Wednesday, January 27, 2021

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  • Philippines protests new China law as `verbal threat of war’

    The Philippines has protested a new Chinese law that authorizes its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels and destroy other countries' structures on islands it claims, Manila’s top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a tweet that the new Chinese law “is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies” it. “While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one — given the area involved, or for that matter the open South China Sea — is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies the law,” Locsin said.

  • Panicked Euro Leaders Threaten Trade War as Vaccine Rollout Goes to Hell

    Robert Michael via ReutersROME— The development of COVID-19 vaccines was supposed to mark the end of the worst year in modern history, but less than a month into the rollout, European leaders are already panicking. Threats of trade wars and fierce infighting over short vaccine supplies are making the cure—or in this case, the vaccine—just as divisive as the finger-pointing that marked the beginning of this nightmare.Coronavirus Explodes in Italy, Threatening Europe. Can It Be Contained?German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a thinly veiled threat against the U.S. on how Europe should deal with American “vaccine nationalism” in her address to the World Economic Forum being held virtually instead of in Davos this year. Germany has been briefing European regulators against the British-made AstraZenica vaccine, which is already having delivery problems even before it is officially approved by the EU to such an extent that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has threatened the company and warned that the EU might now block exports of any vaccines made in Europe to the U.K. But even European diplomats aren’t entirely sure just what they are arguing about, except that their own countries should come first as the bloc struggles to recover from the pandemic’s impact on their economies, health systems and population. “Right now we have no idea what it’s about,” one EU diplomat said during a side meeting at the virtual World Economic Forum. “But blocking exports might be a little too much, since it would start a trade war with the US — six days after saying we should rebuild transatlantic relations.”From the moment the European Union announced a unified effort to launch its “V-Day” COVID-19 vaccination rollout on Dec. 27, things started to go wrong.What was supposed to be a race to turn Europe—the first epicenter of the pandemic outside China—into a shining example of how public health systems could ensure a smooth rollout turned into a crawl because of reliance on private drug companies that many European health experts say aren’t willing or able to pull out all the stops at any cost to hurry up vaccine production since they are already offering the jabs at discount prices. So perturbed are the Italians, they have threatened legal action against the companies to make good on their promises, even if it means a loss in revenue.Now, a month into the rollout, and after the EU paid $3.28 billion to several vaccine developers to ensure rapid development of the vaccines for their citizens, supply chain failure from Pfizer-BioNTech have delayed millions of vials from being delivered on time, meaning many countries that chose to vaccinate as many as they could in the beginning rather than holding back second doses are now concerned about fulfilling the double-dose protocol. The EU had underestimated Moderna’s success and only ordered a fraction of doses they have committed to from other companies which have yet to win approval. Coupled with concern over AstraZeneca‘s impending approval, European health care providers are now struggling to ensure that the millions who have already been vaccinated will get their second dose.Many Europeans are skeptical as to why the supply chains are kinked, especially as Pfizer just announced it would be delivering vaccines earlier in the U.S. In Italy, especially, there has been concern that drug companies are favoring the U.S. and U.K. and robbing the EU of their promised doses.Worse yet, if first doses for the next tier of recipients are delayed further, thousands more will die from the virus. Italian Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri is leading the charge to launch legal action against the vaccine-makers. “By autumn we could vaccinate up to 45 million Italians, but I don't believe in these companies,” he said on a Sunday political program. “I want to see the vaccines.”Pfizer’s delays have meant a reshuffling of rollout plans across Europe and the U.K. In Italy, over 80s, who are supposed to be the next in line after health-care workers and emergency teams, are now delayed by four weeks because the Italian health ministry now has to use first doses meant for the elderly as second doses for the health-care workers to fill the shortfall in Pfizer’s delivery.To help fill the gap, AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed with Oxford University, is expected to win approval by European regulators on Friday—despite since-retracted reports out of Germany that the jab won’t work on over-65s. Those reports were denied by the drug maker and belatedly by Germany’s health ministry which accused the media of misreading the data. After several tense days of AstraZeneca denials, several media outlets reported that Germany has long briefed the European regulators against the U.K. vaccine, suggesting that old rivalries are still in play post-Brexit.Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister, said Wednesday: “It’s not about E.U. first. It’s about Europe’s fair share. That’s why I think it would make sense to have a restriction on exports. It would mean that vaccines that leave the EU need a permit, so that at least we know what’s produced in Europe, what is leaving Europe, where it’s leaving Europe for, and we have a fair distribution.”Germany is not just warning the U.K. over vaccine exports. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that the U.S. is also playing a dangerous game in limiting vaccine exports. “The U.S. has a war act in force on the export of vaccines, and in some cases on important supplies for vaccines,” Merkel said Tuesday referring to the fact that the U.S. seems to be the only country where distribution is ahead of schedule, not behind. “That will trigger our basic instincts in Europe to say: if you’re missing anything you need in your supply chain for drugs or vaccines, you will take a look at home and make sure you get that sorted.”AstraZeneca then suddenly said that due to a manufacturing issue, they will fall short of the 300 million doses the EU has already paid for, of which 100 million doses were supposed to be ready to be distributed this weekend. “While there is no scheduled delay to the start of shipments of our vaccine should we receive approval in Europe, initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain,” AstraZeneca said in a statement Monday. “We will be supplying tens of millions of doses in February and March to the European Union, as we continue to ramp up production volumes.” But with thousands already dying every day across the bloc, that delay will almost certainly cost lives.Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, accused the British company of a “lack of clarity and insufficient explanations” and said they would also consider legal measures to make sure they get the vaccines they ordered. “Europe invested billions to help develop the world's first COVID-19 vaccines, to create a truly global common good,” she said during the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos confab. “And now the companies must deliver. They must honor their obligations.”The dustup between Europe and the U.K.’s AstraZeneca has now led to threats by Europe that it will impose strict export controls on all vaccines produced in Europe which, in a post-Brexit world, includes exports to the U.K. which has warned against “vaccine nationalism,” while bragging about its own early success. Since many of AstraZeneca’s doses are produced in European factories, that could mean that the U.K. drugmaker won’t get its own product. Those export controls would also impact Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, most of which are produced in Belgium.The European Union, which has fallen far behind the U.K. in the percentage of residents vaccinated, has signed six contracts with drugmakers for more than 2 billion doses for its 450 million residents. But since only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are approved for use so far, the problem will only get worse. Hungary has grown so desperate for the doses they have just unilaterally approved Russia’s Sputnik vaccine and plan to start distributing it to fill the gap created by the supply shortfall.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Bloomberg

  • Biden to Order Justice Department to End Private Prison Use

    (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Justice Department will be required to end its use of privately run prisons under an executive order signed Tuesday by President Joe Biden.Biden instructed the attorney general not to renew contracts with private prison operators, according to a White House statement.“This is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off incarceration that is less humane and less safe,” Biden said in remarks at the White House Tuesday.The move may hurt the country’s two largest operators of private prisons, GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc., which saw their share prices gain significantly after former President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Trump ended an Obama-era prohibition on the Justice Department’s use of private prisons.Both companies’ shares fell on the news Tuesday. GEO Group erased a gain to close down 7.8%. CoreCivic fell 5.9%.Contracts with government agencies accounted for about 56% of GEO Group’s 2019 consolidated revenue. Payments by federal correctional and detention authorities made up 51% of CoreCivic’s 2019 revenue, according to company filings.“Today’s executive order is a solution in search of a problem,” GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said in a statement. “Limiting the federal government’s options to deal with potential overcrowding challenges in the future could result in worsening and unsafe conditions for the men and women in federal custody.”CoreCivic said in a statement that the move wasn’t surprising, since the federal prison population had been declining for several years. The company provides flexibility as prison populations rise and fall, and its goals are aligned with the administration’s, said Steve Owen, CoreCivic vice president, communications.“Every day, CoreCivic helps nearly 1,500 inmates learn the life and vocational skills they need to find and keep employment once released,” Owen said. “In 2014, we made commitments to strengthen reentry programming unprecedented for the public or private sector.” State BusinessGEO and CoreCivic have sought to diversify from federal contracts by signing deals with states to build and operate prisons.The executive order on prisons applies to Justice Department contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. There are 12 such facilities in the U.S., housing 14,095 federal prisoners, which are run by closely held Management and Training Corp. in addition to Geo Group and Core Civic, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.MTC said in a statement that it “applauds the new administration’s focus on criminal-justice reform,” but that phasing out private prisons won’t help. “Blaming high incarceration rates on contractors is irresponsible because contractors have no say as to what laws are enacted and who is ultimately incarcerated. MTC has effectively prioritized programs which prepare offenders for re-entry and reduce the re-offending rate.” ( These guys should sell used cars too ) At the end of 2019, there were about 116,000 prisoners held in privately operated facilities, which represented roughly 7% of all state prisoners and 16% of all federal prisoners, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.The order doesn’t apply to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, which contract with private prison operators as well, or private prison contracts with agencies other than the Justice Department, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice said in a Tuesday White House press briefing.In its statement, GEO said it has “almost exclusively housed non-citizen criminal aliens convicted of federal crimes, thus allowing government-run facilities to care for U.S. citizens without significant overcrowding challenges.”The American Civil Liberties Union called Biden’s order an “important first step.”“Today’s executive order validates something we’ve been saying for years: No one should profit from the human misery that is caused by mass incarceration,” David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement.(Adds CoreCivic comments in eighth and ninth paragraphs.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • ( Wow. Free the Slaves all over again )
  • The Daily Beast

    Another Police Officer Who Responded to Capitol Riots Dies by Suicide Days Later

    Brent Stirton/GettyA second police officer who responded to the riots at the Capitol earlier this month has died by suicide, the D.C. police chief revealed on Tuesday evening. Jeffery Smith had worked for the Metropolitan Police Department for 12 years and died on Jan. 15—just nine days after thousands of MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol. “Officer Jeffrey Smith’s service and presence will be dearly missed at the Second District,” MPD Second District Commander Duncan Bedlion told The Daily Beast in an email. “My prayers are with his family during a very difficult time.”Smith is the second police officer to die by suicide after working at the Capitol on the day of the siege. U.S. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, a 51-year-old who had guarded the government building since 2005, took his own life on Jan. 9.“My prayers are with the family and colleagues of Officer Jeffery Smith,” California Rep. Ted Lieu (D) wrote on Twitter Wednesday.Another officer, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died in the hospital on Jan. 7 from injuries sustained “while physically engaging with protesters.” Four pro-Trump insurrectionists also died during the siege, including a woman who was shot by police while trying to break into the House chamber, a 55-year-old Alabama man who had a heart attack, a Georgia woman who was reportedly crushed in the crowd, and a Philadelphia man who suffered a stroke.“We honor the service and sacrifices of Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, and Jeffery Smith, and offer condolences to all the grieving families,” acting MPD Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said during remarks before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday evening. Contee said MPD sent 850 police officers, nearly a quarter of its force, to assist in protecting the Capitol during the insurrection.Sixty-five MPD officers reported injuries from the attack, and many more had wounds such as “scratches, bruises, eyes burning from bear mace—that they did not even bother to report,” he said.Officer Liebengood worked in the Senate Division and was the son of the late Sergeant at Arms Howard S. Liebengood. “Every Capitol Police Officer puts the security of others before their own safety and Officer Liebengood was an example of the selfless service that is the hallmark of the USCP,” Gus Papathanasiou, the chair of the Capitol Police Labor Committee, said in a statement after Liebengood’s death. “This is a tragic day.”Former Sen. John Kerry remembered Liebengood on Twitter, saying the officer used to guard a door near his office on the Hill. “Howie always had a smile on his face, but he also showed great care for the safety of the young staff who worked behind our office doors,” Kerry wrote.The police response to the insurrection at the Capitol has been widely criticized. Although law enforcement knew about potential plans for violence in advance, they were woefully unprepared, and videos showed some officers allowing rioters to enter the building. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman apologized for the response on Tuesday, saying in a statement, “The Department failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours.”The Capitol Police union sent a fiery statement responding to Pittman’s admission, calling it “startling” and saying her comments about the department’s preparation failures had “angered and shocked the rank-and-file officers of the Capitol Police.”“We have one officer who lost his life as a direct result of the insurrection. Another officer had tragically taken his own life. Between USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have almost 140 officers injured,” Papathanasiou wrote.“I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained brain injuries,” Papathanasiou said. “One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs. One officer is going to lose his eye, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake.” He called the fact that the leadership knew about the attack in advance but failed to adequately prepare “unconscionable.”Officer Who Defended Capitol During Riots Dies of Apparent SuicideIf you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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