Tag: progress

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Politics

Biden to Host Independence Day Occasion Celebrating Progress on the Pandemic

Biden to Host Independence Day Event Celebrating Progress on the Pandemic

While the White House once set July 4th as the date when at least 70 percent of adults would be at least partially vaccinated, officials admitted last month that they would almost certainly miss that target as vaccination rates peaked at April has fallen.

Updated

July 4, 2021, 3:27 p.m. ET

And while 20 states, Washington, DC, and two territories passed the 70 percent mark last week, the country’s overall progress has slowed significantly, with now an average of about a million doses per week. According to the New York Times, about 67 percent of adults had received at least one injection on Sunday.

The rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has also raised concerns among public health officials, who fear that new outbreaks could occur in parts of the country where vaccination rates have remained comparatively low, and that the variant could mutate to that extent vaccinated, Americans remain vulnerable.

While the pageantry at the White House will be a demonstration of normality that seemed far from likely at the start of Mr Biden’s tenure, the occasion will be marked by a reluctance seldom seen under the previous administration.

Even as new cases soared to a summer high last year, President Donald J. Trump hosted 35-minute fireworks and military flyovers on the National Mall, against the will of Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, who urged people to do so do not participate. This year’s fireworks show will be half as long, and Ms. Bowser has welcomed guests to town, encouraged by advances on vaccines.

Under Mr Trump, the White House held other large gatherings well before vaccines were approved, including two to celebrate the nomination and endorsement of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, at which he and several other attendees were believed to have been exposed and infected.

For Mr Biden, this year’s celebrations seem choreographed to signal that Americans can enjoy some measure of normalcy when they get together, even as his own public health officials continue to emphasize the importance of maintaining momentum with vaccines to have.

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Business

Public well being prof on Taiwan outbreak, vaccination progress

Public health prof on Taiwan outbreak, vaccination progress

The recent Covid-19 outbreak in Taiwan is a lesson that a containment strategy that targets zero local transmission may not be sustainable in the long term, a public health professor said Tuesday.

Before the recent explosion in cases, Taiwan had reported very few Covid infections for over a year – and most were imported. This allowed daily activities to continue largely normally and the island received international praise for its containment measures.

But it made Taiwan “completely vulnerable” to new variants of the coronavirus that are more communicable and potentially more serious, said Benjamin Cowling, professor and head of the epidemiology and biostatistics department at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health.

“Probably less than 1% of their population have a natural infection, and therefore natural immunity, and … less than 1% have been vaccinated – so they are almost entirely susceptible,” Cowling told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia.

Taiwan, with a population of around 24 million, has reported more than 8,500 confirmed Covid cases and 124 deaths as of Monday, official data showed.

It is a warning to other parts of Asia that this strategy of elimination is also trying, it is not necessarily sustainable in the long run.

Benjamin Cowling

Hong Kong University School of Public Health

Cowling said Taiwan will have a hard time controlling the recent outbreak. Authorities may need tougher social distancing measures as testing capacity hasn’t been ramped up enough and the island’s vaccination progress has been slow, he added.

“It is a warning to other parts of Asia that are also trying this elimination strategy, it is not necessarily sustainable in the long term,” said the professor.

Asian economies have generally shown lower tolerance to Covid infection compared to their competitors in other regions.

Governments in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, have been quick to tighten measures to curb small upward movements in cases. Meanwhile, countries like the US and UK are still reporting thousands of cases every day, but faster vaccination has allowed countries to lift restrictions.

Like many of its regional competitors in Asia, Taiwan faced challenges in securing Covid vaccines, Cowling said. Part of Taiwan’s hurdle is politics, the professor said.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post last week that the government had bought vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Moderna. She accused China Blocking of a deal with Germany’s BioNTech, which has developed a vaccine together with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Beijing rejects Tsai’s allegations.

China claims Taiwan as a runaway province that will one day have to be reunited with the mainland – if necessary by force. The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, which is a democratic, self-governing island.

“There are a lot of policies out there when it comes to getting vaccines into Taiwan,” Cowling said. “I think they will do it, but right now they won’t be able to vaccinate enough people to stop the current outbreak. They have to use social distancing and bans to deal with it.”

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Politics

Progress in talks with GOP senators

Progress in talks with GOP senators

United States President Joe Biden points to Senator Shelley Capito (R-WV) during an infrastructure meeting with Republican Senators at the White House in Washington on May 13, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

WASHINGTON – The bipartisan infrastructure deal that President Joe Biden seeks to reach with Republicans gained momentum this week after Biden showed his willingness to limit the scope of the bill to traditional infrastructure elements and compromise on various payment methods.

In meetings at the White House with key Democratic and Republican senators, the president made it clear that he was ready to split his mammoth infrastructure proposal, the US $ 2.3 trillion employment plan, into separate bills to cover the first part of the package to adopt bipartisan support in the Senate.

“I want to do as much as possible in a non-partisan way,” Biden said Wednesday in an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. “That means roads, bridges, broadband, all infrastructure.”

“Let’s see if we can reach an agreement to get this started and then argue over what’s left and if I can do it without a Republican,” Biden said.

The starting point for negotiations this week was the $ 568 billion Republican Roadmap infrastructure plan unveiled in April by West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, senior member of the Senate’s environmental and public works committee.

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Even before the talks began, Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell said Sunday that Republicans were ready to spend up to $ 800 billion on an infrastructure package. His remarks cabled the White House that Republicans were ready to go beyond what was set out in the roadmap.

On Thursday, six senior Republican Senators delivered the same message to Biden at an important meeting led by Moore Capito. At the outset, Biden said he was “willing to compromise”. The senators were ready to talk about anything.

The senators attending the Oval Office meeting all serve as senior members on committees responsible for infrastructure. In addition to Moore Capito, Sens. John Barrasso from Wyoming, Roy Blunt from Missouri, Mike Crapo from Idaho, Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania and Roger Wicker from Mississippi attended the meeting.

Within 90 minutes, said Moore Capito, the group discussed certain infrastructure elements and Biden asked them to come back next week with a revised offer that he could counter. The White House said Friday that Biden expects the GOP’s counter-proposal by Tuesday.

“We are very encouraged and committed to the non-partisanship that we believe is possible with this infrastructure package,” she added.

A bigger bill later

As Republicans prepare a second bid for delivery to Biden in the coming days, there is growing acceptance among Democratic lawmakers of Biden’s preference to pass a truncated, bipartisan infrastructure bill first, and then a much larger domestic spending bill, likely with no Republican votes. after that.

In addition to getting what was left out of the American employment plan, the Democrats would also seek to incorporate the second part of Biden’s domestic agenda, the $ 1.8 trillion American family plan, into a bill they passed through direct Party line would vote.

This second piece includes funding for two years of free universal Pre-K and two years of free community college, subsidizing childcare for middle class families, and expanding paid family vacation and tax credits for children. It would most likely also see tax increases for businesses and the richest Americans.

“From a Democratic perspective, what doesn’t happen now will happen later,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. “You will be able to make a big win on this bipartisan deal and get the rest of the budget vote agenda through later this year.”

“In a year from now, the public will remember that Biden started a bipartisan infrastructure deal,” said Bennett. “Nobody is going to say, ‘Well, those expenses were included in the bipartisan bill, and those parts were included in the reconciliation bill. It will all be Biden’s agenda.”

Tax issues

As Democrats get used to the idea of ​​a bipartisan deal and later a bigger bill, it will also become easier for the White House to compromise its original plan to use corporate tax increases to pay for much of its infrastructure spending.

In its place, Democrats are increasingly open to paying for a reduced infrastructure plan through a mix of sources of income, including usage fees and bonds. On Thursday, Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., Told Axios that usage fees “need to be part of the mix.”

However, the usage fees remain a sticking point. The White House said Friday that Biden would view the usage fees as a violation of his promise not to levy taxes on those who earn less than $ 400,000 a year.

Avoiding a corporate tax hike would have the benefit of having the bill backed by key industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.

Jay Timmons, CEO of NAM, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday that its members strongly support Biden’s plan to invest heavily in infrastructure. But he said increasing the corporate tax rate would do more harm than good.

“We presented other options,” said Timmons, “such as public-private partnerships, user fees and bonds to fund very large infrastructure investments.”

As you step back, you can see the outline of what a compromise law might look like, provided both Democrats and Republicans can continue to approach each other’s priorities.

This means that Republicans continue to expand the size and scope of their offering, Biden agrees to limit the bill to hard infrastructure only, and Democrats agree to fund it in other ways.

Both Biden and Republicans say they want to act quickly, and they have set Memorial Day as the informal deadline to make real progress.

That’s in a little over two weeks.

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World News

Biden has a historic alternative within the Center East to foster progress

Biden has a historic opportunity in the Middle East to foster progress

President Biden’s long experience in the Senate and White House taught him that the Middle East could be quicksand for his ambitions as president.

So it was no accident that his goals in the Middle East were modest, aimed at avoiding resource-damaging distractions from his national ambitions and international priorities: recharging the US economy and recruiting European and Asian allies to deal with China.

The old logic was that US withdrawal from Middle Eastern affairs would leave a dangerous vacuum. The new thought was that by distancing you can promote greater independence.

What surprised Biden government officials is how quickly historical opportunities have emerged. A positive series of loosely related events in the region provides the best opportunity to allay tension, end conflict, build economic progress and advance Middle East integration.

Their combined effect should be to induce the Biden government to recalibrate their “do-no-harm” approach to the region and raise their ambitions. First, it should focus on the four leading indicators of change and examine how to build on them.

  • First, the region’s two bitterest opponents, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are holding secret talks to resolve the region’s arson conflict.
  • Second, this week Turkey added Egypt to its list of countries it seeks to ease tension with – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
  • Third, the signatories of last year’s Abraham Accords continue to build on their historic normalization agreement. The United Arab Emirates and Israel will open free trade talks next month.
  • Finally, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq are holding trilateral talks to deepen their economic ties and highlight the potential for growth-enhancing regional integration.

To support all of this, it would not require the military engagement, endless commitments, or costly investments that have piqued Americans in the region.

What it takes is an increased level of diplomatic and economic creativity and the dusting of history books to examine how the US helped Europe end centuries of post-WWII conflict and build the institutions and cooperative habits that continue to exist today Have consisted.

The process should begin by examining the dynamics of what is unfolding, staying away from what is working well, and engaging where that would support fragile progress.

Given the financial and reputational cost of their disputes, countries that have long been at odds are speaking – Saudi Arabia with Iran, Turkey with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates with Qatar, and Israel with any number of Arab states, and other emerging combinations.

Warring parties in Libya and Yemen are looking for ways to de-escalate, even though they are far from solutions. Leaders have stepped up their efforts for economic growth and recognized the needs of a well-educated, emerging generation who understand global standards.

Most fascinatingly, Saudi Arabia and Iran have had secret talks since January, apparently without US involvement, and mediated by Iraq.

In a dramatic change of tone, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said: “We do not want the situation with Iran to be difficult. On the contrary, we want it to flourish and grow because we have Saudi interests in Iran, and they do also.” Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia designed to promote prosperity and growth in the region and around the world. “

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has many reasons to change course. Among them was the shock of a sophisticated Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities in September 2019 that cost Riyadh around $ 2 billion.

Not only did the event uncover the kingdom’s vulnerability and Iran’s growing capabilities, but it also cast doubts about US security guarantees, even from a friend as close as President Donald Trump, who did not reciprocate Riyadh.

“The concern that Biden will be overly nice with Iran,” says Kirsten Fontenrose of the Atlantic Council, “while he is withdrawing from the region and de-prioritizing bilateral relations is currently of crucial importance to Saudi’s calculations.”

Turkey, which is economically and politically isolated, has also repaired fences with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel – who were aware of Istanbul’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups they consider extremist.

Building on last year’s historic Abraham Accords, a senior Middle East official says Israel and the UAE will begin talks next month on a free trade agreement, just one of many efforts to capitalize on the dynamic of normalized relations.

The UAE continued to function as an oversized regional elixir for economic modernization and political moderation, and this week liberalized its residency requirements to attract wealthy expats. They have set themselves the goal of doubling their GDP within the decade, particularly through technological investments.

Separated and inspired by the Abraham Accords, officials from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Greece and Cyprus met against the backdrop of the Eastern Mediterranean in April to deepen their cooperation on everything from energy to fighting the pandemic.

Taken alone, these indicators may appear poor rather than transformative. Tie them together and build on them more methodically, and the Middle East could be the beginnings of such de-escalation of conflict, economic cooperation and institution-building that Europe enjoyed after World War II.

With security threats growing in the Horn of Africa and new uncertainties about the future of Afghanistan, the US wants to be able to invite more stable partners in the Middle East to better address growing uncertainties elsewhere in its wider neighborhood.

Nobody should expect the Middle East in the short term to have its own equivalent of the European Union, NATO or the CSCE, the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where talks between rival Cold War factions take place.

Nor should the US be expected to play the galvanizing role it played when it had half of global GDP, much of Europe was in ruins, and the Soviet Union rose as an adversary.

Still, it would be wrong to underestimate the positive potential influence of the US.

The Trump administration’s support for the Abraham Accord helped fuel growing collaboration among its signatories: Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The government of Biden has approved the agreements, most recently in a conversation between President Biden and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed Bin Zayed. However, Biden administrators should invest more in building the agreements.

President Biden’s resumption of negotiation efforts with Iran, his focus on human rights issues and his reluctance to feed the divisions in the region will also play a positive role as long as negotiators do not set the bar too low to lift sanctions against Tehran.

What the Biden administration must avoid is hearing the false conclusion of some analysts that US withdrawal from the region would accelerate progress. What is needed instead is consistent support for the region’s growing modernization and moderation forces, which have won but are still a long way off.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of America’s most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place in the World” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

More information from CNBC staff can be found here @ CNBCOpinion on twitter.

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Business

Jobless Claims Knowledge Anticipated to Present Progress: Dwell Updates

A vaccination event in Miami last week. The unemployment rate has been falling in recent weeks as businesses reopen and vaccination rates rise.

Recognition…Saul Martinez for the New York Times

Government data from Thursday is expected to show that new government claims to unemployment insurance have continued to decline over the past week as the improving public health situation and easing of pandemic-related restrictions allowed the labor market to continue its gradual normalization .

Claims for unemployment benefits remain high by historical standards, but have fallen significantly in recent weeks after progress stalled in the fall and winter. The weekly requests for government benefits, which peaked last spring of more than six million, fell below 700,000 for the first time at the end of March; Economists expect the Department of Labor to report Thursday that filings have fallen below 600,000 for the third year in a row.

“In the past few weeks, claims data has improved dramatically, and I think this suggests that the labor market recovery accelerated in April,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

Economists should get a clearer picture of progress in the labor market on Friday when the Labor Department releases data on recruitment and unemployment in April. The report is expected to show employers created about a million jobs in the last month, up from 916,000 in March. The leisure and hospitality industry, which was hardest hit during the early stages of the pandemic last spring, has led the recovery in recent months, a trend that forecasters believe continued into April.

Many employers have said in the last few weeks that they want to hire even faster but are having difficulties finding enough workers. Some have blamed increased unemployment benefits for preventing people from returning to work. On Tuesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said his state would be pulling out of a federal program that provides improved benefits to unemployed workers and instead pay recipients a $ 1,200 bonus when they find new jobs.

Economic research has shown that unemployment benefits can reduce the intensity of job search for workers. However, most studies find that the overall labor market impact is small, especially when unemployment is high. And Mr. Zhao and other economists say there are other reasons why labor supply is recovering more slowly than labor demand. Many potential employees are juggling childcare or other chores at home. others remain cautious about the health risks of returning to personal work.

“I think we will see that the labor supply will improve quite dramatically in the coming months as the pandemic subsides,” Zhao said.

Tim Lorentz with the LaBoata in Spokane, Wash.Recognition…Allie Lorentz

Tim Lorentz, a special education teacher in Spokane, Washington, loves both cars and boats. He has driven cars and owned a variety of muscle and exotic vehicles.

“Car guys always want to own or drive a unique car that no one else owns,” said Lorentz. “I created a convertible with eight passengers. Why not a boat over a convertible? I’ve never seen one like this before. “

And so the LaBoata was born. Mr. Lorentz, now 65, built it in 2009 using a white 1993 LeBaron, a used 17-foot boat that he got for $ 100, reports Mercedes Lilienthal for the New York Times.

The LaBoata was “instantly funny,” he said until it received a letter from the Washington Department of Motor Vehicles canceling its registration and title. The authorities had noticed his converted convertible and were not amused. He removed the boat shell, drove the car to the DMV and had it rechecked, restored, and re-licensed. He went home and turned the boat back on, and since then he has had no problems.

Mr. Lorentz is part of a community that builds cars from scrap. 19-year-old Kelvin Odartei Cruickshank, who lives in Accra, Ghana’s capital, built a two-person car from the ground up that looks like a dilapidated DeLorean. It took three years to complete. Mr. Cruickshank used about $ 200 scrap metal and parts that are not normally used in automobiles for financial reasons.

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Health

As U.S. Covid circumstances stall, high well being officers warn variants might ‘hijack’ nation’s progress

As U.S. Covid cases stall, top health officials warn variants could 'hijack' nation's progress

People wait in line around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the west side of Midtown Manhattan to receive a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine that was converted into a mass vaccination center in New York on March 2 . 2021.

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The U.S. is at “critical juncture” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic as highly communicable variants threaten to overturn the nation’s progress within weeks, even if more vaccines find their way into Americans, senior health officials warned Wednesday .

The emergence of the new variants largely coincided with the sharp decline in daily new cases in the US since January, but those numbers have stalled since then.

The highly contagious variant, first identified in the UK and known as B.1.1.7, “is poised to hijack the nation’s success,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday.

“So much can change in the next few weeks,” said Walensky at a Covid-19 briefing in the White House. “How that works is up to us. The next three months are crucial.”

The USA reported a daily average of around 65,422 new cases in the past week. This is a decrease from the high of nearly 250,000 cases per day the US reported in January. This comes from a CNBC analysis of the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

However, the number of new infections every day is still higher than the rate the US reported in the summer when the virus was spread through the American sun belt. Covid-19 cases are increasing more than 5% in 14 states, down from just two states a week ago.

CDC researchers published a study on Jan. 15 that predicted that strain B.1.1.7 would be the predominant strain in the U.S. by mid to late March. Health officials have since warned that the variants could reverse the current downward trend in infections in the US and delay the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.

“Now, more than ever, we have to do everything we can to stop the virus from spreading,” said Walensky.

Other variants threaten

Variant B.1.1.7, presented for the first time in Great Britain, is not the only burden for medical experts.

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci noted on Wednesday that variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa, could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine “moderately to severely” and variant P.1 found in Brazil could evade antibodies generated by previous infections or vaccinations .

There are also new varieties that have been discovered in the United States. Preliminary reports show that variant B.1.427 found in California may be more transmissible than previous strains, Fauci said.

The infectious disease expert said earlier this week that US officials are also taking variant B.1.526 found in New York “very seriously,” increasing the possibility that it could escape protection from antibody treatments and vaccines.

Fauci reiterated that vaccines should continue to protect against the disease, and drug makers are working on booster doses to combat the mutations that are occurring. Clinical trials for a booster shot of Moderna against the B.1.351 variant are slated to begin in mid-March, he said.

While the US may see a further increase in variant B.1.1.7 in the future, Dr. Celine Gounder, a former member of President Joe Biden’s Covid Advisory Board, told CNBC that she was more concerned about variants B.1.351 or P.1 further mutating and reducing the effectiveness of the vaccines currently in use in preventing hospitalizations and death.

“If you let the B.1.351 or the P.1 mutate further where it is no longer covered by the vaccine, and you have a window in which we do not yet have the updated vaccine available, we could find ourselves in a difficult place are in the fall, “said Gounder in a telephone interview.

Covid fatigue sets in

The variations aren’t the only problem. Covid fatigue is gaining ground and fewer people are sticking to recommended public health measures needed to contain the spread of the virus, Walensky said.

Despite recent warnings from the Biden administration, some states have pushed ahead with reopening as cases fall and more vaccines are given. Texas and Mississippi announced Tuesday that they would fully reopen their states and not meet their mask requirements.

“I would still encourage individuals to wear a mask, distance themselves socially, and do the right thing to protect their own health,” Walensky said on Wednesday.

In New York, major sports arenas have been allowed to return with the required tests, and restaurants in New York City have resumed indoor dining with limited capacity.

New York reports an average of around 7,399 new Covid-19 cases per day. This is the lowest daily number of cases the state has seen since early December, but it’s almost on par when Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down the city’s indoor dining in December.

On Wednesday, Cuomo noted during a press conference that Covid-19 state hospital stays “fell to below pre-peak levels” in December amid the holidays.

Gounder, a professor of medicine at New York University, said it was “premature” for New York to reopen indoor dining.

“I think it was very unwise to reopen restaurants that are basically the most risky public places right now,” said Gounder.