Tag: Agree

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Health

Moderna, Canada agree on constructing manufacturing plant

Moderna, Canada agree on building manufacturing plant

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister, listens during a press conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on Friday June 4, 2021. Trudeau said 65% of eligible Canadians received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

David Kawai | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Moderna said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with the Canadian government to build a “state-of-the-art” manufacturing facility in Canada to manufacture Covid vaccines and possibly vaccines for other respiratory viruses after the country suffered from supply shortages earlier this year.

The facility is designed to give Canadians access to domestically manufactured mRNA vaccines against respiratory viruses, including Covid, seasonal influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and possibly other vaccines, pending approval, the U.S. drugmaker said.

It is also to be used “urgently” to aid the country with health emergencies with direct access to vaccines, the company said.

Moderna said it was in talks with other governments about similar collaborations.

“We are very excited to expand our presence and continue our long-term relationship with Canada,” said Patricia Gauthier, Moderna’s head of Canadian business, in a statement. “With our industry-leading mRNA technology platform and rapid drug development capabilities, we look forward to being an active participant in Canada’s robust life science ecosystem.”

Canada has suffered repeated delays and supply shortages of Covid vaccines this year as it struggled to get the vaccines from other countries that manufactured them. The problem forced the government to postpone the second vaccinations for up to 16 weeks and advise residents to “mix and match” vaccines.

The Biden government, under pressure from allies worldwide to share vaccines, announced plans in March to ship about 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine that it was not using to Mexico and Canada.

Vaccine supplies and the pace of vaccinations have increased since then, Canadian health officials said, and residents have since received their second doses.

Moderna shares fell about 3% on Tuesday just before the announcement. The stock is up more than 360% since the beginning of the year.

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Politics

Biden, Merkel agree Russia can not use Nord Stream pipeline as weapon

Biden, Merkel agree Russia cannot use Nord Stream pipeline as weapon

US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, July 15, 2021.

Saul Loeb | AFP| Images

President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Thursday that they will oppose any effort by Russia to use the contentious Nord Stream pipeline as a weapon against neighboring nations such as Ukraine.

The completion of Nord Stream 2, an $11 billion gas pipeline that would run directly to Germany from Russia under the Baltic Sea, has long been a source of tension between Washington and Berlin, otherwise close NATO allies.

“While I reiterated my concerns about Nord Stream 2, Chancellor Merkel and I are absolutely united in our conviction that Russia must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon to coerce or threaten its neighbors,” Biden said. 

“My view on Nord Stream 2 has been known for some time. Good friends can disagree, but by the time I became president, it was 90% completed and imposing sanctions did not seem to make any sense,” he said.

The president waived sanctions against Swiss-based company Nord Stream 2 AG, which is running the pipeline project, and its German CEO in May. Nord Stream 2 AG is owned by the Russian state energy company Gazprom.

Biden has opposed the completion of the pipeline over concerns that it would allow Moscow to gain increased political leverage over other European nations and more control over energy reserves. 

In particular, the U.S. fears that the pipeline would threaten the security and economy of Ukraine by depriving it of crucial gas transport revenues.  

The route of a proposed new gas pipeline from Russia to Europe.

nord-stream2.com

Merkel has supported the pipeline, but emphasized on Thursday that Nord Stream would not replace Ukraine’s transit pipelines for natural gas. 

“Our idea is and remains that Ukraine remains a transit country for natural gas, that Ukraine, just as any other country in the world, has the right to territorial sovereignty,” Merkel said at the joint press conference.

“We will be actively acting should Russia not respect this right of Ukraine that it has as a transit country,” Merkel said. 

Biden said he and Merkel asked their teams to examine practical measures that can be taken to determine if Europe’s energy security is “strengthened or weakened based on Russian actions.”

The pipeline was among the several global issues that the two leaders addressed at the White House on Thursday in what is likely to be Merkel’s last visit to Washington before she steps down from office. 

The two leaders also announced a climate and energy partnership, which Biden said will support energy security and the development of sustainable energy in emerging economies in Central Europe and Ukraine. 

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Biden and Merkel also signed a pact, called the Washington Declaration, which reaffirms the U.S. and Germany’s commitment to democratic principles and outlines a joint vision to address global issues guided by those values. 

“Both our nations understand the imperative of proving that democracies can deliver the needs of our people in the second quarter of the 21st century,” Biden said.  

Among the other issues that the two leaders addressed were China, climate change, security issues in Afghanistan and combating Covid-19. Biden said the U.S. is reviewing when it can lift Covid-related travel restrictions that ban most Europeans from entering the U.S., an issue that Merkel had raised prior to the joint news conference.

Merkel’s visit serves as a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s notorious clashes with her during his term, which contributed to the deterioration of the two nations’ relationship. 

Trump publicly called out Merkel for not meeting the 2% GDP spending goal established at the 2014 NATO summit in Wales, claiming that Germany owed “vast sums of money” to the U.S. Trump also hammered Merkel on trade and moved to withdraw nearly 12,000 U.S. troops from Germany. 

In response, Merkel often pushed back on Trump’s rhetoric and criticized policy decisions such as his travel ban targeting citizens of several mainly Muslim countries. 

Biden has made it a priority to repair relationships with Germany and other European nations. Merkel is the first European leader to meet with Biden at the White House, and her visit serves as a final farewell to the U.S. as she approaches the end of a historic political career that has lasted nearly 16 years.

Merkel’s visit will end with a dinner hosted by the president and first lady Jill Biden in the State Dining Room. The dinner will be attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Dough Emhoff and others who are boosters for Germany’s relationship with the U.S. 

“I know that the partnership between Germany and the United States will continue to grow stronger on the foundation that you’ve helped to build,” Biden said to Merkel. 

“But on a personal note, I must tell you, I’ll miss seeing you at our summit, I truly will. So thank you again for making the journey, for a productive meeting today and for your friendship,” he said. 

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World News

G-20 monetary leaders agree to maneuver ahead on plan for a world tax crackdown

G-20 financial leaders agree to move forward on plan for an international tax crackdown

Italian carabinieri guard St. Mark’s Square, the day before the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Venice on July 8, 2021.

ANDREAS SOLARO | AFP | Getty Images

The group of 20 major economies’ financiers said they had agreed on a “more stable and fairer international tax architecture,” according to a communique from Saturday’s meeting.

The G-20 is a forum for the governments and central bank governors of 20 major economies. At a meeting of the group’s finance ministers and central bank governors, leaders endorsed components of a tax plan, including multinational corporate profits redistribution and a global minimum tax, after “many years of discussion and building on the progress made over the past year.” They write.

The group aims to see national leaders adopt the plan at a G-20 summit in October.

According to Reuters, the pact would set a minimum global corporate tax of at least 15% to prevent multinational companies from shopping at the lowest tax rate. The deal would also change the way companies like Amazon and Alphabets Google are taxed, based in part on where they sell products and services rather than where their headquarters are located.

Reuters reported that Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had confirmed that all G-20 economies were on board the pact. Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a handful of smaller countries are still against it, including low-tax countries like Ireland and Hungary, but are being encouraged to join by October.

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Politics

Israel and Hamas conform to cease-fire over Gaza battle

Israel and Hamas agree to cease-fire over Gaza conflict

Palestinians inspect a location hit during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on May 20, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Israel’s security cabinet voted in favor of a provisional ceasefire on Thursday after 11 days of fighting with Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

A Hamas official confirmed to Reuters that a “mutual and simultaneous” ceasefire with Israel would begin at 2:00 am on Friday

The White House is expected to respond to the news shortly.

The news follows a call Wednesday between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the call, Biden said he expected “significant de-escalation” of the violence, according to the White House report.

It was their fourth conversation since the outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian-Islamic political party with an armed wing of the same name that controls the Gaza Strip.

The tone from Washington to Tel Aviv has grown impatient in recent days as the death toll in Gaza from Israeli air strikes surpassed 200, including more than 100 women and children. In Israel, 12 people were killed by rockets fired by Hamas on Thursday afternoon.

The latest round of fighting was the worst outbreak of violence since the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014.

The White House has followed what it calls “calm, intense diplomacy” behind the scenes.

“We have received over 60 calls from the President downwards to senior leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other leaders in the region since the conflict began,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday.

“The President has been doing this for a long time, for decades, he believes this is the approach we need to take,” she added.

A demolished 6-story building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood houses libraries, youth centers, training courses for university students and a mosque that was bombed by Israeli planes during raids in Gaza City, Gaza, on May 18, 2021.

Momen Faiz | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Biden appeared unwilling to publicly pressure Netanyahu to stop air strikes on what Israel says are military targets embedded in civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip.

As a result, progressive Democrats in Congress and US allies abroad have urged the president to take on a more visible role and put more diplomatic pressure on Israel, which is heavily dependent on the United States for weapons and military equipment.

In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Netanyahu briefed foreign diplomats and ambassadors on the worsening violence and reiterated previous claims that the Israeli military “is trying to attack” those who attack us with great precision.

“There is no army in the world that does more than the Israeli army, in the Israeli security services and in the Israeli intelligence service to prevent collateral damage,” said Netanyahu.

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Politics

Biden and Suga Agree U.S. and Japan Will Work Collectively on 5G

Biden and Suga Agree U.S. and Japan Will Work Together on 5G

WASHINGTON – President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged on Friday to work together on the rapid development of 5G communication technologies to prevent any of the leading Chinese companies from dominating the global market. This is a symbolic first step in propping up an alliance that collapsed during the Trump administration.

The deal was one of the pre-negotiated results of a foreign leader’s first personal visit to Mr Biden’s White House in three months, during which he spoke only by telephone or video conference with his colleagues overseas. For Mr Suga, just appearing in the rose garden with Mr Biden – where the President originally and incorrectly called him “Yosi” instead of “Yoshi” – was evidence that he had managed to maintain Japan’s most important international relationship despite one of the two most difficult presidential transitions in history.

“Our commitment to meet in person shows the importance and value we both place on this relationship,” said Biden. “We will work together to prove that democracies can still compete and win in the 21st century.”

However, the subtext of the meeting responded to China’s influence and aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific and beyond – which Mr Biden sees as one of the main challenges of his tenure. And it was a cautious dance, with Japanese officials not embroiled in tensions with Beijing over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the rapid rift between the western open internet and a Chinese government-dominated closed internet.

At a moment when Mr Biden has drawn lines in the sand – promising to compete with the Chinese government where he can and confront them where he must – Mr Suga tried, unsurprisingly, every sense of rivalry to water down.

Mr Biden said the two countries would “work together” in a number of areas, including “promoting secure and reliable 5G networks,” a technology that promises to revolutionize the speed and convenience of high-speed cellular connections in factories and hard drives . to reach rural areas. It’s also a technology that the US has been virtually absent from while one of Beijing’s leading companies, Huawei, has cabled large parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East with the support of the Chinese government.

Mr Biden’s advisors have warned that if the United States does not engage allies in a race to catch up, national security results could be catastrophic: the world’s internet traffic and conversations will continue to flow over Beijing-controlled circuits. Aides said Japan and the United States would spend $ 2 billion on a joint project to develop alternative approaches – a remarkable change from the 1980s when they viewed each other as strong technological rivals.

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“Japan and the US are both heavily invested in innovation and looking to the future,” said Biden. “This includes investing in and protecting the technologies that maintain and sharpen our competitive advantage, and that these technologies are determined by common democratic norms that we both share – norms set by democracies, not autocracies.”

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Suga carefully followed his script when speaking of “China’s Influence” and said, “We have agreed to use force or coercion to change any attempt to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas and countering intimidation to others in the US region. “Later, Mr. Suga made direct reference to Taiwan at a time when the Democratic Island, still considered a rogue province by Beijing, was repeatedly inundated by Chinese warplanes.

He did not issue any warnings to China, simply saying that the two leaders agreed to the “importance of peace and stability” of the strait. It was a language deliberately coined 52 years ago when President Richard M. Nixon and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato issued a statement in which the Japanese leader said that “maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan region too Japanese security is important for peace and peace. “

When the two leaders asked questions from reporters, Mr. Biden was asked about gun controls after another mass shooting that killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Earlier in the day, Mr. Suga – whose country bans the holding of almost all guns and reports some of the lowest gun crime rates in the world – offered condolences. In the rose garden he stood in silence when the president called for a ban on assault weapons.

Mr Suga then asked his own domestic question about whether Japan would cancel the Olympics this year, due to be held in Tokyo in July, when many public health experts have argued that there is no safe way to move forward in the face of the coronavirus.

“I told the President about my determination to make the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games a symbol of global unity this summer,” said Suga. “President Biden has again expressed his support for this determination.”

The Biden administration has also urged the Japanese government to make new greenhouse gas emissions pledges with the United States to meet the net zero target by 2050. According to two government officials, the White House has asked Japan to cut emissions in half from 2013 to the end of the decade.

Officials had hoped Japan would announce an end to funding for the development of coal-fired power plants overseas on Friday, but Mr. Suga made no such public commitment.

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Business

OPEC and Its Allies Agree toGradual Will increase in Oil Manufacturing

OPEC and Its Allies Agree toGradual Increases in Oil Production

OPEC and its allies, including Russia, announced on Thursday that they would gradually increase oil production over the next three months.

By agreeing to modest increases in production, Saudi Arabia appears to have given in to pressure from Russia and other manufacturers to increase production. They want to capitalize on what they see as a likely growing global thirst for oil as economies grow slowly after a pandemic.

The group known as OPEC Plus has withheld eight million barrels from the market every day.

On that occasion, the Saudis decided to “follow the consensus of the members,” said Helima Croft, commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank.

A call from the new US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday to Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister, could also have had an impact, although the Saudi official denied that the oil markets had been discussed.

“We reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation to provide consumers with affordable and reliable sources of energy,” Ms. Granholm wrote on Twitter.

Under the agreement, OPEC Plus will increase production by 350,000 barrels per day in both May and June and by 441,000 barrels per day in July. Over the same period, Saudi Arabia will gradually roll out further cuts of one million barrels a day that it has made voluntarily.

Prince Abdulaziz said during a post-meeting press conference that OPEC Plus wanted to test the increase in production but would still be able to change plans if demand did not materialize.

“We can freeze; we can gain weight; we can lose weight, ”he said.

For the time being, the oil market has accepted the prospect of increases that would be less than 1 percent of global consumption per month. Larry Goldstein, an oil analyst with the Energy Policy Research Foundation, said the approach to easing the cuts was “very modest and conservative” and would tend to prop up prices in the coming months.

Ms. Croft also said OPEC’s willingness to increase production is seen as a vote of confidence in the recovery of the global economy.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.6 percent to $ 64.26 a barrel on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3 percent to $ 60.94 a barrel.

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Prince Abdulaziz was the main vocalist for reluctance to increase production and warned of the risk of flooding a still weak market. Some analysts also say the Saudis are aiming for higher price levels.

In remarks at the beginning of the meeting, the prince appeared to be advocating maintaining current production restrictions, which keep an estimated eight million barrels of oil per day, or about 9 percent of global consumption, out of the market.

“The reality remains that the global picture is nowhere near uniform and the recovery is nowhere near complete,” said the prince, who chairs the group’s meeting known as OPEC Plus.

The reintroduction of a national lockdown by France announced on Wednesday underscores the ongoing doubts about the recovery from the pandemic and the rising number of cases in the United States.

However, other manufacturers, including Russia and the United Arab Emirates, have pushed for production to increase.

At the beginning of the meeting, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Co-Chairman of OPEC Plus, said the market has “improved significantly” since it met last month. He estimated that demand now exceeded supply by about two million barrels a day, a deficit that would lead to a rapid depletion of inventories and potentially higher prices.

Prince Abdulaziz emphasized that he had a good relationship with Mr Novak – a big difference from a year ago when the two countries clashed in a market-breaking price war.

“We talk to each other more often than to our own families,” said the prince.

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Politics

Democrats Conform to Trim Jobless Support to Maintain Stimulus Plan on Observe

Democrats Agree to Trim Jobless Aid to Keep Stimulus Plan on Track

Liberal lawmakers and activists had argued that Democrats should override the official who made the decision, the Senate MP, and still enforce the proposal through the Republican opposition. But Mr Biden made it clear that he would not support the move, and when Senator Bernie Sanders, regardless of Vermont, tried to get him into legislation on Friday, the wage increase did not seem anywhere near a majority, and that too was ready to fall far short of the 60 votes that would have to be accepted.

With the vote pending on Friday because of the impasse on unemployment benefits, the measure to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 by 2025 had only attracted 42 supporters – and 58 opponents. It was unclear when voting would resume as the text for the new plan was not yet available.

“If anyone thinks we are going to give up this problem, they are deeply mistaken,” Sanders told reporters. “If we have to vote on it over and over, we will – and we will succeed.”

While Republicans had made it clear they were ready to have a debate on the stimulus package with all sorts of doomed amendments, it was also clear on Friday that there were issues far more significant than one in the Opposition united minority. Legislators from both parties quickly focused on Mr Manchin, who has repeatedly called for the overall bill to be more targeted and who highlighted the unemployment regime as an example.

With the existing $ 300 per week payments due to expire next weekend, as part of Mr Biden’s stimulus plan and the Act Implementation Act passed last weekend, it was proposed to increase the allowance to $ 400 per week and by the end To extend August.

But Mr Manchin and other moderates feared it was too high, and leading Democrats had developed an alternative that would keep the weekly benefit at $ 300 but extend it through early October. They also added a sweetener: a new provision that would remove up to $ 10,200 in taxes on unemployment benefits received through 2020.

Believing they had a deal, the Democrats were preparing to vote on the proposal, but Mr Manchin refused. And after hours of negotiation, they announced a new plan. The weekly benefit would stay at $ 300, but the new end date would be September 6th, which is only a week longer than Mr Biden suggested. The tax sweetener would only be available to those earning less than $ 150,000.

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Business

Harvey Weinstein Accusers Conform to $17 Million Settlement

Harvey Weinstein Accusers Agree to $17 Million Settlement

The lawyers of Ms. Huett, a model, actress, and gender equality activist, and a handful of other women who voted against the deal are considering an appeal. They don’t want to exclude survivors from participating in the deal, they said, but have also objected to the grouping of women on rape allegations whose cases fall under the statute of limitations, along with people who claim to have been molested years ago.

The victims should have been divided into classes based on the severity of their allegations, said Thomas P. Giuffra, a lawyer implicated in the case. Otherwise, “someone who has been raped has the same voice as someone who yelled Harvey Weinstein in the face,” which the producer is known to regularly do to men and women.

Giuffra’s client, Alexandra Canosa, whose lawsuit accused Weinstein of raping her, was in the midst of a nine-hour filing on her case when the bankruptcy court’s judgment was passed, he said. A deposit for Bob Weinstein was scheduled for Wednesday, but the district judge on the case canceled it and asked Ms. Canosa to make an immediate decision on joining the settlement, Mr. Giuffra said, a quick turnaround he deemed “honestly shocking” designated for all of us. “

Mr. Giuffra said that his client would not take part in the settlement with immediate effect, also because the result is still unclear. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting and she won’t know until she goes through the application process,” he said. “How can you say that you will accept something before you know what it is?”

Beth Fegan, an attorney for several women who supported the settlement, said in a statement that Mr. Weinstein “did incurable damage through decades of predatory sexual abuse.” The fund enables its clients, Louisette Geiss, Sarah Ann Masse and Melissa Thompson, “to apply for reasonable financial compensation for their injuries in a confidential process.”