Zuckerberg slams Apple in an earnings call, casting Facebook as a victim
InternationalJan 28. 2021Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
By The Washington Post · Elizabeth Dwoskin
On a fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lashed out at Apple, calling Apple anti-competitive at a moment when the social network itself is facing major federal scrutiny over antitrust issues.
“We increasingly see Apple as one of our biggest competitors,” Zuckerberg said, noting that Apple’s iMessage software is preinstalled on iPhones – enabling it to become the most widely used messaging service in the U.S., unlike Facebook’s WhatsApp – and that Apple’s growing investment in services also enables it compete with Facebook and other apps that use its iOS software platform.
“Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do,” he said. “They say they are doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests.”
Zuckerberg’s comments, at a moment when the social network is being accused of major antitrust violations by the U.S. Department of Justice, seemed intended to paint a picture of Facebook as a service that is not a monopoly because it faces significant competitive threats, and to point out that its rival tech giant is even more powerful than Facebook. Apple is the world’s wealthiest company by market capitalization; Facebook is the sixth.
Zuckerberg also accused Apple of providing false assurances on user privacy. He said that while Apple claims its iMessage software is encrypted and privacy-protecting, the company stores a backup of people’s messages. He compared that practice to WhatsApp, which does not.
He also reiterated messaging from Facebook that upcoming changes to Apple’s iPhone software would disproportionately harm both Facebook and small businesses that rely on personalized advertisements to reach customers and find new ones. Apple says that it made its policy change to limit data collection in order to protect user privacy.
D.C., Virginia change distribution as residents scramble to find doses
InternationalJan 28. 2021Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam talks with Claire Brasler, 47, a school nurse from Henrico County helping to administer the coronavirus vaccine, at the Richmond Raceway on Jan. 21. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Gregory S. Schneider.
By The Washington Post · Jenna Portnoy, Julie Zauzmer, Erin Cox, Rachel Chason
WASHINGTON – Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday announced a flurry of coronavirus vaccine distribution and data reporting changes in the state, which has ranked among the worst-performing for getting doses out, while the District of Columbia streamlined its registration system for seniors trying to book appointments.
Responding to criticism that Virginia has not moved fast enough in identifying hundreds of thousands of seemingly unused doses, the Democratic governor urged hospitals not to hold on to second doses and advised health districts how to more fairly distribute the vaccine among eligible populations.
The state also launched a new vaccine reporting website, changed the time it reports its data to better line up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and will strengthen its efforts to have providers ask a person’s race and ethnicity at the time of vaccination.
“Vaccines are the light at the end of this long and dark tunnel, and they are a great reason for hope and optimism,” Northam said at a news conference. “I also want to acknowledge that everyone is out of time and patience.”
Northam and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said separately Wednesday they hoped recent announcements by the Biden administration to increase supply by 16% for the next three weeks and, later, by 50% would ease the imbalance between supply and demand.
The Virginia Department of Health soon will create a statewide system for residents to register for vaccine appointments, Northam said. Residents now must navigate a hodgepodge of local health district websites and phone numbers to secure a slot.
“I know this has been a source of great frustration for a lot of Virginians,” he said. “I take this seriously because I know that people just want answers. Even if the answer is they can’t get an appointment for a month or two, it’s important that everyone knows where to go and how to sign up.”
Northam said Virginia and other states expanded eligibility weeks ago based on a pledge by the Trump administration that more doses were on the way. When the doses never materialized, he said providers who worried about supply shortages held on to doses.
“That lead to a situation where there’s too much supply in some places and not enough in other places,” he said.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, left, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, and other officials talk with Louse Schmeltzer, who has just received her vaccine at a grocery store in Capitol Heights, Md., on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Bill O’Leary
Virginia officials expect the state’s weekly allotment to increase from 105,000 to 120,000.
According to CDC tracking, Virginia has ranked last or almost last recently for its vaccine administration as a proportion of total doses delivered, but Northam said the changes helped the state move up with an average of 26,000 daily shots. He has set a goal of administering 50,000 daily shots.
Northam on Wednesday also extended until Feb. 28 his restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people and a ban on alcohol service after 10 p.m. Those were set to expire at the end of this month.
In D.C., officials on Wednesday also tweaked plans to vaccinate seniors, people with high-risk conditions, teachers and other essential workers as residents scramble to find scarce doses of the vaccine.
In response to complaints from frustrated seniors and D.C. lawmakers, the city announced technical changes to its online process for scheduling vaccine appointments. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt told the D.C. Council that more significant changes to the registration system are on the way.
The greater Washington region has reported 870,977 known cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, including 7,331 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, while 14,119 people have died of covid-19, the illness that can be caused by the virus.
As the pandemic’s economic harm continues, Maryland senators pitched adding $520 million in aid to Hogan’s proposed $1 billion state stimulus package.
The extra money would go to nearly three dozen groups or organizations, ranging from food banks and restaurants to people with disabilities, volunteer firefighters, the unemployed and people behind on utility bills.
Hogan has proposed sending checks of up to $750 to the state’s poorest families. The Maryland Senate could vote on the expanded proposal as soon as next week. Meanwhile, Maryland’s seven-day average case rate declined 37% over the past 15 days, from a pandemic high of 3,228 cases on Jan. 12 to 2,029 on Wednesday.
Hogan said Maryland has a six-day supply of vaccines because vaccinations are outpacing federal allocations.
“We’re caught up and about to run out of vaccine,” Hogan said outside a Giant pharmacy vaccination clinic in Prince George’s County.
Demand for the doses has overwhelmed appointment systems. The registration site for Giant pharmacies crashed within minutes of going online, said Samir Balile, manager of clinical programs for 153 Giant pharmacies in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
Giant is distributing about 5,500 doses in the region each week, and appointments for them were gone “within minutes,” Balile said.
In Richmond, Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, said Wednesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus after the onset of mild symptoms two days earlier. He is working from home, and people he came into contact with are quarantining and taking necessary precautions, according to his office.
The mayor of Virginia’s capital city said more than 12,000 Richmonders have been infected by the virus.
“As my personal experience should tell you, while there is reason to be hopeful due to the distribution of the vaccine, this pandemic is still far from over and must be taken seriously,” Stoney said.
At least 912,000 first doses of the vaccine have been administered in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
As of Wednesday, Maryland had administered 363,282 first doses while distributing 852,625 total doses. In Virginia as of Tuesday, 497,581 first doses had been administered of the 1.1 million the state has distributed.
As of Saturday, D.C. had administered 51,421 of the 68,750 doses it has received.
CVS and Walgreens, which have federal contracts to vaccinate residents and staffers at nursing homes, are nearly finished giving first doses at clinics in residential facilities in the region.
Advocates are pushing health officials in Maryland to come up with a vaccination plan for seniors in independent-living facilities, who were not included in the federal vaccination program.
“Independent living has fallen through the cracks,” said Joseph DeMattos, president of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland.
Management at Charles E. Smith Life Communities in Rockville, which includes the state’s largest nursing home, in addition to assisted living and independent-living facilities, has been pushing state and county officials for an on-site vaccination clinic for about 500 seniors in independent living.
Few of those seniors have been able to secure appointments, said Brenda Rice, vice president of operations at Charles E. Smith Life Communities. Meanwhile, 91% of those in its nursing home have received their second dose of the vaccine, and vaccinations in assisted living are beginning this week.
Hogan said the state is working with Giant pharmacies to inoculate seniors in independent-living communities, but details on the timing were still underway.
Elsewhere in Maryland, Anne Arundel County is lifting restrictions on restaurants, stores and churches, allowing them to operate at 50% capacity. Movie theaters, which had been closed, will open at 25%. The new policies take effect Friday.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that getting Americans vaccinated is the most important thing to help the economy, comments that could boost President JoeBiden’s push to pass a massive new relief package that includes big spending on vaccines.
“There’s nothing more important to the economy right now than people getting vaccinated,” Powell said at a news conference following the Fed’s regular policy meeting.
“That is really the main thing about the economy, is getting the pandemic under control, getting everyone vaccinated, getting people wearing masks and all that,” Powell added. “That’s the single most important economic growth policy that we can have.”
Powell’s comments came on the same day Biden’s covid-19 response team held its first public briefing, with senior adviser Andy Slavitt emphasizing that they cannot reach their goal of vaccinating all Americans unless Congress acts to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.
The package includes $160 billion for a national vaccination program, expanded testing, more public health jobs and other steps to curb the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000 American lives and upended the economy.
Slavitt said that the administration can reach its initial goal of getting 100 million people vaccinated within 100 days without congressional action, “but that’s just the start.”
“In order to get all Americans vaccinated we need Congress to provide funds,” Slavitt said, including for expanding production and establishing more vaccination sites.
Congress has already devoted tens of billions of dollars to vaccine production and distribution, but as the pace of vaccinations lags what the Trump administration had promised and new variants of the coronavirus emerge, demand for vaccinations is far outpacing what Americans are demanding.
Powell and other Fed leaders have long emphasized that the economy will not fully heal until the pandemic is under control. But Wednesday marked the first time central bankers, in a statement released after their policy meeting, specified “progress on vaccinations” as core to the recovery.
“We haven’t won this yet,” Powell said. “We clearly can, but we’re going to have to say focused.”
The need for more money for vaccinations could prove a compelling argument in favor of passing Biden’s relief package, and a pressure point to try to win Republican support. Despite some discussion of breaking off vaccines and stimulus checks as a stand-alone bill, Biden said earlier this week he did not want to do that.
Overall, Biden’s relief package has gotten a frosty reception from many Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who dismissed it as an overly expensive and untargeted wish list of liberal priorities. In addition to vaccine funding, the package includes an extension of unemployment benefits that would otherwise expire in mid-March, a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks, an increased child tax credit, an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than $130 billion for schools, and more.
But the need for spending on vaccines has emerged as an area of bipartisan consensus in meetings Biden administration officials have held with bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the Senate and the House.
Because of the widespread GOP opposition to the overall package, Democratic leaders in both chambers are making plans to try to advance the legislation under special rules that could allow it to pass with a simple majority vote in the Senate, meaning no Republican support would be required. Democrats say, however, that they still hold out hope for GOP support for the bill, and bipartisan discussions are continuing.
Overall, Powell said economic activity and employment had moderated in recent months. That pain has been most concentrated in service sectors – restaurants, bars, hotels – that have borne the brunt of the pandemic. December marked the first month of job losses since the recovery began in May.
For months, Powell has urged lawmakers to keep up the direct relief to struggling households and businesses, warning against the risks of withdrawing support too soon.
That’s especially the case, Powell said, for service-sector workers, including many women and people of color, whose jobs may only return once the health crisis ends. Still, Powell routinely stops short of outlining what should or should not go into another relief bill, leaving those discussions to the White House and Congress.
His overarching message is just to keep the aid flowing.
“Fiscal policy has been absolutely essential, and when we look back, we’ll see a strong and sustained fiscal policy response,” Powell said Wednesday. “As I mentioned, we’re a long way from a full recovery.”
Powell told reporters that he himself had received his first vaccine shot, and was awaiting the second.
Biden draws line on climate with oil-lease pause, subsidy review
InternationalJan 28. 2021President Biden with President Harris, left, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 21, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Al Drago.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Ari Natter
President Joe Biden will take executive action on Wednesday to combat climate change, including temporarily blocking new leases for oil drilling on federal lands, ordering a review of fossil-fuel subsidies and other measures to overhaul the U.S. energy mix.
Biden will sign broad-ranging directives instructing federal agencies to consider climate change in everything from government purchases to national security. He will order U.S. intelligence authorities to estimate how climate change affects national security and tell agencies to do a better job assessing the threat.
“These executive orders follow through on President Biden’s promise to take aggressive action to tackle climate change and build on the executive actions that the president took on his first day in office,” the White House says in a fact sheet on the planned moves released Wednesday.
Much of the action has been telegraphed previously and builds on promises Biden made on the campaign as part of his bid to make the U.S economy carbon neutral by 2050. It’s not clear he’ll be able to do everything unilaterally.
For instance, Biden is directing federal agencies “to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as consistent with applicable law,” and instead, seek “new opportunities to spur innovation, commercialization and deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure,” according to the White House.
However, while the Biden administration has some latitude to shift some funding for innovation at the Energy Department, abolishing tax incentives that support fossil fuel development, such as deductions for intangible drilling costs, would require action by Congress.
Still environmentalists were cheering the move as the boldest action by a president yet to confront the climate crisis and the fossil fuels that drive it.
“The era of putting polluters’ profits first is over,” said Josh Axelrod, senior advocate for the nature program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We can’t lock our children and grandchildren into decades more of the dirty fossil fuels of the past, and all the hazards and harms they bring to our public lands, oceans and coastal communities.”
Supporters of the fossil fuel industry said jobs would be lost. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, said the president’s moves “will divide and alienate the very working-class American communities with whom the Biden administration has pledged to unite.”
“It is clear President Biden has caved in to a loud segment of the Democratic Party that is pushing to require all policies and decisions to meet a litmus test of climate change, regardless of consequence,” Gordon said in an emailed statement. “There are bipartisan solutions available that support the people working in oil and gas on federal lands as well as reduce carbon emissions.”
Biden’s order directs federal agencies to purchase zero-emission power and automobiles, such as electric vehicles, as a way to “leverage the federal government’s footprint and buying power to lead by example,” according to the White House fact sheet. The U.S. maintains fleet of 645,000 vehicles and operates nearly 10,000 buildings, according to the General Services Administration.
Biden is also inviting world leaders to a climate summit on April 22 — Earth Day — in a sign of the new president’s commitment to not just rejoin the Paris climate accord but strengthen it. The president’s efforts Wednesday kick off work to develop a new, stronger U.S. carbon-cutting commitments well as a climate finance plan, according to the White House.
The president’s announcements come as his administration has made climate change one of its top priorities — seeking to marshal the entire federal government to combat the crisis.
The work will be buttressed by new government commissions focused on climate, job creation and environmental justice. Biden will establish a climate-focused civilian conservation corps along the lines of the program created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
Biden is committing to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and revitalize communities that have borne the brunt of pollution. It is unclear what form those protections might take but conservation could involve designating areas as wilderness, refuges or national monuments — and walling off industrial development or even hiking and other recreational activity. And the goal could even encompass private land, as Biden directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider ways to encourage climate-friendly agricultural practices that help store carbon.
The efforts will help restore forests, sequester carbon and revitalize wetlands, said Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation. Biden is “advancing solutions that will accelerate our economic recovery and revitalize frontline communities, while simultaneously confronting our nation’s biodiversity, climate and racial justice crises,” O’Mara said.
Biden’s temporary halt of the sale of new oil and gas rights on federal lands and coastal waters buys time for “a rigorous review” of the government’s leasing programs, according to the White House. About 22% of total U.S. crude supplies and 12% of U.S. natural gas came from federal lands and waters in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Under the order, Biden is directing the Interior Department to pause entering into new oil and natural gas leases “to the extent possible,” while looking for ways to double renewable energy production from offshore wind by 2030. The construction of just one new coastal wind farm could be enough to fulfill the pledge, with just two small projects currently operating near Rhode Island and Virginia. New installations are already planned up and down the U.S. coast, pending the agency’s approval.
The oil and gas leasing moratorium won’t affect ongoing operations under existing leases, the government’s sale of coal rights or energy activities on lands the U.S. holds in trust for tribes. Oil companies stockpiled leases and drilling permits in advance of Biden’s election, further blunting the effect.
Still, it could deliver a big economic blow to New Mexico, North Dakota and other states with substantial oil and gas reserves on federal land. The effects on the oil industry also will be uneven, with the impact falling heaviest on producers with significant federal acreage, such as Devon Energy and Cimarex Energy onshore and Murphy Oil offshore.
U.K.’s Johnson warns lockdown will last until at least March 8
InternationalJan 28. 2021A woman walks past a closed souvenir stall and government messaging on a telephone box on Oxford Street in London on Jan. 15, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Tim Ross, Alex Morales, Emily Ashton
Prime Minister Boris Johnson put England on notice that the national virus lockdown will continue for at least another six weeks, with schools staying closed and new border quarantine rules coming into force.
A day after the British death toll passed 100,000, Johnson said the government will review the impact of pandemic measures and the effectiveness of the vaccine program in mid-February.
But the soonest restrictions could begin to be eased and schools fully reopened is March 8, he said, and some rules will be tightened.
In an attempt to stop dangerous mutant strains of the virus entering the U.K., new 10-day hotel quarantine measures will be imposed on all passengers arriving from hot spot regions such as South America, South Africa and Portugal.
“Everyone yearns to know how much longer we must endure these restrictions, with all their consequences for jobs, livelihoods and most tragically of all, the life chances of our children,” Johnson told members of Parliament on Wednesday. “We will not persist for a day longer than is necessary, but nor can we relax too soon.”
Johnson rejected a call from Tory colleague Steve Brine to consider opening some schools before March 8. “This is about as fast as we think we can prudently go,” the prime minister told Parliament. While the lockdown appears to have curbed the spread of infections, “we do not yet have enough data to know exactly how soon it will be safe to reopen our society and economy,” he said.
The U.K. is three weeks into its third national lockdown since the pandemic began almost a year ago, with tens of millions of workers ordered to stay home and retail and hospitality businesses shuttered. Since then, the government has committed almost 300 billion pounds to emergency support for the economy.
Despite the lockdowns and stimulus measures, the U.K. has suffered the fifth-highest death toll in the world and the heaviest economic hit of any Group of Seven country.
In recent weeks, Johnson’s administration has focused on driving ahead with a mass vaccination program that aims to provide shots to the 15 million most vulnerable people and carers by Feb. 15. Once that goal has been achieved, ministers will consider if and how restrictions can safely begin to be eased.
“We remain in a perilous situation,” Johnson said. The spread of a more contagious and potentially more deadly new strain of the virus, first found in southeast England, has set back the government’s ambitions for reopening the economy in the spring, he said.
Other strains have been identified in Brazil and South Africa and ministers have been debating border measures including quarantining all arrivals in hotels. In the end, Johnson announced a more limited policy aimed at arrivals from specific countries thought to be most at risk of carrying a new variant of the disease.
“In order to reduce the risk posed by U.K. nationals and residents returning home from these countries, I can announce that we will require all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry to isolate in government-provided accommodation such as hotels for 10 days, without exception,” the prime minister told the House of Commons. “They will be met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine.”
Extra police will also be stationed at ports and airports to stop Britons leaving the U.K. to go on holiday or for any other non-essential reason, Home Secretary Priti Patel said. “Anyone who does not have a valid reason for travel will be directed to return home,” she told Parliament.
Johnson, who has been criticized for being slow to take action throughout the pandemic, said the government will review the lockdown and vaccine roll-out in mid-February and aims to publish a plan for easing the restrictions in the week of Feb. 22.
“We have one of the highest death rates in the world,” said Keir Starmer, leader of the U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party. “The truth is this was not inevitable, it wasn’t just bad luck. It’s the result of a huge number of mistakes by the prime minister during the course of this pandemic.”
France holds off on new lockdown, worries about unrest risk
InternationalJan 28. 2021A morning commuter wearing a protective face mask passes the steps of the Grande Arche monument in Paris on Jan. 21, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Benjamin Girette.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Ania Nussbaum, Rudy Ruitenberg
The French government is delaying an agonizing decision to lock down the country once more, mulling options to slow new variants of covid-19 as the current curfew is considered insufficient.
President Emmanuel Macron “has asked for additional analysis” on the spread of the virus before deciding on any new restrictions, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said after a defense cabinet meeting Wednesday. Maintaining the status quo is “unlikely” as the 6 p.m. – 6 a.m. national curfew isn’t doing enough, and a strict lockdown is one option being considered, he said.
Macron is under pressure to shut down the economy for the third time in less than a year, as doctors and researchers raise the alarm about mutations of the coronavirus spreading through the country.
Yet with a presidential race coming up next year, the French leader also has to navigate criticism of his handling of the crisis, including a slow start to the vaccination campaign. And while surging U.K. cases and deaths demonstrate the perils of the new virus variants, riots in the Netherlands against a government curfew show the risks of tighter measures.
Christophe Castaner, head of Macron’s party at the National Assembly, told Le Parisien newspaper there was a risk of “civil disobedience” in France, too, should a new lockdown be imposed.
Voters have much less appetite for strict measures now than at the beginning of the pandemic, with 93% of adults approving of the first lockdown, compared to just 67% in favor of a third, according to a recent Elabe opinion poll.
“I know there is a fatigue,” Attal said during the press conference. A decision on whether to tighten measures will depend on health indicators, he said.
France’s second lockdown started late October and ended mid-December with a curfew that was expanded earlier this month. It brought only partial relief for the health system, with hospitalizations and intensive-care patients remaining more than five times higher than in August.
Restaurants, cafes, clubs, theaters, cinemas and sports venues have been closed since October and are being propped up by government aid, like many areas of the economy.
A third lockdown would cause an economic contraction by 10% to 18% compared to pre-crisis levels, according to a Ministry of Finance study cited by Parisien, depending on the severity of the measures. During the first — and strictest lockdown — in the spring of 2020, activity contracted by more than a third.
While the government is banking on a strong rebound of its economy in the second half of the year, another lockdown would threaten its growth forecasts.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called a third lockdown a “last resort” on Wednesday. A recent survey by the French statistics agency showed rising concern in households in January, as consumers plan to save more cash for difficult times. Consumer sentiment is at its lowest since November.
“Let’s look at where we are,” Le Maire said. “There’s no haste.”
The more contagious U.K. variant of the virus represented 9.4% of cases in an analysis of positive tests in the Paris region between Jan. 11 and 21. Across France, hospitalizations have been climbing in the past two weeks to the highest level since early December, and the number of severely ill Covid patients in intensive care rose above 3,000 this week.
Macron could still make a final decision in the coming days — the defense cabinet, a small and close-knit group of ministers who gather around the president and prime minister, have met over weekends in the past.
British Hinkley Point nuclear plant delayed with higher costs
InternationalJan 28. 2021A crane lifts a prefabricated steel containment ring into position at the nuclear Reactor Unit 1, at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station construction site, near Bridgwater, England, on Dec. 17, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Luke MacGregor.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Francois de Beaupuy, Rachel Morison
Electricite de France said the completion of its flagship British nuclear plant project will be delayed at least six months and cost about 500 million pounds ($687 million) more than previously planned because of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the delay announced Wednesday is short at this stage, it’s likely to revive controversy about how expensive the technology is and whether further holdups are inevitable. EDF is already struggling to finish a French reactor more than a decade behind schedule.
“We are still facing the full force of the pandemic,” Hinkley Point C Managing Director Stuart Crooks said. “This means we have not been able to bring on the extra people needed to catch up on work we postponed at the height of the crisis.”
The French state-controlled utility warned last year that such risks had risen as Covid-19 slowed construction of the two reactors it’s building with its Chinese partner at Hinkley Point in Southwest England. EDF had planned to make up key milestones missed in 2020 by the end of this year but continued social distancing requirements have limited the number of workers allowed on site.
The project completion cost at Hinkley Point C is now estimated at 22 billion to 23 billion pounds, half a billion more than estimated in 2019, EDF said in a statement Wednesday. The first reactor will begin producing power in June 2026, compared with end-2025 as initially announced in 2016, it said.
The six-month delay is dependent on being able to begin to ramp up back to normal site conditions from July, EDF said.
EDF fell 3.2% to 10.40 euros by 11:20 a.m. in Paris. The utility will have to shoulder the extra costs and won’t be paid any money from the U.K. government until the project is finished and electricity is being produced.
Nuclear doesn’t have a good track record for finishing on time. EDF is struggling to finish a reactor at Flamanville, which is delayed by more than 10 years, leading France to put further new projects on hold.
“Not great news, though given the covid-19 crisis and the very poor project evolution at Flamanville this is a fairly benign update,” JPMorgan Chase analysts said in a note, referring to EDF’s delayed nuclear project in France.
Delivering Hinkley Point C without huge delays is important for both EDF and U.K. policymakers who are relying on power from the reactor to plug a supply gap that’s emerging as older reactors shut. The utility is in talks with the government about financing a second project at Sizewell C. The government says the project needs to be cheaper than Hinkley Point C.
In a show of the importance of making a success of Hinkley, U.K. energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng gave his public backing to the project last week.
“I’m confident that if we do Hinkley Point C on time, which is looking likely, or if we miss it, it won’t be by very much, ” he said.
The U.K. is likely to need nuclear power as a source of low carbon electricity to meet its commitment to zero-out emissions by 2050. Electricity use is set to double by then as heating and transport sectors electrify. The huge program of offshore wind the U.K. is planning to roll out within nine years will need back up for when the weather is calm.
The delay and cost overruns will trim EDF’s projected rate of return on the project. The French company reiterated that units 1 and 2 still face another potential delay of 15 and 9 months, respectively, which might result in additional costs of about 700 million pounds.
European economy lags China and U.S. on pandemic recovery
InternationalJan 28. 2021A dockworker monitors a shipping container being loaded onto a freight train at the railway terminal at Behala inland port in Berlin on Jan. 26, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Craig Stirling
Europe’s economy is starting to follow the familiar script of lagging its international peers when recovering from a crisis.
That was the upshot of the International Monetary Fund’s forecasts on Tuesday, which downgraded the growth outlook for 2021 across Europe and underscored a generally poorer performance compared with China and the U.S.
Such diverging fortunes reflect the stringency of lockdowns across the euro zone to contain the coronavirus, as well as a late and stumbling vaccination campaign — headwinds that threaten to deepen what already looks likely to be a double-dip recession. Political unease over the future leadership of Germany and a crisis in Italy are compounding the gloom.
By contrast, China is fulfilling a V-shaped recovery, and the U.S. is strutting more confidently with a new president overseeing an extra stimulus injection and a more aggressive vaccine effort.
“We’ve started the year on a softer footing, particularly in Europe, because much of Europe seems to have gone back into recession,” Janet Henry, chief global economist at HSBC Holdings in London, told Bloomberg Television. “China is already back above pre-pandemic levels and, on our projections, the U.S. will be by the end of 2021. For the euro zone, it’ll be the end of 2022.”
That divergence was emphasized in the IMF’s forecasts, which showed euro-area gross domestic product rising only 4.2% this year, after falling 7.2% in 2020. The U.S. economy is seen expanding 5.1%, more than recouping last year’s 3.4% contraction.
The most immediate cause of Europe’s relative weakness is the need for stricter and longer lockdowns to combat a resurgent coronavirus outbreak, and to contain nastier strains of the disease.
As European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde put it last week, a contraction in the fourth quarter will now “travel” into the first three months of the year.
“The short-term risk is tilted to the downside,” she added somberly. “Uncertainty is in the air.”
Sluggish immunization programs also threaten to widen the disparity between Europe and the rest. The European Union’s best performers in that regard, tiny Malta and Denmark, have administered only around 4 shots per 100 people. The U.S. has managed 7 and the U.K. is above 10. The EU is now in a standoff with AstraZeneca over delayed vaccine deliveries.
With such shortcomings likely to cement lockdowns even further, the contrast in economic destinies is looking stark, with banks including Barclays Plc pointing to an “Atlantic divide.”
“The U.S. outlook is improving, Europe’s is deteriorating” BofA Global Research’s economics team wrote in a report. “Don’t think of both economies’ recovery prospects as equal.”
Such a trajectory evokes the frequent impression that Europe has become a natural economic laggard to the rest. That sense has persisted for much of the current century, not least after the region’s sovereign-debt crisis impaired its recovery from the global financial crash a decade ago, while the U.S. and China powered ahead, at least in relative terms.
Newfound political disarray is only serving to highlight Europe’s listlessness. Post-Brexit trade curbs with the U.K. are already an irksome reminder of the recent trauma of divorce disfiguring the region.
Meanwhile, the succession to Germany’s Angela Merkel is still unresolved, keeping open the question of how the bloc will galvanize itself into fighting crises in the era after she leaves. Even after a candidate to replace her as chancellor is settled, an election in September — no doubt followed by coalition talks — will prolong the drift.
The sudden resignation of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, against a backdrop of burgeoning debt obligations, also shows how turmoil is never far from erupting somewhere in the region. The country has been the focus of the EU’s efforts to forge a joint recovery fund to shore up the integrity of its common currency.
For all their potential despair, European policymakers can still cling to hopes that their economies remain sound beneath the surface.
Government support programs in the region have tended to be highly targeted toward keeping companies and jobs afloat even when output is shut down, possibly avoiding unnecessary destruction to growth potential.
“Economies are being held in an imperfect state of suspended animation, and by and large it keeps underlying economies healthy,” said Kallum Pickering, an economist at Berenberg. “My hunch actually is that there’s a bit less scarring than most people think.”
In any case, Europe’s finance chiefs are now resigning themselves to being patient for when vaccination setbacks can be cleared, and the pandemic tamed, so that their economies can finally be unleashed — even if that happens far later than global rivals.
“We have to divide the year 2021 in two parts,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We have everything that is required to have a very strong, very quick rebound as soon as the pandemic is over.”
Dutch central bank Governor Klaas Knot shares that view — but also cautions that there will be a long road ahead to repair the damage.
“There is optimism, but then of course we will be stuck with the legacy of the corona pandemic,” he told Bloomberg Television. “Output will be below potential for some time to come.”
EU-Astra vaccine call back on after chaotic morning in dispute
InternationalJan 28. 2021Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca, poses for a photograph following a Bloomberg Television interview in London on Nov. 8, 2018. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Simon Dawson.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Suzi Ring, Jonathan Stearns, Nikos Chrysoloras
The clash between the European Union and drugmaker AstraZeneca over covid-19 vaccine delays temporarily descended into chaos on Wednesday before the two sides confirmed that a crunch call to resolve the standoff will take place.
Earlier on Wednesday, an EU official said the company had pulled out of the planned talks with the European Commission and government representatives. The official, who asked not to be named, said Astra executives had sent an email on Tuesday evening withdrawing “because there are too many moving parts.” The cancellation was disputed by Astra, and the EU subsequently said discussions were back on.
The contradictory statements were just the latest twist in a saga that erupted late last week when Astra warned of delays at a production plant in Belgium. That was followed by public disagreement over contract terms, accusations of blame, and even threats to put limits on vaccine exports. The latest confusion — which pushed the life-and-death issue into the realm of farce — is also an echo of the broader disorganization that’s marked the EU’s rollout of coronavirus shots so far.
Iskra Reic, Astra’s Executive Vice-President for Europe and Canada, will take part in the meeting, where the EU wants to get more details about the delay to the rollout of shots. Governments are desperate to speed up the vaccination, as it’s proved sluggish so far, and also keen to avoid taking the blame.
The on-off status of the call emerged after Astra Chief Executive Pascal Soriot used an interview with European newspapers to deflect responsibility to the EU. He said the company has a so-called best-effort agreement that doesn’t specify a quantity. That’s because the EU insisted on receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine about the same time as the U.K. despite putting in its order three months later.
A key part of the disagreement is the use of vaccines produced in U.K. factories. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an EU official said that Soriot’s claim that the U.K. has priority on vaccines from British plants doesn’t exist in the contract.
The EU’s vaccination pace is lagging way behind the U.S. and the U.K. in terms of the share of its population inoculated, according to Bloomberg’s global tracker. Soriot said that once Astra gets EU regulatory approval — expected within days — it will ship at least 3 million doses immediately, with a target of 17 million by February.
That should help Europe accelerate vaccinations and get economies closer to exiting damaging lockdowns that have crippled industries and caused growing discontent. Soriot suggested he understands that the situation is difficult for leaders across Europe, where Brussels has coordinated a vaccine-buying program.
“Everybody is getting kind of a bit, you know, aggravated or emotional about those things.” he said in the comments published in La Repubblica and other newspapers. “But I understand because the commission is managing the process for the whole of Europe.”
In an effort to alleviate supply shortages, French drugmaker Sanofi said it has agreed to help produce more than 125 million doses of the shot Pfizer Inc. developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE. That shot, and one by Moderna Inc., are already authorized for use.
Sanofi will provide BioNTech access to its production sites in Frankfurt starting this summer, it said in a statement Wednesday. The goal is to accelerate efforts to package and distribute the vaccine, which needs to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.
New pro-Beijing party signals China’s future plans for Hong Kong
InternationalJan 28. 2021The logo for the Bauhinia Party on a laptop as Charles Wong Chau-chi, co-founder, works at his desk in Hong Kong on Jan. 12, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Paul Yeung.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kari Lindberg
As China moves to neutralize Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition, it is also giving the green light to a new political party that provides a window into how Beijing may change the territory in the years ahead.
The Bauhinia Party, named after the flower on Hong Kong’s flag, was founded last May by Western-educated businessmen who were born in the mainland and have links to the Communist Party. Although still tiny, the group consulted with officials in the Hong Kong government, the Liaison Office — Beijing’s main body overseeing the city — and relevant offices in China, according to Charles Wong Chau-chi, one of the co-founders.
In an interview, Wong said that while the party never asked formally for the endorsement of those Chinese agencies, “we believe there is no reason they do not want to endorse us.”
The party’s purpose, he added, was to support people to stand for the position of chief executive, which will be up for grabs next year when Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s first term expires. One possibility is Li Shan, the party’s chairman, who is chief executive of Silk Road Finance Corp., a board member of Credit Suisse and a delegate to the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to Beijing. Li declined an interview request.
Wong said Li would be interested in becoming Hong Kong’s next leader only if he’s “required and asked to, not necessarily he wants to.” The Bauhinia Party, Wong said, isn’t ready to compete in September’s Legislative Council elections, which were delayed for a year due to the pandemic.
The group’s formation at a time when China is facing criticism in the West for locking up democracy advocates signals an effort by Beijing to refine a managed version of electoral politics that gives the Communist Party ultimate veto power. Chinese authorities last year passed a sweeping national security law that has been used to curtail free speech, while also imposing a patriotism test to disqualify pro-democracy lawmakers — a move that prompted opposition members in the Legislative Council to resign en masse in November.
The Bauhinia Party’s emergence points to a multi-party system that “competes for blessings and a show of loyalty and devotion to whoever is in charge in Beijing,” said Kenneth Chan, associate professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
Any moves by Beijing to further tighten its hold on Hong Kong would provide an early test for U.S. President Joe Biden, who has vowed to support democracy proponents in the former British colony. A former Hong Kong leader still close with Beijing recently suggested the next chief executive should be decided next year by consultation, rather than through a 1,200 person committee. Beijing in any case can veto any winner it doesn’t like.
The Bauhinia Party’s platform says it aims to “respect ‘one country,’ cherish ‘two systems,’ and safeguard Hong Kong’s core values of freedom, democracy and rule of law.” Yet while that sounds in line with Hong Kong’s moderate pro-democracy camp, the group’s diagnosis of the territory’s troubles mirrors that of Beijing.
Wong said the root causes of the 2019 unrest had “nothing to do with China” while pointing to factors such as high-priced housing, poor local governance and an opposition he said was “tearing apart the social fabric and getting everybody angry.” The national security law, he added, was “timely to help stabilize Hong Kong” and had no impact on “one country, two systems” — the framework that guaranteed the territory’s autonomy for 50 years after Britain handed over the former colony in 1997.
Wong laid out a series of policy proposals he said would help bolster Hong Kong’s economy for decades to come: “One country, two systems” should be expanded for another 50 years. Young people should learn more about China, study Mandarin and spend time working in the mainland. Hong Kong should take advantage of the Greater Bay Area, Beijing’s plan to link the territory with Macau and neighboring Shenzhen, home to Huawei Technologies Co. And the city should implement a proposal on universal suffrage endorsed by Beijing.
Perhaps the toughest problem, Wong said, was expensive housing. High property prices were affecting everyone, he said, boosting the cost of living and making Hong Kong “less and less competitive.” The party platform calls for “bold solutions” including land and waterfront reclamation, farmland re-zoning, land co-development with the nearby cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, and converting country parks that now make up about 40% of Hong Kong’s total land area.
“The supply of land is not a problem,” Wong said. The challenge, he added, was finding “a common denominator that is shared by everybody to really push your housing program through.”
While it’s unclear whether the Bauhinia party can gain much traction, the current Beijing-friendly groups in Hong Kong have dismissed its chances to win elections. “The business community will not invest their resources in new parties without political influence, and little prospect of winning seats in LegCo or at the district level,” said Regina Ip, a pro-establishment lawmaker.
Wong said the party aims to eventually have as many as 250,000 members. He added that the party’s communication with China’s government would likely be “quite fluid,” while saying it was “silly” that critics said it had Beijing’s backing.
“A lot of people try to pin us down as to whether we are from China,” Wong said. “I think they really miss the point. We should look at whether we are for Hong Kong or not. And China is there to help, but there are bottom lines, there are red lines.”
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Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam talks with Claire Brasler, 47, a school nurse from Henrico County helping to administer the coronavirus vaccine, at the Richmond Raceway on Jan. 21. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Gregory S. Schneider.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
President Biden with President Harris, left, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 21, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Al Drago.
A woman walks past a closed souvenir stall and government messaging on a telephone box on Oxford Street in London on Jan. 15, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe.
A morning commuter wearing a protective face mask passes the steps of the Grande Arche monument in Paris on Jan. 21, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Benjamin Girette.
A crane lifts a prefabricated steel containment ring into position at the nuclear Reactor Unit 1, at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station construction site, near Bridgwater, England, on Dec. 17, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Luke MacGregor.
A dockworker monitors a shipping container being loaded onto a freight train at the railway terminal at Behala inland port in Berlin on Jan. 26, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg
Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca, poses for a photograph following a Bloomberg Television interview in London on Nov. 8, 2018. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Simon Dawson.
The logo for the Bauhinia Party on a laptop as Charles Wong Chau-chi, co-founder, works at his desk in Hong Kong on Jan. 12, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Paul Yeung.
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