Tag: Orders

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Health

China orders Wuhan mass testing, Beijing restrictions as Covid delta spreads

China orders Wuhan mass testing, Beijing restrictions as Covid delta spreads

Residents of Wuhan city in China’s Hubei province queue to take nucleic acid tests for Covid-19 on August 3, 2021.

STR | AFP | Getty Images

China is facing pockets of resurgence in major cities from Beijing to Wuhan, and authorities have imposed mass testing and widespread travel restrictions in some areas.

Daily Covid-19 cases are rising again as the delta variant spreads across the country.

China’s National Health Commission said it confirmed 96 Covid cases on Wednesday — the third straight day it reported 90 cases and above. Of the newly confirmed cases, 71 were locally transmitted, said the health commission.

Economists are concerned that a strict government clampdown on movements could hurt the economy — the only major economy to grow last year.

“China has shown before that it is willing to take tough action to control Covid, and we don’t doubt that it will do so again this time,” Robert Carnell, regional head of Asia-Pacific research at Dutch bank ING, said in a note on Wednesday.

“Tough restrictions on movement and travel already in place will likely bring the desired results. But the delta variant is a particularly slippery little critter, and the concern for us, and we imagine, many others, is how quickly this will occur, and at what economic cost in the meantime,” he added.

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When Covid-19 first emerged in the country in late 2019, authorities used strict lockdowns and mass testing to control the nationwide outbreak.

Since then, Chinese authorities have clamped down hard on any flare-ups in Covid infections. The latest spread of the more transmissible Covid delta variant has again led authorities to tighten containment measures across the country.

State media Xinhua News Agency reported that authorities have urged people to limit travel and avoid gatherings, as well as suspended some flights, trains and long-distance bus services.

The capital of Beijing imposed strict entry and exit controls on Sunday and is said to be at a “critical stage” of epidemic control after cases rose late July for the first time in months, Xinhua reported.

Wuhan city, where the coronavirus first emerged, will test all its residents for Covid new cases emerged, the news agency said.

As of July 20, more than 17 million doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in Wuhan, and the vaccination rate of those 18 years and above hit 77.63%, according to the Wuhan municipal health commission.

‘Slow patch’ in China’s economy

China’s economic recovery has been uneven, with exports-oriented sectors driving most of the growth while domestic consumption has been slower to return.  

The resurgence in Covid-19 infections and the latest containment measures would delay a recovery in Chinese household spending, said Sian Fenner, lead Asia economist at consultancy Oxford Economics.

“The geographical spread of the delta variant is going to be concerning the Chinese authorities. We’ve already seen that they have a very low tolerance towards, you know, even a relatively small flare up,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.

“We had hoped that with the increase in vaccination rates, that would actually improve that service consumption, but it looks like we’re in for another sort of slow patch going forward and … the delayed recovery in household spending,” she added.

Fenner said she’s maintaining her full-year growth forecast of 8.4% for China for now. That’s slightly higher than the International Monetary Fund’s projected growth of 8.1% in China.

— CNBC’s Weizhen Tan contributed to this report.

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World News

Antitrust regulator orders Tencent Music to surrender music label rights

Antitrust regulator orders Tencent Music to give up music label rights

Photo illustration of the logo of Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), a Chinese company that develops music streaming services.

Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA pictures | LightRocket via Getty Images

The Chinese antitrust authorities have ordered Tencent to give up its exclusive music licensing rights with international record labels and fined the company as Beijing continues to crack down on its internet giants at home.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Saturday fined the company 500,000 yuan ($ 77,141) for violating the regulations when it acquired China Music in 2016.

In response, Tencent said it would abide by the regulator’s decision and “meet all regulatory requirements, meet our social responsibilities and contribute to healthy competition in the market.”

It comes as Beijing continues to crack down on its domestic tech companies that have grown into some of the most valuable companies in the world. The crackdown in recent months has ranged from the Ant Group’s $ 34.5 billion initial public offering suspension last year to Alibaba’s $ 2.8 billion antitrust fine.

In April, the SAMR called 34 companies, including Tencent and ByteDance, and ordered them to conduct self-inspections to comply with antimonopoly rules.

This is the latest news. Please check again for updates.

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Politics

Choose orders Biden administration to cease approving new DACA purposes

Judge orders Biden administration to stop approving new DACA applications

A federal judge in southern Texas on Friday ordered the Biden administration to stop granting new applications to the Obama-era immigration program that shielded hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

The order declared that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was “created in violation of the law and whose existence violates the law.”

But current recipients of DACA won’t immediately have their status pulled as a result of the order, the judge noted.

The ruling, which puts in jeopardy the program that President Joe Biden had sought to preserve, came as news outlets reported arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border hitting their highest levels in more than a decade.

Former President Donald Trump had sought to end DACA, but his effort was blocked in 2020 by the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 that his order to wind the program down was unlawfully “arbitrary and capricious.”

In a five-page order Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen declared, “From this date forward, the United States of America, its departments, agencies, officers, agents, and employees are hereby enjoined from administering the DACA program.”

Those entities are also barred from reimplementing the program without compliance with another law that governs federal regulatory procedure, Hanen’s order said.

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The judge’s order said that the DACA program, created in 2012 through a policy memorandum from then-President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, was “illegally implemented.”

But since hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients now rely on DACA, Hanen’s order reasoned that “it is not equitable for a government program that has engendered such significant reliance to terminate suddenly.”

“Nothing in this injunction should be read as ordering DHS or any other governmental entity to cancel or otherwise terminate DACA status for any individual who currently is, as of this date, a DACA recipient in good standing,” Hanen wrote.

“Further, nothing in this injunction requires DHS or the Department of Justice to take any immigration, deportation, or criminal action against any DACA recipient, applicant, or any other individual that either would not otherwise take,” he wrote.

Omar Jadwat, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement that Hanen’s ruling “is wrong and is subject to appeal.”

Jadwat called on the Democrat-majority Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers” and other undocumented people in the U.S.

“Dreamers’ futures shouldn’t be in the hands of the courts,” he said.

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Health

Taiwan Orders Some Tech Employees to Keep Indoors to Sort out an Outbreak

Taiwan Orders Some Tech Workers to Stay Indoors to Tackle an Outbreak

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Officials in a county in Taiwan face a storm of criticism after banning foreign workers from going outside to eradicate a cluster of coronavirus infections among workers at several technology manufacturers.

As part of the measures announced by authorities in the central Miaoli district last week, thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Vietnam and the Philippines, will be prevented from leaving their dormitories except to travel to and from their jobs in high-tech factories. Some workers expressed concerns that conditions in the cramped dormitories, where up to six people share a room, could further spread the virus.

Other workers who were in close contact with infected colleagues were confiscated in quarantine centers. In some of these facilities, activists said workers were served spoiled food or lack of running water.

The officials did not say how long the restrictions apply. At a press conference last week, Miaoli County Magistrate Hsu Yao-chang denied complaints from migrant workers.

“They tested positive and even died from the virus,” he said. “Why talk about human rights now?”

On Friday, Miaoli County reported 26 new infections, mostly among migrant workers, bringing the total number of confirmed cases related to the factories to more than 450, according to the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. More than 300 packages were found at the hardest hit company, King Yuan Electronics, a semiconductor chip testing and packaging company.

Some workers said they understood the reasons for the restrictions, but argued that they were selecting foreign workers. Taiwanese workers, most of whom work as managers and supervisors in the factories, were allowed to come and go as they pleased, many foreign workers said.

“This is discrimination,” said John Ray Tallud, 29, a Filipino equipment engineer with King Yuan Electronics, in a telephone interview from his dormitory. “Local Taiwanese can go outside anytime.”

Throughout the pandemic, migrant workers were among the most vulnerable groups in the world. Singapore banned hundreds of thousands of low-paid foreign workers from leaving their dormitories for months after the major outbreaks last year. Rural laborers in the United States were considered indispensable and continued to work shoulder to shoulder in the fields, although many became infected.

Until recently, Taiwan was an exception – a covid-free island for most of the pandemic, with tight border controls making it difficult for companies to accept more migrant workers. As a result, union activists say the existing migrant workers – more than 700,000 workers, most from Southeast Asian countries – have gained bargaining power with their employers.

That changed with the recent outbreak. Advocates of migrant workers have criticized the Miaoli government for creating further fear and stigmatization of foreign workers. Many said the order exposed longstanding discrimination against workers who have become a vital, if largely invisible, pillar of the Taiwanese economy – especially its important high-tech industries.

“This is a clear case of injustice,” said Chang Cheng, founder of 4-Way Voice, a multilingual publication for migrant workers in Taiwan. “If we talk about Taiwan’s main industries, they couldn’t survive without these foreign workers.”

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Health

Biden Orders Intelligence Inquiry Into Origins of the Coronavirus

Biden Orders Intelligence Inquiry Into Origins of the Coronavirus

The intelligence on the three workers came from outside the United States intelligence agencies’ own collection, which means its veracity is more difficult to authenticate. The source of the information was unclear, but several American officials said they believed the report that the three researchers got sick.

American intelligence officials do not know whether the lab workers contracted Covid-19 or some other disease, like a bad flu. If they did have the coronavirus, the intelligence may suggest that they could have become sick from the lab, but it also could simply mean that the virus was circulating in Wuhan earlier than the Chinese government has acknowledged.

Also toward the end of Mr. Trump’s term, State Department officials began examining the origins of the virus and concluded that it was highly unlikely to have appeared naturally and thus was likely the product of laboratory work.

CNN first reported the effort and suggested that the group’s efforts had been shut down by the Biden administration, prompting scathing Republican criticism. A State Department spokesman, Ned Price, denied that, saying that the team’s findings were briefed to senior officials in the department’s arms control bureau in February and March.

“With the report delivered, the work was ended,” Mr. Price said.

Mr. Trump issued a statement on Tuesday boasting of his early insistence that the Wuhan lab was the source of the virus. “To me, it was obvious from the beginning,” he said. “But I was badly criticized, as usual.”

Despite the absence of new evidence, a number of scientists have lately begun speaking out about the need to remain open to the possibility that the virus had accidentally emerged from a lab, perhaps after it was collected in nature, a lab origin distinct from a creation by scientists.

“It is most likely that this is a virus that arose naturally, but we cannot exclude the possibility of some kind of a lab accident,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told senators on Wednesday.

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Politics

Biden orders nearer evaluation of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak concept

Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak theory

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.

Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden revealed that earlier this year he tasked the Intelligence Community with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”

“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement.

“Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” said the president.

Biden used the Intelligence Community’s traditional language when they provide assessments to a president. This includes explaining to the president when different agencies within the IC disagree, and always giving the president the level of confidence they have in the accuracy of the raw intelligence.

Biden issued the new directives as the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, still officially unknown, come under increasing scrutiny.

The hypothesis that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, while initially dismissed by some as a conspiracy theory, has in recent months gained more mainstream traction.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky last week said in Senate testimony that a lab-leak origin “certainly” was “one possibility.”

White House officials told reporters Tuesday that China hasn’t been “completely transparent” in the global investigation into the origins of Covid-19, and that a full investigation is needed to determine whether the virus that’s killed almost 3.5 million people came from nature or a lab.

“We need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be,” White House senior covid-19 advisor Andy Slavitt told reporters at a covid briefing Tuesday. “We need a completely transparent process from China, we need the [World Health Organization] to assist in that matter and we don’t feel like we have that now.”

The World Health Organization said in March that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus was introduced to humans through an accidental lab leak. But that report was heavily criticized by scientists who said the WHO gave the possibility of a lab accident short shrift compared with a natural-origin scenario..

“The report lacks crucial data, information, and access. It represents a partial and incomplete picture,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time when asked about WHO’s stance on Covid’s origins.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which leads the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to CNBC.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

—- CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Amanda Macias contributed to this story.

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Business

As Covid Outbreak Rages, India Orders Essential Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down

As Covid Outbreak Rages, India Orders Critical Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down

NEW DELHI – With a devastating second wave of Covid-19 across India and lifesaving oxygen starvation, the Indian government on Sunday ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove dozens of social media posts critical of how the pandemic was dealt with are .

The order addressed itself in around 100 places that contained criticism from opposition politicians and called for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government said the posts could cause panic, use images out of context and hinder their response to the pandemic.

For the time being, the companies have complied by making the posts invisible to those using the websites in India. In the past, companies have republished some content after determining that it wasn’t breaking the law.

The shutdown orders come as India’s public health crisis turns into a political spiral, setting the stage for an increasing battle between American social media platforms and Mr Modi’s government over who decides what can be said online.

On Sunday, the country reported more than 349,691 new infections and 2,767 deaths. This was the fourth day in a row that it set a world record in daily infection statistics, though experts warn that the real numbers are likely much higher. The country now accounts for almost half of all new cases worldwide. His health system seems to be fluctuating. Hospitals across the country have been working hard to get enough oxygen for patients.

In New Delhi, the capital, hospitals turned away patients this weekend after running out of oxygen and beds. Last week at least 22 patients were killed in a Nashik city hospital after a leak cut their oxygen supply.

Online photos of corpses on plywood hospital beds and the countless fires of overhauled crematoria have gone viral. Desperate patients and their families have sought help from the government online, appalling an international audience.

On Sunday evening, in one of many solicitations for help on social media, Ajay Koli took to Twitter to find an oxygen bottle for his mother in Delhi, who he said had tested positive 10 days ago. Mr Koli said he lost his father on Saturday. “I don’t want to lose my mother now.”

Mr Modi has been attacked for ignoring expert advice on the risks of easing restrictions after holding large political rallies without regard to social distancing. Some of the content now offline in India has highlighted this contradiction by using garish images to contrast Mr. Modi’s rallies with the flames of the pyre.

In a radio address on Sunday, Mr. Modi tried to contain the fallout. He said the “storm” of infections “rocked” the country.

Updated

April 25, 2021, 1:06 p.m. ET

“To win this fight, we must prioritize experts and scientific advice,” he said.

One of the out of view tweets was posted by Moloy Ghatak, a labor minister in the opposition-ruled state of West Bengal, where Mr Modi’s party hopes to make big wins in the current election. Mr. Ghatak accused Mr. Modi of “mismanagement” and held him directly responsible for the deaths. His tweet included pictures of Mr Modi and his election campaigns alongside those of the cremations and compared him to Nero, the Roman emperor for choosing to hold political meetings and export vaccines during a “health crisis”.

Another tweet from Revanth Reddy, a seated MP, used a hashtag blaming Mr. Modi for the “disaster”. “India records over 2 lakh cases daily,” it says using an Indian numbering unit which means 200,000 cases. “Shortages of vaccines, shortages of drugs, increasing numbers of deaths.”

The new steps towards the confluence of the online language deepen a conflict between American social media platforms and the government of Mr. Modi. The two sides have argued over the past few months over an urge by the Indian government to monitor what is being said online more closely. A policy that, according to critics, serves to silence critics of the government.

“This is a trend that is increasingly being enforced for online media rooms,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group. He added that the orders were used to “cause censorship” under the guise of making social media companies “more accountable”.

The battle for control of the gruesome images and online anger over a raging public health disaster is only one front in a wider conflict that is unfolding around the world. Governments around the world have tried to contain the power of the biggest tech companies like Twitter and Facebook, whose policies far from their California headquarters have huge political implications. At best, it can be difficult to untangle government efforts to deter misinformation from other motivations, such as tilting the online debate in favor of a political party.

While corporations attempt to adhere to guidelines that they say are based on the principles of free speech, their responses to government power games have been inconsistent and have often been based on business pragmatism. In Myanmar, Facebook cut ties with military-linked accounts because of violence against demonstrators. In China, Facebook is doing brisk business with government-sponsored media groups that have been busy denying the widespread internment of ethnic minorities that the US has labeled genocide.

In India, businesses are faced with a tough choice: obey laws and risk repressing political debates, or ignore them and face harsh sentences, including jail sentences for local employees, in a potentially huge growth market.

Disputes over online language in India are becoming more common. The Indian government, controlled by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has become increasingly aggressive in suppressing dissent. She has arrested activists and journalists and pressured media organizations to stick to her line. It cut off mobile internet access in crisis areas. A number of apps from Chinese companies were blocked following a stalemate with China.

In February, Twitter relented to government threats to arrest its employees and suspended 500 accounts after the government accused them of making inflammatory remarks about Mr. Modi. However, Twitter declined to remove a number of journalists ‘and politicians’ accounts, pointing out that the order to ban them appeared to be inconsistent with Indian law.

In a statement on Sunday, the Indian government said the posts it targeted were “spreading false or misleading information” and “panic over the Covid-19 situation in India through the use of unrelated, ancient and out of context images or images “. It pointed to photos in several posts that were alleged to be of bodies unrelated to the recent outbreak.

In a statement sent via email, Twitter said that if content is “found to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but doesn’t violate Twitter’s rules, we may only deny access to the content in India,” adding that in this case users would be notified. Facebook did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The moves did little to quell a wider chorus of online anger.

“If most citizens do everything they can to organize hospital beds, oxygen and logistics support for loved ones, what exactly is the Indian government doing?” wrote Mahua Moitra, a politician and MP from West Bengal.

Aftab Alam, professor at the University of Delhi, was more direct.

“Because you know it’s easier to remove tweets than to ensure oxygen supply,” he wrote on Twitter.

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Politics

White Home Weighs Govt Orders on Gun Management

White House Weighs Executive Orders on Gun Control

WASHINGTON – With Congress unlikely to move quickly on guns legislation, the White House is pushing forward plans for a series of executive orders that President Biden is expected to put in place in the coming weeks to keep pressure on the issue.

A day after Mr Biden urged the Senate to pass a ban on assault weapons and step up background checks in response to two mass shootings last week that killed 18 people, White House officials said on Wednesday that the legislation was being passed Gun safety remained a goal; it would take time, given the vehement opposition from the Republicans.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said laws were needed to make permanent changes. But she also suggested that the executive measures under consideration could be a realistic starting point.

“There is of course a lot of leverage that you can use as president and vice president,” she said.

At the moment, administrative officials have reached out to Senate Democrats to discuss three executive actions. One would classify so-called ghost guns as firearms – kits with which a weapon can be assembled from parts. Another would fund community violence intervention programs, and the third would strengthen the background control system, according to congressional assistants familiar with the talks.

The White House attorney’s office was aware that any executive action against guns will come with legal challenges and has also reviewed those actions to ensure they stand up to judicial review.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the upcoming actions. But Mr Biden is under pressure from weapons security groups to act as quickly as possible.

“If there’s one thing we’ve been into over the past year, inaction costs lives,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization dedicated to preventing gun violence. “It’s not about next week, it’s not about next month, it has to be about today. It has to be right now. “

During his campaign, Mr. Biden, a prominent proponent of the 10-year offensive weapons ban in 1994, promised to enact a general background check law banning all online firearms sales, and the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and magazines to ban high capacity.

But Mr Biden has acknowledged that he doesn’t know what legislation might be possible, even after the recent Atlanta and Boulder shootings. “I haven’t counted yet,” he said Tuesday when asked if he had the political capital to advance gun security measures.

With the National Rifle Association, once the most powerful lobby group in the country, which went bankrupt and spent more money on legal fees than fighting the White House or Congress, Mr Biden could have more room for maneuver.

Colorado shooting

Updated

March 24, 2021, 6:58 p.m. ET

Since the transition, officials in the Biden administration have met regularly with Mr. Feinblatt and other gun control advocates to discuss what actions are possible that do not require the cooperation of Congress.

Ideas they discussed include the Federal Trade Commission, which evaluates gun reports for false or misleading safety claims, the Education Department, which promotes measures to prevent students from gaining access to firearms, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Gunshot wounds must ensure reliable data tracking.

They also discussed whether to make gun violence a public health emergency – a move that would free up more funds that could be used to support community gun violence programs and enforce applicable laws.

“The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau has funds to inspect the average arms dealer every five years,” said Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a nonprofit group. “We have more arms dealers than Starbucks and McDonald’s.”

Designating gun violence as a public health crisis, Ms. Brown said, would allocate more money to allow for more regular inspections. This is a proposal that has been shared with the Biden transition teams.

What to Know About Gun Laws and Shootings in the United States

“We also talked about what can be done by agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services to motivate the health community to focus on preventive measures that can stop gun violence before it starts,” Ms. Brown said .

At the moment, one of the government’s greatest efforts has been to classify “ghost rifles” as firearms. Such a classification would require that they be serialized and subjected to background checks.

The government has also spoken to Democratic senators about its upcoming plans to fund community-based violence intervention programs. How much money is still up for debate?

During the campaign, Mr. Biden pledged to launch an eight-year $ 900 million initiative to fund evidence-based interventions in 40 cities across the country.

“There are programs in this country that do a proven job,” Ms. Brown said. “But they are drastically underfunded. We want a $ 5 billion investment in such violence intervention programs across the country. “

White House officials described a “robust interagency process” but said the proposed executive action was still ongoing.

While there are no plans for impending legislative pressure on guns from a White House dealing with crises on multiple fronts, Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continued to call legislative action imperative.

“I am not ready to give up what we must do to speak to the hearts and minds and cause of the members of the United States Senate,” Ms. Harris said in an interview with CBS This Morning on Wednesday.

“It is time for Congress to act and stop making wrong decisions,” she said. “This is not about getting rid of the second amendment. The point is simply to say that we need adequate gun safety laws. There is no reason why we have assault weapons on the streets of a civil society. They are weapons of war. They are supposed to kill a lot of people quickly. “

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Business

United Provides to Its Orders for Boeing 737 Max Planes

United Adds to Its Orders for Boeing 737 Max Planes

United Airlines announced Monday that the order for the Boeing 737 Max has been expanded to include 25 aircraft, bringing the total to 180 for the coming years, and that the delivery time has been cut to position itself for the expected recovery in travel.

The expanded contract is the latest vote of confidence in the aircraft, which has only just started flying again after two crashes left a global ground for nearly two years. This is also good news for Boeing, which is working to get out of the Max Crisis and, more recently, engine problems aboard some of its 777 aircraft.

“With these new aircraft, we can become more competitive,” said Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer. “It’s the right plane at the right time.”

United plans to deploy the jet across North America and Hawaii, replacing smaller aircraft when demand returns, Nocella said. It’s also more economical than its predecessor, a major asset for the airline as it seeks to reduce its carbon footprint. And the plane will help United resume their strategy of strengthening connections at mid-country hub airports in Houston, Chicago and Denver, he said.

“This will allow us to get back on track when we get out of the pandemic,” Nocella said.

The industry is preparing for a travel rebound once coronavirus vaccinations are widespread and the pandemic is tamed. The beleaguered 737 Max has been updated and is ready to fly again after a total of 346 people were killed in crashes in Indonesia in October 2018 and Ethiopia in March 2019.

Updated

March 1, 2021, 12:38 p.m. ET

After the second accident, the Max, a star of the Boeing fleet, was scrutinized by lawmakers, regulators and the news media around the world. In November, the Federal Aviation Administration became the first global regulator to lift a ban on the jet. Boeing and the airlines using the Max had to install software updates, change wiring, and make other changes to the aircraft before they could fly again. Regulatory agencies in other countries followed, and the Max has already performed thousands of flights.

United, which has 30 Max aircraft in its fleet, only put the aircraft back into service a few weeks ago. The airline expects 24 this year, followed by 40 next year and 54 in 2023.

The Max has a list price of more than $ 120 million, but it often sells for a cheaper price, especially on large orders. Industry analysts say airlines have the leverage to bring that price down further as slowing travel has eased the pressure to build fleets. The manufacturer has shipped more than 400 Max jets to customers since the aircraft first flew paying passengers in 2017. Almost 4,000 orders were still pending.

Unlike its competitors, United has not removed any mass aircraft from its fleet throughout the pandemic. This is part of a strategy aimed at providing maximum flexibility in restoring the trip, Nocella said. With another round of federal payroll for the industry looking likely, United will also be able to keep much of its workforce through September. Two previous rounds of federal aid have largely helped airlines avoid vacation days and layoffs.

While Monday’s order shows United is gearing up for a rebound from the trip, a significant rebound is likely still a long way off. Mr Nocella said United hopes to reach a “tipping point” by the end of the year where the tourist recovery will accelerate rapidly. At the moment, United and its peers continue to lose money every day, even as they take care of what few travelers have left.

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Business

FAA orders inspections of Boeing 777s after engine failure on United flight

FAA orders inspections of Boeing 777s after engine failure on United flight

Residents take photos of debris that fell from the engine of a United Airlines aircraft in the Broomfield neighborhood outside of Denver, Colorado on February 20, 2021. A United Airlines flight suffered a fiery engine failure shortly after taking off from Denver on Feb. 20 en route to Hawaii, where massive debris is falling on a residential area before a safe emergency landing, officials said.

Chet Strange | AFP | Getty Images

United Airlines announced on Sunday that 24 of its Boeing 777s will be temporarily decommissioned after one of the aircraft suffered an engine failure over the weekend.

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Sunday that the agency would order the inspection of some Boeing 777 jetliners powered by the same Pratt and Whitney engine, the PW4000.

The Japanese aviation authority has ordered airlines to suspend flights from aircraft with this type of engine until further notice, according to the FAA. United is the only US airline with this type of engine in its fleet, the agency added.

United Flight 328, a Boeing 777-200 bound for Honolulu, landed at Denver International Airport shortly after take-off on Saturday afternoon after the right engine failed.

No one was injured in the flight, which carried 229 passengers and 10 crew members, but debris, including part of the engine cover, fell in nearby Broomfield, Colorado.

Federal investigators said their initial investigation found two of the correct motor’s fan blades were broken.

The National Transportation Safety Board said one of the engine’s fan blades broke near its root, while another broke halfway. Other engine fan blades were also damaged, the NTSB said in an initial report late Sunday.

“We checked all available safety data after yesterday’s incident. Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval for the hollow fan blades, which applies only to this engine model, which is only used in Boeing 777 aircraft, has been extended should be, “FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement.

United has another 28 of these aircraft in its fleet that are currently in storage. Airlines parked or retired dozens of planes after demand plummeted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Engine makers Pratt and Whitney, a unit of Raytheon Technologies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Similar incidents

Such incidents are rare but have occurred in recent years.

In February 2018, another United Airlines 777-200, equipped with Pratt and Whitney PW4077 engines, suffered an engine failure over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii after a fan blade broke. This comes from an NTSB report published in June. The flight made it safely to Honolulu with 364 passengers and 10 crew members.

In April 2018, a passenger was killed when a fan blade broke off the engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, broke a window and briefly sucked the passenger outside.