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Russia Doesn’t Ship U.S. Investor to Jail however Nonetheless Sends a Warning

Russia Doesn’t Send U.S. Investor to Jail but Still Sends a Warning

MOSCOW – A Russian court on Friday sentenced an American businessman, who is one of the country’s most prominent foreign investors, to five and a half years suspended sentence in a penal colony for embezzlement conviction, undermining Russia’s ability to attract foreign investment.

The suspended sentence for businessman Michael Calvey, founder of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm with $ 3.7 billion in assets under management, means he has no time in Russia’s notoriously harsh penal colony system, the successor to the Gulag Camp, unless he is in breach of probation.

However, the risk of jail time that Mr Calvey and his six co-defendants still face in the case was expected to dampen foreign interest in doing business in Russia, where FDI is already hampered by weak property rights and Western sanctions.

The ruling became all the more worrying for business leaders when, despite deteriorating ties with the West, Calvey had consistently advocated investment in Russia despite many companies pulling out of the country.

Mr. Calvey, 53, founded Baring Vostok in the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of communism, with the aim of bringing investors into Russia’s newly capitalist economy. In its 27 years in business, the company has attracted billions of dollars in private equity capital for Russian companies like Yandex, a search engine that competes locally with Google, and Ozon, an online retailer.

The co-defendants, including Philippe Delpal, a French national and senior executive at Baring Vostok, received similar suspended sentences in the Russian prison system.

The case arose out of a business dispute with shareholders in a Siberian bank.

Prosecutors said Mr. Calvey and other executives of his fund embezzled 2.5 billion rubles (about $ 34 million) by persuading the bank’s shareholders, Vostochny Bank, to inflate a stake in another company Accept price.

In his defense, Mr. Calvey argued that the bank’s shareholders had full access to information about the value of the shares when they accepted them in lieu of repaying a loan and that the case should also have been resolved through commercial arbitration.

“I came to Russia and stayed here because I loved this country from the start and believed that Russia had the potential to become one of the world’s leading investment markets,” Calvey said in a closing statement at his trial last month .

“I convinced investors to share my confidence in Russia’s future,” he said. “Even after 2014, when the geopolitical climate deteriorated and sanctions were imposed on Russia, I continued to defend Russia’s image as an attractive country to work and invest in.”

Calvey’s investment drive continued despite two decades of corporate government takeovers, ruble devaluations, and politically tinged arrests, including Sergei L. Magnitsky, who died on custody and worked as an attorney for another prominent foreign investor, William F. Browser.

Russia’s once richest man, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the founder of an oil company, was convicted twice and sentenced to long prison terms in the penal colonies.

The conditions there are tough. In a prison, Mr. Khodorkovsky was stabbed in the face with a homemade knife. The guard said another detainee was blocking unwanted sexual advances, which Mr. Khodorkovsky denied.

Mr. Calvey’s investment firm had focused on internet and retail start-ups that benefited from the riches of the petroleum industry and successfully served the country’s emerging middle class.

The arrest and detention of Mr Calvey and his colleagues in 2019 raised fears that executives at other American companies might be similarly arrested in a climate of strained relations with the United States. The seven executives were convicted by a Russian court on Thursday and sentenced on Friday.

During his detention, Mr. Calvey continued to speak out in favor of the investment case for Russia and read statements about it at hearings from the aquarium in which defendants are being held in Russian courts.

Russian entrepreneurs are often the target of market shakes and shadowy plans to steal assets, said Russia’s own corporate ombudsman. Arrests are common. Today, around one in ten prisoners in Russia’s penal colonies are white-collar criminals.

Government revenues from commodity exports such as oil and natural gas, which flow regardless of what Russian courts do in the country, have left the country’s investment climate largely unconcerned, economists noted. And an independent judicial system that would help investors could also weaken control over the political opposition.

“Russia is in what could be described as an investment pause,” said Natalia Akindinova, a researcher at the Higher School of Economics, in an interview.

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Politics

U.S. Is Working to Ship Doses Overseas by Changing AstraZeneca Photographs With Others

U.S. Is Working to Send Doses Abroad by Replacing AstraZeneca Shots With Others

With less than two weeks left to fulfill President Biden’s promise to share 80 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine with countries in need, production problems at an Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing facility are forcing the government to revise its plan to send AstraZeneca doses overseas .

Officials are now working to replace tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that were originally intended to be included in the donation with others from Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, according to people familiar with the discussions. These three vaccines are approved in the US for emergency use.

A pattern of serious neglect at the Baltimore facility has challenged the fate of more than 100 million doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines manufactured there. The Food and Drug Administration reviews the records of virtually every batch that Emergent has produced to determine if the cans are safe. The FDA has so far decided that approximately 25 million Johnson & Johnson cans made at the factory can be cleared, but has not made a decision on the AstraZeneca cans.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is significantly cheaper than the other three vaccines: the federal government paid less than $ 4 per dose, compared to up to $ 19.50 for Pfizer. A administration official said that if the AstraZeneca cans produced by Emergent are declared safe, the supply will ultimately be shared with other nations.

The cans the government plans to ship overseas this month will be part of existing orders from other manufacturers that have not yet shipped to states, said a person familiar with the planning. Ten million doses of the three US-approved vaccines that have already been shipped are unused. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 175 million people in the US have received at least one dose.

Until the White House announced last week it would share 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the rest of the world, the AstraZeneca doses made up the bulk of the government’s vaccine diplomacy.

Mr Biden pledged to share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine with other nations in late April pending the ongoing FDA review of Emergent. In May, the White House announced it would send at least another 20 million doses of other vaccines overseas, bringing the total to 80 million by the end of June.

Earlier this month, the White House stated how it would initially distribute 25 million of the 80 million cans across “a wide range of countries.” Millions of these have already been shipped and more will be shipped shortly, a White House spokesman said.

Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said Thursday that 80 million doses would be allocated by the end of the month but did not specify the type. He said the government was working with other countries on complicated logistical issues, including securing needles, syringes and alcohol swabs that would fit the cans.

“We will allot all of the initial 80 million cans in the coming days and shipments will be sent out as soon as countries are ready to receive the cans,” Mr. Zients said at a press conference. “There will be an increasing number of broadcasts each week as we step up these efforts.”

To share vaccines other than AstraZeneca’s, said a person familiar with the plan, the administration will likely need permission from the manufacturers. These discussions are still going on, said the person.

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Health

Biden to Ship Thousands and thousands of Pfizer Vaccine Doses to 100 Nations

Biden to Send Millions of Pfizer Vaccine Doses to 100 Countries

WASHINGTON – President Biden, under pressure to aggressively address the global coronavirus vaccine shortage, will announce Thursday that his government will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and deliver them to about 100 countries next year The donation will be made by people familiar with the plan.

The White House reached the deal just in time for Mr Biden’s eight-day tour of Europe, which will be his first opportunity to assert the United States as world leader and to re-establish ties that have been badly frayed by President Donald J. Trump.

“We have to end Covid-19, not just at home we do, but everywhere,” Biden told American troops after landing at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. “There is no wall high enough to protect us from this pandemic or the next biological threat we face, and there will be others. It requires coordinated multilateral action. “

People familiar with the Pfizer deal said the United States would pay for the cans at a “not for profit” price. The first 200 million cans will be distributed by the end of this year, followed by 300 million by next June, they said. The doses will be distributed through Covax, the international vaccine exchange initiative.

Mr Biden is in Europe for a week to attend the NATO and Group of 7 summits and to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin in Geneva. He will likely use the trip to urge other nations to step up vaccine distribution.

In a statement Wednesday, Jeffrey D. Zients, White House official in charge of developing a global vaccination strategy, said Biden will “bring the world’s democracies together to resolve this global crisis, with America leading the way, the vaccine arsenal that will be of vital importance in our global fight against Covid-19. “

The White House is trying to highlight its success in fighting the pandemic – especially its vaccination campaign – and using that success as a diplomatic tool, especially as China and Russia are trying to do the same. Mr Biden has insisted that unlike China and Russia, who share their vaccines with dozens of countries, the United States will not attempt to extort promises from countries that receive US-made vaccines.

The 500 million doses are still well below the 11 billion the World Health Organization estimates to vaccinate the world, but well above what the United States has promised so far. Other nations have asked the United States to give up some of its ample vaccine supplies. In some African countries, less than 1 percent of people are fully vaccinated compared to 42 percent in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Global health advocates welcomed the news but reiterated their stance that it is not enough for the United States to simply give away vaccines. They say the Biden government needs to create the conditions for other countries to manufacture vaccines themselves, including transferring technology to make the cans.

“The world desperately needs new productions to produce billions more doses within a year, not just pledges to buy planned inadequate supplies,” Peter Maybarduk, director of the Citizens’ Access to Medicines Program, said in a Explanation. He added, “We have not yet seen a US government or G7 plan with the ambition or urgency to add billions more doses and end the pandemic.”

The Pfizer deal has the potential to open the door to similar agreements with other vaccine makers, including Moderna, whose vaccine, unlike Pfizer’s, was developed with US taxpayers’ money. In addition, the Biden government has negotiated a deal whereby Merck will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, and those doses may be available for use overseas.

The United States has already signed a contract to purchase 300 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, which requires two vaccinations to be distributed in the United States; the 500 million cans are on top of that, according to people familiar with the deal.

Biden in Europe

Updated

June 9, 2021, 8:50 p.m. ET

Neither Pfizer nor administrators would tell what the company is charging the government for the cans. Pfizer is also offering the Biden government the option to purchase an additional 200 million cans at cost to be donated overseas.

For Pfizer, the decision to sell so much of the supply to the Biden government for no profit is a significant step.

The vaccine accounted for $ 3.5 billion in sales for the first three months of this year, nearly a quarter of Pfizer’s total sales. By some estimates, the company made approximately $ 900 million in pre-tax income from the vaccine in the first quarter.

However, the company has also been criticized for disproportionately supporting wealthy nations, despite Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla promising in January to ensure that “developing countries have equal access to the rest of the world.”

The 200 million Pfizer cans the Biden government plans to donate accounts for about 7 percent of the three billion cans the company is expected to produce this year. Pfizer expects to deliver an additional 800 million doses to lower and lower middle income countries through other agreements with individual countries or Covax, a spokeswoman said.

For Mr Biden, the deal shows that his government is ready to intervene deeper in the treasury to help poorer countries.

Last week, Mr Biden said the United States would be distributing 25 million doses to countries in the Caribbean and Latin America this month; South and Southeast Asia; Africa; and the Palestinian Territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

These cans are the first of 80 million that Mr Biden intended to send abroad by the end of June; three quarters of these are sold by Covax. The rest will be used to address urgent and urgent crises in countries like India, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, government officials said. Many of the 80 million cans were manufactured by AstraZeneca and are still subject to a complex review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Mr Biden has also pledged to support a waiver of an international intellectual property treaty that would make it difficult for companies to refuse their technology. But European leaders are blocking the proposed exemption, and pharmaceutical companies are firmly against it. The World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council meets this week to review the derogation.

The president’s promise of vaccines for the world market comes as he prepares on Thursday for a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has urged leaders to pledge to feed everyone in the world by the end of 2022 vaccinate. Mr Biden’s announcement is likely welcome news to Mr Johnson, whose critics have questioned where the money will come from to keep his promise.

“The truth is, world leaders have been stepping down the street for months – to the point where they ran out of streets,” Edwin Ikhouria, executive director for Africa at ONE Campaign, a nonprofit that dedicated to eradicating global poverty, said in a statement on Wednesday.

About 64 percent of adults in the United States are at least partially vaccinated, and the president’s goal is to increase that number to 70 percent by July 4th, following an accessibility strategy and incentives to reach Americans who have not yet received any injections.

Despite these efforts, there are unused doses of vaccine that could be wasted. Once thawed, cans have a limited shelf life and millions could expire within two weeks, according to federal officials.

Equal access to vaccines has become one of the most persistent challenges in containing the pandemic. Wealthier nations and private corporations have pledged tens of millions of doses and billions of dollars to sustain global supplies, but the disparities in vaccine allocations so far have been stark.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, warned this week that the world is facing a “two-pronged pandemic” with countries short of vaccines struggling with virus cases even as better-served countries return to normal.

These lower-income countries will largely depend on wealthier ones until vaccines can be distributed and produced on a more equitable basis, he said.

Daniel E. Slotnik contributed the coverage from New York and Michael D. Shear from Plymouth, England.

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Politics

White Home Outlines Plan to Ship 25 Million Vaccine Photographs Overseas

White House Outlines Plan to Send 25 Million Vaccine Shots Abroad

Mr. Biden came into office vowing to restore America’s position as a leader in global health, and he has been under increasing pressure from activists, as well as some business leaders, to do more to address the global vaccine shortage. Earlier this year, he said he was reluctant to give away vaccine doses until the United States had enough for its own population, though he did promise in March to send a total of four million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to Mexico and Canada.

Those doses, it turned out, were made at a Baltimore facility owned by Emergent BioSolutions, where production has since been put on hold after an incident of contamination.

Mr. Biden’s pledge to donate 80 million doses involves vaccines made by four manufacturers. Besides AstraZeneca, they are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, the last three of which have received U.S. emergency authorization for their vaccines. The president announced last month that his administration would send 20 million doses of the authorized vaccines overseas in June — the first time he had pledged to give away doses that could be used in the United States. Officials did not say on Thursday why that number had been increased by five million.

Last month, Mr. Biden announced he would send one million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to South Korea; a plane carrying those doses was expected to take off Thursday evening, Mr. Zients said.

Mr. Biden has also pledged to donate up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, but those doses, also made at the Emergent plant, are not authorized for domestic use and cannot be released until regulators deem them safe. In March, his administration committed to providing financial support to help Biological E, a major vaccine manufacturer in India, produce at least one billion doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2022.

The president has described the vaccine donations as part of an “entirely new effort” to increase vaccine supplies and vastly expand manufacturing capacity, most of it in the United States. To broaden supply further, Mr. Biden recently announced he would support waiving intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. He also put Mr. Zients in charge of developing a global vaccine strategy.

But activists say simply donating excess doses and supporting the waiver is not enough. They argue that Mr. Biden must create the conditions for pharmaceutical companies to transfer their intellectual property to vaccine makers overseas, so that other countries can stand up their own vaccine manufacturing operations.

Mr. Zients also said the United States was lifting the Defense Production Act’s “priority rating” for three vaccine makers — AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi. None of those vaccines are authorized for U.S. use, and the shift means that U.S.-based companies that supply the vaccine makers will be able to “make their own decisions on which orders to fulfill first,” Mr. Zients said.

Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.

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Politics

Capito, Senate Republicans to ship counteroffer

Capito, Senate Republicans to send counteroffer

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, left, speaks as Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, center, and Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, listen during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 22, 2021.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A group of Senate Republicans plans to send President Joe Biden an infrastructure counteroffer this week as the sides consider whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to craft a bipartisan bill.

The proposal could cost nearly $1 trillion, and Republicans aim to offset the spending without increasing taxes. The group of GOP lawmakers aims to deliver the plan as soon as Thursday morning.

Hopes for an agreement between the parties to revamp U.S. transportation and broadband appeared to dim last week. After the White House cut its infrastructure offer to $1.7 trillion from $2.3 trillion, an aide to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said the plan’s price tag was “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support.”

The Republican group initially put out a $568 billion infrastructure framework last month.

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Democrats will have to decide whether they want to chop up their plan enough to win Republican votes, or try to forge ahead on their own using special budget rules. It is unclear if they would consider passing parts of the proposal with GOP support, then moving to approve other pieces on their own.

The Biden administration has said it wants to see whether it can make progress in bipartisan infrastructure talks before Memorial Day.

Asked after a meeting of the Republicans leading the infrastructure effort if this week’s offer would be the GOP’s last, Capito said she would wait to see how the White House reacted to it. She noted that bipartisan plans that could become part of a broader infrastructure package — including a roughly $300 billion surface transportation bill she helped to craft as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee — are working their way through congressional panels.

“I think that we’ve got good momentum, but we’ll see what [the White House’s] reaction is,” Capito said Tuesday.

The parties need to resolve fundamental issues to come to an accord on infrastructure, one of Biden’s top priorities in the White House. They have disagreed on what should count as infrastructure, as Democrats push for a bill to include policies including care for elderly and disabled Americans.

Biden also wants to pay for the legislation through tax increases on corporations. Republicans have opposed any effort to hike the corporate rate, set at 21% after the 2017 GOP tax cuts.

“We’re not going to have any votes at all to tamper with the 2017 tax bill,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said Tuesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Tuesday suggested using money already approved by Congress but not yet spent. While he did not specify which funds he thinks lawmakers could repurpose, some Republicans have previously suggested using state and local government aid approved as part of coronavirus relief bills.

After Biden met with six Republican senators earlier this month, the sides expressed hope about striking an infrastructure deal. However, an aide to Capito said the administration and Republicans seemed “further apart” after senators met with Biden’s staff.

Capito said the Republicans would be open to meeting with Biden again.

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World News

US to Ship Thousands and thousands of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Mexico and Canada

US to Send Millions of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Mexico and Canada

Die Vereinigten Staaten planen, Millionen Dosen des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs nach Mexiko und Kanada zu schicken, sagte das Weiße Haus am Donnerstag, ein bemerkenswerter Schritt in die Impfstoffdiplomatie, gerade als die Biden-Regierung Mexiko stillschweigend drängt, den Strom von Migranten, die an die Grenze kommen, einzudämmen.

Jen Psaki, Pressesprecherin des Weißen Hauses, sagte, die Vereinigten Staaten planten, 2,5 Millionen Dosen des Impfstoffs mit Mexiko und 1,5 Millionen mit Kanada zu teilen, und fügte hinzu, dass der Impfstoff “noch nicht fertiggestellt, aber das ist unser Ziel”.

Dutzende Millionen Dosen des Impfstoffs wurden in amerikanischen Produktionsstätten eingesetzt. Während ihre Verwendung bereits in Dutzenden von Ländern, einschließlich Mexiko und Kanada, zugelassen wurde, wurde der Impfstoff noch nicht von den amerikanischen Aufsichtsbehörden zugelassen. Frau Psaki sagte, dass die Lieferungen nach Mexiko und Kanada im Wesentlichen ein Darlehen sein würden, wobei die Vereinigten Staaten in Zukunft Dosen von AstraZeneca oder anderen Impfstoffen erhalten würden.

Die Ankündigung der Impfstoffverteilung erfolgte zu einem kritischen Zeitpunkt in den Verhandlungen mit Mexiko. Präsident Biden ist schnell vorgegangen, um einige der von Präsident Trump unterzeichneten Einwanderungsrichtlinien abzubauen, den Bau einer Grenzmauer zu stoppen, die rasche Vertreibung von Kindern an der Grenze zu stoppen und einen Weg zur Staatsbürgerschaft für Millionen von Einwanderern in den Vereinigten Staaten vorzuschlagen.

Aber er hält an einem zentralen Element der Agenda von Herrn Trump fest: sich darauf zu verlassen, dass Mexiko eine Welle von Menschen auf ihrem Weg in die Vereinigten Staaten zurückhält.

In Erwartung eines Anstiegs von Migranten und der größten Besorgnis amerikanischer Agenten an der Grenze seit zwei Jahrzehnten fragte Biden den mexikanischen Präsidenten Andrés Manuel López Obrador in einem Videoanruf in diesem Monat, ob laut Mexikaner mehr getan werden könne, um das Problem zu lösen Beamte und eine andere Person informierten über das Gespräch.

Die beiden Präsidenten diskutierten auch die Möglichkeit, dass die Vereinigten Staaten Mexiko einen Teil ihrer überschüssigen Impfstoffversorgung schicken, sagte ein hochrangiger mexikanischer Beamter. Mexiko hat die Biden-Regierung öffentlich gebeten, ihm Dosen des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs zuzusenden.

Bei einer Pressekonferenz am Donnerstag sagte Frau Psaki, dass die Diskussionen über Impfstoffe und Grenzsicherheit zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko “nicht miteinander verbunden”, aber auch “überlappend” seien.

Auf die Frage eines Reporters, ob die Vereinigten Staaten mit ihrem Angebot, Mexiko Impfstoffe zu verleihen, „Bedingungen“ verbunden hätten, antwortete Frau Psaki, dass in den Diskussionen „mehrere diplomatische Gespräche – parallele Gespräche – viele Gesprächsebenen“ im Spiel seien.

“Es gibt selten nur ein Thema, das Sie mit einem Land gleichzeitig besprechen”, sagte Frau Psaki. „Sicher ist das in Mexiko nicht der Fall. Dies ist in keinem Land der Welt der Fall. Und deshalb würde ich nicht mehr darüber lesen als über unsere Fähigkeit, Impfstoffdosen bereitzustellen – zu verleihen -. “

Mexikanische Beamte sagen auch, dass die Bemühungen um die Sicherung von Impfstoffen von den Verhandlungen über Migration getrennt sind, und lehnten die Vorstellung ab, dass es sich um eine Gegenleistung handele.

“Dies sind zwei getrennte Themen”, sagte Roberto Velasco, Generaldirektor für die Region Nordamerika im mexikanischen Außenministerium, in einer Erklärung, in der er sich auf das Engagement der beiden Länder in Bezug auf Migration und Impfstoffe bezog.

Aber mexikanische Beamte erkennen an, dass die Beziehungen zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko, das eine der tödlichsten Coronavirus-Epidemien der Welt erlitten hat, durch eine Lieferung von Dosen nach Süden gestärkt würden.

“Wir suchen nach einem humaneren Migrationssystem und einer verstärkten Zusammenarbeit gegen COVID-19 zum Nutzen unserer beiden Länder und der Region”, fügte Velasco hinzu.

Mehrere europäische Länder haben diese Woche die Verwendung des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs ausgesetzt, eine Vorsichtsmaßnahme, da einige Personen, die den Schuss erhalten hatten, später Blutgerinnsel und starke Blutungen entwickelten. Am Donnerstag erklärte die europäische Arzneimittelbehörde den Impfstoff für sicher. AstraZeneca sagte auch, dass eine Überprüfung von 17 Millionen Menschen, die den Impfstoff erhielten, ergab, dass sie weniger wahrscheinlich als andere gefährliche Gerinnsel entwickeln.

Ein Beamter der Biden-Regierung lehnte es ab, sich weiter zu den Verhandlungen mit Mexiko zu äußern, stellte jedoch fest, dass beide Länder ein gemeinsames Ziel hatten, die Migration durch die Bekämpfung ihrer Grundursachen zu verringern, und sagte, sie arbeiteten eng zusammen, um den Zustrom von Menschen zur Grenze einzudämmen.

Die Regierung von Biden steht unter starkem Druck und bemüht sich, Schutz für eine wachsende Anzahl von Migrantenkindern und -jugendlichen zu finden, die in amerikanischen Haftanstalten entlang der Grenze festgehalten werden.

Mehr als 4.500 von ihnen saßen am Donnerstag in Haftanstalten fest. Die Regierung von Biden arbeitete daran, sie in ein Kongresszentrum in Dallas, ein ehemaliges Lager für Ölarbeiter in Midland, Texas, und möglicherweise einen NASA-Standort in Kalifornien zu bringen.

Die Regierung hat außerdem fast ein Dutzend anderer Standorte identifiziert, einschließlich Einrichtungen des Verteidigungsministeriums, an denen Kinder und Jugendliche möglicherweise untergebracht werden können, bis sie bei einem Sponsor untergebracht werden können. Dies geht aus einem Regierungsdokument der New York Times vom März hervor. Einer der Standorte – in Pecos, Texas – könnte 2.000 Betten aufnehmen.

Aktualisiert

18. März 2021, 15:22 Uhr ET

Mexiko hat sich bereit erklärt, seine Präsenz an der südlichen Grenze zu Guatemala zu erhöhen, um die Migration aus Mittelamerika zu verhindern, sagte einer der Regierungsbeamten, und lokale mexikanische Beamte sagten, ihr Land habe kürzlich seine Bemühungen verstärkt, Migranten an der Nordgrenze zu den Vereinigten Staaten zu stoppen auch.

Es gibt aber auch Anzeichen dafür, dass Mexikos Engagement für die Überwachung der Migration – eine zentrale Forderung von Herrn Trump, der die Drohung von Zöllen auf alle mexikanischen Waren ausübte, sofern die Migration nicht gebremst wurde – in den schwindenden Monaten der Trump-Regierung nachgelassen haben könnte.

Von Oktober bis Dezember letzten Jahres ging die Zahl der von Mexiko festgenommenen Zentralamerikaner zurück, während die Inhaftierungen amerikanischer Agenten nach Angaben der mexikanischen Regierung und Daten des Washington Office on Latin America, einer Forschungsorganisation, die sich für Menschenrechte einsetzt, zunahmen.

“Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass die scheidende Trump-Regierung erneut Zölle droht, war gering, so dass Mexiko einen Anreiz hatte, zu seinem Standardzustand geringer Besorgnis zurückzukehren”, sagte Adam Isacson, Experte für Grenzsicherheit im Washingtoner Büro für Lateinamerika.

Der Appell der Biden-Regierung, mehr gegen die Migration zu tun, hat Mexiko in eine schwierige Lage gebracht. Während Herr Trump Mexiko stark bewaffnet hat, um die Grenze zu militarisieren, argumentieren einige mexikanische Beamte, dass seine strenge Politik zuweilen dazu beigetragen haben könnte, ihre Last zu verringern, indem sie Migranten davon abhielten, die Reise nach Norden anzutreten.

Es ist weniger wahrscheinlich, dass Herr Biden auf Zolldrohungen zurückgreift, um sich durchzusetzen, sagen Beamte und Analysten. Aber jetzt wird Mexiko gebeten, die Linie gegen einen Anstieg von Migranten zu halten – während die Biden-Regierung signalisiert, dass die Vereinigten Staaten Migranten willkommener sind.

“Sie sehen aus wie die Guten und die Mexikaner wie die Bösen”, sagte Cris Ramón, ein Einwanderungsberater aus Washington, DC

“Alle positiven humanitären Maßnahmen werden von der Biden-Regierung durchgeführt.” Herr Ramón fügte hinzu: “Und dann bleiben die Mexikaner mit der Drecksarbeit zurück.”

In Bezug auf Kanada drängten ihn mehrere politische Gegner von Premierminister Justin Trudeau wiederholt, sich bei der neuen Biden-Regierung für die Freigabe von Impfstoffen einzusetzen. Viele Kanadier haben Bestürzung darüber zum Ausdruck gebracht, dass die Vereinigten Staaten keine Lieferungen mit Kanada geteilt haben, wo keine Coronavirus-Impfstoffe hergestellt werden.

Bis Donnerstag stammte die gesamte kanadische Impfstoffversorgung aus Europa oder Indien, und die Einführung Kanadas verlief im Vergleich zu den USA und vielen anderen Ländern nur schleppend.

“Gott segne Amerika, sie kommen zu unserer Rettung”, sagte Doug Ford, der Premierminister von Ontario, Kanadas bevölkerungsreichster Provinz, einer Pressekonferenz.

Während sich die Biden-Regierung verpflichtet hat, einem großen Impfstoffhersteller in Indien zu helfen, sind die Vereinigten Staaten im Wettlauf um die Verwendung von Impfstoffen als diplomatisches Instrument weit hinter China, Indien und Russland zurückgefallen.

Peking liefert Impfstoffe in Dutzende von Ländern, darunter einige in Afrika und Lateinamerika. Russland hat seinen Impfstoff nach Ungarn und in die Slowakei geliefert. Herr Biden hat auch Kritik daran geübt, dass es ärmeren Ländern nicht leichter fällt, Zugang zu generischen Versionen von Coronavirus-Impfstoffen und -Behandlungen zu erhalten.

Mit Mexiko hat die Biden-Regierung das Land aufgefordert, mehr von den amerikanischen Behörden vertriebene Familien aufzunehmen und die Durchsetzung an der südlichen Grenze Mexikos zu Guatemala zu verstärken, so zwei mexikanische Beamte und zwei weitere, die über die Diskussionen informiert wurden.

Herr López Obrador versucht auch, einen Weg zu finden, um die Kapazität für die Unterbringung von Migranten in Notunterkünften zu erhöhen, die aus allen Nähten platzen. In einer Erklärung vom Dienstag sagte der Sekretär für innere Sicherheit, Alejandro Mayorkas, er arbeite mit Mexiko zusammen, um dies zu tun.

“Die Unterkünfte stehen kurz vor dem Zusammenbruch”, sagte Enrique Valenzuela, leitender Koordinator der Migrationsbemühungen der Regierung des Bundesstaates Chihuahua.

Lokale Regierungsbeamte in Ciudad Juárez und Betreiber von Notunterkünften sagen, Mexiko wähle Operationen aus, um Migranten entlang der Nordgrenze zu fangen und zu deportieren. Fast täglich, so zwei von ihnen, halten die mexikanischen Behörden mit Familien gefüllte Lieferwagen und Kleintransporter mit Vieh an – zusammen mit Migranten, die auf dem Boden hocken, um nicht entdeckt zu werden.

Ein Grund dafür, dass Mexiko bereit ist, weiter vorzugehen, ist, dass es, obwohl es ein Land ist, das seit langem Menschen nach Norden schickt, viel Ressentiments gegen zentralamerikanische Migranten gibt.

“Die negative Einstellung gegenüber Migrantenströmen ist gestiegen, sodass keine politischen Kosten entstehen”, sagte Tonatiuh Guillén, der im ersten Halbjahr 2019 das mexikanische Nationale Migrationsinstitut leitete. Aber mit Trump haben wir nichts verhandelt – wir haben ihnen viel gegeben und sie haben uns nichts zurückgegeben “, fügte er hinzu und argumentierte, dass die Strategie bei Mr. Biden anders sein sollte.

Trotz der sehr öffentlichen Spannungen mit Mexiko unter Herrn Trump war Herr López Obrador der Biden-Regierung gegenüber besorgt, weil sie eher bereit sein könnte, sich in innerstaatliche Fragen wie Arbeitsrechte oder Umwelt einzumischen.

Stattdessen, so sagen mehrere mexikanische Beamte, hat seine Regierung die Vereinigten Staaten dazu gedrängt, Mittelamerikaner von der Migration abzuhalten, indem sie nach zwei Hurrikanen, die diese Länder verwüsteten, humanitäre Hilfe nach Honduras und Guatemala schickten und nach Ansicht vieler Experten noch mehr Menschen zur Migration drängten .

Mexikanische Beamte haben die Vereinigten Staaten auch gebeten, mehr in den Vereinigten Staaten festgenommene Honduraner und Guatemalteken direkt in ihre Heimatländer zu schicken, anstatt sie nach Mexiko freizulassen, was es für sie noch schwieriger macht, erneut zu versuchen, die Grenze zu überschreiten.

Der Bedarf an Impfstoffen in Mexiko ist klar. Ungefähr 200.000 Menschen sind im Land an dem Virus gestorben – der dritthöchsten Zahl der Todesopfer der Welt – und die Impfung der Bevölkerung war relativ langsam. Dies stellt ein potenzielles politisches Risiko für Herrn López Obrador dar, dessen Partei im Juni vor entscheidenden Wahlen steht, die bestimmen, ob der Präsident an der Kontrolle des Gesetzgebers festhält.

“Mexiko braucht die Zusammenarbeit der USA, um seine Wirtschaft anzukurbeln und Impfstoffe zu erhalten, um aus der Gesundheitskrise herauszukommen”, sagte Andrew Selee, Präsident des Instituts für Migrationspolitik in Washington. “Es gibt also Raum für die beiden Länder, Vereinbarungen zu treffen, die auf abgestimmten Interessen und nicht auf offensichtlichen Bedrohungen beruhen.”

Michael D. Shear, Ian Austen, Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere und Eileen Sullivan trugen zur Berichterstattung bei.

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Politics

Democrats need to ship as much as $3,600 per baby to households

Democrats want to send up to $3,600 per child to households

House Democrats unveiled their plan on Monday to send up to $ 3,600 per child to families. A huge but temporary increase in household aid forecast by experts could lift millions out of poverty.

The proposal would further elaborate on President Joe Biden’s request for a $ 1.9 trillion increase in child tax credit under his Covid-19 relief legislation. An aide said the plan could change before it was officially released.

  • The proposal is $ 3,600 for children under 6 and $ 3,000 for children under 18 over a year.
  • The money would be distributed in monthly installments by the IRS starting in July.
  • Payments would expire for individuals earning more than $ 75,000 and for couples earning more than $ 150,000.

The proposal would increase the child tax credit, which under applicable law provides for $ 2,000 for children under the age of 17 and is distributed annually.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement that the pandemic is “driving families deeper and deeper into poverty and is devastating”.

Boston, MA. – FEBRUARY 8: Richard Neal, Chairman of the US House Ways and Means Committee, speaks at a news conference at the State House on February 8, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Matt Stone | Boston Herald | Getty Images

“We’re making the child tax credit more generous, accessible, and paying out monthly,” said Neal. “This money will make the difference between a roof over your head or food on the table. This is how the tax code is supposed to work for those who need it most, and as long as I chair the Ways and Means Committee, you can do that from us expect. “

The proposal is expected to be included in Biden’s full $ 1.9 trillion relief plan, though it must meet certain technical criteria as Democrats push for a Congressional process that will allow them to spot a potential GOP -Filibuster to bypass the Senate.

According to Biden, a push for a minimum wage of $ 15 could not be considered under parliamentary rules known as reconciliation.

While Republicans have criticized the $ 1.9 trillion plan for being too big, it’s possible the child tax credit increase could get at least some bipartisan support. Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced his own plan on Thursday to provide households with even greater child support and permanent. Romney funded his plan in part by cutting other spending programs.

A Romney spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Democrats’ plan. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment. White House spokeswoman Rosemary Boeglin said last week that the Biden administration wants to work with lawmakers to come up with an ongoing plan to increase support for families with children.

An increase in the amount of aid that the US distributes to families with children would bring the country closer to that of other industrialized nations, which also generally have lower child poverty. The Covid pandemic has put the burden on families, left millions of people unemployed and closed schools across the country.

Biden’s agenda for economic aid – including increasing child tax credits and other measures – would cut the US child poverty rate in half, according to the Columbia University Center for Poverty and Social Policy.

Critics left and right

While plans to increase aid to households with children are largely backed by Democrats, Neal’s proposal has been technically criticized by progressives. After the Washington Post first reported the plan on Sunday, Matt Bruenig, an analyst on the left, wrote that “the administrative design here is a mess”.

Bruenig wrote that the plan made a mistake by using last year’s tax information to determine the amount of a family’s monthly payment, even though their eligibility for the program is based on the current year.

“This will lead to * both * underpayments and overpayments. And the overpayments will trigger recovery claims through surprising tax bills,” wrote Bruenig in a post on Twitter.

The plan is also likely to be criticized by Republicans who have insisted on downsizing and tightening the aid package.

A counterproposal by 10 Republican senators last month, including Romney and Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, cut the increase in the child tax credit.

Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, who supported efforts to increase child tax credits, also spoke out against Romney’s plan and suggested that GOP support might be limited. The two senators said they do not endorse support for families where parents are unemployed.

“We have long said that the child tax credit needs to be increased further to help working families. In the current pandemic relief bill, we would support increasing the tax credit for children to $ 3,500 and for infants to $ 4,500,” they said two senators.

“However, we do not support converting the child tax credit into what is known as ‘child benefit’, which is paid out to all parents as a universal basic income. This is not a tax break for working parents, but welfare,” she added.

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Health

Biden administration to ship troops to California to assist employees Covid vaccine websites

Biden administration to send troops to California to help staff Covid vaccine sites

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visits National Guard forces stationed in the U.S. Capitol and its vicinity on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 29, 2021.

Manuel Balce Ceneta | Getty Images

The Secretary of Defense has approved the deployment of more than 1,000 active troops to deliver Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, a member of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team said Friday.

Some of the troops will arrive in California next week within the next ten days and begin operations by February 15. Other states will follow. Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to Biden’s Covid-19 response team who previously worked in the Obama administration, is told reporters.

“The vital role of the military in supporting sites will help vaccinate thousands of people every day and ensure that every American who wants a vaccine receives it,” he said during the White House news conference.

The Pentagon is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to expedite delivery of the shots, which were slower than expected.

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Health

American Airways to ship employees furlough notices once more with journey demand low

American Airlines to send staff furlough notices again with travel demand low

American Airlines announced Wednesday that it will be sending vacation notices to approximately 13,000 employees this week as a second round of government payroll assistance expires next month and demand for travel continues to be in ruins.

“The vaccine is not being distributed as quickly as neither of us anticipated, and new restrictions on international travel requiring customers to test negative for COVID-19 have dampened demand,” wrote Doug Parker, CEO of American, and Robert Isom, President, in a note to staff.

Rival United Airlines sent similar vacation alerts to 14,000 employees last Friday.

The last $ 15 billion congress, approved for U.S. airlines late last year, urged airlines to call back employees on leave in the fall and keep payroll up through March 31. This was the second round of Covid aid to the industry. Congress gave airlines $ 25 billion last March to keep them from downsizing in the fall.

The airline unions are now seeking more than $ 15 billion in support for the industry’s payroll to keep jobs through Sept. 30, and Americans Parker and Isom said they are backing another round of aid.

“We are fully behind our union leaders’ efforts to fight for an extension and we will use our time and energy to support that effort in any way we can,” they said.

After the U.S. airline’s CEOs reported new record losses of $ 34 billion last month, they warned they wouldn’t expect a sharp recovery in air travel anytime soon.

Employers are legally obliged to give staff 60 days in advance of any possible layoffs or temporary vacation days. The communications do not guarantee that recipients will ultimately lose their jobs.

American offers early retirement programs for employees who have been in their workgroups for more than 10 years, including up to $ 150,000 for a retirement reimbursement package and some travel benefits. Absence leave for one year or 18 months with partial remuneration will also be introduced.

“Obviously, issuing these required WARNINGS is not a step we want to take,” said Parker and IsomHelp. “Ten Thousands of our colleagues have faced extreme uncertainty about their job security in the past 12 months. This adds to the emotional stress that our entire team was exposed to during an incredibly difficult year. “

American CEO Parker warned employees last week that the airline is still overstaffed for current demand forecasts and that vacation days may be on the way.