to fund new federal spending on physical infrastructure, care for children and older Americans, expanded access to education, an accelerated transition to low-carbon energy, and more.

These efforts “reflect the empirical evidence that a strong economy depends on a solid foundation of public investment and that investing in workers, families and communities can pay off over decades,” wrote Biden’s advisors. “These plans are not emergency laws. You deal with longstanding challenges. “

The five-page letter focuses on arguments about what drives productivity, wage growth, innovation and equity in the economy. The problems stem from the recession and recovery of the coronavirus, and the Democrats in particular have been committed to addressing them for years.

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SpaceX first orbital Starship rocket flight plan revealed

SpaceX lands Starship SN10 rocket after a high-altitude flight test

The Starship prototype SN9 starts at the company’s development facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

Elon Musk’s SpaceX in his filing on Thursday revealed his plan for the next step in testing his massive spacecraft rocket in a flight that would hose down off the coast of Hawaii.

The company’s FCC records say it will launch a Starship prototype rocket on a “Super Heavy” booster stage at the SpaceX development facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Then the booster will separate to partially return “and land in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles from shore,” the records said.

“The Orbital Starship will continue to fly between Florida Straits. It will enter orbit until a motorized, targeted landing is made in a soft ocean landing about 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai,” SpaceX wrote on the file.

SpaceX’s Starship program continues to evolve rapidly. The company successfully completed the successful landing and recovery of the Starship SN15 last week. It was the rocket’s fifth high-altitude flight test and the first to end without the prototype exploding.

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