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Eight killed, including six Asian women, in Atlanta-area massage parlor shootings

InternationalMar 17. 2021

By Hannah Knowles, Reis Thebault, Jaclyn Peiser, Teo Armus
The Washington Post

Shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors that unfolded within an hour on Tuesday left eight people dead, and authorities said a 21-year-old man in at least one incident has been arrested.

Atlanta police said they found four women – who all appeared to be Asian – dead inside two massage parlors across the street from each other. Another four people, including two Asian women, were killed and one more injured at an Asian massage parlor in nearby Cherokee County, Sheriff’s officials said.

Authorities said they do not know yet whether the killings were racially motivated, but the shootings raised concerns among advocacy groups, who have called attention to a string of high-profile attacks on people of Asian descent.

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said Robert Aaron Long, a resident of the county, was taken into custody south of Atlanta in Crisp County. Atlanta police said that based on video evidence, Long is the likely suspect in the shootings at all three massage parlors, although they are still working to confirm the connection.

Baker said at a news conference that investigators are working to determine a motive and that “nothing’s going to be ruled out.” The FBI is working on the case with local authorities, officials said.

Those fatally shot in Cherokee County were two Asian women, a White woman and a White man. A Hispanic man was taken to the hospital with injuries, he said.

While the motive remained unclear, the violence stoked fears in a community already reeling from attacks and racist targeting.

“Right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed,” tweeted the group Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted that it was “monitoring the shooting of Asian Americans in Georgia” and that it would deploy “to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution.”

Baker said five victims were shot inside Young’s Asian Massage Parlor along Highway 92, about a half-hour’s drive north of Atlanta. Less than an hour later, at about 5:47 p.m., officers responded to a “business robbery in progress” in northeast Atlanta at Gold Massage Spa, said Sgt. John Chafee of the Atlanta Police Department. They found three women dead inside, apparently from gunshot wounds, he said.

Police were still on the scene when shots were reportedly fired from across the street at Aromatherapy Spa, according to Chafee. Officers found one woman inside that business who was also apparently fatally shot, he said.

“Our entire family is praying for the victims of these horrific acts of violence,” tweeted Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who praised the “quick apprehension of a suspect.”

Authorities posted photos of a dark-colored vehicle soon after the shootings, and the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office said it heard at about 8 p.m. that a murder suspect was headed their way. State patrol troopers and Crisp County deputies made contact with a 2007 black Hyundai Tucson about a half-hour later on the highway, the sheriff’s office said.

A state trooper performed a maneuver that caused the car to “spin out of control,” Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said. Long was taken to jail “without incident,” Hancock said, and his office forwarded its information to the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.

Chafee said police and Cherokee County officials were in contact, and Atlanta officers have been dispatched to other massage parlors in the area as a precaution.

Bryant, the Atlanta police chief, said the department has located witnesses who were in and near the spas, and no one else at either location was reported wounded.

Lisa Copeland, the manager of an AutoZone Auto Parts a few stores down from Young’s Asian Massage, said she almost went into the smoke shop next door to the salon at the time of the shooting. But at the last minute, she decided against it.

As she sat in her car later, she noticed police vehicles and ambulances arriving at the salon. “It was complete chaos,” she said. “I was racking my brain to ask, ‘Did I see that car drive down there?'”

Jacob Kimmons, an employee at AutoZone, said this kind of violence rarely happens in their neighborhood.

“You never see it in a decent area like this. Just to see something like that happen is crazy,” he said. “I just thank the good lord he didn’t come over here and do anything.”

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Xi warns against tech excess, signaling China will widen crackdown

InternationalMar 17. 2021Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the United Nations General Assembly seen on a laptop computer in Hastings on the Hudson, N.Y., on Sept. 22. 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Tiffany Hagler-Geard

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Zheping Huang

China’s top leader warned that Beijing will go after so-called platform companies that have amassed data and market power, a sign that the months-long crackdown on the country’s internet sector is only beginning.

President Xi Jinping on Monday chaired a meeting of the communist party’s top financial advisory and coordination committee, ordering regulators to step up oversight of internet companies, crack down on monopolies, promote fair competition and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Internet companies need to enhance data security and financial activities need to come under regulatory supervision, CCTV also reported.

The unusually strongly worded comments from Xi and his lieutenants suggest Beijing is preparing to amplify a campaign to curb the influence of its largest and most powerful private corporations, which has so far centered mainly on Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its affiliate Ant Group Co. The term platform economies could apply to a plethora of mobile and internet giants that offer services to hundreds of millions, from ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing to food delivery giant Meituan and e-commerce leaders like JD.com Inc. and Pinduoduo Inc.

“Some platform companies are developing in non-standardized ways and that presents risks,” CCTV said, citing minutes of the meeting. “It is necessary to accelerate the improvement of laws governing platform economies in order to fill in gaps and loopholes in a timely fashion.”

The report came days after Bloomberg News reported that governments watchdogs were now setting their sights on Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s $100 billion-plus finance empire after ordering an overhaul of Ant. Top financial regulators see Tencent as the next target for increased supervision, according to people with knowledge of their thinking. Like Ant, Tencent will probably be required to establish a financial holding company to include its banking, insurance and payments services, said one of the people, seeking anonymity as the discussions are private.

The two firms will set a precedent for other fintech players on complying with tougher regulations, the people added. Such a move would mark a significant escalation in China’s campaign to curb the influence of its technology moguls, which began last year with the scuttling of Ant’s $35 billion initial public offering and the publication of new antitrust regulations governing technology firms.

Tencent lost more than $65 billion of value in the two days following the report, and its shares were little changed Tuesday. The company’s WeChat super-app is the giant that looms across the industry, offering everything from chatting to booking rides and paying for purchases.

Other companies have long accused the service of unfair competition, with chief rival ByteDance Ltd. suing the Shenzhen-based giant earlier this year for blocking access to content from its Douyin platform, TikTok’s Chinese twin. Tencent has called the accusations baseless and malicious.

In e-commerce, the triumvirate of Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo account for an increasing share of consumer spending in China. Researcher eMarketer estimates that online purchases should surpass 50% of the country’s total retail sales this year, a first anywhere in the world. That influence has already drawn scrutiny from the antitrust watchdog and its new anti-monopolistic regulations had specifically called out practices like forced exclusivity arrangements, predatory pricing and algorithms favoring new customers over older ones.

A slew of other services have risen in prominence in recent years and may come under the scrutiny of regulators, including ByteDance’s Toutiao news aggregator and Douyin. Food delivery is dominated by Meituan, with Alibaba’s Ele.me service playing catch-up. Didi Chuxing is the dominant force in ride-hailing after taking over Uber’s business in China, a deal that one local taxi industry group has called on the antitrust watchdog to investigate. Even smaller operators have been caught up in the crosshairs, with community group-purchase startups like Nice Tuan being handed fines for improper subsidies.

“It’s not a good thing if you rule the market right now, especially when it comes to fintech and areas essential to daily lives, like e-commerce and community group buying,” said Ke Yan, Singapore-based analyst with DZT Research. “Dominance in the market now has a downside whereas it was appealing to the investors in the past.”

The development of China’s platform economy is currently at a crucial stage, Xi said at Monday’s meeting. It is necessary to focus on the long term, strengthen weaknesses and create an innovative environment to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy, he added. Monday’s speech was the first time Xi had specifically addressed platform economies, though he had previously stressed the importance of preventing monopolies.

The semi-regular meeting of the Party’s top financial supervisory group typically helps to set the tone and direction of national policy. During their last gathering in September, Xi focused on the so-called “dual circulation” approach of relying on both international and domestic consumption and production to lift the economy.

China’s efforts to regulate its internet giants coincide with growing global scrutiny over the industry, as governments from the U.S. to the European Union and Australia have clashed with companies like Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. That’s a testament to how important the industry has become to basic infrastructure and national security and a coordinated global response is needed to address its healthy development, said Chen Xi, an adjunct professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University

The vertically integrated business models for platform companies can “restrict innovation and the development of job creation and their disorderly expansion will inevitably create obstacles to the recovery of the global economy,” Chen said. “This is a global challenge.”

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Iranian oil surge to China hurts OPEC efforts to tighten supply

InternationalMar 17. 2021A gas flare burns from a pipe aboard an offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf’s Salman Oil Field, operated by the National Iranian Offshore Oil Co., near Lavan island, Iran, on Jan. 5. 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Ali Mohammadi

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg

The torrent of Iranian oil gushing into China in recent weeks is crowding out imports from other nations and threatening to complicate efforts by the OPEC+ alliance to tighten supply in the global market.

China, the world’s largest crude oil importer, is buying close to 1 million barrels a day of sanctioned crude, condensate and fuel oil from the Persian Gulf nation, according to estimates by traders and analysts. That’s displacing favored grades from countries such as Norway, Angola, and Brazil, traders said, and resulting in an unusually quiet spot market.

Most refiners and traders around the world are reluctant to buy Iranian crude because of U.S. sanctions, which can result in repercussions like being cut off from the American banking system. However, the seemingly unstoppable rally in global crude prices is making the sharply discounted Iranian oil increasingly attractive to Chinese buyers including its independent refiners, which account for around a quarter of the country’s crude-processing capacity.

While global benchmark Brent is trading near $70 a barrel due to improving demand and tighter supplies from OPEC+, a continuation or increase in the Iranian flows could stymie the alliance’s efforts to keep driving up prices.

Iran is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, but is exempted from the supply restrictions. However, China’s preference for its cheap crude is displacing demand from OPEC countries like Angola as well as other producers like Norway and Brazil — although the quality of oil from all of these countries is not identical.

As many as 10 million barrels of Angolan oil due for April export were still without buyers as of earlier this week, according to traders, compared with a typical month when such cargoes would have be sold out by now. Grades from Nigeria and Republic of the Congo have also struggled due a lack of buying interest, the traders said.

Three supertankers carrying oil from Norway’s Johan Sverdrup field have been floating off China for at least two weeks without discharging, shipping data show. Only 16 million barrels of North Sea crude left Europe for Asia in February, the least in four months, with the downward trend likely to continue in the short term, said traders involved in the market.

“With increased flows from places like Iran, and all the other grades’ arbitrage to China closed currently, the spot market is looking really weak,” said Yuntao Liu, an analyst with London-based Energy Aspects Ltd. “Between now and June to July, the teapots’ preferred grades such as West African crudes, Norway’s Johan Sverdrup and Brazilian crudes will be quite hard to sell.”

Chinese independent processors are often described as teapot refiners.

The Iranian oil flowing to China is a mix of barrels that are transported directly from the Persian Gulf, as well as Iranian-origin cargoes that are rebranded as Middle Eastern or Malaysian grades. Chinese imports of crude from the nation will average 856,000 barrels a day this month, the most in almost two years, data intelligence firm Kpler said last week.

Most of it is being purchased by domestic Chinese trading houses, traders said, as private and state-owned refiners try to distance themselves from dealings with the U.S.-sanctioned nation. It’s likely that these supplies will be temporarily held in onshore tanks before getting resold to local refineries on a later date, they added.

These private processors, which are mostly based in Shandong province, have been known to refine Iranian and Venezuelan crude into fuel, and utilize sludgy, low-quality fuel oil as feedstock for their units.

The increased Iranian flows are happening as the administration of President Joe Biden attempts to revive a nuclear deal with Tehran. The Persian Gulf supplier exported around 2.5 million barrels a day of oil before the sanctions were first imposed in 2018. Iran is starting the year as the “biggest wild card” for oil prices, Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup Inc., said in a note in January.

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Biden, allies launch campaign to promote stimulus

InternationalMar 17. 2021President Biden gives remarks March 15 at the White House on the implementation of the American Rescue Plan. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Demetrius Freeman

By The Washington Post · Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is launching a nationwide effort this week to sell the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package – a push that will take President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses to seven states that Biden won in 2020, including two he flipped from Republicans and four that have competitive Senate races next year.

The sales pitch – including a visit by Biden on Tuesday to Chester, Pa. – will feature a host of top administration and Cabinet officials and is expected to encompass Republican-leaning states, too. Biden could visit Ohio, for instance, as early as next week, according to two people familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The early itinerary reflects a clear political calculation, with the first and second families visiting four states – Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania – that could prove crucial to maintaining Democrats’ tenuous hold on the Senate in the 2022 midterms.

Biden will visit the two states he wrested from Republican control last year that also have competitive Senate races – Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Georgia on Friday, where he will be accompanied by Harris.

First lady Jill Biden was in New Jersey on Monday and is heading to New Hampshire on Wednesday. Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are headed to Colorado on Tuesday after visiting Nevada on Monday. Emhoff will also make a stop Wednesday in New Mexico.

Though public polls show that the relief package is popular with the majority of the country, administration officials – many of whom also worked in the Obama administration – say they learned lessons from Democrats’ failure to rally the public around former president Barack Obama’s stimulus package in 2009 and the Affordable Care Act in 2010. They are hoping to use the travel campaign to harness existing momentum and inform Americans how they can benefit from the relief package.

Speaking in the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday, Biden stressed the tangible specifics of the bill: “Shots in arms and money in pockets,” he said, referring to the administration’s vaccination and stimulus efforts.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that the president’s focus is less on selling the package, and more on clearly explaining how to access its intended relief. Last week, she said, she and Biden were speaking about the $1,400 direct payments to most families when he asked her, “How do you explain to people how checks get out the door?”

“So this is what’s on his mind, right?” she said. “How do people know how this money will help their schools? You know, how do they know, you know, how this will help get vaccines in the arms of their friends and family members?”

Although Republicans were unified in voting against the package, the party has struggled to settle on a clear message in opposition. Some Republicans have publicly voiced support for aspects of the legislation, while defending their disapproval of the package overall.

Republicans have offered varying reasons to oppose the package, from decrying it as part of Democrats’ “socialist agenda” to arguing that it only narrowly addresses the coronavirus crisis and includes wasteful spending. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the chair of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, has warned about the impact of the stimulus on the federal debt.

Unlike with the Obama-era stimulus and health-care initiatives, Biden and his team may benefit from the fact that the effect of the coronavirus relief package should begin taking hold almost immediately for many voters.

“They understand that you have to ram it into people’s brains that the improvement they see is connected to the covid relief bill,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as communications director under Obama. “But of course that only works if things are actually getting better, and the good thing about this bill is the relief is immediate.”

Administration officials and outside allies said part of the Biden team’s strategy is to convince the public that government can be trusted to improve their lives. They also argued that unlike former president Donald Trump, Biden plans to work even for Americans who did not vote for him.

“You want to restore credibility in government, not just from the Trump years, but in general,” Palmieri said. “They want you to know that Democrats made this happen, but they’re also making the victory shared across the board with the American people.”

The travel and public relations push will continue over at least the next three weeks, with each day this week having a different theme, ranging from “Help for Small Business” (Tuesday) and “Help for Schools” (Wednesday) to “Help Immediately With Direct Checks” (Friday), according to administration officials.

Political groups have also started to put money behind the effort. The Democratic National Committee is running a 60-second ad titled “Help Is Here” in battleground states and paid for billboards to call out Republicans who voted against the rescue package. American Bridge, a pro-Democratic super PAC, is also kicking off its $100 million nationwide campaign for the cycle with a six-figure advertising buy in Pennsylvania.

“We’re going to level with the American people at every step of the way and communicate clearly about why this plan matters to them and their family, and how they can access the benefits afforded to them,” White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote to senior staff last week in a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

O’Malley Dillon added that administration officials and surrogates would do local TV interviews and highlight the bipartisan support for the plan that exists outside Washington, particularly among mayors and other local elected officials.

“It’s a lot of money across a wide section of programs, and so they really do feel an obligation to have people understand where the money is going and how to access it, and that’s not just individual citizens but local governments and small businesses and lenders,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist. “They believe if they do that part right, the politics will take care of itself.”

But the travel schedule also sends an unmistakable message that the White House is already working to avoid the disastrous showing in the midterms that historically has bedeviled the sitting president’s party.

Democrats say the overlap between the competitive 2022 Senate races and traditional battleground states helps the White House achieve its dual goals of working to hold the Senate and thanking voters who supported Biden.

“It’s a huge benefit that we’re going to have Democratic leaders going to these states, talking about all the positives in this legislation and making sure that voters understand what’s in it and making that case proactively instead of allowing Republicans to define it,” said Stewart Boss, the press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

That effort is no more apparent than in Georgia, where Biden is expected to be joined by Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock, who delivered Democrats the majority after winning runoff races there in January. Warnock is up for reelection in 2022, and Psaki told reporters Monday that the Georgia trip was to “underscore how they and congressional Democrats fulfilled their promise in delivering $1,400 checks to finish the job of $2,000 in direct relief to millions of Americans.”

Cabinet officials also plan to be heavily involved in the full-court press to sell the package, with some expected to start traveling next week. Lily Adams, a former top Harris aide, joined the Treasury Department on Monday and is expected to play a key role in coordinating various government agencies’ communication efforts.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in particular, will play an outsize role with a frenzy of media appearances, officials said, while Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge will join Psaki in the White House briefing room this week to discuss the elements of the plan that fall under their purview.

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E.U. regulator backs AstraZeneca vaccine

InternationalMar 17. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Nikos Chrysoloras, Marthe Fourcade

The European Union’s drugs regulator reiterated that the benefits of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine outweigh the risks as it urgently reviews safety data after the suspension of shots by a growing number of countries.

The comments were the second from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in two days, and they come amid reports of blood clots in some people who received shots. Its intervention follows dramatic measures by several E.U. member states to halt the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, potentially throwing the region’s already slow inoculation campaign further off track. The EMA’s executive director, Emer Cooke, said she was concerned that the government decisions could undermine public support for vaccines.

“We are worried that there may be an effect on the trust in the vaccines,” Cooke said at a news conference Tuesday. The EMA is expected to make a more formal recommendation Thursday. “Our job is to make sure that the products we authorize are safe and can be trusted by European citizens.”

E.U. health ministers are holding a video call Tuesday to discuss concerns over side effects. The EMA will comment again Thursday after it’s evaluated the latest information. Cooke declined to list all the possible conclusions, mentioning an additional warning on the product or possibly more radical action, “if there is a problem that can’t be solved.”

She said that “a situation like this is not unexpected when you vaccinate millions of people,” and that there’s “no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions.”

The health scare joins the issues that the European Union is already facing related to vaccinations. It’s been involved in a blame game with AstraZeneca over production, and there’s tension with the United Kingdom and the United States over accusations of hoarding. Even within the bloc itself, governments are unhappy with how shots are being shared.

On Tuesday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for a “correction mechanism” of vaccine distribution in the European Union. Speaking in Vienna alongside the prime ministers of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, he declined to discuss how such a mechanism should work, except saying the guiding principle should be that every member state has the same access to vaccine doses at the same time.

Kurz said the leaders were in talks with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen about their proposal.

– – –

The EMA’s latest intervention comes a day after France, Germany and other countries reversed course on the vaccine, suspending its use after initially continuing injections. Worries initially arose in Austria and Denmark, which stopped using some AstraZeneca shots last week.

Germany’s Health Ministry said seven out of 1.6 million people who received the Astra shot recently experienced clotting in or near their brains. That’s higher than the 1 to 1.4 cases that would normally be expected in such a population sample over a similar stretch of time.

On Tuesday, the United Kingdom repeated its view that the AstraZeneca shot, which was developed with the University of Oxford, is “safe and effective.”

The EMA’s Cooke stressed the need to take the time to evaluate every reported case and come up with an assessment that is science-based.

“This is a serious concern,” she said, that requires “thorough analysis of all the cases that are reported and evaluate whether this is a coincidence or indeed a causal effect.”

– – –

The European Union has received 14 million doses from AstraZeneca, and it was expected to get about 120 million in the next six months. Of the doses delivered to the European Union, almost 8 million have not been administered.

The European Commission has committed to immunizing 70% of adults by the end of September, but the latest precautions could push back efforts.

With infection numbers creeping up again in countries such as Germany, the risk of further vaccine shortages will increase pressure on politicians who have been punished for a lackluster immunization program. German Chancellor Angela Merkel saw her party slump to its worst ever results in two state elections on Sunday.

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China to foreign travelers: Take our coronavirus vaccine, enjoy a streamlined visa process in return

InternationalMar 17. 2021

By The Washington Post · Lily Kuo, Miriam Berger

TAIPEI, Taiwan – In the latest move by China to promote its coronavirus vaccines and flex its soft power, Beijing will offer some foreigners inoculated with Chinese-made doses “conveniences” when applying for entry into the country.

Notices of the new policy to “resume people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries” were issued by Chinese embassies or consulates in the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Italy, the United States, Israel and India as of Monday. The announcements said China would simplify the application process for those with certificates proving they had been given a Chinese vaccine.

The idea mimics interest in some other countries to develop so-called vaccine passports, or a mechanism for verifying and offering certain privileges to vaccinated travelers.

It also is in keeping with China’s ongoing efforts to use its coronavirus vaccines for diplomacy, to extend spheres of influence and deepen economic ties. These overtures, however, have hit snags, with some countries hesitant to take the Chinese-made vaccines due to Beijing’s lack of transparency around their development.

Speaking on Monday afternoon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian did not specify how the application process would be streamlined.

A notice on the Chinese embassy’s website in the United States said that foreign nationals and their family members visiting China to resume “work and production in various fields” could apply. In India and the Philippines, notices on the embassy websites said those interested could prepare their applications “in accordance with requirements before the pandemic.” A statement issued by the embassy in Germany said applicants would not need to provide invitation letters by provincial foreign affairs or commercial departments.

China has so far approved four vaccines for emergency use – for the most part exporting them to developing countries. Its latest vaccine, approved last week, was developed by Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical company and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The final phase trials are underway in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, according to a statement Monday from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

For most of the last year, China has maintained tight border entry requirements, barring most foreigners, including journalists, students and business travelers. Those allowed entry are required to quarantine for at least two weeks and often require special approval.

In Monday’s announcement, the Foreign Ministry also said the criteria for emergency humanitarian visas, such as visiting family, attending funerals or seeing critically ill relatives, would be expanded.

Some countries in Europe, such as Spain and Greece, are pushing for the European Union to develop digital “vaccine passports” to ease entry for visitors – and ensure summer tourism revenue. Others have pushed back on the idea, over concerns that it would create an unfair, two-tiered system between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Israel, where a massive effort is underway to reach herd immunity through inoculation, has already begun issuing a “green pass” with which vaccinated people can enter certain establishments.

Along with short-term concerns about inequalities between European countries, countries across Africa, where coronavirus vaccine access is either nonexistent or extremely limited, are concerned that inoculation travel requirements could lead to years of discrimination against their populations. While the United States and other western countries have monopolized much of the world’s existing vaccine supplies, China has stepped in to offer its vaccine version to countries unable to compete for western-made vials.

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https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30403747

North Korea complains about ‘stink’ of U.S.-South Korea military exercises

InternationalMar 16. 2021

By Simon Denyer
The Washington Post

TOKYO – North Korea on Tuesday complained about ongoing U.S.-South Korea military exercises and warned the Biden administration that if it wanted peace for the next four years, it should refrain from “causing a stink.”

The complaint, issued by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, comes as the United States’ top diplomat and its defense chief are in the region for talks with the Japanese and South Korean governments.

The annual joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which began March 8, are always a source of tension with Pyongyang. They have been scaled back for the past three years and mostly conducted by computer simulation, initially to allow space for dialogue with the North but now also because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The main target of Tuesday’s statement was South Korea, and Kim Yo Jong made it clear that even a scaled-back exercise, designed to target “fellow countrymen,” was unacceptable.

“War exercises and dialogue, hostility and cooperation can never exist together,” she said in a statement carried by state media.

She also criticized the Biden administration for giving off a “powder smell” in Korea.

“If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said Kim Yo Jong’s statement “reeks of hypocrisy” coming after North Korea had conducted its own winter military drills.

U.S. officials said Saturday that the Biden administration had tried to contact North Korea three times since mid-February but had not received a response.

The silence is hardly surprising: The Biden administration is undertaking an internal review of policy toward North Korea, and Pyongyang may want to see what comes out of that process before formulating its response, while the annual military exercises are always a tense moment.

Kim Yo Jong, who has become a vitriolic critic of the government in Seoul over the past year, said North Korea was considering pulling out of a military agreement with the South that was designed to lower tensions along their heavily fortified border.

She said the “spring days” of 2018 – when Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held their first meeting – “won’t come easily again.”

In Tokyo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment on North Korea’s statement. He is accompanied by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and the two will be holding talks with their Japanese counterparts Tuesday before heading to Seoul.

Some experts worry North Korean regime may try to get the attention of the Biden administration by conducting a missile test, while others say it may want to gauge the president’s approach first.

“The Kim regime’s rhetoric leaves more room for diplomacy than if it had welcomed Blinken and Austin with a long-range missile test,” said Easley. “But North Korea’s latest threats mean the allies have precious little time to coordinate their approaches on deterrence, sanctions and engagement.”

– – –

The Washington Post’s John Hudson contributed to this report.

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EU begins legal action against U.K. over Brexit deal violation

InternationalMar 16. 2021A jogger passes graffiti that reads “The village say no to an Irish Sea border” in the Village area of Belfast, U.K., on Feb. 4, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Paul Faith.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Ian Wishart

The European Union launched legal action against the U.K. in a major escalation of tensions between the two sides less than three months after Brexit was formally completed.

It follows Britain’s unilateral decision to delay implementing a key part of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland. The move could ultimately lead to financial penalties or trade tariffs being imposed on the U.K.

The dispute is likely to worsen the already fraught relationship between the two sides that has led to disagreements over the export of Covid vaccines and the U.K. refusing to grant full rights to the bloc’s ambassador in London. The post-Brexit trade deal the two sides signed on Dec. 24 still hasn’t been formally ratified by the EU despite it taking effect on Jan. 1.

An EU official told reporters in Brussels on Monday that the bloc considered the U.K.’s actions an enormous problem and raised doubts about the government’s commitment to the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit agreement. The official said he hoped the government would hold talks with the commission to come up with joint solutions and draw a line under the legal action.

The commission is still deliberating whether to grant U.K. financial firms greater access to the bloc under a so-called regulatory equivalence decision. While there is no formal link between that decision and Monday’s legal action, there will be a joined-up response, said the official, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.

Under the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland effectively stayed in the EU’s customs union and single market. This avoided the need for border checks on the island of Ireland, but introduced them for the first time on goods coming into the province from Great Britain, leading to delays and disruption.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under increasing pressure from members of his own party, as well as unionist politicians in Northern Ireland, to renegotiate the Brexit deal’s Northern Ireland Protocol.

Last month, the U.K. said it would temporarily waive rules set begin on April 1 that would have required firms sending food between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to provide additional customs paperwork — a move the commission warned violated the terms of the Protocol. Britain also plans similar delays in other areas, including checks on parcels.

The U.K. is committed to the Northern Ireland protocol, but wants to see areas of concern addressed, Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies told reporters on a call on Monday. The measures the government has taken are “temporary” and “operational” steps designed to “minimize disruption,” he added.

The commission launched infringement proceedings under EU law, the official said. That means it can ultimately ask for a ruling from the European Court of Justice, which could impose financial penalties. Despite the ECJ’s influence in the U.K. being a bone of contention in the campaign in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, the government accepted a role for the EU court in the treaty.

The commission is also taking action under the dispute resolution mechanism of the treaty itself, which could eventually see the establishment of an arbitration panel and — if the U.K. lost — could potentially see the suspension of part of its overall trade deal with the EU, or tariffs imposed.

Both options could take well over a year to reach a conclusion and officials on both sides have said they want to reach a settlement before getting as far as the imposition of penalties.

The commission previously initiated infringement proceedings against the U.K. after Johnson’s government announced plans in September to override part of the Protocol. These were dropped when the government backed down shortly before the trade deal was signed in December.

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China’s soaring economic activity masks uneven recovery

InternationalMar 16. 2021Cranes stand at a construction site for a residential development on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, on March 14, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Qilai Shen.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg

China’s economic activity surged in the first two months of the year compared with a year ago, though the figures showed an uneven recovery with strong industrial output fueled by exports but lagging consumer spending.

The official data released Monday show unprecedented growth rates of more than 30% for key indicators, largely due to distortions when compared to last year’s shutdowns. Industrial production growth of 35.1% beat economist’s expectations of 32.2%, reflecting a shorter Lunar New Year holiday this year as the government encouraged workers to remain in factories rather than return to their hometowns.

Combined with strong export data for January and February, the statistics show that China has largely continued the pattern established last year of a recovery based on growth of industrial production for export and investment in sectors such as real estate, delaying Beijing’s efforts to re-balance the economy toward domestic consumer demand.

Retail sales reported by China’s statistics bureau climbed 33.8% in the period, beating a forecast of 32% in a Bloomberg poll of economists. On a two-year average basis, which corrects for the huge drop seen last year as China introduced pandemic restrictions, retail sales growth was 3.2%, a sharp contrast with 8.1% growth in industrial output over the same period.

Retail sales in February rose only 0.56% from the previous month, the data showed. This indicates that “the Lunar New Year may have had a weaker boost to national consumption than expected,” according to Bruce Pang, an economist at China Renaissance Securities.

The central bank kept market liquidity neutral earlier Monday, prompting money market rates to rise on persistent concerns about liquidity.

The central bank’s action “just offset maturity, indicating the People’s Bank of China’s tightening intention,” said Xing Zhaopeng, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. “Since the start of this year, PBOC has net drained over 600 billion yuan in funds from the market in order to curb asset bubbles.”

The government imposed travel restrictions before the new year holidays, which fell in February this year, to curb sporadic virus cases in some parts of the country. That helped to boost industrial output, with factories able to remain open or resume production earlier than usual to meet soaring export demand. But it also suppressed spending on travel, restaurants and leisure activities.

Fixed-asset investment rose 35%, well below a projection of 40.9%. Since real estate has been the biggest driver of investment growth over the past year, that likely reflects Beijing tightening financing for property developers. Economists expect investment by manufacturers will strengthen in 2021 following a recovery in their profits. However, the lower-than-expected investment figures showed manufacturers are still cautious, Pang added.

“Domestically, the unbalanced recovery is still notable and the foundation for the economic recovery is not solid yet,” Liu Aihua, a spokeswoman for China’s statistics bureau said in a statement. The urban unemployment rate of 5.5% in February remained above pre-pandemic levels, with the rate among younger people particularly high.

“The retail sales and industrial consumption figures were widely above estimates and shows there is resilience in the economy,” said William Ping, managing director at Peaceful Investment in Shenzhen. “Currently the closest thing to a worry of mine is whether the nation will put enough emphasis on domestic consumption in the long run,” he added.

China is still the only major economy to have powered out of the pandemic after early control over the virus and then surging global demand for medical goods and work-from-home devices. The economy grew 2.3% in 2020 and is forecast by economists to expand 8.4% this year.

The government is targeting more modest growth of “above 6%” in 2021, allowing officials to focus on longer-term challenges such as technological upgrading and curbing risk in the financial system. Beijing has signaled it wants to scale back its pandemic stimulus, with analysts predicting a gradual reduction in monetary and fiscal support.

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CEOs become vaccine activists as back-to-office push grows

InternationalMar 16. 2021Low-dead space syringes filled with the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday, March 4, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Jennifer Gauthier

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Thomas Buckley

Some chief executive officers are so eager for their employees to get vaccinated against covid-19 that they’re granting workers time off or cash incentives to get shots.

In the U.S., retailer Lidl is giving its staff $200, while Aldi, Dollar General and Trader Joe’s are offering extra hours of pay. Online grocery delivery firm Instacart is providing a $25 stipend for workers and contractors. Yogurt makers Chobani and Danone are offering as much as six hours of paid leave, and the French company says it will cover the cost of inoculation in countries where vaccines aren’t free.

Other companies are taking a harder line. U.K. handyman empire Pimlico Plumbers has said it plans a “no jab, no job” policy for new members of its workforce. United Airlines wants to make shots mandatory, drawing concerns from unions.

Many CEOs see themselves as leaders of the fightback against a pandemic that’s killed more than 2.6 million people. They’re standing up against anti-vaccination sentiment that’s strong in countries like the U.S., France and Russia, and trying to keep their workers safe. For some, there’s also a more pragmatic motivation: Vaccination will facilitate a return to the office after a year of working from home that’s strained corporate cultures and spawned a new epidemic of Zoom fatigue.

“I think what we’d like to do is have carrots and sticks — we want people to take it; we think it’s a far better thing,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The bank won’t make vaccination mandatory for the moment due to legal concerns but airlines and hotel companies may attempt to do so, he said.

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The legality of companies requiring their clients and workers to get vaccinated varies from country to country. In many U.S. states, an employer can fire workers at will for any legal reason, which could include the refusal to comply with a vaccine mandate.

At the moment, less than 1% of companies in the U.S. require covid vaccination for all employees, and only 6% say they plan to once shots are readily available, according to a survey of 1,800 in-house lawyers, human-resources workers and executives by employment law firm Littler Mendelson.

In countries where employment protection is stronger, officials are tiptoeing around the issue. The U.K. government has said it’s up to businesses to determine immunization policies for their workforces but that those insisting on vaccination would be discriminatory.

In practice, it’s only legal for an employer to mandate inoculation if it’s considered a “reasonable instruction” related to the employee’s role, which is likely to be in sectors such as health care or hospitality, according to an employment law guide published by U.K. law firm Pinsent Masons. For companies that conduct home visits, such as Pimlico Plumbers, having employees vaccinated and posing less of a health threat to customers could also be a selling point.

So as not to be dragged into courtroom disputes, many CEOs are opting for persuasion over enforcement. The effectiveness of their advocacy will be critical to reopening the global economy, including offices where millions of workers toil away amid little direct contact with customers.

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Unilever chief Alan Jope said he’s signing weekly letters to the company’s 150,000 employees urging them to get vaccinated when possible, and has invited the company’s doctor to promote inoculation on twice-monthly virtual town halls, which see about 14,000 workers dial in.

“We absolutely don’t want anti-vax or vaccine hesitancy to be part of the Unilever culture, and it’s so helpful for them to hear from someone they trust, who is a medical authority, and we will use that platform to answer people’s questions and to advocate for vaccines,” Jope said in an interview.

Budweiser, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch, decided not to run a commercial during the Super Bowl for the first time in 40 years and instead allocated that spending to the Ad Council’s pro-vaccination campaigns. Immunizations will “liberate people,” CEO Carlos Brito said in an interview.

Some CEOs are leading by example. Nestle’s Mark Schneider said that if a vaccine were immediately available to him, “I would get vaccinated in front of all our people to be a role model.”

“It’s the best possible way to protect yourself and to protect your colleagues, and we’ll be very clear on that, just like we were very clear early on on the masks,” he said in an interview. “One of the downsides last year was that very good, effective prevention measures such as masks were politicized.”

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Osem Investments, a Nestle subsidiary in Israel, will bar employees who haven’t been vaccinated or recovered from covid-19 from the workplace unless they submit a negative virus test every three days. Businesses including Check Point Software Technologies and Intel’s Mobileye have also asked workers who are vaccine holdouts to stay home or provide a recent negative test.

Several airlines are taking an equally hard line: Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, has said he wants to make vaccination a requirement for the company’s 60,000 workers. The initiative is dividing employees — the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 141, a union representing fleet and passenger service staff at United, has said it’s received complaints from workers who don’t want to get shots as well as concerns from employees who don’t want to come into contact with unvaccinated colleagues.

Striking a persuasive tone on vaccination will become ever more important as executives hasten a return to the office. Employees at jeweler Tiffany & Co. in the U.S. have been instructed to work at least two days from the office from the beginning of March — whether they’re vaccinated or not.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said at a conference last month that more of the firm’s bankers would have been back in the office by now if vaccine distribution had been faster in the first quarter.

Working from home is an “aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible,” he said.