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EU leaders consider travel bans, faster vaccine rollout to contain coronavirus variants

InternationalJan 22. 2021

Ursula von der Leyen

By The Washington Post · Michael Birnbaum

European leaders, struggling with a slow vaccination effort and fearful that highly contagious coronavirus variants could rapidly overwhelm their medical systems, moved Thursday to begin reimposing border restrictions and to speed the distribution of vaccines – even those not yet been approved for use.

“We are increasingly concerned about different variants of the virus,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after a virtual summit of European Union leaders, saying that though the bloc intends to keep borders open for trade, it may restrict nonessential travel.

The leaders held back from endorsing a specific plan for borders. But Germany – which as the richest and most populous EU member often drives its discussions – proposed strict, temporary bans on travel to the EU from countries where mutated forms of the coronavirus are already prevalent, including Britain. The proposal would restrict EU citizens from returning to their home countries if they are currently in an affected country, and would therefore be more stringent than previous border measures.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that sharp action was necessary in the face of more transmissible strain first identified in Britain.

“I can’t stress this strongly enough: We need to slow down the spread of this mutant virus, we mustn’t wait until this virus flares up here and is reflected in explosive new numbers,” she told reporters before the EU discussion. “We’d have a stronger wave of the virus, probably stronger than anything we’ve seen so far.”

The leaders also agreed to begin distributing doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine across Europe, so rollout can start as soon as that vaccine is approved, possibly around mid-February. Though Britain is already administering AstraZeneca inoculations, European and U.S. regulators have questioned whether there is enough data to show they are effective among older people.

Until now, the EU has focused on a rapid but by-the-book medical authorization process to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccines. But some countries are pushing the bloc’s medical regulator to move faster.

“We are working with other EU countries for the fastest possible, unbureaucratic approval of @AstraZeneca and other vaccines,” wrote Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, on Twitter, during the leaders’ summit.

The European Commission earlier this week set a goal that 70% of EU residents would be vaccinated by the summer – an ambitious effort that, despite efforts to remain united, may ultimately highlight disparities among member countries.

The pace of vaccinations already has varied sharply among countries, even though they all got access to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines simultaneously. Denmark has administered 3.2 doses for every 100 residents. The Netherlands has only given out 0.6 doses for the same number.

The 70% goal struck some public health experts as overly aspirational.

In France, “we would need to vaccinate at least twice as fast as now,” said Odile Launay, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Paris and a member of the committee advising French authorities on vaccine strategy. “And the other question: will 70 percent of the population want to get vaccinated?”

Hours before Thursday’s meeting, Hungary announced it was breaking with the other 26 members of the EU to authorize both the AstraZeneca and Russian-made Sputnik vaccines within its borders. The country’s national regulator said that it would maintain careful testing of the Sputnik vaccine, but that because the AstraZeneca inoculation was already approved in Britain, no further tests for that one were necessary.

The EU approves vaccines as a bloc, but individual countries can offer emergency authorizations. The Hungarian move may create pressure on other countries to follow suit, although many EU leaders have said that a unified strategy will be the most effective, because it will build the most confidence across the union of 450 million people.

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Twitter locks out Chinese Embassy in U.S. over post on Uighurs

InternationalJan 22. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kurt Wagner, Peter Martin

Twitter has locked the official account for the Chinese Embassy to the U.S. after a post that defended the Beijing government’s policies in the western region of Xinjiang, where critics say China is engaged in the forced sterilization of minority Uighur women.

The tweet, which said Uighur women were no longer “baby-making machines,” was originally shared on Jan. 7, but wasn’t removed by Twitter until more than 24 hours later. It has been replaced by a label saying, “This tweet is no longer available.” Even though Twitter hides tweets that violate its rules, it still requires the account owner to manually delete the post in order to regain access to the account.

The account is still locked, a Twitter spokesman confirmed, meaning the Chinese Embassy has not deleted the tweet. The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, has not posted since Jan. 8, having published at least a dozen more tweets after the one breaking Twitter’s rules.

“We have taken action on this Tweet for violating our policy against dehumanization,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement. Twitter prohibits the “dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, or ethnicity.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Thursday said authorities were “puzzled” about why Twitter restricted the account, calling it the embassy’s responsibility to correct “fake reports and information related to Xinjiang.”

“We hope Twitter can adhere to objective and fair principles and not display double standards on this issue,” she said at a briefing in Beijing.

The move is the latest in a series of escalating steps Twitter has taken in recent weeks to enforce its policies. The suspension of the Chinese Embassy account came shortly after Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump’s account for repeated rules violations, and potentially complicates Beijing’s efforts to reset relations with the U.S. under President Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, then-acting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that China’s actions against Uighur minorities amounted to “genocide,” a label that his successor Antony Blinken agreed with during his confirmation hearings this week. China has maintained that it is fighting separatism and extremism in the region, where the United Nations has estimated up to 1 million Uighurs may be held in camps.

The decision to suspend the Chinese Embassy account also adds to an already complicated relationship between U.S. tech companies and China. Large social platforms like Twitter, Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and YouTube are all banned in China, which has some of the world’s strictest controls on the internet. Trump, meanwhile, had previously demanded that Chinese startup ByteDance Ltd. spin off its successful video service TikTok in the U.S.

China’s embassy in Washington joined Twitter in 2019 in the midst of heated trade talks between the countries, as more Chinese officials started using the platform to aggressively defend Beijing across the world in what has become known as “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy. Chinese officials and state-run media have used Twitter to accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy, particularly after a deadly riot at the Capitol earlier this month.

After the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka’s account was suspended last year, it argued its “freedom of speech” must be honored, even though Twitter posts are blocked in the mainland.

Last month, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an apology after Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted a fake photo depicting one of his nation’s troops holding a bloody knife to an Afghan child’s throat. Chinese social media platform WeChat subsequently deleted a post by Morrison after he made a direct appeal to the Chinese community promoting Australia as a “free, democratic, liberal country.”

In recent months China has moved to rein its own big tech companies, proposing antitrust policies in November that would give the Communist Party sweeping powers over some of the country’s most biggest corporations.

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Biden order seeks stronger workplace safety rules, signaling a more worker-friendly approach

InternationalJan 22. 2021

Jimena Peterson waves a sign during a protest outside the offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in downtown Denver in September. The protest was staged by the union representing employees at a Colorado meatpacking plant where six workers died of covid-19 and hundreds more were infected this past spring. (David Zalubowski/ AP)

By The Washington Post · Eli Rosenberg

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden signed an executive order Thursday to direct federal regulators to issue stronger safety guidance for workplaces operating in the midst of the pandemic.

The executive order on “Protecting Worker Health and Safety” seeks to reorient worker safety guidelines and enforcement at the Labor Department’s workplace safety division – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

It directs OSHA to update covid safety recommendations for businesses within the next two weeks, review its enforcement efforts, which have been sharply criticized during the pandemic, and study whether an emergency temporary standard, which businesses would have to comply with under the threat of penalties, is necessary. The agency must issued the emergency standard by mid-March, if so.

Such a standard could mandate mask-wearing and other requirements, including social distancing, hand-washing breaks and communication with workers during outbreaks.

The order marks an abrupt shift from the Trump administration’s more business and industry friendly approach, and signals a new emphasis on the plight of workers, including a focus on issues of race and equity, in the Biden administration.

“Ensuring the health and safety of workers is a national priority and a moral imperative,” Biden wrote in the order. “Healthcare workers and other essential workers, many of whom are people of color and immigrants, have put their lives on the line during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic….The Federal Government must take swift action to reduce the risk that workers may contract COVID-19 in the workplace.”

Worker advocates hailed the executive order, saying it was the first step in reorienting OSHA toward more stringent safety protections.

“It will precipitate a 180,” said Debbie Berkowitz, an OSHA official during the Obama years who has been pushing for the agency to more actively monitor workplaces for coronavirus-related safety issues during the pandemic.

Under President Donald Trump, OSHA’s relatively lax enforcement of workplace safety guidance during the pandemic was a constant source of frustration for unions and worker advocates, as workplaces proved to be a significant source of outbreaks.

The agency declined to issue an enforceable standard for workplaces, and instead issued guidance weakened by phrases including “if feasible” and “when possible.” OSHA was slow to issue penalties for violations under its existing statutes – and when it did, some of those penalties amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.

JBS, a multibillion-dollar meatpacking company, was given a $15,600 fine in September after 290 workers tested positive for the virus and six died at a plant in Colorado, for example. Smithfield, another large meat processing company, was given a $13,500 fine after 1,294 workers at a plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., tested positive for the coronavirus and four died.

Biden’s executive order also calls for OSHA to train its enforcement apparatus on outbreaks like those – calling for a “national program to focus OSHA enforcement efforts related to COVID-19 on violations that put the largest number of workers at serious risk or are contrary to anti-retaliation principles.” It also directs the Department of Labor to conduct a multilingual outreach program about the efforts, to better publicize them, seeking to address another long-standing complaint about the Trump administration’s response.

Labor law experts had expected the Biden administration to move forward with an emergency temporary standard for workplaces during the pandemic as part of its work combating the public health crisis, while using the executive branch to give workers more power.

During his campaign, Biden called for worker protections ranging from a $15 minimum wage, more leeway to organize and collectively bargain, and the classification of gig workers as employees.

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Jobless claims remained at historic highs last week, as Biden inherits the worst job market of any modern president

InternationalJan 22. 2021

A “now hiring” sign hangs on the front wall of a Harbor Freight Tools store in Manchester, N.H., in December. (Charles Krupa/ AP)

By The Washington Post · Eli Rosenberg

Another 900,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week, President Donald Trump’s last in office, a snapshot of the significant labor market challenges facing President Joe Biden.

An additional 423,000 people in 47 states filed new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the program created to help gig and self-employed workers.

Altogether, nearly 16 million people were claiming benefits as of Jan. 2, the last week available for that measurement. That number is expected to increase in the coming weeks as people who were dropped from the unemployment rolls after their benefits expired file new claims to take advantage of the extension passed by Congress at the last minute in December.

The number of new unemployment claims filed each week has remained above the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 since coronavirus cases starting rising in March. Jobless claims have also risen in recent weeks.

Economists have cautioned about reading too deeply into the weekly fluctuations of the statistic, noting that issues with data processing and duplicate claims have at times inflated the numbers.

Still, the benchmark paints a dire portrait. Weekly jobless claims are now near what they were at the beginning of September. It’s the 44th straight week that initial claims remain higher than the worst week of the Great Recession.

Biden inherits one of the worst job markets of any modern president, with the country’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent and nearly 10 million fewer people with jobs than at the beginning of last year, as the pandemic has wreaked havoc on industries like tourism, hospitality and food service.

Biden is calling for a $1.9 trillion stimulus measure that would extend unemployment payments and benefits beyond March, give out $1,400 checks and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to small businesses as well as state and local governments that are struggling.

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Biden’s unity plea is met with reminders that divisions run deep

InternationalJan 21. 2021Danny Meehan holds a protest sign as he and Pamela Meehan walk past members of the news media outside the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Courtney Pedroza

By The Washington Post · Eva Ruth Moravec, Christine Spolar, Austyn Gaffney, Carissa Wolf, Griff Witte · NATIONAL, POLITICS 

AUSTIN, Texas – They had lost a sister to covid-19 and watched in horror as the Capitol of the nation their father had immigrated to was trashed by white supremacist rioters. 

A supporter of Donald Trump protests outside the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Courtney Pedroza

So when Norma and Sylvia Luna – both Texas teachers – heard Kamala Harris take the oath of office to become America’s vice president on Wednesday, the tears flowed. 

“It brings me hope, just watching this. It makes me proud to be an American again,” said Norma Luna, 49, who wore a Biden/Harris mask, Converse sneakers and a string of pearls as she watched the inauguration festivities on a smartphone at the Texas Capitol.

“We feel like we can breathe again,” added Sylvia Luna, 43.

Yet their cause for celebration was a source of angst elsewhere on the Texas Capitol grounds. To Jacob, who came sporting a “TRUMP THAT” baseball cap, the presidency had just been handed to the wrong man after a fraudulent election. “There were just too many inconsistencies,” said the 33-year-old, who declined to give his last name. 

The theme of Joe Biden’s inauguration was “America united.” But in the nation’s 50 state capitals – the laboratories of American democracy – there were ample reminders that divisions run deep. 

Victoria Walker attends an Inauguration Day event at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Kevin D. Liles

The attitudes of those who showed up – either to joyously celebrate or to bitterly protest – were not the only evidence. The National Guard troops, armored Humvees and chain-link fences that surrounded many capitol complexes were added proof that toxic America’s partisanship has recently bled into violence – and could do so again. 

“There is a general threat to all 50 state capitols,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, on inauguration eve as he became the latest state leader to activate National Guard troops. Thousands had been deployed to capitals across the country late last week, ahead of a weekend in which potentially violent demonstrations were predicted by the FBI – but never materialized.

Once again on Wednesday, security officials’ worst fears were not borne out: In some states, it was close to business as usual. In others, demonstrations were small and peaceful, with occasionally tense moments.

At Colorado’s Capitol complex in Denver, dozens of “anti-fascist” demonstrators burned an American flag and yelled epithets at police, forcing officers to temporarily withdraw. In Portland, police used smoke bombs during a confrontation with far-left activists. And in Tallahassee, Fla., a Trump supporter and a Biden backer screamed at each other.

“It shouldn’t be like that,” said Molly Siddall, 18, after verbally sparring with a Trump supporter who yelled discredited conspiracy theories about Democrats and pedophilia. “That’s the problem with this country.”

Yet in a nation where the national Capitol was ransacked two weeks ago, the lack of significant strife Wednesday counted as an important step as Biden attempts to turn down the national temperature. 

“His aim is to unify us,” said Willy Stokman, a lone demonstrator on an otherwise deserted Utah Capitol lawn in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. “I am hopeful that people and politicians take him up on that, because it doesn’t have to be so divisive.”

In one of the nation’s most evenly split states – Pennsylvania, which voted narrowly for Biden in 2020 after Trump eked out a victory four years earlier – security was tight Wednesday at the Capitol in Harrisburg. But the scene was calm. 

Police on horseback and National Guard troops were positioned around the perimeter of the 10-block complex. On the Capitol steps, several Biden supporters waved U.S. flags and signs as a smattering of passing vehicles honked their approval. A lone Trump supporter wore a robe with the words “Impeach China Joe” affixed to it.

Matt Convery, 41, of Wallingford, said he had hoped to take his family to Washington for the inauguration but scrapped that plan after the insurrection on Jan. 6. He said he came out in the bitter cold with his sign reading “Biden” and “Truth over lies” because he watched the video of the Capitol siege and felt he needed to do something.

“I’ve never done anything like this, but wanted to do something for democracy,” he said. “It feels good.”

Across the street, Liz Albayero, 26, was behind the barista counter of the Fix Café, topping lattes with small, foamy pictures of Kamala Harris that she had found on Instagram. It was her own little way to celebrate. 

“It’s so amazing to see a woman there,” said Albayero, who came to Harrisburg from her native El Salvador as a student five years ago. “I feel a part of it with her.”

Albayero, who watched on the shop’s television as the inauguration played out, said she is studying for her citizenship test and plans to vote in the next presidential race. She said she is a Harris fan – but Biden’s history is an inspiration, too. “He never gave up – no matter what happened in his life,” she said.

When Jennifer Lopez broke out in Spanish, she laughed, and when Garth Brooks sang “Amazing Grace,” she hummed along. 

“This kind of represents the opposite of the last administration,” Albayero said. “I’m a minority and the last administration made me feel like I didn’t matter. It didn’t represent me.”

In Kentucky’s capital, Frankfort, Roger Abner was narrating a different experience. The candidate he had backed, Trump, was jetting to Florida after leaving the White House. And Abner was wondering why there were not more of the 45th president’s fans around to show their support. 

“We feel like we don’t have a voice anywhere else since they closed off social media,” said Abner, a 29-year-old construction worker, as he stood outside a heavily guarded Capitol complex. “We actually expected a lot more people like us to be up here,”

Instead there were a few, including Abner and his childhood friend, Curtis Pavlik, 27. 

Pavlik, a truck driver, wore a green T-shirt with the letters LGBT – which in this context, the shirt made clear, stood for Liberty, Guns, Beer and Trump. He carried a long steel pole with an American flag obscured by a yellow “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden-flag insignia. The response to the Jan. 6 riot – including attempts to shut down far-right social media networks – had, he said, “instilled fear into quite a few people and that’s why you don’t see a big crowd here.”

Both men had voted for Trump each time he ran, but neither approved of the Capitol riot. “There’s nothing to gain there. You have no plan to take over the government. You couldn’t if you wanted to,” Abner said. 

And Pavlik said he will be rooting for Biden’s success. 

“I’m not going to wish for him to fail,” he said. “I want him to do what’s good for the country. Do I think that’s what’s going to happen? Absolutely not. Do I want that to happen? Of course.”

Other Trump supporters appeared less interested in conciliation. 

At Georgia’s Capitol, Rhonda Beach watched on a smartphone as a president she regards as illegitimate was sworn in.

“All of it was compromised. Every bit of it,” said the 50-year-old. “They didn’t even try to hide that they were stealing it.”

As she spoke, hundreds of police and National Guard members stood watch, having shut down streets for several blocks. 

At other capitols, the security presence was barely visible. In Boise, Idaho, normal legislative work went on, undisturbed by any threats to the democratic order. 

Steve Ellefson was determined to keep it that way. 

“I’ve got to ring this bell!” Ellefson, 70, said as he tried to put all of his weight behind a large bell inscribed with the word “liberty.”

Ellefson sat alone near the Idaho Capitol when the clock struck noon, Eastern time. He could not quite push the bell hard enough to make it ring, but he still celebrated for a moment with praise for the Bidens. He also stood ready to serve his country.

“I am here to protect the Capitol from insurrectionists,” he said.

He had watched the Jan. 6 riot with tears in his eyes, and decided he could help protect Idaho’s legislature from a similar fate. With no threats – or even other people – to be seen, the retired bail bondsman concluded Wednesday that he probably would not be needed. But he was ready, he insisted as he thumbed the pages of a book, any time that changed.

“I’ve got a flashlight, an apple, potato and three cans of pop,” he said, “so if I have to fight, I’ll fight.”

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Pfizer-BioNTech shot likely to foil mutant, new study shows

InternationalJan 21. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Naomi Kresge, Janice Kew

Pfizer and BioNTech built the case that their Covid-19 vaccine will protect against the new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in the U.K. with results of another lab trial.

Like previous work out of the University of Texas Medical Branch, the results published on Wednesday showed that antibodies in the blood of people who had been vaccinated were able to neutralize a version of the mutant virus that was created in the lab. The study was published on preprint server BioRxiv prior to peer review.

Unlike the earlier study, which focused on one crucial mutation, the new research tested all 10 mutations located on the virus’s spike protein, which helps it bind to cells in the host.

Antibodies in the blood of 16 volunteers in a previous German trial of the vaccine were just as effective against the lab-created mutant strain as they were against the original virus. The result “makes it very unlikely that the U.K. variant viruses will escape” protection from the vaccine, wrote the research team, led by BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin.

The BioNTech team is nevertheless ready to adapt the vaccine if needed in the future, it said. That could become necessary to protect against other strains amid evidence another variant that emerged in South Africa may be harder to check.

A separate study on that strain raised concern. Scientists found that half of the blood samples from a handful of patients who already had Covid-19 don’t have the antibodies needed to protect against the South African variant, which is spreading around the globe.

The findings, from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, suggest that those individuals may no longer be protected from re-infection. In the other half, antibody levels were reduced and the risk of re-infection couldn’t be determined, according to the institute. The findings weren’t peer-reviewed and were based on a small sample size.

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Jack Ma emerges for first time since Ant, Alibaba crackdown

InternationalJan 21. 2021A livestream of Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group, addressing teachers at an annual event he hosts to recognize rural educators, is recorded from a laptop computer in Hong Kong, on Jan. 20, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Justin Chin.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Lulu Yilun Chen, Coco Liu

Jack Ma resurfaced for the first time since China’s government began clamping down on his business empire nearly three months ago, appearing in a live-streamed video that sent Alibaba Group’s stock soaring but left plenty of unanswered questions about the billionaire’s fate.

Ma spoke briefly on Wednesday during an annual event he hosts to recognize rural teachers. In one video of the event circulated online, China’s most famous entrepreneur can be seen touring a primary school in his hometown of Hangzhou. Ma, who had stayed out of public view since regulators suspended the initial public offering of his fintech company Ant Group, told the teachers he’ll spend more time on philanthropy. He didn’t mention his run-ins with Beijing.

Ant confirmed the authenticity of the video, first posted on an online blog, but declined to comment further.

Speculation about Ma’s whereabouts and his standing with President Xi Jinping’s government had reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, after regulators ordered Ant to overhaul its business and began an antitrust investigation of Alibaba. Beijing’s crackdown followed an October speech by Ma in which he infamously rebuked “pawn shop” Chinese lenders, regulators who don’t get the internet, and the “old men” of the global banking community.

Ma’s comments on Wednesday struck a much different tone, echoing themes espoused by the ruling Communist Party. A former English schoolteacher, he spoke about the importance of reviving China’s countryside and narrowing income disparities by encouraging the return of younger talent to rural areas.

“Recently, my colleagues and I have been studying and thinking. We made a firmer resolution to devote ourselves to education philanthropy,” Ma said during the event. “Working hard for rural revitalization and common prosperity is the responsibility for our generation of businessmen.”

While Ma’s exact whereabouts remain unclear, his emergence in a public forum may help quell some of the more dire rumors about his fate in a country where media coverage is often tightly choreographed. Among the earliest outlets to report on his video address was an online news outlet backed by the Zhejiang provincial government.

Ma had kept out of public view since regulators in November scuttled Ant’s $35 billion IPO, tightened fintech regulations and launched a separate probe into Alibaba — all in a span of weeks.

“Jack Ma’s unexpected re-emergence — just as sudden as his earlier disappearance — is likely a sign that his relationship with Beijing’s regulatory authorities has stabilized,” said Brock Silvers, a managing director at private equity fund Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong.

But Ma probably isn’t out of the woods, Silvers added. “A path acceptable to all parties may have been identified, but Ant Group still looks likely to be dis-aggregated and regulatory restrictions will almost surely take a significant bite out of Ant’s former valuation.”

The clampdown on Ma’s empire is part of a broader campaign to rein in a generation of Chinese tech giants that Beijing views as wielding too much control over the world’s second-largest economy.

The government has increasingly sought to exert influence over the extent to which companies from Tencent Holdings to ByteDance amass data and direct commerce and media. The same month Ant’s IPO was scuttled, the nation’s top antitrust watchdog published new guidelines warning tech giants against monopolistic practices from forced exclusive arrangements to collusion on data. While Ant and Alibaba have borne the brunt of that assault since November, investors have since sold off peers from Tencent to Meituan. Both stocks rallied more than 3% on Wednesday.

While Alibaba’s surge added about $58 billion to the company’s market value, Ma’s standing with Beijing remains unclear. As of early December, the man most closely identified with the meteoric rise of China Inc. was advised by the government to stay in the country, a person familiar with the matter has said. Debate about his whereabouts arose because Beijing has in the past quietly detained billionaires that have run afoul of the law, without immediate trial.

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U.S. homebuilder confidence fell to a four-month low in January

InternationalJan 21. 2021Contractors install floor beams on the foundation of a house under construction in Lehi, Utah, U.S., on Dec. 16, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by George Frey.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Julia Fanzeres

U.S. homebuilder confidence slipped to a four-month low in January as firms became slightly less optimistic about sales against a backdrop of higher house prices and construction costs.

A gauge of builder sentiment fell to 83 from December’s reading of 86, National Association of Home Builders data showed Wednesday. The figure was weaker than the median forecast of 86 in Bloomberg’s survey of economists.

The second-straight decline in confidence shows the extent to which higher building materials costs, particularly lumber, and rising home prices tied to lean inventory are slowing momentum. Builders continue to face pandemic-related supply-chain challenges at the same time elevated asking prices hinder affordability, with many homes priced above what prospective buyers are willing to pay.

“While housing continues to help lead the economy forward, limited inventory is constraining more robust growth,” Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist, said in a statement. “A shortage of buildable lots is making it difficult to meet strong demand and rising material prices are far outpacing increases in home prices, which in turn is harming housing affordability.”

A gauge of current sales fell to a three-month low, while measures of sales expectations in the next six months and prospective homebuyer traffic both declined to the lowest since August.

Confidence measures decreased across all four regions across the U.S.

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In Japan, pandemic deals fatal blow to arcades

InternationalJan 21. 2021The last few customers are seen on Saturday in Game Spot 21 in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The arcade had been outfitted with plastic sheets as a preventive measure against the coronavirus. MUST CREDIT: Japan News-Yomiuri

By The Japan News-Yomiuri · Tomoki Masuda

Game arcades in Tokyo have been falling like dominoes amid the coronavirus pandemic, left no choice but to close after what for some have been decades in operation.

Despite growing demand for videogames now that the world has moved indoors, social distancing measures have caused foot traffic to plummet at brick-and-mortar “game centers,” commonly located in the city’s once-bustling downtown entertainment districts.

Arcade operators have been requested to shorten their business hours after the second state of emergency was declared for Tokyo and 10 other prefectures. Yet even if they comply with the request, arcades remain ineligible to apply for financial assistance, such as the government subsidies available to restaurants and bars.

Taking stock of the rapid succession of closures, regular customers lamented the loss of their favorite gaming haunts.

For over four decades, Game Spot 21 could be found a short walk from the west exit of JR Shinjuku Station. Nestled among a hodgepodge of multitenant buildings jostling for space along a cramped side street, the arcade was always announced by the frenzied chirping of claw crane games that lined its entrance.

But in recent months, a profusion of plastic partitions had joined the nearly 50 mahjong and fighter game machines in the dimly lit interior as a sign of the times.

On Saturday afternoon, a dozen regular customers who were undeterred by the pandemic peered intently at their monitors. The well-known arcade beloved by generations of gamers was to close at midnight on Wednesday.

“Given the circumstances, we had no other choice,” said Naoki Ichiki, 42, the arcade’s manager and longtime employee of nearly 20 years.

In the 1990s, Game Spot 21 would have been packed with enthusiasts trying their hand at Sega’s popular “Virtua Fighter” title. During the arcade’s heyday, it had around 100 machines, and drew over 500 patrons daily.

Hit hard by the pandemic, attendance dropped to 10%. As sales also fell by 70%, the operator decided it was finally time to pull the plug for good.

“After the first state of emergency was declared, we closed the arcade for about two months as a temporary step. But our customers never came back,” Ichiki said. He added that the extra scrutiny placed on Shinjuku during the pandemic as a “nightlife district” likely also had an adverse impact on business.

Yasuhiro Tsuji, 55, who runs a real estate company in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, said he had been a frequent customer of the arcade from his teenage years, and expressed his disappointment about the closure.

“I’ve been coming here ever since the Space Invaders days and always felt a zing of excitement on each visit. This arcade was somewhere I could relieve stress and reset whenever I needed a breather. It’s a shock to see this place go.”

Takashi Noguchi, a self-employed 43-year-old from Shinjuku Ward, was similarly a regular presence for over 20 years. “I enjoyed chatting with the other regulars here between games. This place was like a candy store for adults,” he said.

Ineligible for financial support

Game arcades have felt a pinch in recent years, threatened by the unabated march of home video consoles, online gaming and smartphones. According to the Japan Amusement Industry Association, there were 21,688 game arcades nationwide in fiscal 2008. That number was nearly halved to 12,167 in fiscal 2018.

The coronavirus has only exacerbated the ailing industry’s woes. Since last spring, a sizable chunk of the population has elected to stay at home, drastically reducing foot traffic.

Now that a new state of emergency was declared this month, certain businesses including game arcades and pachinko parlors have been asked to shorten their hours and close by 8 p.m., although they do not qualify for the up to ¥60,000 a day in “cooperation funds” promised to restaurants and other establishments.

Across town, a void opened in front of Akihabara Station last year with the successive closures of the Sega Akihabara 2nd store in August and the Adores Akihabara outlet in November. Later that month, Shinjuku Playland Carnival closed in the Kabukicho district, marking the end of nearly half a century of business.

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Japan aims to vaccinate most of country before Olympics, report says

InternationalJan 21. 2021A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past an advertisement for the now-postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo on Jan. 14, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Toru Hanai.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Gearoid Reidy

Japan aims to vaccinate the majority of its population against covid-19 by July, according to a report, meaning most of its more than 125 million residents could be inoculated by the time the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin.

The country plans to complete vaccination of 50 million people in high-priority tiers, including the elderly and health-care workers, by April, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, citing multiple unidentified people. Japan then plans to begin inoculation of the general public as early as May, depending on the availability of doses, the report said.

The Health Ministry could not confirm the report when contacted by Bloomberg News. Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, the government’s top spokesman, said Wednesday that the government couldn’t announce a schedule before the country had approved a vaccine.

Taro Kono, who was appointed by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday as minister in charge of the vaccine rollout, took to Twitter to pour cold water on the reports.

“The newspapers are all citing ‘government officials’ but they’re completely unfounded, and just guessing,” he wrote. “You’re better off not trusting them.”

Still, the Yomiuri report is an early indication of how Japan, which is facing its biggest wave of infections, may roll out vaccines to the general population. Suga has said he aims to begin the country’s vaccination program in late February starting with frontline medical workers.

The government has emphasized that vaccination is not a prerequisite for holding the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to start in July following a year’s delay. Surging cases in Japan and elsewhere and new strains of the virus have cast doubt on the country’s ability to hold the games as planned.

The rollout laid out in the Yomiuri report would represent a hugely ambitious plan. Completing vaccination of the 50 million in the high priority tiers, including the elderly, medical workers and those with underlying conditions, would require more than 800,000 doses to be administered each day.

Such a plan would keep pace with an aggressive program in China, which in December set out to inoculate 50 million people against the virus in about a two-month span ahead of the annual Lunar New Year holiday. Other countries have also set goals to reach herd immunity, which occurs when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease.

South Korea’s president said this week the country may reach herd immunity by November at the latest. In the U.S., Anthony Fauci has said that level will likely happen during the summer, with a return to normality by the end of the year.

Japan, which has plans to provide vaccines free of charge, is working to approve Pfizer Inc.’s shot in the middle of February, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said last week. Vaccines will not be given to the more than 18 million children under 16 until more trial data on that age group is available, according to the Yomiuri.

Japan has sealed a contract for about 144 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this year, and will request the company to provide much of that supply by June, Tamura told reporters in Tokyo late Wednesday. Pfizer is the only company so far to have applied for emergency approval for its vaccine in Japan, but the country also has contracts with Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc.

Japan’s plan faces many potential obstacles, among them a public cautious about receiving a vaccine so soon. An NNN/Yomiuri poll in December found that while most wanted to get the vaccine eventually, only 15% wanted to take it “soon,” with a further 15% responding they didn’t want it at all.