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U.S. Asks Mexico to Examine Labor Points at G.M. Facility

U.S. Asks Mexico to Investigate Labor Issues at G.M. Facility

WASHINGTON – The Biden government on Wednesday asked Mexico to investigate whether there have been labor violations at a General Motors plant in the country. This is an important step in using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade agreement.

The Mexican government said later that day it would begin a review as requested.

The Biden administration moved to review the novel “rapid response” mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and came into force last summer. The mechanism allows penalties to be imposed on a specific factory for violating workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The government “received information indicative of serious labor rights violations” at the GM facility in Silao, central Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on its collective agreement, the United States sales representative’s office said.

The vote was canceled last month on allegations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. The Mexican Ministry of Labor said Tuesday that it had found “serious irregularities” in the vote and ordered the vote to take place again within 30 days.

The updated North American trade agreement called for Mexico to overhaul its labor system, and the country revised its labor laws in 2019. Bogus collective bargaining agreements, so-called protection agreements, that are made with employer-dominated unions and that have a shortage of workers are widespread Country. As part of a new legitimation process, the unions hold votes for workers to confirm existing agreements.

In a statement, Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, said the request for a review “shows the Biden Harris government’s serious commitment to workers and worker-centered trade policies.”

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Updated

May 12, 2021, 4:56 p.m. ET

“Using USMCA to protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico is helping workers both at home and in Mexico by stopping a race to the bottom,” she said, using the initials for the trade deal. “It also supports Mexico’s efforts to implement recent labor law reforms.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday: “If there is abuse of workers in a company that exports to the US, if there are no fair wages, if there is no democracy, we need to intervene and a dialogue from government to government. “

GM said in a statement that it believed it had no role in the alleged labor violations and that it had asked a third party company to look into the matter. The company, which makes Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Cheyenne and GMC Sierra pickups at its Silao plant, said it will work with the Mexican Department of Labor and the US government.

“General Motors supports the USMCA’s labor regulations, including the rapid response process,” the statement said. “As a company, we respect and support the right of our employees to make a personal decision about union representation and collective bargaining on their behalf. GM condemns labor law violations and measures to restrict collective bargaining. “

By announcing its request for a Mexican review, the Biden government avoided finding a controversial tone with the Mexican government.

Ms. Tai commended the government for “stepping in to suspend the vote when it became aware of voting irregularities,” adding: “Today’s action will complement Mexico’s efforts to ensure these workers get theirs.” Unrestricted exercise of collective bargaining rights. “

On Monday, the AFL-CIO and other groups filed a Rapid Reaction Mechanism complaint alleging alleged labor violations at Tridonex auto parts plants in the Mexican city of Matamoros across the border with Brownsville, Texas.

The Biden administration will look into the complaint, said an official in the agent’s office. It could then ask Mexico to conduct a review of the matter similar to the one it is seeking for the GM facility.

Oscar Lopez contributed to coverage from Mexico City.

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Hertz shares surge by greater than 50% after deciding on $6 billion turnaround bid

Hertz shares surge by more than 50% after selecting $6 billion turnaround bid

A Hertz car rental office can be seen the day after Hertz’s bankruptcy filing was announced, as the company’s revenues suddenly plummeted, reflecting a dramatic drop in travel during the Covid-19 pandemic in Kissimmee, Fla., On Saturday, May 23. May, was due. 2020.

SOPA pictures | Getty Images

Shares in car rental company Hertz Global rose more than 50% on Wednesday after selecting a $ 6 billion turnaround offer that offers shareholders a rare payout for a company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The investment firms Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management have, among other things, been awarded the contract to take over Hertz as part of the bankruptcy reorganization, which the company is expected to end at the end of June.

The Wall Street Journal, which first covered the auction results, said the winning offer will pay current shareholders nearly $ 8 per share, an unusual payout for any type of corporate bankruptcy. Part of that would be paid for in cash with warrants and reorganized equity, which is also part of the value.

Apollo Global Management and a group of existing shareholders will join Knighthead and Cetares to take control of Hertz, which filed for bankruptcy last May.

Pursuant to the proposal, which must be approved by the U.S. bankruptcy court, Hertz’s Chapter 11 plan will be boosted by direct equity investments from investors and other companies totaling $ 2.78 billion, the issuance of new preferred shares totaling $ 1.78 US $ 5 billion in Apollo and fully retained rights funded offer to existing shareholders of the company to purchase approximately US $ 1.64 billion in additional common shares.

Hertz’s shares rose as much as 68% before pulling back during the day. The stock was trading at $ 5.78 per share at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, up roughly 58%. The market capitalization is nearly $ 900 million.

The rental car company was among the largest to apply for Chapter 11 during the coronavirus pandemic after demand subsided during lockdowns due to Covid-19 last spring. More than a year later, demand for rental cars outpaces supply as the country reopens and some Americans continue to rent vehicles over the air.

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Seychelles Sees Rise in Coronavirus Circumstances Regardless of Vaccinations

Seychelles Sees Rise in Coronavirus Cases Despite Vaccinations

Marie Neige, a call center operator in the Seychelles, really wanted to be vaccinated. Like the majority of residents of the tiny island nation, she received China’s Sinopharm vaccine in March and should be fully protected in a few weeks.

She tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.

“I was shocked,” said Ms. Neige, 30, who is isolated at home. She said she had lost her sense of smell and taste and had a slight sore throat. “The vaccine should protect us – not from the virus, but from the symptoms,” she said. “I took precautionary measures after precautionary measures.”

China expected its Sinopharm vaccines to be the linchpin of the country’s vaccine diplomacy program – an easy-to-carry dose that would protect not only Chinese citizens but much of the developing world as well. China has donated 13.3 million doses of Sinopharm to other countries to gain goodwill, according to Bridge Beijing, a consulting firm tracking China’s impact on global health.

Instead, the company that made two types of coronavirus vaccines faces growing questions about the vaccinations. First, there was a lack of transparency in the late-stage experimental data. Now, Seychelles, the world’s most vaccinated nation, has seen increases in some cases, despite the fact that much of its population has been vaccinated with Sinopharm.

For the 56 countries that are counting on Sinopharm’s shot to stop the pandemic, the news is a setback.

For months, public health experts had focused on bridging the access gap between rich and poor nations. Now scientists are warning that developing countries that choose to use the Chinese vaccines, with their relatively weaker efficacy rates, could lag behind those choosing vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This loophole could allow the pandemic to continue in countries with fewer resources to fight the pandemic.

“You have to be using really powerful vaccines to get this economic benefit or you will be living with the disease long term,” said Raina MacIntyre, who heads the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. “The choice of vaccine is important.”

Nowhere have the consequences been more apparent than in the Seychelles, which relied heavily on a Sinopharm vaccine to vaccinate more than 60 percent of their population. The tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar and with a little over 100,000 inhabitants, is fighting a wave of the virus and had to impose another lockdown.

Of the vaccinated population who received two doses, 57 percent received Sinopharm while 43 percent received AstraZeneca. Thirty-seven percent of the new active cases, according to the Ministry of Health, are fully vaccinated people who did not indicate how many people among them received the Sinopharm shot.

“At first glance, this is an alarming finding,” said Dr. Kim Mulholland, a pediatrician at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia who has been involved in overseeing many vaccine studies, including those for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. Mulholland said the first reports from the Seychelles correlate with a 50 percent rate of effectiveness for the vaccine instead of the 78.1 percent rate the company has touted.

“We would expect in a country where the vast majority of the adult population has been vaccinated with an effective vaccine to see the disease melt away,” he said.

Scientists say breakthrough infections are normal because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. The Seychelles experience, however, is in stark contrast to Israel, which has the second highest vaccination rate in the world and has managed to fight back the virus. A study showed that the Pfizer vaccine used by Israel was 94 percent effective at preventing transmission. On Wednesday, the number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases per million people in the Seychelles stood at 2,613.38 compared to 5.55 in Israel, according to The World In Data project.

Updated

May 12, 2021, 12:34 p.m. ET

Wavel Ramkalawan, the President of Seychelles, defended the country’s vaccination program, saying that the vaccines against Sinopharm and AstraZeneca “have served our people very well”. He pointed out that the Sinopharm vaccine was given to people aged 18 to 60, and that in that age group, a total of 80 percent of patients who had to be hospitalized were not vaccinated.

“People may be infected, but they are not sick. Only a small number, ”he told the Seychelles News Agency. “So what happens is normal.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Sylvestre Radegonde said the surge in cases in Seychelles was partly due to people abandoning their vigilance, according to the Seychelles News Agency. Sinopharm did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to a Wall Street Journal article on Seychelles, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman accused the Western media of attempting to discredit Chinese vaccines and “cultivating the mentality that” everything related to China must be smeared “.

In a press conference, Kate O’Brien, director of vaccinations at the World Health Organization, said the agency assessed the rise in infections in the Seychelles and called the situation “complicated”. Last week the global health group approved the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, raising hopes of an end to the global supply crisis.

She said that “some of the cases that are reported occur either shortly after a single dose, or shortly after a second dose, or between the first and second dose.”

According to Ms. O’Brien, WHO is studying the strains currently circulating in the country, when the cases occurred, relative to when someone was dosed and the severity of each case. “Only through this type of assessment can we judge whether or not it is vaccination failure,” she said.

However, some scientists say it is becoming increasingly clear that the Sinopharm vaccine does not offer a clear path to herd immunity, especially considering the numerous variants that appear around the world.

Governments using the Sinopharm vaccine must “accept a significant failure rate and plan accordingly,” said John Moore, a vaccine expert at Cornell University. “You need to make the public aware that you still have a good chance of getting infected.”

Many in Seychelles say the government was not ready.

“My question is, why did you push everyone to take it?” said Diana Lucas, a 27-year-old waitress who tested positive on May 10th. She said she received her second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine on February 10th.

Government attorney Emmanuelle Hoareau, 22, tested positive on May 6th after the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine in March. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said. She said the government failed to provide enough information about the vaccines to the public.

“They don’t explain the real situation to people,” she said. “It’s a big deal – a lot of people get infected.”

Ms. Hoareau’s mother, Jacqueline Pillay, is a nurse at a private clinic in Victoria, the capital. She believes there is a new variant in the Seychelles because a lot of foreigners have arrived in the last few months. The tourism-dependent country opened its borders to most travelers without quarantine on March 25.

“People are very scared now,” said Ms. Pillay, 58. “If you gave people the right information, people wouldn’t speculate.”

Health officials recently appeared on television to encourage those who only took the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine to come back for the second shot. But Ms. Pillay said she was frustrated that the public health officer hadn’t addressed why the vaccines don’t seem to be working as well as they should.

“I think a lot of people don’t come back,” said Ms. Pillay.

Marietta Labrosse, Elsie Chen, and Claire Fu have contributed to the research.

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Ellen DeGeneres to finish long-running daytime speak present after 19 seasons

Ellen DeGeneres to end long-running daytime talk show after 19 seasons

Ellen DeGeneres during a taping on the Ellen DeGeneres Show

Brooks Kraft / Getty Images

Ellen DeGeneres’ long-running syndicated talk show on the day ends after 19 seasons this year.

The talk show host told The Hollywood Reporter that she informed her staff of the decision on Tuesday and that she will sit down with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday to discuss the news.

“When you’re a creative person, you have to be constantly challenged – and as great as this show is and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” DeGeneres told the magazine.

The announcement also comes after reports of toxic work culture, discrimination and sexual harassment at the fair last year. By that time, she admitted that the atmosphere had evolved into something that didn’t reflect the values ​​she started the show with and promised to do better.

“It almost affected the show,” Ellen told THR. “It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I had left the show because of it, I would not have come back this season.”

63-year-old DeGeneres has been a pioneer in the LGBTQ community since her 1997 cover story “Yep, I’m Gay” in Time Magazine nearly torpedoed her career. Since the start of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, the comedian has had more to do than 64 Daytime Emmys and helped normalize the queer representation on television.

In the Hollywood Reporter interview, DeGeneres said she planned to quit the show after season 16 but agreed to extend her contract for three years.

“That was the plan all along,” she said.

Read the full report from The Hollywood Reporter.

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Consultants Name for Sweeping Reforms to Forestall the Subsequent Pandemic

Experts Call for Sweeping Reforms to Prevent the Next Pandemic

Some countries didn’t even know the regulations existed, his group reported. Others lacked laws critical to responding to outbreaks, such as those that allow quarantines.

Changing these regulations would require “years of negotiation,” said Dr. Wieler, noting that the latest set took a decade to complete. Instead, one of the main recommendations of his committee was to increase the accountability of countries for their commitments, including a pandemic treaty and regular readiness review that would involve other countries.

The independent panel also proposed the establishment of an international council, led by heads of state, to raise awareness of health threats and oversee a multi-billion dollar funding program to which governments would contribute based on their capabilities. It would promise quick payouts to countries struggling with a new outbreak and give them an incentive to report.

“There will only be the political will to create these things if something disastrous happens,” said Dr. Mark Dybul, one of the panel members. These recommendations came in part from his experience as director of the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, known as Pepfar, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Dr. However, Wieler, who led the other international review, said that creating new institutions in general, rather than focusing on improving existing ones, could increase costs, make coordination difficult and harm WHO

The panels’ recommendations after global emergencies were sometimes followed up. The 2014 and 2015 Ebola outbreak led to the creation of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, which aims to strengthen the Agency’s role in managing health crises and to provide technical guidance. A report released earlier this month found that the new program had received “increasingly positive feedback” from countries, donors and partner agencies as it tackled dozens of health and humanitarian emergencies.

The WHO before and after the Ebola outbreak are “basically two different agencies,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, a former MSF international president and a member of the independent panel. Dr. Liu was one of the WHO’s most astute critics during the Ebola response, and she noted a “significant improvement” in how quickly the agency had declared an international emergency this time.

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Prime airline shares to purchase on a reduction, in response to two merchants

Top airline stocks to buy on a discount, according to two traders

Are Airline Stocks Worth Buying?

Two traders grappled with the issue on Tuesday as the group raised concerns about fuel shortages due to the cyberattack on a major U.S. pipeline this weekend.

The US Global Jets ETF (JETS), a basket of 39 airline stocks, closed trading more than 1.5% on Tuesday. It’s down about 8% from the most recent highs in March.

“Not all airlines are created equal,” said Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments.

“Southwest is in a unique position to get out of this strengthening,” she told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Tuesday, referring to the company’s “strong history of hedging oil prices.”

Southwest has hedges that will become profitable when crude oil prices hit $ 65 and $ 70-80 a barrel. Another “really aggressive protection program” will begin in 2022, Tengler said. Crude oil prices rose to just over $ 65 a barrel on Tuesday.

Southwest also announced that it would be hiring new flight attendants for the first time before the Covid pandemic kept the economy in suspense due to strong demand.

“Once the pipeline is back on track this is one company you want to take advantage of its weakness as it will be a strong player in the medium and long term,” said Tengler. “Mostly vacation trips. We don’t have to wait for business trips to come back. We own and would be buyers here.”

Southwest found another fan in Bill Baruch, founder and president of Blue Line Capital and Blue Line Futures.

“I’m very optimistic about crude. I think crude can hit $ 100 in the next 18 months, and I think that will be a headwind for airlines. The Southwest is doing very well and given that.” very well positioned. ” Hedges, “said Baruch in the same interview.

Having recently crossed a major trend line, the stock would be a buy on a pullback to around $ 54 per share, Baruch said, citing a chart.

Southwest shares were down over 2.5% at $ 59.78 on Tuesday.

Baruch’s other choice was the low-cost airline Spirit Airlines.

“I own Spirit Airlines and I like Spirit Airlines,” he said, adding that he was “very reluctant” to invest in airlines other than Spirit and Southwest.

With travel picking up speed again, consumers will likely be ready to go on vacation in the coming months, Baruch said.

“I think Spirit Airlines will be well positioned to capitalize [on] that, “he said.” On a technical basis, I think you saw a good rally out of the hole here in Spirit. “

“The $ 36 area has been very sticky and while there is a lot of resistance there, it holds that resistance and almost builds a flag-like pattern that I find very bullish,” said Baruch.

Spirit Airlines shares closed nearly 3% on Tuesday at $ 33.48.

Disclosure: Tengler and Laffer Tengler Investments own shares in Southwest Airlines. Baruch owns shares in Spirit Airlines.

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Shopper Costs Rose in April as Buyers Frightened About Inflation

Consumer Prices Rose in April as Investors Worried About Inflation

Consumer prices are expected to soar sharply in April data released on Wednesday. This is mainly due to a technical quirk. However, these investors will be watching closely as they attempt to determine whether inflation could change Federal Reserve policy.

The consumer price index is likely to have risen by 3.6 percent by April, predict economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The price increase from March to April is likely to be more restrained at 0.2 percent. The Ministry of Labor will release the numbers at 8:30 a.m.

The annual jump would be the fastest increase since 2011 and a sign that prices are rising as inflation numbers show extremely weak readings from 2020 and to a lesser extent as supply chain disruptions start to bite and demand increases.

Central bankers believe that the surge in prices will be short-lived and have made it clear that they want to look beyond a temporary spike in setting policy. The tech quirks at work in April will only last a few months, officials point out, and while it’s less clear when bottlenecks will be fixed, they are expected to work their way through the system at some point when businesses ramp up production to meet demand.

Wall Street and some economists fear, however, that the rapidly recovering economy, huge economic stimulus from Washington, and pent-up consumer demand could make price gains stronger or more sustainable than the Fed can tolerate.

An essential part of the central bank’s role is to contain price increases. So any likely sustained acceleration in prices could lead them to recall policies that keep money cheap and keep credit flowing. Decreasing support would likely cause stock prices to decline.

While the Fed defines its inflation target using a separate metric, the Personal Consumption Spending Index, this metric is based on data from the CPI and is also expected to go beyond the central bank’s target. Fed officials are targeting annual inflation averaging 2 percent.

It was clear to central bankers that if, contrary to their expectations, there were signs of sustained price increases, they would react. But they have also stated that they want to avoid prematurely withdrawing support from the economy, which could result in the labor market being incompletely healed and longer-term inflation in danger of reverting to uncomfortably low levels where it has been for much of the time have been bogged down in the last decade.

Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, said during a speech Tuesday that “staying patient through the temporary wave associated with the reopening will help ensure economic momentum to” achieve our goals. “

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WHO says it accounts for 50% of reported instances final week

WHO classifies triple-mutant Covid variant from India as global health risk

A Covon-19 coronavirus patient rests in a banquet room temporarily converted into a Covid care center in New Delhi on May 10, 2021.

Arun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images

India’s daily Covid-19 death toll hit another record high on Wednesday as the World Health Organization said the country accounted for half of all reported cases worldwide last week.

Health ministry data showed that at least 4,205 people died within 24 hours – the largest increase in deaths in a day the South Asian country has reported since the pandemic began. However, reports suggest that India’s death toll is under counting.

A total of 23 million cases have been reported in India and more than 254,000 people have died.

The World Health Organization said India accounted for half of all cases reported worldwide last week, as well as 30% of the world’s deaths.

India has reported more than 300,000 cases per day for 21 consecutive days. However, on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said its data showed a net decrease in total active cases over a 24-hour period for the first time in 61 days.

The second wave began around February and accelerated until March and April, after large crowds, mostly without masks, were allowed to gather for religious festivals and election campaigns in different parts of the country.

India’s health system is under tremendous pressure from the surge in cases despite the influx of international aid, including oxygen concentrators, bottles and generation equipment, and the antiviral drug remdesivir.

To ease pressure on healthcare workers, India is recruiting 400 former medical officers from the armed forces, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

WHO update on India, South Asia

In its latest weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic, the UN Department of Health said it was observing “worrying trends” in India’s neighboring countries, where cases are also increasing.

In Nepal, for example, nearly 50% of all people tested for Covid-19 are reported to be infected as the inland struggles with a second wave. Vaccines are said to have run out when India stopped exporting given the situation at home.

The WHO recently classified variant B.1.617 of Covid, which was first discovered in India, as a matter of concern, indicating that it has become a global threat. The variant has three sub-lines, “which differ by a few, but possibly relevant mutations in the spike protein as well as by the worldwide prevalence of detection,” said the WHO in the report.

India’s dramatic increase in cases has raised questions about the role of Covid variants such as the B.1.617 and B.1.1.7, which were first discovered in the UK.

The International Health Authority said it recently carried out a risk assessment of the situation in India and found that the resurgence and acceleration of Covid-19 transmission in the country have several likely factors may have increased portability, as well as mass gatherings and lower compliance with public health and social measures.

“The exact contributions of these factors to increased transmission in India are not precisely known,” said the WHO.

Elsewhere, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not personally attend a G7 summit in the UK next month due to the situation in Covid-19 at home, the Indian Foreign Ministry said. Modi was invited as a special guest by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the ministry said.

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Man Purchased Lamborghini With PPP Mortgage, Prosecutors Say

Man Bought Lamborghini With PPP Loan, Prosecutors Say

A California man who received more than $ 5 million in paycheck protection program loans to help businesses in trouble during the coronavirus pandemic was arrested Friday on Friday on federal bank fraud and other charges after prosecutors said he had used the money to buy a Lamborghini and other federal luxury cars.

The man, Mustafa Qadiri, 38, from Irvine, was charged by a federal grand jury on four cases of bank fraud, four cases of wire fraud, one case of aggravated identity theft and six cases of money laundering, the U.S. attorney in the Central District of California announced.

Prosecutors said Mr. Qadiri’s federal loan efforts began in late May 2020 and grossed him nearly $ 5.1 million by early June. Mr. Qadiri is accused of using that money on a shopping spree that included buying a Ferrari, a Lamborghini and a Bentley and paying for “wasteful vacations,” all of which are banned under the paycheck protection program, prosecutors said.

Bilal A. Essayli, a lawyer for Mr. Qadiri, declined to comment.

Mr. Qadiri filed applications for Covid-19 relief funds with three different banks to help four California-based companies that were actually down, according to prosecutors. In addition to submitting fraudulent company information and “changed bank account details”, a statement from the prosecutor said Mr. Qadiri was using someone else’s name, social security number and signature on applications.

Some of Mr. Qadiri’s assets have already been confiscated, prosecutors said. Federal agents seized a 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia registered with All American Capital Holdings, one of the companies listed on Mr. Qadiri’s PPP loan applications. A 2018 Lamborghini Aventador S registered with the same company was also confiscated.

The 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia can sell for more than $ 100,000, according to Cars.com. It has a V-8 engine and 570 horsepower and can go from zero to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds. Says the rating.

Another popular website for auto enthusiasts, Kelley Blue Book, has a listing for a 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia that sells for $ 179,000. The website also has a 2018 report on the Lamborghini Aventador S that states, “There is no better car to showcase your success or to stroke your ego.” This car has a V-12 engine and 740 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds. According to the test report, one of its disadvantages is: “The Aventador is neither the most comfortable car to drive in, nor is it terribly efficient. It deserves an EPA estimated at 10 mpg for city driving. “

On Lamborghini.com, the website describing the Aventador S has the slogan “Dare your ego”.

Prosecutors said in a statement that another luxury vehicle Mr. Qadiri bought with PPP money, a 2020 Bentley Continental GT Coupe, had also been confiscated.

A US law firm spokesman said that if Mr. Qadiri were convicted, the charges against him would result in a maximum sentence of 302 years in prison.

Dozens of people have been arrested and charged with misusing pandemic aid funds. Mr. Qadiri is at least the third person to be charged with buying a Lamborghini.

In July, a Florida man who had received nearly $ 4 million was arrested on bank fraud and other charges after buying a blue Lamborghini for $ 318,497. In August, a Texas man who received more than $ 1.6 million from the same federal program was arrested on bank fraud and other charges after buying a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for $ 233,337.60, among other charges.

In February, Florida man David T. Hines pleaded guilty to wire fraud with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. He is waiting to be sentenced. The case against Texas man Lee Price III continues.

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economist says states ought to resolve on lockdowns

Why Covid vaccine producer India faces major shortage of doses

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under increasing pressure to demand another nationwide lockdown in India as the overwhelmed health system struggles to fight a devastating second wave of Covid-19.

However, a member of Modi’s economic advisory board says that state governments should instead have the final say on social restrictions.

“All in all, the current policy of leaving it to different states to take local conditions into account and adopt a lockdown strategy – I think it’s a better one overall,” said V. Anantha Nageswaran, part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Board, said Tuesday to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”.

Calls for a national lockdown – as imposed between late March and May last year – have grown louder as the Indian health system deteriorates and patients suffer from the lack of hospital beds, medical oxygen and drugs needed to treat the disease Disease will be rejected.

Leading coronavirus adviser to the White House, Anthony Fauci, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that India must be shut down in order to break transmission chains.

So far, the central government has resisted lockdown calls and allowed states to tighten their own local restrictions, including lockdowns and curfews.

Instead, the government is focusing on delivering global aid – including oxygen concentrators, bottles and generation equipment, and the antiviral drug Remdesivir – to affected areas. The country is also stepping up its vaccination campaign.

People aged 18 and over waiting to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at a vaccination center on the Radha Soami Satsang site operated by BLK Max Hospital on May 4, 2021 in New Delhi, India.

Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Nageswaran stated that at this point, the benefits of a statewide lockdown will not significantly outweigh the costs. He added that in cases the increase is still relatively localized in different pockets rather than nationally.

India has reported more than 300,000 cases per day for 20 consecutive days. However, on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said its data showed a net decrease in total active cases over a 24-hour period for the first time in 61 days.

India’s death toll from coronavirus is close to 250,000.

Economic growth path

Last year’s national lockdown held India back from growth and pushed the economy into a technical recession. Before the second wave of infections, the economy was slowly on the mend – but economists are now predicting that the recovery will be delayed given the current situation.

There is a growing likelihood that localized lockdowns are likely to last through June or beyond. Given the current rate of vaccination, any attempt to fully reopen the economy could lead to a potential third wave of infections, Kunal Kundu, Indian economist with Societe Generale investment bank, said in a recent note.

Kundu said the bank had forecast real GDP growth of 9.5% year-over-year for India’s fiscal year ending March 2022, which is below the market consensus. But even this goal is no longer tenable, as it was assumed that the economy will open sooner due to the rapid pace of vaccination.

“With localized lockdowns through June and beyond, this increases the downside risk to our existing growth forecast. We now expect real GDP to grow by 8.5% for the current year,” said Kundu.

He added that India’s ability to chase the new variants will be key to preventing subsequent waves. To do this, the country must “provide more fiscal resources for genome monitoring and vaccine research” and ensure that all temporary Covid-19 care centers are still in operation, he said.

Nageswaran added that if India’s Covid-19 cases don’t peak in the next two weeks and drag on into the next quarter, it will be more difficult to match the country’s pre-pandemic growth trajectory through fiscal 2022-2023.