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Asian Americans see shooting as a culmination of a year of racism

InternationalMar 18. 2021A pedestrian walks in the neighborhood of Chinatown in Manhattan, N.Y., on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Police said the Atlanta, Ga.-area suspect told them the shooting was not racially motivated, but to many Asian Americans, the intent seemed clear: Six of the eight victimes were Asian women, and the shooter targeted spas known for employing Asians. Photo by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post

By Silvia Foster-Frau, Marian Liu, Hannah Knowles, Meryl Kornfield
The Washington Post

As Helen Kim Ho learned that a White man with a self-described sex addiction was charged with killing eight people – including six Asian women – at spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday, she imagined the stereotypes of Asian women that must have run through his head.

“We’re not really Americans, we’re perpetually foreigners, and that idea plays out with women as being oversexualized,” said Ho, a Korean American and a founder of the advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Atlanta. “All of that had to have played out in this man’s own mind. In addition to the unspoken notion that Asian people are easy targets.”

Atlanta police said the suspect told them his actions were not racially motivated – even though the shooter targeted businesses known for employing Asians, and six victims were Asian women. The suspect claimed he had a “sex addiction,” according to police, and wanted to eliminate temptation, which sounded to many women as if their sexuality was somehow to blame.

The gunman’s intent seemed crystal clear to Asians living in Atlanta and across the nation who have long had to confront stereotyping, hateful harassment and even violence – and who say things have gotten even worse amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For Asian women, the moment felt particularly threatening.

A vigil and march to remember and honor the eight lives lost Tuesday in Atlanta, Ga., takes place in the Chinatown area of the District of Columbia on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Photo by Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post

As soon as Crystal Jin Kim heard about the shooting, she reached out to her mother and father, who immigrated to the United States from Korea. In a text, she urged them “to be safe, to be careful, and to pray.”

She thought about rescheduling one of their upcoming doctor appointments, and she worried about her mother going to work at a small business in the Atlanta area – she asked that the type of business not be named for fear of her mother being targeted.

“Since I was a kid I’ve heard racial slurs yelled at me or my parents, or witnessed my parents being treated as if they were stupid because their English isn’t perfect, even though my mom’s English is really good,” said Kim, a second-generation Korean American. “Those small moments really add up. I don’t think we’ve ever spoken up against those small moments. . . . It’s easier to try not to think about it, or to try to let it go. To try to bury the hurt.”

People have leaned out of cars to scream “Asian!” at her, she said, and she has gotten comments about how she must like Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong martial artist and actor. As an Asian woman, she said men often ascribe characteristics to her that don’t reflect her personality – that’s she’s a pushover, or soft-spoken.

“Really, I’m not – I’m very talkative and extroverted,” Kim said. “It’s just people having these assumptions and treating me like a perfect Asian girl. Not even a woman, but a girl.”

David Palumbio-Liu, a Stanford professor and author of “Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier,” said there is a long history, extending well before the Vietnam War, of the fetishization of and murderous intent toward Asian women. He cited the Broadway musical “Miss Saigon,” which critics have said romanticizes an imperialistic relationship and portrays Asian women as acquiescent and self-sacrificing.

The suspect “said it wasn’t racially motivated, but on the other hand, he’s going specifically to these spas where Asian women work precisely to serve the sexual fantasies of white males,” Palumbio-Liu said in an interview, “so to disentangle them is really to do a disservice to the fact that these things are so linked together.”

The shooting made visible the worst-case scenarios many Asians living in the United States had feared. Many sadly expressed a similar sentiment: We knew this was coming.

The coalition Stop AAPI Hate has been documenting anti-Asian attacks since the pandemic started last March and says there have been nearly 3,800 hate-fueled incidents against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the U.S. – a number the group says is likely a fraction of the true number. About 3 in 10 Asian adults said they’ve experienced jokes or slurs about their race or ethnicity during the pandemic, according to Pew Research – the highest percent among all races.

More than 68% of documented reports of anti-Asian harassment and violence since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic have been from women.

“I’ve never been this afraid to be Asian in America,” said Dorothy Kuo, 38, who attempted to explain to her 6-year-old daughter what had happened in their community.

“I told her ‘Mommy is having a hard time focusing today because last night there were eight people killed.’ I just told her, honestly, what happened,” said Kuo, who is Korean American, like several of the victims.

Kuo said she felt it was important to tell her daughter so she understands the world she’s stepping into, one in which she might have to be more careful as an Asian woman.

“I’ve been refused seating at a restaurant,” Kuo said, “and even then I’ve never felt what I feel now.”

Jane Kim Coloseus, 32, grew angry Wednesday when Atlanta police declared it was too soon to say whether the slayings were racially motivated.

“As an Asian woman, it brings out a lot of the experiences or harassment we have received throughout our lives in general, and just have that completely invalidated because of what the suspect is saying,” said Coloseus, a Korean American who is executive director of the nonprofit Her Term, which recruits women to run for office in Georgia.

She has long felt like she had to be more guarded – whether it’s in the workplace or walking down the street – because of anti-Asian sentiments and the sexualization of Asian women’s bodies. Asians have long been part of the fabric of the United States, she said, yet have “been kept on the sidelines as the model minority,” their voices ignored or muted.

“To me the equation is pretty straightforward,” she said of the shooter’s intent. “It is racially motivated.”

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U.S. subpoenas Chinese companies over possible security risks on eve of summit

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Jeanne Whalen

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said Wednesday that it has served subpoenas on Chinese companies to seek information on possible national-security risks, showing that at least some of the Trump administration’s tough policies on China are taking root in the new administration.

The announcement of the subpoenas came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan prepared to meet their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, the first administration meeting with Chinese officials.

In issuing the subpoenas, the Commerce Department is implementing an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in May 2019 that allowed the executive branch to prohibit the purchase of foreign-made communications equipment or services that could pose national-security risks.

The Commerce Department declined to list which companies it subpoenaed, saying only that they “provide information and communications technology and services (ICTS) in the United States.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration has been clear that the unrestricted use of untrusted ICTS poses a national security risk,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

“In issuing subpoenas today, we are taking an important step in collecting information that will allow us to make a determination for possible action that best protects the security of American companies, American workers, and U.S. national security,” she said. “The administration is firmly committed to taking a whole-of-government approach to ensure that untrusted companies cannot misappropriate and misuse data and ensuring that U.S. technology does not support China’s or other actors’ malign activities.”

One trade lawyer speculated that the list of subpoena recipients could potentially include the five companies the Federal Communications Commission last week deemed threats to national security – Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications., Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Dahua Technology.

A Trump-era law requires the FCC to maintain a list of communications equipment that poses “an unacceptable risk to national security.”

Huawei, which has rejected accusations that it presents security risks, declined to comment on the subpoenas. The other companies could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rod Hunter, a lawyer with Baker McKenzie and a former national security official in the George W. Bush administration, said the timing of the announcement, a day before the Anchorage talks, appeared significant.

“It’s kind of interesting they are doing it on the eve of the meeting,” he said. “You have to think this is not by accident they are issuing it now.”

The Trump administration designed the executive order to close what it saw as a gap in U.S. regulation. Other laws allowed the government to stop the military or other federal agencies from purchasing certain technology, or to stop foreign companies from acquiring sensitive U.S. technology companies.

The May 2019 executive order, which comes into full force this month, after the publication of the implementing rules, adds a layer of regulation by allowing the government to stop U.S. companies from buying some equipment or services from entities deemed risky.

“The rule closes the circle at addressing threats to U.S. critical infrastructure by foreign telecom equipment that cannot be addressed by export controls, foreign direct investment controls, or procurement limitations,” said Kevin Wolf, a former senior Commerce official who is now a partner at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

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In countering China, U.S. pitches South Korea a sensitive effort involving Japan

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Dan Lamothe

SEOUL – The Biden administration made a pitch to South Korean officials on Wednesday for greater collaboration with the United States and Japan as they counter China, a course that could be challenging after years of disagreements between Seoul and Tokyo.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Seoul as part of the administration’s first overseas trip and shortly before Thursday’s high-stakes meeting between a U.S. delegation led by Blinken and senior Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska. The United States is expected to confront Beijing on several issues, including its increasingly aggressive military posture, documented human rights abuses and economic pressure on other countries.

Austin, the retired Army general who Biden selected to be defense secretary, took in a South Korean military ceremony that saw him pass by troops in brightly colored uniforms in a convertible, then lauded South Korea as a “critical partner for our shared priorities in the region,” including upholding “the rules-based international order.”

U.S. officials have said repeatedly that China wants to upset that order, which includes a network of alliances and partnerships devoted to keeping peace that dates back to shortly after World War II.

“You have become a key provider of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, and for that we are grateful,” Austin said in opening remarks at a bilateral meeting with Suh Wook, the South Korean defense minister.

The defense secretary added that “given the unprecedented challenges” created by North Korea and China, the U.S.-South Korean alliance “has never been more important.”

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday after the meeting that Austin and Suh discussed issues that included “how to rejuvenate trilateral security cooperation,” a reference to collective efforts with Japan.

Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, said in a separate statement that Blinken “affirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation among the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Similar themes came up in Tokyo, which Austin and Blinken also visited this week. At a news conference with Austin and senior Japanese officials, Blinken said “greater trilateral cooperation” with South Korea “will make us stronger.”

But there are still challenges in making that happen.

While the United States has close relationships with both countries that includes tens of thousands of U.S. troops based in each of them, Japan and South Korea’s history includes conflict on and off for centuries, and strains in recent years on several fronts. They include continued disagreements about how to address World War II-era abuses of Korean women by Japanese soldiers, maritime territorial disputes, and what to call the Sea of Japan, the body of water between the two nations.

Japan and South Korea have joined the United States at times to counter North Korea, including flying fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula in a combined show of force.

Victor Cha, an expert on the region who served in the administration of President George W. Bush, said in a call with reporters last week that Japan-Korea relations “are about at the worst they’ve ever been.” Among the issues Cha cited was a 2019 dispute in which South Korea threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Japan before agreeing to continue to shortly before a deal between the two countries was set to expire.

“This will certainly be, I think, maybe not as much a public part of the discussion, but I think it’ll certainly be something that the United States will impress upon both allies privately, that we need the relationship to improve,” said Cha, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A senior defense official, asked in Seoul about the discussion, said that the trilateral relationship between the United States, South Korea and Japan is important. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it ideally includes not only information sharing, but looking for ways to increase the ability of the countries to operate together.

One option that has been floated in Washington is inviting South Korea to join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the “Quad.” The coalition, which includes India, Australia, Japan and the United States, is focused on shared security concerns.

South Korea has not been asked to join it by the United States and was not again on Wednesday in the meeting between Austin and Suh, the senior defense official said.

Joining would come with challenges for South Korea, whose largest trade partner is China. In 2017, after the United States deployed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile-defense system on South Korea, China responded by cutting into its tourism and sales in South Korea. They eventually mended ties, focusing instead on threats posed by North Korea.

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Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, court rules

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Simon Denyer, Julia Mio Inuma

TOKYO – A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that the government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, a landmark decision that brought joy and hope to the LGBT community.

The case is the first of five similar lawsuits unfolding in Japanese courts, and it brings new pressure on the government to catch up with public opinion and legalize same-sex unions.

But the district court in the northern city of Sapporo denied a request by three same-sex couples for compensation of about $9,200 each for psychological damage after the authorities failed to register their marriages.

The judge cried as she delivered the ruling, local media reported, as did some of the plaintiffs.

“I was in tears hearing her clearly say it was unconstitutional,” one of the anonymous plaintiffs was quoted as saying by Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting. “It doesn’t mean we can get married tomorrow, so I want to continue our efforts moving forward.”

Another plaintiff said she hoped this would be “the first step for Japan to change.”

Same-sex marriage is legal in some 29 countries or territories, but Taiwan is alone in Asia in legalizing same-sex unions, which it did in 2019.

Japan’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages is not only humiliating for couples, it means that they are treated as individuals for tax and pension purchases, and face complications with inheritance, adoption and visa rights.

Those in same-sex relationships do not have the legal right to visit their partner in the hospital or receive medical updates, nor make decisions on their partner’s behalf, although some municipalities issue certificates to help get around these sorts of obstacles.

“This ruling is a big step forward,” said Kanae Doi, Japan director at Human Rights Watch. “While the Supreme Court would eventually decide whether the Diet [parliament] needs to act or not, which will be several years away, today’s ruling will affect the already supportive Japanese public opinion on marriage equality, which would make it harder for the Supreme Court to neglect.”

Japan is the only country in the Group of Seven rich industrialized nations not to recognize same-sex marriages. Last year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan said this made the country a less attractive option for LGBT couples and urged Japan to “correct this inequality.”

“It’s amazing, I am so thrilled,” said Masa Yanagisawa, head of prime services at Goldman Sachs Japan and a board member of the NGO Marriage for All Japan. “This is a landmark ruling, and I hope it will lead to heightened awareness that marriage is a right that should be afforded to all people equally.”

Although some Japanese multinational companies have recently changed their policies to recognize same-sex couples, many others do not, and this makes it harder for them to hire and retain LGBT staff, Masa said.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Japan also face discriminatory comments at work, surveys show.

Japan’s constitution defines marriage as being based on “the mutual consent of both sexes,” with the “equal rights of husband and wife as a basis.”

The government says this precludes same-sex marriages, but the plaintiff’s lawyers successfully argued the article’s intent was to preserve gender equality and individual respect, and that denying same-sex marriages violates a separate constitutional provision ensuring the right to equality, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government does not agree that civil law on marriage is unconstitutional, but will “carefully watch” the outcomes of the ongoing court cases.

Homosexual sex has been legal in Japan since 1880, but social attitudes keep the LGBT community largely invisible and many have yet to come out to their families or employers.

Nevertheless, attitudes are changing. Polls in the past decade show narrow majorities in favor of same-sex marriage, while a survey by advertising agency Dentsu in 2018 found that more than 78% of people between ages 20 and 59 approve of same-sex marriage. Some 147 businesses and organizations in Japan have also signed up to a campaign to legalize same-sex marriage.

Li Italiaander, a 32-year-old nonbinary American in a relationship with a Japanese woman, said current rules made it harder for them to remain in Japan, since they do not qualify for a spouse visa.

“Every year, I have to worry about not being able to renew my visa and us potentially being separated,” they said. “The ruling in Sapporo is a huge step toward something that could be life-changing for us.”

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E.U. announces vaccine passport plan to enable summer travel

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Rick Noack, Quentin Ariès

BERLIN – The European Union on Wednesday launched a closely watched effort to create a joint vaccination passport for its more than 440 million citizens and residents, embarking on a tightrope walk between economic pressures, discrimination fears and concerns over Europe’s slow vaccination progress.

Supporters hope the “digital green certificates” will be ready by June, which could help to salvage the European summer tourism season and even serve as a model that could be extended to the United States and other countries. But E.U. countries lag far behind the United States in vaccinations, which has raised concerns that the passport plan could be launched prematurely.

The passes are expected to be digital or paper documents for travelers to prove that they have been vaccinated, that they recovered from the virus or recently tested negative for it. In many cases, this could free travelers from quarantine obligations.

Those privileges could eventually also apply to Americans or British citizens traveling to continental Europe, given that all vaccines approved in the two countries are also approved for use in the European Union. Greece, Cyprus and several other E.U. countries have already announced or are working on plans to welcome British travelers back within months. But E.U. borders will remain closed to most Americans – even those who are vaccinated – until the bloc lifts its travel restrictions.

An easing of those restrictions remains unlikely in the short run, amid persistent E.U. concerns over new coronavirus variants. President Joe Biden also reimposed an entry ban on most European travelers in January, which could become another obstacle, as E.U. officials have cited reciprocity as a factor in their decision-making on travel restrictions.

The European passport initiative appears in some ways modeled on passes already in use in Israel, where QR codes allow fully vaccinated people access to gyms or restaurants.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the aim in Europe is to have crucial information on travelers’ covid-19 status “mutually recognized in every member state.”

But the plans unveiled Wednesday leave many of the most controversial points up to member states, including the question for which activities the passes would become mandatory.

Whereas Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz recently said that the “vaccinated should have full freedom,” indicating support for an approach similar to the one in place in Israel, some E.U. leaders still see the vaccine certificates mostly as a way to resume European travel.

With many Europeans unvaccinated and some receiving products that aren’t yet approved by the E.U. medical regulator, concerns over unequal treatment have mounted. E.U. member Hungary, for instance, has vaccinated some of its citizens with Russia’s Sputnik V and Chinese vaccines that are not currently recommended for use by the E.U. medical regulator. Under the E.U. proposal, it would be up to member states to decide if they accept those vaccines as sufficient proof of immunity.

“Beyond being a distraction from the task of vaccination, the pass could end up creating a two-tier society,” Israel Butler of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, a human rights watchdog, said in a response Wednesday.

The vaccination passport plans follow months of lobbying from tourism-dependent European top destinations such as Greece and Spain, which see the passes as an opportunity to revive their tourism sectors. About 20 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product depends on tourism, for example.

But Europe’s two most populous countries – France and Germany – have approached the plans with more caution, which could still derail them as they require the approval of the European Parliament and of member states.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that preferential treatment of vaccinated travelers “isn’t on the agenda, given the low vaccination coverage at this point.”

There is also still no scientific consensus on the extent to which vaccinations prevent the transmission of the virus.

The German and French stalling has frustrated officials in many southern European countries. Greece, Cyprus and other nations recently announced plans to set up bilateral agreements unless an E.U.-wide solution can be found.

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Hong Kong vaccine bookings jump in first day of expanded access

InternationalMar 18. 2021People stand in line outside a community vaccination center in Hong Kong on March 17, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chan Long Hei.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jinshan Hong

Hong Kong saw more than 144,000 people snap up covid-19 vaccine appointments the first day the government expanded access to a majority of residents, a sharp increase amid its bid to boost a lackluster inoculation rollout.

Some 30,800 people reserved slots to get the Chinese-made Sinovac Biotech shot and 113,200 others booked doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine at community vaccine centers in the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. Tuesday, the government said. The number of bookings soared from just 18,600 the day earlier.

Data was not available from private clinics, some of which are also offering Sinovac’s shot.

Before the expansion, only some 200,000 people — comprising just 5.4% of priority groups eligible like the elderly and healthcare workers — had come forward for shots since the vaccine drive started on Feb. 26.

The total number of people able to access vaccines now represents some 70% of the city’s population of 7.5 million, with adults aged 30 to 59 years old now eligible. The government added 23,000 new reservation slots to daily capacity on Tuesday, and has increased the number of community centers offering the BioNTech shot from seven to 19.

The extended drive comes as the city grapples with a new outbreak of the virus centered on its expatriate community, including employees of international financial firms. HSBC Holdings’s main Hong Kong office was ordered to close until further notice after three people working in the building tested positive for covid-19.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a Wednesday Legislative Council meeting that the government would explore whether there was room for virus-related social distancing measures to be relaxed for people who were vaccinated. She added that authorities had held preliminary talks with China regarding the easing of some travel restrictions for individuals who had received two vaccine doses.

While Hong Kong’s healthy adult population is one of the first in the world to gain eligibility for inoculation, the expanded access reflects a major vaccine hesitation problem that will likely delay the city’s ability to reopen to the world. Officials widened eligibility earlier than expected after uptake was dismal among priority groups, leaving millions of doses unused.

Demand for covid-19 vaccines has generally been lower in Asia, where contained outbreaks and low death tolls in places like Japan and Singapore has meant that people feel less urgency and more skepticism toward rapidly-developed shots.

It’s unclear if the younger adult population will ultimately help boost these underwhelming numbers, after the initial burst of pent-up demand. An informal poll of 13 people in the 30 to 59 years old group on Tuesday showed that half were planning to get a vaccine now that they can.

George Lin, chief financial officer at Hua Medicine and a former banker at Bank of America, said he was so excited to book a slot that he had a sleepless night. He signed up early Tuesday morning and will receive his first dose of BioNTech’s shot on Saturday in Causeway Bay.

“The first thing I would like to do is to travel internationally,” Lin said, including to the U.S to see his two daughters. “If I were in the U.S., I would not get this until May.”

Others said they did not want to take the risk. Resistance among Hong Kong residents has grown after reports of several deaths among inoculated people, though experts said none of them are directly tied to the vaccine.

“I don’t trust the vaccines, there’s not enough data to show it is safe, there’s not been enough testing,” said hairstylist Kei Ma, 41. “I don’t know how many other things the government is hiding.”

Political turmoil and China’s tightening grip over the former British colony are complicating factors as city officials try to persuade people to take the vaccine. Lam received Sinovac’s shot on Feb. 22 along with other cabinet members.

“The absence of trust only complicates the vaccine rollout,” said Nicholas Thomas, associate professor in health security at City University of Hong Kong. “Short of mandatory vaccinations, which would likely be resisted by the population, the Hong Kong government is facing a slower path to reopening than its earlier successes against the virus suggested would be the case.”

China is planning to ease requirements for foreigners applying for mainland visas from Hong Kong if they’ve received a Chinese vaccine, something that reassures David Bonnet, managing partner at real estate and hospitality advisory firm Delta State Holdings Ltd. who signed up for a Sinovac shot.

“If you live in Hong Kong and Macau, getting one of the Chinese vaccines probably will give some tangible benefits,” he said. “I don’t want to be subject to quarantines and I hope it will be easier to travel with Chinese vaccines. My hope is to resume business as normal.”

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Greece tries first 30-year debt sale since 2008 financial crisis

InternationalMar 18. 2021Visitors walk past protective plexiglass barriers towards the Parthenon at the archaeological site of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, on July 22, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Yorgos Karahalis.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · John Ainger, James Hirai

Greece is issuing its longest-maturity bonds since 2008, completing the country’s full return to debt markets.

The nation drew in more than 17 billion euros ($20.3 billion) of orders for its sale of 30-year bonds via banks, showing investors’ long-term confidence and appetite for yields that are likely to be the highest in the euro area. The demand allowed the country to trim its pricing guidance by as much as 10 basis points from initial levels.

The sale is a sign of just how far Greece has come over the past decade. At the height of the euro-area debt crisis in 2012, 10-year yields skyrocketed above 44%, with the country locked out of international markets. Now, yields are below 1%, giving the government a chance to tap long-end bonds and complete its yield curve.

“This Greek bond sale marks the nation’s rehabilitation,” said Alexandros Malamas, a trader at Piraeus Securities in Athens.

The extra supply saw Greek debt leading regional losses on Wednesday, with 10-year yields climbing five basis points to 0.92%, However, for investors the country’s bonds have already delivered. In the past year alone, they have returned around 25%, making them the best performers in the region, according to Bloomberg Barclays Indices.

Greece currently has a cash buffer of 30 billion euros ($35.7 billion), which means that it’s not in an immediate rush to raise short-term funds. Still, the government wants to boost its coffers as the economic fallout from the pandemic is larger than expected. It already plans to fund measures worth 11.6 billion euros, some 4 billion euros more than initially planned.

For Mediolanum fund manager Charles Diebel, the sale means Greece is now “back in the game.” He was put off from buying Greek bonds after staying in Athens during the euro-area crisis in the same hotel as representatives of the institutions that imposed stringent austerity on Greece in return for bailouts.

Trading in Greek bonds remains scant. Bank of Greece data show turnover on the electronic secondary securities market, or HDAT, totaled 2.6 billion euros last month, compared with a peak of 136 billion euros in September 2004.

That means the syndication is also a rare chance for investors to get their hands on Greek assets, particularly with the European Central Bank propping up the market through bond buying. A sale of 10-year debt earlier this year drew record orders of 29 billion euros.

BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Holdings, JPMorgan Chase and the National Bank of Greece ere appointed as joint lead managers for the sale of the bonds maturing in 2052. Price guidance was tightened to between 150 basis points to 155 basis points above midswaps, from the 160 originally provided.

“It completes their return,” said Jan von Gerich, chief strategist at Nordea Bank. “It will be really interesting because of the long maturity and a good test of the underlying bond market sentiment for risk.”

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Uber’s U.K. defeat won’t be blueprint for global labor fight

InternationalMar 18. 2021A protesting Uber driver waves a flag near the U.K. headquarters of Uber Technologies Inc. in London on May 8, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Jason Alden.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Lizette Chapman

For years, Uber has been locked in a fierce and expensive contest with global regulators over the protections it offers to drivers. The gig economy giant has argued that drivers are free agents, able to work when and where they like, and are therefore not directly employed by Uber — or eligible for benefits like sick leave and overtime.

In its home state of California, Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi advocated for a “third way” of classifying workers — other than as contractors or as full-time staff. And he’s suggested that the company’s approach in the state could be a blueprint for resolving similar labor battles brewing worldwide.

But on Tuesday, Uber said it would adopt a different model for its drivers in the U.K. After losing a watershed ruling in Britain’s Supreme Court, the company agreed to reclassify all of its 70,000 drivers in the country as “workers,” which are guaranteed specific benefits under U.K. law. The result is essentially a “fourth way” for Uber — and another example of the growing pressure the company is facing from world governments to treat its workers better and comply with with local rules.

“Some countries have strong labor laws and some have none at all. We are all starting at different points,” said Vanessa Bain, co-founder of worker advocacy group Gig Workers Collective. “The complexities of different legal systems continue to be a challenge for both the workers that are organizing and for the companies.”

In the U.K., drivers will now be entitled to the minimum wage, vacation pay and a pension. Drivers in the country had already been getting health benefits since 2018 and will continue to get sickness, injury and parental leave as workers.

Maria Figueroa, director of labor and policy research at Cornell University’s Worker Institute, said that while the new benefits are a step in the right direction, many will argue they don’t go far enough because Uber will still function as an employer without the same responsibilities. Regardless of the limitations, Figueroa said, “advocates in some countries will go for it” because they see it as the first in a series of steps required to win more protections for the world’s fast-growing population of gig workers.

“To engage in a fight for full benefits is a long and winding road,” Figueroa said. “A lot of advocates are re-evaluating whether they want to do that.”

In California, Uber and other gig economy companies effectively overturned a law last year that required them to classify their workers as employees. The company wrote and bankrolled a ballot proposal in the November election that overrode the law, but granted workers a few perks including a wage floor, a health insurance stipend and some mileage reimbursement. The proposal, sponsored by the country’s largest gig companies, was the most expensive measure in state history.

“Uber’s decision to classify drivers as employees in the U.K. after losing a Supreme Court appeal suggests it doesn’t plan to shut operations there,” according to Mandeep Singh, a technology analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “It’s likely to add pressure on the Delivery segment, which has been unprofitable so far due to competition, yet we believe it could aid Uber’s share in ride-sharing and force smaller peers such as Ola, Didi and Bolt to retreat from the U.K.”

Under the new rules in both California and the U.K., drivers will only be paid for the time they engage in a ride, and wages won’t cover time spent waiting for a passenger — hours that account for roughly one-third of drivers’ workdays on average, according to a study by the University of California, Berkeley.

Figueroa said the benefits offered in the U.K. for workers are similar to those required by Canada’s “dependent worker” category. And while she said that advocates in many countries wouldn’t be satisfied with the company’s U.K. policy, some of them might lobby for similar protections in their own markets. “Even the unions and the workers who won the ruling will tell you this isn’t enough, but it’s what we got now,” she said.

The drivers who first brought the U.K. case against Uber say the company hasn’t gone far enough. Uber said drivers will be entitled to minumum wage after its accepted a trip from a customer, but the Supreme Court said drivers are working whenever they’re logged into the app.

“While Uber undoubtedly has made progress here, we cannot accept anything less than full complience with legal minimums,” drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam said in a statement. Farrar said on Twitter that they expect to be back in court against Uber.

The rights of gig workers and their employment classification is likely to remain a major flash point in the months and years to come. That will be particularly true as drivers return to work after the pandemic and companies increasingly face different pressures in different regions.

For example, in New York, a proposal to allow gig workers to form unions and collectively bargain could be introduced this spring. In Seattle, the focus is on extending a pandemic hazard pay increase for grocery store employees to people in other jobs. And the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California last year passed laws giving gig workers up to 80 hours of paid sick leave during the pandemic.

“There’s no one path to get to where we need to go,” Bain said. “There are differences even among cities. It’s a complicated system.”

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U.S. unemployment rate will fall to 4.5% this year, inflation will rise, Federal Reserve projects

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Rachel Siegel

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve expects the U.S. economy to grow at its fastest pace in four decades this year as the unemployment rate falls to 4.5%, according to projections released Wednesday.

It’s the Fed’s rosiest picture of the economy since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the globe last year. But it also comes with risks.

The central bank is now predicting that consumer prices will jump, at least temporarily, as Americans spend their stimulus money and slowly return to normal life. Inflation is now expected to hit 2.4% this year, compared with the Fed’s earlier estimate of 1.8% – the kind of pop some economists have warned could actually harm the economic recovery.

It’s uncharted territory for Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The economy is getting stronger, but not enough for the central bank to roll back the emergency measures it put in place last year. Interest rates are already on the rise, worrying some economists and investors.

Over the coming months and years, Powell will face more pressure as he stands by the Fed’s new commitment to letting the economy run hotter for longer before raising rates. And he must convince Wall Street that near-term price increases will be temporary and won’t lead to widespread or persistent inflation.

“It’s just a lot of people who need to get back to work, and it’s not going to happen overnight,” Powell said, explaining that the economy still had far to go before reaching pre-pandemic levels. “The faster, the better.”

At the conclusion of two days of policy meetings Wednesday, the Fed did not raise rates or pare back its bond purchases, a sign that the economy has yet to fully heal. About 9 million jobs, and probably more, are still missing from the labor force. Entire industries, including hospitality and entertainment, cannot be revived until the pandemic is under control.

At a news conference Wednesday, Powell said some measures of economic activity and employment have “turned up,” thanks in large part to more widespread access to coronavirus vaccines and additional aid from Congress.

“The recovery has progressed more quickly than generally expected,” Powell said, adding that last month, the leisure and hospitality sectors, which have taken a beating since the pandemic began, recouped about two-thirds of the jobs that were lost in December and January.

The Fed now expects GDP growth to reach 6.5% this year, up from its previous projection of 4.2% and the fastest rate since the 1980s. The unemployment rate will fall to 4.5% this year and then tick down closer to pre-pandemic levels – 3.9% in 2022 and 3.5% in 2023, Fed leaders project. That would be a much faster recovery in the labor market than central bankers had previously forecast.

The last time Fed leaders released projections, in mid-December, the outlook for the economy and public health crisis was much different. Holiday-season travel sent coronavirus cases surging. And it was unclear when or whether Congress and the Trump White House would pass another stimulus package, even as Powell repeatedly urged more fiscal spending.

President Donald Trump ultimately signed a roughly $900 billion relief package days after Christmas. And last week, President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion aid bill into law – the result of Democrats’ push to go big on a stimulus measure.

That latest package – known as the American Rescue Plan – significantly changed economists’ expectations for how quickly the economy can return to its pre-pandemic strength. Goldman Sachs is now forecasting U.S. gross domestic product to grow 8% this year in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year ago,marking the fastest increase in almost 60 years. Major companies, including American Airlines and United Airlines, said they would cancel tens of thousands of planned layoffs.

At the same time, the flood of cash from the latest stimulus bill has some economists warning that such precipitous growth could harm the economy by starting a dangerous cycle of inflation. Their concern is that the economy will overheat and prices will rise, forcing the Fed to raise interest rates and risk another recession.

Wall Street is also betting on soaring economic growth. Bond yields have risen sharply over the past month, and some investors see that as evidence that inflation is likely to materialize. According to the latest Bank of America survey of global fund managers, the pandemic is no longer the biggest “tail risk.” Higher than expected inflation is.

Powell and other Fed leaders said there is no reason to expect that inflation will spiral out of control. Inflation hasn’t reached the Fed’s 2% target for years. Even if inflation hits and exceeds that figure, the Fed says, it will decide when or whether to raise interest rates based on the state of the economy, including how many people are still unemployed.

According to Wednesday’s Fed data, seven of the central bank’s 18 policymakers project a rate hike by the end of 2023.

“I don’t want to get into putting a pin on the calendar [for a rate increase] because it’s going to be data-dependent,” Powell said. “When we are on track to see substantial future progress, we will say so. That involves judgment.”

But economists, particularly those worried about risky cycles of high inflation, say sticking to that strategy could be difficult for the Fed if bond markets or stock prices react poorly. And for some, the Fed’s inflation projections may fuel worries that the economy is growing too fast.

But Julia Coronado, a former Fed economist and president of MacroPolicy Perspectives, said Powell had “weaponized” the Fed’s projections “to say: We expect higher inflation, and we’re still going to hold” policy where it is now.

Even as policymakers expect a jump in inflation to 2.4% this year – followed by 2% in 2022 and 2.1% in 2023 – Powell’s message is that those numbers don’t necessarily reflect the long-term, repeated price increases the Fed needs to see before it raises rates.

“He’s trying to say in words, for a long time now, that this isn’t how inflation works, people,” Coronado said. “Supply chain bottlenecks or reopening pops – that’s not inflation. . . . It has to be tied to the strength of the economy, and not just a one-time sugar rush.”

For example, the price of airline tickets has remained low since the pandemic gutted travel, Coronado said. But as more people get vaccinated and start traveling again, prices could jump as Americans rush to book their post-pandemic vacations.

Yet that dynamic won’t keep up forever, Coronado said. Eventually, people will exhaust their stimulus cash, causing the surge in demand, along with ticket prices, to settle down.

“It doesn’t keep repeating,” she said. “People aren’t going to keep getting stimulus payments year after year.”

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While its AstraZeneca covid vaccinations are suspended, Europe is confronting a third wave

InternationalMar 18. 2021

By The Washington Post · Michael Birnbaum, Chico Harlan, Stefano Pitrelli

For three weeks, operating 12 hours a day, a convention center in Rome raced to vaccinate Italians before a more contagious variant of the coronavirus took hold. The hope was that despite lagging vaccine supplies, Italy could beat back a third wave of infections and deaths.

That the race had been lost was beginning to sink in on Monday, when much of the country went into lockdown amid rising infections. Then Italy joined other European countries in suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid uncertainty about whether it is linked to a handful of rare blood clots and deaths. The convention center has gone dark. A hall that had been giving out 1,800 vaccinations per day now has its doses in storage, guarded by a skeleton crew – and there are fears that the pause in vaccinations across Europe will allow infections to spiral even more out of control.

European citizens were already looking with envy at the United States, Britain and other nations that have been speeding along with their vaccinations, contributing to a decline in covid deaths in those countries and enabling the return of more normal lives. But there is now growing fury that European mismanagement of vaccines has allowed an avoidable third wave. And many public health experts say that halting the AstraZeneca vaccine, even temporarily, is a miscalculation that may emerge as the biggest mistake yet.

“With every day of vaccination delay, there are hospitalizations and deaths,” said Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan.

Even if the European regulator confirms it’s safe to continue administering the AstraZeneca vaccine – a report is due Thursday – many experts fear governments may have permanently lost their citizens’ confidence in this shot and further damaged the inoculation campaign.

While coronavirus cases have been dropping in the United States, infections across the European Union have risen 29 percent in the past two weeks. The more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain now accounts for more than half of the cases in most E.U. countries.

Italy recorded 502 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, the highest figure in nearly two months. On Wednesday, Hungary registered its daily covid death record and Poland announced a nationwide lockdown until early April.

Athens, facing a spike in cases, just turned over a hospital to be used exclusively for coronavirus patients.

And Germany’s top virologist, Christian Drosten, warned this week that he expected his country to be in a situation at Easter like it was at Christmas. The variants make things “drastically more difficult,” he said on a podcast.

In that context, many scientists were aghast when, one by one, European countries announced they were pausing AstraZeneca vaccinations, a central component of the E.U.’s inoculation plan.

Denmark and Norway halted their programs last week, but the big shift came after Germany said it had identified seven cases – higher than statistically expected – of a rare cerebral blood clot in relatively young people who had been recently vaccinated. The country’s public health institute asked to stop AstraZeneca vaccinations while further assessment was underway.

The pressure in other countries to follow suit was intense. Few politicians want to be blamed for moving forward with a vaccine that later turns out to be hazardous, when others were more cautious.

“There is political pressure. In a lot of countries there’s a domino effect,” said Steven Van Gucht, the head of viral diseases at the public health institute in Belgium, one of the few E.U. countries that resisted a suspension.

“If we continue with this approach, we will have to pause the vaccination campaign over and over again,” every time unusual deaths or medical conditions emerge after a vaccination, he said. “That’s a dangerous slope.”

Recognizing that even a short pause may have long-term impact on acceptance, French Prime Minister Jean Castex declared Tuesday that he would be among the first to get an AstraZeneca vaccine once his country’s suspension is lifted, assuming regulators declare that it’s safe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he’d get a vaccine from the manufacturer “very shortly,” amid reports that Brits were skipping their vaccine appointments this week.

The suspensions “have damaged confidence in vaccinations very much,” said Antoni Trilla, dean of the medical school at the University of Barcelona, whose hospital has 900 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in its freezers.

“People will say, ‘I don’t want the one that’s been on TV or in the newspaper that produced strange things, I want the other one,'” he said.

Even if the vaccine does turn out to increase the risk of blood clots, that may turn out to be an acceptable risk, he said.

“Working with my colleagues for a full year with covid patients, having seen people in the ICU, having seen how severe this disease can be, I will take as much risk as possible,” Trilla said.

Britain, which has administered millions of doses of AstraZeneca, said it hasn’t seen an abnormal increase in blood clots like the cluster Germany flagged. Many scientists are doubtful that the cases are statistically meaningful and tied to the vaccines, although they say reports of any unusual events deserve scrutiny.

“Many people, including me, don’t think this is real,” said Paul Hunter, an infectious-disease expert at the University of East Anglia.

“This is very likely a random association and not a causal relationship,” he said. The Germans “want to be able to explain it to people, to tell the people what the evidence is, about whether this is real or not.”

The European pause further slows a vaccination campaign that was already lagging.

Fewer than half of Italians 80 and older – the group most vulnerable to the virus – have received even a single dose. The country has fully vaccinated only one in every 28 of its citizens. That means hospitals remain at risk of being overwhelmed by the more contagious variant, which also appears to be deadlier than earlier strains.

By contrast, one in nine Americans is fully vaccinated. One in five has received a first dose. There are increasingly realistic dreams of a more normal summer. Britain is moving even faster: About 37 percent of its citizens have received a first dose. Almost half of those were AstraZeneca.

Europeans are increasingly frustrated as they see their rich-world peers speed ahead of them.

“If the U.S. president says that by the 4th of July they’ll be celebrating their independence, from the pandemic, too, for an Italian or a European who’s still a shut-in, wearing masks, and dealing with work-related issues, this is irksome,” said Massimo Bertoni, 54, the second-generation owner of a high-end clothes shop in Rome’s center that was founded in 1956. He had to shutter it – yet again – because of the latest lockdown.

“It’s very jarring, it bothers you, it makes you angry,” he said.

The vaccine debacle is even more notable since wealthy Europe is home to a slew of pharmaceutical companies whose production capacity could have been ramped up last year had there been major public investment, as was the strategy in the United States with Operation Warp Speed. Instead, Europe moved slowly and focused on buying the vaccines as cheaply as possible.

The strategy ensured they weren’t competing against each other, but it also meant that the vaccine decisions of a rich country like Germany were hamstrung by the economic concerns of countries such as Bulgaria, which is less than half as wealthy.

“This stingy approach was completely wrong,” said Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic policy think tank. “It’s really an order of magnitude difference. It’s ridiculous. Whether the prices of a vaccine is 10 or 20 or 30 or 50 euros, even, what’s the daily income of a person in lockdown compared to not in lockdown? The difference is huge.”

He noted that when European countries are chipping in for an $893 billion pandemic bailout fund, devoting a few billion more euros to vaccine development to prevent vast economic damage would have been extremely cost effective.

There were already warning signs for Europe in December, as Britain, the United States and Israel shot into action with aggressive vaccination campaigns. European countries started at about the same time – but the supplies of E.U. vaccines were so much lower that a gap quickly opened.

The difference might not have mattered as much had the more contagious variant not started spreading. That effectively sparked an epidemic within the epidemic, making measures to combat viral spread less effective.

Then, AstraZeneca announced it would deliver fewer than half of the doses it had promised in the first months of the year.

The change infuriated many European policymakers, who noted that the Anglo-Swedish company seemed to have no difficulty supplying Britain with millions of doses, some of them manufactured on E.U. territory. Relations with the drug company quickly soured.

AstraZeneca’s clinical studies were also short on data about the effectiveness of the vaccine for older people – there just weren’t many of them enrolled in the trials – and so many E.U. countries initially restricted their use to younger age groups even though the E.U.’s regulatory agency, the European Medicines Agency, had declared the inoculation suitable for people of all ages.

The supplies are desperately needed.

At the Ancona University Hospital in Italy’s hard-hit Marche region, the more contagious variant has overwhelmed its wards, sparking a massive change in the past two months. More people are hospitalized there with covid-19 than at any point since last April.

“The only other way to contain [this variant] is with vaccinations,” said Stefano Menzo, the hospital’s laboratory director. “The problem is, we don’t have enough vaccines.”