Tag: Crisis

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India Covid disaster: Loss of life toll surpasses 200,000

India Covid crisis: Death toll surpasses 200,000

A patient wearing an oxygen mask is taken to a COVID-19 hospital for treatment while coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreads in Ahmedabad, India on April 26, 2021.

Amit Dave | Reuters

India reported a record daily death toll on Wednesday when the total number of Covid-19 deaths topped the 200,000 mark.

Government data showed that at least 3,293 people died within 24 hours. The total number of cases also rose by a record 360,960 reported infections. This was India’s seventh day in a row with over 300,000 new infections.

The total number of Covid cases in the country is just under 18 million while the death toll stands at 201,187. However, recent media reports suggest that the daily death toll may not be adequately reported.

In April alone, the South Asian nation reported more than 5.8 million new cases, marginalizing the country’s health system.

The international community responded with a promise to send urgently needed aid to India. The United States said it would send raw materials that the South Asian country needs to make AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

India has given more than 145 million doses of vaccine to date, according to the Ministry of Health. However, as of Tuesday, only around 23.9 million people had received their second dose.

India’s variant of Covid?

Experts fear that a mutated variant of the coronavirus is responsible for the dramatic increase in cases during the second wave. Before the resurgence, India reported an average of around 10,000 new cases per day.

The virus has mutated several times since last year. The World Health Organization classifies these variants either as “variant of interest” or as “variant of concern”. The affected variant typically refers to a variant that shows an increase in communicability and more severe illness, including a higher rate of hospitalizations or deaths.

The WHO classified the B1617 variant with several sublines with slightly different characteristic mutations as an interesting variant for their weekly epidemiological update of the pandemic. It was first spotted in India last October, but was represented in at least 17 countries as of Tuesday, including the US, UK and Singapore.

The international health agency said in its report that the B1617 variant is circulating in India along with other worrying variants as well as the B1618 variant discovered in some states. The WHO said these variants may collectively play a role in the current resuscitation.

Effects

The Indian government is increasingly criticized for gathering large crowds, mostly without mask, for religious festivals and election campaigns in different parts of the country.

The better-than-expected handling of the first wave last year created a feeling of complacency within the political class, and subsequent questionable decisions contributed to the rise, according to Akhil Bery, South Asia analyst with political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group.

Among those decisions, Bery noted that the government had allowed the week-long Kumbh Mela religious festival, which reportedly saw hundreds of thousands of people bathing in the Ganges. This has become a super-spreader event, as have electoral campaigns by various parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party in the eastern state of West Bengal.

“There have been some questionable decisions here and this is a major political challenge for Modi, at least in the short term,” Bery said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Wednesday.

“During last year’s boom, there was a general expectation that the Indian health system would collapse. Ultimately, it did not,” he said, adding, “This created a feeling of complacency within the political class, within the people … But ultimately that complacency fed into that mentality, and now we’re seeing the end results of that. “

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Housing Market in Frenzy Like No Different Since 2008 Disaster: Reside Updates

Homes typically sold in 18 days in March, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Ted Shaffrey/Associated Press

The median sale price of an existing home in the United States was $329,100 in March, up 17.2 percent from a year earlier, when a 3 to 5 percent annual increase is considered healthy, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors, a trade group.

Nationwide, housing inventory was at 1.07 million units at the end of March, just above its record low of 1.03 million the prior month and down 28.2 percent from a year earlier, the group said on Thursday.

Sales of new single-family houses soared the highest level since 2006 in March, the Census Bureau reported on Friday, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.021 million, up 21 percent from February. The typical new home sold for $330,800, down from its recent peak of $365,300 in December.

Existing homes typically sold in 18 days, a record speed. Normally, 60 days is typical, Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, told Stefanos Chen of The New York Times.

When the housing market peaks will depend largely on where you live and how the pandemic continues to reorder buyer priorities, but it will hinge on two trends: rising mortgage rates and incredibly tight inventory in some markets, which will likely keep demand strong through the rest of 2021, even as price growth moderates, several analysts said.

In Manhattan, where commercial real estate was battered and home buyers fanned outward to surrounding suburbs in search of affordability and more space, the sales market fell off at the beginning of the pandemic but appears to have turned the corner.

“The rate at which homes are selling nationally is not sustainable, but in New York, the uptick is just getting started,” said Nancy Wu, an economist for StreetEasy, a listing website.

In the week ending April 11, there were 783 new signed contracts citywide, the highest since the company began tracking weekly pending sales in 2019, when the peak was 491 contracts, she said.

Technical glitches marred the beginning of the first day of submitting applications for the grant program.Credit…Zack Wittman for The New York Times

Music club operators, theater owners and others in the live-event market have been waiting nearly four months for a $16 billion federal grant fund for their industry to start taking applications. Their hopes were briefly raised two weeks ago, when the program’s application website opened — then dashed as a technical malfunction prevented the site from accepting any applications.

Now, the Small Business Administration, the agency that runs the program, plans to try again on Saturday.

The agency’s announcement late Thursday night of its timing for restarting the program was immediately met with a deluge of criticism. “People have weekend plans, need child care, have to pay overtime for weekends. This is SO inconsiderate,” one typical reply tweet said.

Because the money will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis — and is widely expected to run out fast — many applicants feel pressured to submit their paperwork as soon as the application system opens.

That will be a particular obstacle for Jewish business owners who observe the Sabbath, which prohibits them from using electronics on Saturdays before sundown. “I’m in shock,” said Dani Zoldan, the owner of Stand Up NY, a comedy club in Manhattan. “There are many Sabbath observers in the performing arts industry. How did they not think through this decision before making this announcement?”

Mr. Zoldan, who is Jewish, hopes the agency will reconsider its decision. He said he would wait until after sunset to submit his application. “It’s been a mess on so many levels. I feel like they’re torturing us,” he said.

The Small Business Administration has not yet said what time on Saturday it plans to open its application portal. The agency said it would provide further details on Friday.

Preparations for the Academy Awards last year, when viewership was down 20 percent from 2019. It is expected to be even lower this year.Credit…Josh Haner/The New York Times

ABC has sold out its advertising inventory for the pandemic-delayed Academy Awards on Sunday, with companies like Google, General Motors, Rolex and Verizon spending an estimated $2 million for each 30-second spot, according to media buyers — only a slight decline from last year’s pricing even though the television audience is expected to be sharply smaller.

Rita Ferro, president of Disney Advertising Sales, which sells ads on Disney-owned ABC, announced the sellout. She declined to comment on pricing or say how much revenue Disney will generate from the telecast. Last year, the Oscars pulled in about $129 million across 56 ads, according to Kantar Media, a research firm. (A red-carpet preshow attracted $16.3 million across 42 ads.)

Additional revenue comes from “integrations” and other sponsorships. For the first time, for instance, ABC will have a sponsor for closed-captioning (Google). The upshot: ABC’s revenue for the telecast is estimated to have declined only 3 to 5 percent from last year — a tiny drop compared with the expected 50 to 60 percent decline in viewing.

The ceremony is “one of those big cultural moments,” Andrew McKechnie, Verizon’s chief creative officer, said of the company’s decision to buy ad space. “The broadcast this year will be a bit different,” he acknowledged, “but the event will still be an impactful one and an important one for us to show up in.”

Last year, about 23.6 million people watched “Parasite” win the Academy Award for best picture, according to Nielsen data. That was a 20 percent drop from the previous year and a record low. On Sunday, nine million to 12 million people are expected to tune in.

Audiences have been turning away from awards telecasts for years, but ratings have nose-dived during the pandemic. Without live audiences, the shows have been drained of their energy. Big studios have also postponed major movies, leaving this year’s awards scene to downbeat art films.

ABC does not guarantee an audience size to Oscar advertisers, thus removing any potential for so-called make-goods — additional commercial time at a later date — if ratings tumble.

ABC has been able to keep ad rates high in part because of the fragmentation of television viewing. Oscars night is a shadow of its former self — it attracted 57 million viewers in 1998 — but still pulls in one of the largest audiences on broadcast television, certainly for a nonsports telecast. New advertisers this year include Apartments.com and Freshpet dog and cat food. Expedia and Adidas have bought commercial time to introduce new campaigns.

“We’re very pleased with where we are,” Ms. Ferro said, citing “the quantity, the caliber and the diversity of the advertisers in the show.”

Soccer fans protested on Tuesday after the formation of a so-called Super League was announced.Credit…Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase apologized on Friday for its role in arranging billions of dollars in financing for a breakaway European soccer league, admitting in a statement that it had “misjudged” how the project would be viewed by fans.

JPMorgan Chase had pledged about $4 billion to underwrite the new league, but the American investment bank did not end up issuing it or losing any money: The league collapsed only 48 hours after it was announced, after more than half of its 12 founding clubs changed their minds and announced they would not take part, Tariq Panja and and Andrew Das for The New York Times.

Like the 12 clubs involved in the breakaway group — which included European giants like Real Madrid and Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool, Juventus and A.C. Milan — JPMorgan had come under intense criticism from fans and others merely for participating in the plan.

Designed as a 20-team league with 15 permanent members, the Super League would have severely cut in to the revenues of dozens of national leagues, imperiled the finances and values of the hundreds of European clubs who were left out, and upended the structures that have underpinned European soccer for a century — all while funneling billions to a few elite teams.

In a corporate statement rare for its contrition and self-criticism, JPMorgan admitted it had been a mistake to finance the proposal without considering its effects on others.

“We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future,” a company spokesman said. “We will learn from this.”

But in an interview with Bloomberg TV, the bank’s co-president, Daniel E. Pinto, also sought to distance JPMorgan from the blowback that is still buffeting the clubs.

“We arranged a loan for a client,” Pinto said. “It’s not our place to decide what is the optimal way for football to operate in Europe and the U.K.”

“Companies are reading the writing on the wall,” said Thomas DiNapoli, New York State’s comptroller and trustee for the state’s public pension fund. Credit…Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

The riot at the Capitol in January prompted a reckoning on corporate political donations that will be a prominent feature of proxy season, with many shareholder proposals demanding greater disclosure of company spending. And shareholders already seem to be meeting with more success than in previous years, the DealBook newsletter reports.

“Companies are reading the writing on the wall,” said Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York State’s comptroller and trustee for the state’s public pension fund. “Political and social polarization are bad for their business, and they need to decide if political donations are worth the risk.”

“Time will tell if their increased attention to these issues is lip service or if it represents a sincere change in corporate culture,” Mr. DiNapoli said. “At a minimum, investors need disclosure of this spending.”

New York’s public pension fund is the third-largest in the United States, and since 2010, it has filed more than 155 shareholder proposals on political spending, winning more than 40 adoptions or agreements, including from Bank of America, Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo. Three of five resolutions it has advanced this year have already been withdrawn, with the companies agreeing to make changes without putting them to a vote. That’s a 60 percent hit rate, and companies that wouldn’t engage before are now at least responsive, a spokesman for the fund said.

The fund got CMS Energy, a Michigan public utility, to agree to be more transparent about political spending, DealBook is first to report; First Energy, an Ohio utility, and the multinational brewer Molson Coors also agreed to more disclosure.

“Companies are now expected to have core values — almost personalities,” said Bruce Freed, the president of the Center for Political Accountability, a nonprofit organization that teams up with shareholders on proposals. Recent agreements, like the ones brokered by Mr. DiNapoli, are a “strong indication” that corporations are feeling “real pressure,” he said. Nine of 30 companies (including those noted above) have agreed this year to provide more disclosure on political donations. Last year, eight of 40 companies facing similar proposals agreed to act instead of putting the question to shareholders in a vote.

The Capitol riot “raised the stakes,” Mr. Freed said, and the pressure on companies has not relented since.

By: Ella Koeze·Data delayed at least 15 minutes·Source: FactSet

U.S. stocks climbed on Friday, rebounding from a drop on Thursday that had followed reports that the Biden administration was considering nearly doubling capital gains taxes and other taxes on the rich to fund child care and education projects.

Friday’s gains came as investors heard more good news about the American economy, with readings on the manufacturing and services sectors showing growth, and home sales data indicating that sales are at their highest level since 2006.

Most European stock indexes were lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.2 percent even as data showed an improvement in manufacturing and services industries across the eurozone.

The S&P 500 climbed 1 percent, recouping its drop from Thursday. The Nasdaq composite climbed more than 1 percent.

  • Bitcoin slid nearly 9 percent on Friday, continuing its drop from a record hit earlier this month. The cryptocurrency topped out above $63,000 per coin in mid-April, and was trading at around $49,800 on Friday morning — a drop of more than 20 percent.

  • Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, was down as much as 2 percent in early trading before it rebounded to climb about 2 percent on Friday.

  • The bill for Britain’s pandemic response is starting to become clear: In the 12 months through March, government borrowing was 303.1 billion pounds (about $421 billion), up from £57 billion the previous year, according to an estimate by the Office for National Statistics. It’s the most since records began in 1947. And at 14.5 percent of G.D.P., it’s the highest since the end of World War II.

  • As tax receipts fell, the government spent hundreds of billions of pounds on emergency support programs, including furlough. But the borrowing estimate is still smaller than previously forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent fiscal watchdog.

  • Retail sales in Britain rose 4.9 percent in March, far outpacing economists’ forecasts for a 2 percent increase, separate data showed, while the manufacturing and services industry also picked up further in April.

A bitcoin ATM in an Istanbul shopping mall. Many Turks have turned to cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation.Credit…Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images

A cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey suspended operations this week amid accusations of fraud, freezing an estimated $2 billion in investors’ money, and authorities said they were seeking the company’s founder.

Turkish authorities raided offices in Istanbul associated with Thodex, a cryptocurrency trading platform, on Friday morning and arrested more than 60 people, the private news agency Demiroren reported.

Thodex’s 27-year-old founder, Faruk Fatih Ozer, left Turkey for Albania on Tuesday, Turkish authorities said, who added that they were seeking his extradition.

The cryptocurrency firm has nearly 400,000 active users whose accounts were nominally worth a total of $2 billion, according to Oguz Evren Kilic, a lawyer in Ankara who is representing Thodex investors. If their money has gone missing, the losses would add another element of instability to Turkey’s already shaky economy.

Living standards in Turkey suffer from double-digit inflation and a wobbly currency. Though cryptocurrencies are inherently risky, many Turks have turned to them as a way to protect their savings as the Turkish lira lost more than one-quarter of its value against the dollar in the last year.

Last week, Turkey’s central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies for purchases, citing the “significant risks” involved.

Thodex had promoted itself with ads that featured female Turkish celebrities dressed in bright red outfits and draped over a highly polished black automobile.

“For sure the economic situation has an affect on this,” Mr. Kilic, the lawyer, said in an interview. “In such times of crisis, people want to diminish the loss of value of the assets they have.”

The sagging lira has raised the cost of imported goods and fueled inflation, leading to a steady erosion in living standards. In March, the annual rate of inflation was 16 percent, according to official figures, which many economists say understate the true rate.

In a statement on Thodex’s website, Mr. Ozer, the firm’s founder, insisted he had left the country merely to consult with foreign investors and would return. He said the accusations were a “smear campaign” and blamed the shutdown of the trading platform on a cyberattack.

Thodex “has not victimized anyone,” he said, adding that only about 30,000 accounts “have a suspicious situation.”

Mr. Kilic noted that none of Thodex’s customers could gain access to their accounts. “If you cannot access the account, then you are a victim,” he said.

On Twitter, people reacted to a statement from Thodex with crying face emojis. “There are people who trust and invest everything in you,” one user wrote.

Volkswagen’s new electric ID.4. The company is investing $80 billion to develop E.V.s.Credit…Bryan Derballa for The New York Times

As many as 100 new electric vehicle models are coming to showrooms by 2025 as automakers insist we’re “this close” to an E.V. tipping point.

But outside of Tesla, the American record for sales of an electric vehicles is the mere 30,200 Leafs that Nissan sold in 2014. A single gasoline sport utility vehicle, the Toyota RAV4, finds well over 400,000 annual buyers, compared with roughly 250,000 sales last year for all E.V.s combined — 200,000 of which were Teslas, Lawrence Ulrich reports for The New York Times.

Globally, Volkswagen is poised to pass Tesla as the world’s biggest electric vehicle seller as early as next year, according to Deutsche Bank, with Europe and China its key markets. In the United States, where the brand remains an underdog, VW and other legacy automakers are concentrating fire on the sales fortress of compact S.U.V.s.

The latest electric-S.U.V. hopefuls to reach showrooms are the VW ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volvo XC40 Recharge. The Nissan Ariya, BMW iX and Cadillac Lyriq are set to arrive between late 2021 and next March.

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Amsterdam, Brussels wager on doughnut economics amid Covid disaster

Amsterdam, Brussels bet on doughnut economics amid Covid crisis

The streets of Amsterdam are empty as the lockdown continues due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on April 12, 2020 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Soccrates Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – More and more cities are turning to a donut-shaped economic model to recover from the coronavirus crisis and reduce the risk of future shocks.

British economist and author of Donut Economics, Kate Raworth believes it is only a matter of time before the concept is adopted nationally.

At the beginning of April last year, the Dutch capital Amsterdam was the first city in the world to officially implement the donut economy. She started the initiative at a time when the country had one of the world’s highest death rates from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Amsterdam city government said at the time it hoped to recover from the crisis and avoid future crises by taking a city portrait of the donut theory.

As pointed out in Raworth’s 2017 book, the donut economy aims to “act as a compass for human progress” and transform the degenerative economy of the last century into the regenerative economy of this century.

“The compass is a donut, the kind with a hole in the middle. While that sounds ridiculous, it’s the only donut that actually turns out to be good for us,” Raworth told CNBC over the phone.

Their goal is to ensure that no one misses the essence of life, from food and water to social justice to political voice, while ensuring that humanity does not destroy the earth’s life support systems such as a stable climate and fertile soils.

For so many people, it would be very good news if a successful donut in Amsterdam means other cities, countries and institutions will apply the theory.

Marieke van Doorninck

Deputy Mayor of the City of Amsterdam

Using a simple diagram of a donut, Raworth suggests that the outer ring represents the Earth’s environmental ceiling – a place where the collective use of resources is detrimental to the planet. The inner ring represents a number of internationally agreed minimum social standards. The space in between, known as the “sweet spot of mankind”, is the donut.

“We want to make sure everyone has the basic resources they need to live a life of dignity, community, and opportunity. Don’t leave anyone in the middle,” Raworth said.

The model previously praised by Pope Francis has reasserted attention in the global health crisis.

Scientists advocating a new approach argue that the current economic system is sacrificing both people and the environment at a time when everything from changing weather patterns to rising sea levels is global and unprecedented.

The ‘aha’ moment

The Donut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) began working with Amsterdam policymakers in December 2019 to shrink the global concept of the donut into a city model, Raworth said. The municipality then officially adopted the model on April 8, 2020.

“We initially had some doubts about the timing,” Marieke van Doorninck, deputy mayor of the city of Amsterdam, told CNBC.

“However, it turned out that people were also craving ideas on how to rebuild our economy after the crisis. Our circular strategy is a tool to ensure that we don’t go back to normal but look forward to a path to improve our economy shape.” different.”

A general view shows the ongoing construction of the Dhaka Metro Rail project in Dhaka on March 16, 2021.

MUNIR UZ ZAMAN | AFP | Getty Images

Within six weeks of the Amsterdam announcement, Raworth told CNBC that policymakers in Copenhagen, Denmark had started exploring the concept. The Belgian capital, Brussels, accepted the donut in late September, while the Canadian city of Nanaimo voted for it in December.

According to Raworth, many more cities around the world are in contact with DEAL every week, and work continues with partners in Costa Rica, India, Bangladesh, Zambia and Barbados, among others.

“The city of Amsterdam has always been a pioneer city. It loves to be a pioneer, which is a brilliant attribute because there are many cities that will not lead. They will only follow when they see someone go,” said Raworth.

“It’s not going to work to have three, four, five separate strategies that are all trying to connect. When they came across the concept of the donut, I know they were like, ‘Ah, this is a concept that is over Everything stands and includes everything, it’s what we want to do. ‘”

Van Doorninck, who is responsible for spatial development and sustainability in the Dutch capital, said the city’s circular strategy focuses on areas where local government “can really make a difference”.

These areas include food and organic waste streams, consumer goods and the built environment. As a result, the city has targeted a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030 and has taken measures to make it easier for residents to consume less (by setting up easily accessible and well-functioning thrift stores and repair services over the next three years) and urged construction companies to build with sustainable materials.

Historic center of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

serts | E + | Getty Images

“We are very proud to be a role model for other cities and we are (happy) to get the message across,” said van Doorninck.

“Nothing is as successful as success. It would be very good news for so many people if a successful donut in Amsterdam means that other cities, countries and institutions will apply the theory.”

‘Rethinking old economic mantras’

About five months after Amsterdam bet its recovery after Covid on the donut, the Brussels region officially adopted the model and used it as a portrait for the city’s transition to a sustainable and thriving economy.

Barbara Trachte, State Secretary for the Brussels Region, told CNBC that a key feature of the Brussels donut is its “deeply participatory dynamic”.

Trachten, who is responsible for economic change and scientific research in the Brussels region, said the model embodied a “paradigm shift” and helped shape the region’s efforts to look at the economy differently.

“I think people understand the power of donut theory to rethink the old economic mantras,” she said. “It gives them a positive boost, a kind of ‘let’s do it’ attitude that can move mountains. And if the Brussels region can help lead the way, so much the better.”

Despite the coronavirus crisis, people are enjoying a warm Saturday afternoon in Brussels, Belgium on February 20, 2021.

Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Raworth said there was something about the dynamism, size, and energy of a city that might explain why those areas are more open to experimentation with new ideas. In Britain, at least, there is also a sense of local civic pride, which means people are more proud to say the city they belong to than the nation they live in, she said.

“There’s something about a city’s visibility, too. You can see what happens when the city’s policymakers paint yellow lines on the streets and move car lanes onto bike lanes. You can see this change,” she added.

When asked if she believed the donut model would soon be adopted nationally, Raworth replied, “Yes, I do.”

“All that happens is because in one place people saw it and said, ‘We think this might be useful for us.’ So it’s all drawn by local change makers, “she continued.

“We go where the energy is and it is absorbed. We know the power of peer inspiration. When Amsterdam starts, it will trigger this interest in many places.”

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Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Problem: Finish the Coronavirus Disaster Quicker

Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Challenge: End the Coronavirus Crisis Faster

He added, “It’s going to make a huge difference in people’s lives, and it already has.”

But the risks remain. For the economy to recover fully, Americans need to feel confident that they can shop, travel, entertain, and work again. Regardless of how much money the government pumps into the economy, the rebound could be from the emergence of new variants, the reluctance of some Americans to get vaccinated, and sporadic adherence to social distancing guidelines and other measures in the coming weeks Public Health Faltering A critical mass of Americans are being vaccinated.

“We are very careful about our expectations for the pace” of economic recovery, said Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “Part of that is putting confidence in the American people that we contain the virus and that it is safe, and then economic activity will pick up.”

Americans must also be willing to change their habits. With the decline in new infections, coronavirus tests have also decreased. However, public health experts say more tests – not fewer – will be critical to the recovery of the economy. When Mr. Biden ran for office and was sworn in again, he vowed to create a “pandemic test board,” similar to the war production board that President Franklin D. Roosevelt created to help the country out of the Great Depression. Mr Biden described the approach as an “all-out war effort”.

Its coronavirus testing coordinator, Carole Johnson, said the board, made up of officials from various government agencies, met to discuss how to work with the private sector to expand testing capacity and develop plans with $ 10 billion could be spent on the stimulus bill on testing and other mitigation measures.

“We know we need to keep growing in the future,” she said of the nation’s testing capacity.

Mr Biden made great promises in pushing his American bailout plan for swift passage in Congress this month.

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Politics

Pelosi calls kids arriving at U.S.-Mexico border a ‘humanitarian disaster’

Pelosi calls children arriving at U.S.-Mexico border a ‘humanitarian crisis’

House Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks to the media during a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 11, 2021.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said Sunday the influx of unaccompanied children on the US-Mexico border was a “humanitarian crisis” and the result of former President Donald Trump’s policies.

Pelosi’s remarks came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would begin housing and transferring children arriving at the southern border.

“The Biden administration is trying to fix the broken system that was left to them by the Trump administration,” Pelosi told reporters on Sunday. “The Biden government will have a system based on doing the best possible job and understanding that this is a humanitarian crisis.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has stopped calling the situation on the border a crisis.

On his first day in office, Biden put an end to Trump’s declaration of an “emergency” on the southern border that the former president had used as a legal mechanism to divert additional funds towards building a wall.

During a press conference at the White House earlier this month, Mayorka told reporters that he did not believe the situation at the border was a crisis.

“The answer is no,” said the DHS secretary. “I think there is a challenge at the border that we manage and we have put our resources into it.”

Biden campaigned for a sweeping reversal of Trump’s tough immigration policies, but a growing number of children in customs and border protection has challenged the burgeoning administration.

More than 3,700 children have been in CBP detention since last week, a record number, with around 450 arrested daily, according to CNN. Many of these children are being held in facilities similar to prisons, according to the outlet.

The Trump administration has been screened for its treatment of children trying to enter the US via Mexico.

The Republicans have tried to portray the Democrats as low immigration. On Monday, House minority chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Is due to travel to the southern border with a delegation of Republicans, Axios reported.

McCarthy wrote a letter to Biden on March 5 saying he felt “compelled to express great concern about the way your administration is approaching this crisis,” adding that he “had the hope that we can work together to solve them “.

On the previous Sunday, Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week” that the increase in unaccompanied children arriving at the border was “a humanitarian challenge for all of us”.

“What the government has inherited is a broken system on the border and they are working to correct that in the interests of the children,” Pelosi said.

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World News

Oil producers to assessment provide cuts amid Covid disaster

Oil producers to review supply cuts amid Covid crisis

LONDON – A group of some of the world’s most powerful oil-producing countries will discuss the next phase of production policy on Thursday amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Ministers representing OPEC and non-OPEC partners, an energy alliance sometimes referred to as OPEC +, have met via video conference to decide whether to increase crude oil production or keep it stable. A press conference is planned after the end of the meeting.

Analysts broadly believe that OPEC + will reverse some of the production cuts it made last year, although oil prices have risen on speculation that the group may choose not to increase supply.

The international benchmark’s Brent crude oil futures were trading at $ 65.33 a barrel in the early afternoon, up around 2%, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $ 62.48 and were thus 1.9% higher.

Crude oil futures have risen to pre-virus levels in recent weeks, driven by significant production cuts at OPEC + and the mass rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in many high-income countries.

OPEC de facto leader Saudi Arabia has publicly encouraged Allied partners to be “extremely cautious” about production policies and warned the group against complacency in order to ensure a full recovery in the oil market.

The non-OPEC leader Russia, meanwhile, announced that it would press ahead with a supply hike and last month claimed the market had already balanced out.

Energy analysts told CNBC earlier this week that OPEC + is expected to bring up to 1.3 million barrels a day back to market in April and possibly beyond.

Oil pumps, also known as “nodding donkeys”, are reflected in a puddle when they operate in an oil field near Almetyevsk, Russia on Sunday, August 16, 2020.

Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Thursday that reserve oil capacity was the group’s “biggest challenge”.

“I understand that it’s not just April that they’re talking about. (Saudi Arabia says) essentially to everyone, ‘Look, it’s April and May.’ Just like in January when they discussed the results in February and March, “said Sen.

Saudi Arabia knows that oil producers like Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates are ready to pump more oil into the market, she continued. However, Riyadh remains “laser-focused” to bring global oil stocks down to the industry five-year average and will therefore urge the group to reverse the cuts by May.

“Substantially different views and interests”

OPEC + initially agreed to cut oil production by a record 9.7 million barrels a day last year, before slashing cuts to 7.7 million and eventually 7.2 million from January.

OPEC King Saudi Arabia has since made voluntary cuts of 1 million from early February to March.

“The meetings that are characteristic of the typical departments within OPEC + will be a passionate debate, reflecting fundamentally different views and interests. Saudi Arabia remains the core force behind the market management strategy and is by far the most cautious of all member states,” said Saudi Arabia the analysts at Eurasia Group said in a research note.

“Complex and contradicting dynamics that have emerged in the past few days will make decision-making difficult, but overall the most likely outcome is a taper of about 1 million bpd, which includes a partial reversal of the previous 1 million bpd cut by Saudi Arabia would. “

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – 06/20/2018: The OPEC logo can be seen in the building of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna. The 174th OPEC meeting will take place on June 22, 2018 in Vienna. (Photo by Omar Marques / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo stressed the need to remain cautious as several ministers pushed for production quotas to be eased.

He warned that the Covid crisis still poses downside risks to the global economy and the distribution of vaccines that benefit the world’s richest nations could lead to an uneven recovery.

“The speculation is that Saudi Arabia might actually surprise the market by failing to return its two-month unilateral cuts of 1 million barrels / day it is holding from February to March 2021,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB, in a note.

“We assume that OPEC + will increase production by 1 to 1.5 million Bl / day in April 2021. If the group only grows by 1 million Bl / day, it would mean that Saudi Arabia unilaterally more than its fair share of the market withholding strain to further prop up the market, “added Schieldrop.

Categories
Health

Cuomo faces political disaster attributable to Covid dying probe, bullying accusations

Cuomo faces political crisis due to Covid death probe, bullying accusations

Governor Andrew Cuomo holds a daily press conference at the base of the Mario Cuomo Bridge in Tarrytown, New York on June 15, 2020.

Lev Radin | Pacific Press | LightRocket via Getty Images

What a difference a few months have made for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo – and not in a good way.

Cuomo was hailed last year by many who viewed him as a competent, scientifically respectful, no-nonsense, fatherly counterpoint to Donald Trump’s direct, expertly despicable, and often confusing approach to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo’s daily press conferences, detailing the gritty Covid-19 stats in New York and urging citizens to take precautions against infection, became a must-see TV for weeks, as did his towel joke in interviews with the CNN presenter Chris Cuomo – his own brother.

As a result, it was discussed again that Cuomo, whose father Mario worried about running for president, earned him the sobriety of “Hamlet on the Hudson,” being a candidate for the Democratic White House nomination in 2024 would, or some position in the federal government before that.

Cuomo even landed a contract to write a book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic, which was published in October – even as the crisis continued to threaten his own state and elsewhere.

But it is Cuomo’s management approach to the health crisis that has created a political crisis in his administration that threatens his electoral future.

Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers died in nursing homes during the pandemic. Your loved ones and the public deserve responses and transparency from their elected leadership.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez MP

DN.Y.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently conducting a criminal investigation into nursing home deaths in New York related to the coronavirus. This was announced this week. The disclosure of this probe came weeks after New York attorney general Letitia James said deaths related to these hires were underreported by the Cuomo administration by up to 50%.

And Cuomo is also facing an effort in the state legislature to deprive him of his emergency powers, a push fueled by resentment at the governor’s verbal armament against lawmakers who stand in his way.

There is even talk of indicting Cuomo.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democrat whose district includes parts of Queens and the Bronx in New York, issued a statement Friday approving requests from other elected officials for a “full investigation into government’s dealings with.” Nursing Homes During the Pandemic “joined. “

Ocasio-Cortez also said she supports “our state’s return to equal governance,” an indication of Cuomo’s years of dominance in the legislature.

“Thousands of New Yorkers at risk were killed in nursing homes during the pandemic,” she said. “Your loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership.”

An excuse, a probe

The contrast between Cuomo’s current situation and last fall was vividly illustrated last week when he left the White House without speaking to reporters after speaking to President Joe Biden and other governors and others at the White House about fighting pandemics and vaccinations had spoken to Mayor.

If that meeting had happened last summer, it would be unlikely that Cuomo would have missed the opportunity to share his thoughts on the seat with journalists.

That meeting, however, followed a report in the New York Post that Cuomo’s top adviser Melissa DeRosa recently apologized to Democratic lawmakers for holding back the Covid death count in government nursing homes last year while Trump was still president fear that the statistics will be “used against us” by federal prosecutors.

That excuse apparently raised the prosecutors’ antennas itself.

On Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York had requested data on deaths in nursing homes related to Covid.

The request is “part of a broader investigation into how the state is dealing with the pandemic in these care facilities,” according to sources speaking to The Journal.

A source for the article said the data request came after DeRosa’s apology was reported.

Families of Covid victims and Republican lawmakers in New York last year criticized Cuomo for an order from the state Department of Health requiring nursing homes to withdraw their residents even if they were discharged from a hospital with Covid.

These critics accuse these policies of accelerating the spread of the virus in nursing homes.

Cuomo, whose press office did not immediately respond to a request from CNBC for comment, said this week, “My health experts do not believe it was wrong and we have gone through all the facts multiple times.”

The governor also said he had followed instructions from two leading federal agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“If we believed it was wrong we would say we believe it is wrong and we made a mistake by following the CDC and CMS guidelines and then I would be the federal government because of Sue for misconduct related to their CDC and CMS policies, “Cuomo said.

“Classic Andrew Cuomo”

On Tuesday, nine Democratic members of the State Assembly sent their colleagues a letter accusing Cuomo of deliberately obstructing the judiciary in violation of federal criminal law. That letter called on the gathering to withdraw the government’s emergency powers granted it last year as the pandemic spread.

“This is a necessary first step in correcting the criminal injustice of this governor and his government,” said the letter, which was signed by Honorable Ron Kim from Queens.

Kim said this week, after being quoted in a New York Post article for criticizing the withholding of data from nursing homes, he received an angry phone call from Cuomo on Feb.11.

“You didn’t see my anger,” Cuomo Kim warned, according to lawmakers. “They will be destroyed,” said the governor, according to Kim.

Kim also told the Post that the governor said, “I can tell the whole world what a bad person you are and you will be done.”

In an interview with NBC New York, Kim said, “He spent 10 minutes calling me names, yelling at me, threatening me and my career, my livelihood.”

Kim’s wife, who allegedly overheard Cuomo for cursing MPs so loudly, was so shocked by the governor’s threats that she “didn’t sleep that night,” said Kim.

Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi told The Post that Kim “lied about his conversation with Governor Cuomo”.

“I know because I was one of three other people in the room when the call came,” Azzopardi said, according to The Post.

“At no point did anyone threaten to ‘destroy’ someone with their ‘anger’ or to engage in a ‘cover-up’.” “

Kim had not backed off with his claims.

Kim appeared on ABC’s “The View” on Friday and said, “Cuomo is an abuser.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who often has a whipping boy for Cuomo, told MNBC’s “Morning Joe” show that the call to Kim was “classic Andrew Cuomo”.

“A lot of people in New York State got these calls, you know, bullying is nothing new,” said de Blasio.

“I believe Ron Kim, and it’s very, very sad – no officer, no person telling the truth should be treated like that.”

Categories
World News

A ‘Masculinity Disaster’? China Says the Boys Are Not All Proper

A ‘Masculinity Crisis’? China Says the Boys Are Not All Right

HONG KONG – Government officials in China believe that boys want to get more feminine and make them tougher.

In a recent attempt to address what academics and news outlets call the “masculinity crisis”, the Ministry of Education has proposed emphasizing the “spirit of yang” or masculine attributes by recruiting more physical education teachers and redesigning physical education in elementary and secondary schools.

The plan, in response to a top official’s call to “prevent the feminization of male youth,” was released last week. It did not include a timeline and a few other details, but it caused an outcry online and still sparked heated debates on social media. A hashtag was displayed 1.5 billion times on Weibo, a popular microblogging platform.

Some social media users supported the proposal with a letter: “It is hard to imagine that such female boys could defend their country when an outside invasion threatens.” However, others saw evidence of sexual discrimination and the persistence of gender stereotypes.

Even state news media appeared to be questioning the ministry’s proposal. CCTV, the state broadcaster, wrote on its Weibo account on Saturday: “Education is not just about cultivating ‘men’ and ‘women’. It is more important to develop a willingness to take responsibility. “

The broadcaster also offered a loose rendition of yang, writing, “Men display ‘the spirit of yang’ in posture, mind and physique, which is a kind of beauty, but ‘the spirit of yang’ does not simply mean ‘masculine behavior’. ‘”

In recent years, as the country has sought to strengthen its military and expect spoiled children, mostly boys, born under its one-child policy, a stricter notion of masculinity has emerged. TV censors have blurred the pierced ears of male pop stars. Well-groomed actors have been publicly ridiculed as “little fresh meat”, and parents have enrolled boys in bootcamps in the hopes that they will become “real men.”

The Ministry of Education’s plan is in response to a proposal made in May by Si Zefu, a senior delegate to the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Referring to the “Proposal to Prevent Feminization of Male Adolescents”, Mr. Si said that “many, many more” men should be hired as physical education teachers to exercise “male influence” in schools.

In a statement, Mr. Si said the proliferation of female teachers in kindergartens and elementary schools and the popularity of “handsome boys” in pop culture made boys “weak, inferior and shy”. He also lamented that boys no longer wanted to become war heroes, warning that such a trend could endanger the Chinese people.

Last year, Xinhua, a state-run news agency, reported on the gender imbalance of physical education teachers and the difficulty of luring men into the low-paying profession that is currently dominated by women. In the past, the state news media have also blamed video games, masturbation and sedentary lifestyle as a result of many young men being unsuitable for the military.

Mark Ma, an 18-year-old high school student in Shenzhen, said he welcomed a revision of physical education but didn’t think it would have a big impact on masculinity shaping.

“Physical education at junior high definitely needs to be improved as a lot of people don’t care. They only care about academics, ”he said. “I remember a lot of classmates who sat on the sidelines during physical education class and did their homework.”

He added that he did not believe that “physical education teachers are very important in schools; These new guidelines and better benefits could attract more people to this area. “

Regarding the generation of the “spirit of yang” in boys, he said, “I think the main focus is on increasing physical strength, and what they mean by“ manhood ”is unclear.” He added, “I think , it is more important to get away from education and daily habits. Personally, I don’t think using this label is going to have much of an impact on physical education habits. “

While the Ministry of Education’s new plan did not specifically provide for different treatment of boys and girls, educators like Liu Wenli, a professor at Beijing Normal University and an expert in health and sex education, see some dangers. Ms. Liu said that even referring to the “feminization of youthful males” based on their gender expression, identity, or sexual orientation could lead to more student bullying.

“Educators cannot call for bullying prevention in schools while tending to school bullying soil,” she wrote of Weibo.

While some Chinese high schools segregate students based on physical ability and others allow them to choose their sport classes, most elementary school sport classes are mixed. But fitness classes are increasingly viewed by officials as a solution to the perceived problem of weak boys.

Chunxiao Li, a university researcher studying inclusive sports, said over the phone on Thursday that it was important to create an inclusive environment. “Excessive emphasis on masculinity, femininity or physical disabilities actually has a detrimental effect on the diversity and inclusiveness of society,” he said. “It can create a label or a stereotype.”

Dr. Li said physical education teachers should ultimately focus on developing a well-rounded student.

Elsie Chen contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Politics

Biden Inherits Household Separation Disaster From Trump

Biden Inherits Family Separation Crisis From Trump

“I can’t wait for the day I wake up from this nightmare,” said 34-year-old Xiomara, who spoke on condition that she could only be identified by her first name for security reasons.

One of her last acts of motherhood was bathing and dressing her daughter after she heard from border officials that Briselda, then 8, was being taken away. She said she watched helplessly as officers escorted Briselda to a number of children, most of whom were crying and waiting to get into a van that drove to the airport.

For her daughter’s safety, Xiomara said she preferred Briselda to stay in the United States with her family rather than return to her in El Salvador. They’re in regular contact on WhatsApp, she said, but the removal has taken an emotional toll, and Xiomara has battled depression and recently started seeing a therapist.

Others, despite their reunification, continue to suffer from the effects.

Fifteen days passed before Oscar, a Honduran immigrant imprisoned in McAllen, Texas, heard from his then eight-year-old son Daniel, from whom he had been separated.

“I felt angry. I went crazy, ”recalls Oscar, 35, who spoke on condition that he could only be identified by his middle name.

On one tearful phone call, his son announced that he was living in a Houston animal shelter. The father and son were reunited after 33 days by order of a judge and moved to Charlotte, NC

Since then, Oscar has grappled with how to help his son, whom he described as “not the same boy since we split up”. Daniel runs away when he sees someone in police uniform and wakes up at night screaming, Oscar said.

Categories
Business

How the Biden Administration Can Assist Resolve Our Actuality Disaster

How the Biden Administration Can Help Solve Our Reality Crisis

It sounds a little dystopian, I’ll admit that. But let’s listen to it.

Currently, according to these experts, the federal government’s response to disinformation and domestic extremism is arbitrary, spread across multiple agencies, and there is a lot of unnecessary overlap.

Renée DiResta, disinformation researcher at Stanford Internet Observatory, identified two seemingly unrelated problems: misinformation about Covid-19 and misinformation about election fraud.

Often times, she said, the same people and groups are responsible for spreading both types. Instead of two parallel processes – one in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which aims to contain conspiracy theories related to Covid, and one in the federal election commission, which seeks to correct misinformation during voting – a centralized task force could do one only coordinate. strategic answer.

“If each of them does this on their own and independently, there is a risk of missing links, both in terms of content and in terms of the tactics used to run the campaigns,” Ms. DiResta said.

This task force could also meet regularly with technology platforms and push for structural changes that could help these companies address their own extremism and misinformation problems. (For example, it could formulate “safe haven” exceptions that would allow platforms to share data on QAnon and other conspiracy theory communities with researchers and government agencies without violating privacy laws.) And it could be the tip of the spear for them Response of the Federal Government to the Reality Crisis.

Several experts recommended the Biden administration to bring much more transparency into the inner workings of the black box algorithms that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other major platforms use to rate feeds, recommend content and introduce users to private groups, many of whom do doing was responsible for reinforcing conspiracy theories and extremist views.

“We need to open the hood on social media to allow civil rights lawyers and real surveillance organizations to investigate human rights abuses that technology is enabling or exacerbating,” said Dr. Donovan.