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America’s image has tumbled during Trump’s presidency. Can Biden turn it around? (nationthailand.com)

America’s image has tumbled during Trump’s presidency. Can Biden turn it around?

InternationalDec 20. 2020President-elect Joe Biden 

By The Washington Post · Dan Balz · NATIONAL, POLITICS, CONGRESS
Analysis/WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden has a daunting to-do list as he prepares to take the oath of office next month, much of it focused domestically. But there was a reminder this past week that among the problems dumped in his lap by President Donald Trump is a world that questions whether the United States is willing and prepared to lead abroad.

A tarnishing of America’s international image has been a constant almost from the day Trump was sworn in four years ago. But 2020 could be the worst yet in terms of how people in other countries perceive the United States as a leader in the world.

The Gallup organization conducts annual surveys assessing how others assess U.S. leadership. In 20 of 29 countries where Gallup has completed these surveys, approval ratings “are at new lows or they tie the previous low,” according to the report released last week. Among the countries where approval hit new lows are two of the nation’s staunchest allies, Germany and Britain.

Four years ago, before Trump became president, 43% of Germans had a positive impression of the United States as a leader in the world. Today just 6% approve. In the United Kingdom, 15% say they approve. More Russians – 18% – approve of American leadership internationally than Brits or Germans.

Gallup’s findings square with a Pew Research Center report of a few months ago. Pew’s regular survey asks whether people elsewhere have a favorable or unfavorable view of the United States. Among the nations where favorable impressions hit record lows or roughly tied them this year were a who’s who of traditional friends: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Trump’s departure and Biden’s arrival will likely begin to boost the nation’s image. The former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has promised to reengage constructively with other nations, as has his designee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken. That will begin with allies in Europe, who have been treated badly by the current president.

Biden knows the world from his travels as a senator and vice president, but he was described by one former diplomat as someone whose first orientation on foreign policy is through Europe. “When he thinks foreign policy, he thinks allies, and when he thinks allies, he thinks Europe,” said Ivo Daalder, former ambassador to NATO and now president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. 

Trump has spurned or hectored allies in Europe and questioned the value of transatlantic alliances. Biden will embrace them all.

Showing up and saying the right words will be helpful in changing perceptions of the United States, but that might be only a first step in what could be a more challenging mission.

Biden will look to European allies for help in dealing with some of the most important foreign policy issues that await him, from U.S. posture toward Russia to Biden’s desire to mend relations with Iran after Trump pulled out of the joint nuclear agreement.

China presents perhaps the biggest challenge, given its gains in power and reach over the past four years. Trump departed from the posture of previous administrations, adopting a more aggressive approach in dealing with the Asian giant. Even critics of the presidents concede there can be no return to the past.

“There is a growing consensus across parties that China poses a series of new challenges and that the status quo was not really sustainable,” Blinken said last summer during an event sponsored by the Hudson Institute. He also said that, because of Trump’s approach, “China is in a strong position and we’re in a weaker position.” The solution, he added, will be “to rally our allies and partners, instead of alienating them.”

Biden said the same in a post-election interview with New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. “The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our – or at least what used to be our – allies on the same page,” he said. “It’s going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of presidency to get us back on the same page with our allies.”

Rhetorically that might seem easy; practically it will take time. Biden’s challenge will involve striking a balance between competition and sometimes confrontation with China over economic and defense issues and cooperation on things like pandemics and climate.

“My view of it is that the Biden administration will invest in strengthening the transatlantic relationship as a means to being able to have a thoughtful, tough, but pragmatic line towards China,” said Robin Niblett, director and chief executive of Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “I think they will take the time to try to get Europe on board before they try anything tougher with China.”

Biden has long experience with European allies, but he will be dealing with a changing and sometimes disunited continent. Hungary and Poland have moved in anti-democratic directions. Turkey is an ally and member of NATO, but the source of disagreements. Britain appears on the brink of exiting the European Union as a result of the Brexit vote in the summer of 2016. 

Biden has said he knows world leaders, and he does, but leadership has changed since he was vice president and will continue to do so. He does not have a particularly strong relationship with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and in any case the so-called special relationship between the two nations will take on a different hue with Britain no longer a bridge to the E.U. for the United States.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the strongest leader in Europe, will step down later this year and there is no clear successor on the horizon. French President Emmanuel Macron was elected to his position after Biden left the vice presidency. Although he will offer a more welcoming approach than the Trump era, Biden will not be able to pick up where he left off as vice president.

From abroad, the United States is seen as a nation that is badly divided and looking inward, a country undergoing a necessary but painful reckoning on race, preoccupied with its own problems and therefore less prepared to embrace the role played for decades during the Cold War and the post-Cold War period. America also has been judged harshly for the way the Trump administration handled the coronavirus pandemic. 

Biden’s willingness to reengage internationally will be an essential step in restoring U.S. leadership and in the process will rebuild America’s tattered image. But what he accomplishes domestically, his record in dealing with the pandemic and the economy and so much else, could be equally important in shaping perceptions around the world of how America sees itself in the post-Trump era.

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Henry Haller, longest-serving White House executive chef, dies at 97 (nationthailand.com)

Henry Haller, longest-serving White House executive chef, dies at 97

InternationalDec 19. 2020Henry Haller is pictured in 1976 with cook and TV personality Julia Child. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by James A. Parcell Photo by: James A. Parcell — The Washington Post 

By Special to The Washington Post · Olesia Plokhii 

Henry Haller, the longest-serving White House executive chef in the history of the residence, who planned and executed countless extravagant banquets, three wedding receptions and more than 250 state dinners for five presidents, died Nov. 7 at his home in Gaithersburg, Md. He was 97.

His wife, Carole Haller, confirmed the death and said there was no specific cause.

Haller was a Swiss-born French chef who joined the White House in 1966 after impressing President Lyndon B. Johnson years earlier with his cooking at New York City’s Sheraton-East Hotel. He remained at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. late into the Reagan administration, mastering the tastes of five first families over a span of 21 years and pulling off impressive culinary feats on short notice.

A consummate professional who was never known to gossip about what he saw or heard at the White House, Haller catered to the tastes of the first families, whether asked to prepare deluxe continental cuisine or simple homestyle American meals.

“It’s quite simple, really,” he told the Albany Times Union in 2002. “You keep your mouth shut. There are no prima donnas at the White House except the president of the United States. . . . Some chefs like to tell the guests what to eat. It’s not like that at the White House. They tell you what they want to eat and you do it.”

For Johnson, that was Texan food and tapioca pudding. For the family of Richard M. Nixon, it was classic French dishes, red snapper and broiled lamb chops. Haller said the Fords enjoyed roast beef cooked with whole onions as well as red cabbage with pork chops; Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter liked fried chicken, ham, okra and string beans; and Ronald and Nancy Reagan valued variety and beautiful presentation.

Trained in classical French cuisine in Switzerland, Haller came to the White House after René Verdon – the French-born chef brought in by the Kennedys in 1961 – quit as executive chef in 1965 in a dispute with Johnson over the president’s food preferences and the sudden arrival of frozen and canned vegetables in the White House pantry.

Deciding on menus often required consultation with the first ladies. The biggest challenge for Haller came from Nancy Reagan, whom he described as the most involved and particular first lady he worked with. She insisted that Haller and his staff cook the planned meal before important functions, and she would suggest changes to the taste and appearance of the foods.

“We take pictures with a Polaroid so the staff knows how they are to be done,” Haller told the New York Times in 1987. “With the Reagans you have to be more creative.”

Haller also admitted to two occasions on which he was reprimanded. The first was when he told the news media that Nixon liked to mix his own martinis before dinner; the second was when he failed to remove the strings from the green beans he served Johnson. That night, after dinner was served, the butler told Haller the president wanted to see him.

“I went in, and he had some strings from the beans in his hand,” Haller told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He handed them to me and said, ‘I saved these for you.’ “

The rest of his employment, however, was marked by one culinary coup after another. In 1973, he produced a dinner for 1,300 people honoring returned Vietnam prisoners of war. The event was held under a giant tent, with a menu that included supreme of seafood Neptune – an elaborate seafood salad – roast sirloin and strawberry mousse. Because the White House didn’t have enough ovens and stoves, much of the cooking took place at the nearby Mayflower Hotel.

Another success came during the bicentennial in 1976, when Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II visited the White House of Gerald R. Ford. Haller served – just as a first course for 250 people – 25 four-pound lobsters in a 50-gallon steamer. During that year, Haller was responsible for preparing several formal dinners each week and often worked 18-hour days. In 1978, for a celebratory dinner after the signing of the Camp David Accords, Haller had just one week to pull off an event for 1,300 guests of the Carters.

Henry Haller is pictured with Julia Child in 1976. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by James A. Parcell

Photo by: James A. Parcell — The Washington Post

There were also times when demands on the White House kitchen were minimal. When King Faisal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia visited, for example, he brought his own food in briefcases. “I think he had cottage cheese that night,” Haller said.

One of the chef’s greatest triumphs was a lobster mousse made from his own mold – thanks to a sheet-metal worker on staff – for French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in 1986.

“I put the lobster mousse on a big china platter and glazed the mousse with aspic,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1988. “On one side I placed 12 medallions of lobster decorated with truffles. On the other, I made a floral design with carrots, truffles, leeks and cherry tomatoes. It looks like a bouquet. On the outside edge, I had half quail eggs covered with caviar and standing in little cucumber cups. Sounds good, no?”

Born Henri Haller in Altdorf, Switzerland, on Jan. 10, 1923, he was the son of a French mother and a Swiss father who worked in a factory. He helped his mother cook and tend to her vegetable garden, and developed a flair for cooking. When he was 14, his father planted the idea of making his passion a career.

“Why don’t you be a chef,” Haller recalled his father saying. “You can travel all over the world. And you will never have to worry about a job. People everywhere have to eat.”

At 16, he did a culinary apprenticeship at the Park Hotel in Davos, Switzerland, where he learned the art of the mashed potato and studied French, German and Italian cooking.

Over the next decade, he worked at top hotels and restaurants in Bern and Lucerne, Switzerland, and practiced his English. When he was 25, he moved to Montreal to work for the Ritz-Carlton and then arrived in New York City in 1951.

He spent several years at a country club and then at Hampshire House near Central Park. In 1962, he left for the top chef position at the Sheraton-East Hotel, where his food impressed Johnson.

After leaving the White House in 1987, Haller published “The White House Family Cookbook,” filled with dozens of recipes. He later created menus for Norwegian Cruise Lines and an assisted living company, partnered with a supermarket to create a line of gourmet foods and was featured in 1996 in a PBS cooking series called “The Presidential Palate.”

In 1954, he married Carole Itjen. In addition to his wife, of Gaithersburg, survivors include four children, Robert Haller of Palm Harbor, Fla., Richard Haller of Highland, Calif., Susan Capps of Gastonia, N.C., and Nancy Bender of Holly Springs, N.C.; and five grandchildren.

One of Haller’s most vividly remembered days at the White House was when Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. That morning, Haller said, the president walked into the kitchen barefoot and wearing pajamas and asked for corned beef hash and a poached egg. Nixon then shook Haller’s hand and said, “Chef, I have dined all over the world, but your food is the best.”

Despite bearing witness to an intimate side of American history, Haller said there was very little talk of politics in his kitchen. He said his job was to provide a sense of normalcy amid the tumult of presidential life.

“You’re an escape from all of that in some ways,” he told the Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project in 2010. “I mean, you provide a normal environment. A normal environment to the last day. That was our job.”

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Biden gets vaccine Monday, rethinks West Wing setup (nationthailand.com)

Biden gets vaccine Monday, rethinks West Wing setup

InternationalDec 19. 2020President-elect Joe Biden speaks at a “Get Ready to Vote” rally with Georgia Democratic Senate nominees Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Dec. 15 in Atlanta. His audience was seated in cars. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Joshua Lott Photo by: Joshua Lott — The Washington Post Location: Atlanta, United States 

By The Washington Post · Annie Linskey

President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, plan to begin their course of coronavirus vaccinations Monday, after the recent infection of two people in his orbit, including a senior adviser, brought the pandemic closer than before to the former vice president and senior members of his team.

The Biden team also is rethinking how to organize the president-elect’s West Wing staff, which will take office amid what is expected to be a bleak and dangerous winter because of the pandemic. The new administration does not plan to have its full staff work out of the typically cramped White House offices immediately after taking office Jan. 20 because of medical concerns, officials said Friday.

The outgoing Trump administration, which has demonstrated far less adherence to its own medical team’s coronavirus guidance than Biden’s team, has suffered through several outbreaks of the virus, with victims including President Donald Trump, his wife and son, and many senior officials and Cabinet members.

The announcement of the Bidens’ pending inoculation and curbs on attendance at the White House after his inauguration illustrate the extraordinary difficulty that the pandemic has added to planning for a transfer of power and launching a new government, layering significantly more complication and risk to an already fraught process.

During the transition, many of Biden’s meetings have been conducted virtually, with only a few staff members, stationed in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., who regularly see the president-elect in person.

That followed the pattern set in the campaign, during which Biden spent long stretches hunkered down in his Wilmington home to protect against catching the virus as it rampaged across the country. Trump, who was diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in October, regularly mocked Biden for his preventive behavior and, when he emerged, for routinely wearing a mask. Neither the president nor his senior aides regularly wear masks or demonstrate social distancing practices.

In deciding when to receive the two-shot regimen required for the coronavirus vaccine, Biden has had to weigh his own health risks against the politically tricky image of skipping ahead of some health-care workers to receive an inoculation.

Biden, who at 78 will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, is in a high-risk category because of his age. His incoming medical adviser, Anthony Fauci ,had recommended that he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receive vaccinations, along with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Pence and his wife, Karen, received their shots Friday in a televised event.

Biden has set a goal of distributing 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office. He also wants Americans to wear masks during this period as a way to reduce community spread of the virus.

Biden’s brief trip to Georgia on Tuesday – the only time he has boarded an airplane since winning the election – clearly illustrated the risks he’s facing in delaying the shots: Within days of the stop at least two people involved in the visit tested positive for the coronavirus.

One was an unnamed reporter who covered the trip but did not fly on the same plane as Biden, nor come into close contact with the president-elect. Biden did, however, approach the traveling press corps before taking off from Wilmington for Atlanta. Biden and the reporters wore masks as they spoke.

The second was Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who will become a senior adviser to Biden in the White House. Biden’s transition team, in a statement released Thursday, said the president-elect was never in “close contact” with Richmond as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Given the circumstances, Biden did not plan to self-quarantine.

Richmond’s office referred questions to the Biden transition team. Biden’s team declined to provide any additional details Friday about their contact, its duration or whether it occurred indoors or outside.

Biden traveled to Georgia to campaign for two U.S. Senate candidates vying against Republican incumbents in Jan. 5 runoff elections. The outcome of the race will determine control of the Senate, in which Republicans currently hold a 50-to-48 advantage. Two Democratic wins would flip control, as Harris would become the tiebreaker once she is sworn into office.

Biden spoke briefly at an outdoor car rally in Atlanta and did not appear on that stage with Richmond. Richmond traveled to the event separately from Biden.

“We have covid protocols in place that everybody abides by who has any contact or attends any events with the president-elect,” Jen Psaki, a Biden-Harris transition spokeswoman, said during a Friday news briefing.

Biden regularly takes coronavirus tests. His latest results, from a test taken Thursday, were negative.

Psaki said that Richmond’s status did not change the timing of Biden’s vaccination.

But the plans had appeared to have been in flux. CNN reported Wednesday that Biden would receive his vaccination early next week, although Biden’s team told The Washington Post only that it would be “as soon as next week” and would not commit to a specific timeline.

Psaki declined to immediately say when Richmond last had a negative coronavirus test. Richmond’s office also did not respond to multiple requests to explain when he last tested negative.

The reporter who tested positive covered Biden on Monday and Tuesday. Reporters who cover Biden at specific events must show they have tested negative at a transition testing site before they are permitted near him. They also are required to wear masks.

Biden also wears masks to his events, and sometimes has given entire speeches wearing one. But he occasionally pulls his mask down when people have difficulty understanding him. After stepping off the outdoor stage in Atlanta on Tuesday, Biden briefly pulled down his mask to yell something to a supporter and then put it back in place.

Biden’s vaccination will be done in public in Delaware, but his aides declined to provide details about exactly when or where the shots would be given. Biden and his wife will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Psaki said.

Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will start their course of vaccinations after Christmas, Psaki said. Biden and Harris have separate medical teams and Psaki said the quartet was spacing out the inoculations based on advice from their doctors.

Pence and his wife also received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It was administered by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center staff in a room in the White House complex Friday.

The pandemic has cast a pall over one of the typical moves for any incoming administration: jockeying for valuable West Wing real estate. In the past two administrations, the crowded conditions have led aides at times to share desks.

“We expect that everybody who would traditionally be – and historically be – working out of the West Wing, probably will not be working out of the West Wing on January 20th and January 21st,” Psaki said.

The new administration will “abide by the guidance and direction by our medical experts and doctors” in determining who will be in the building and when, she said.

Biden plans to announce his selection for additional administration posts next week, but Psaki declined to say whether all of the Cabinet slots will be announced by Christmas, which the Biden team had hoped to do.

“It’s all based on when decision-making is made and we want to give him the time and space to do that,” Psaki said. She said that Biden’s team does expect to name the first 100 appointments by the new year.

So far Biden has named 19 members of his Cabinet, but some big slots remain open, including who will lead the departments of Justice, Labor and Education and who will lead the CIA.

On Saturday, he is due to publicly announce members of his climate and energy teams, including his nominee for interior secretary, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., who if confirmed by the Senate would be the first Native American to serve in the Cabinet.

In addition to Haaland, Biden will introduce North Carolina environmental regulator Michael Regan, who would be the first Black man to head the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Obama administration veteran Brenda Mallory to serve as the first Black chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm will be named by Biden as his nominee for energy secretary.

– – –

The Washington Post’s Matt Viser contributed to this report.

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U.S. bans technology exports to Chinese semiconductor and drone companies, calling them security threats (nationthailand.com)

U.S. bans technology exports to Chinese semiconductor and drone companies, calling them security threats

InternationalDec 19. 2020

By The Washington Post · Jeanne Whalen

The Trump administration has added prominent Chinese semiconductor and drone manufacturers to an export blacklist, continuing to exert pressure on the country in the final weeks of the Trump presidency.

The Commerce Department said it has placed Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., or SMIC, drone maker DJI; and dozens of other Chinese companies and universities on the Entity List, which bans the export of U.S. technology to the entities unless the exporter receives a government license.

The sanction follows “evidence of activities between SMIC and entities of concern in the Chinese military industrial complex,” Commerce said in a statement.

“We will not allow advanced U.S. technology to help build the military of an increasingly belligerent adversary,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said about SMIC in a statement. “Between SMIC’s relationships of concern with the military industrial complex, China’s aggressive application of military civil fusion mandates and state-directed subsidies, SMIC perfectly illustrates the risks of China’s leverage of U.S. technology to support its military modernization.”

The Commerce Department said it was adding DJI for enabling high-tech surveillance in China, which the agency called a human-rights abuse.

The additions also include several construction companies, including China Communications Construction Company, for helping China militarize and claim disputed territory in the South China Sea.

Commerce also added to the list several universities, in Beijing, Nanjing and Tianjin, for actions including trade-secret theft or “acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of programs for the People’s Liberation Army.”

The sanction shows that cutting trade ties with China remains a top priority for the Trump administration’s many China hawks, who view the country’s growing tech and military might with increasing alarm. Similar concerns have also taken root in Congress, among both Republicans and Democrats, and could continue during a Biden administration.

The Entity List has become a favorite Trump administration tool to punish China and now includes more than 300 Chinese entities.

The Commerce Department, which maintains the list, has previously used it against Chinese telecom company Huawei and against Chinese entities engaged in alleged human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

Officials at SMIC and DJI, and at China’s embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment. SMIC has previously denied supporting China’s military.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much U.S. technology DJI uses to make its drones. The Shenzhen-based company is among the world’s biggest drone manufacturers.

The Trump administration already began restricting exports to SMIC in September by notifying some U.S. companies that they would need a license to export to the chip maker. Inclusion on the Entity List is a broader sanction.

Founded in 2000 in Shanghai, SMIC ranks among the top five semiconductor manufacturers in the world, according to a report from the United States International Trade Commission, or USITC.

Industry experts say that SMIC’s technology lags behind that of chip manufacturers in Taiwan and the United States but that Beijing is pouring billions into the industry to help SMIC and other Chinese companies catch up.

SMIC has enjoyed generous government financial support, including low-interest loans, tax breaks and investments to help build manufacturing facilities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris said in a report last year.

Commerce said that the export ban will apply to technology needed to produce advanced semiconductors with silicon transistors sized at 10 nanometers or less. There are one billion nanometers in a meter.

Chip-industry experts say SMIC and other Chinese companies are not yet able to make such advanced semiconductors, and would for now need software and equipment from the U.S. and other Western countries to reach that capability.

SMIC started as a private company, but state ownership has steadily grown over time, to more than 45 percent of SMIC stock as of 2018, according to the OECD report.

SMIC’s shares used to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, but the company removed its stock from the NYSE last year. The shares now trade on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges.

SMIC’s stock, held by some Western investors, fell 5% in Hong Kong trading on Friday.

The additions to the list also include some lesser known Chinese companies, such as NucTech, which makes luggage- and cargo-screening equipment. The Trump administration said it had determined that “NucTech’s lower performing equipment impair U.S. efforts to counter illicit international trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials.”

The administration also added several Russian entities, including OOO Sovtest Comp and Cosmos Complect, to the list, saying they appear to have used a front company to acquire “sensitive electronic components” for use in Russia, without obtaining required licenses.

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Europe is paying less than U.S. for many coronavirus vaccines (nationthailand.com)

Europe is paying less than U.S. for many coronavirus vaccines

InternationalDec 19. 2020

By The Washington Post · Michael Birnbaum, Christopher Rowland, Quentin Ariès

The European Union is paying less money than the United States for a range of coronavirus vaccines, including the Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation being rolled out across the country, according to a Washington Post comparison of the breakdowns.

The costs to the EU had been confidential until a Belgian official tweeted – and then deleted – a list late Thursday.

Comparing that list with U.S. calculations by Bernstein Research, an analysis and investment firm, it appears that the 27-nation union has a 24% discount on the Pfizer vaccine, paying $14.76 per dose relative to $19.50 in the United States. Some of the difference may reflect that the EU subsidized that vaccine’s development and the cost of shipping the European-made shots across the Atlantic.

According to the Belgian document, the bloc will pay 45 percent less than the United States for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine currently under development. But it will pay 20 percent more than the United States for the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be approved for U.S. use on Friday. Both of those vaccines were funded partly by the U.S. government as part of Operation Warp Speed, an effort to expedite their development. The AstraZeneca-Oxford team received $1.2 billion, and Moderna got $4.1 billion.

As in the United States, European countries generally plan to make the vaccines free for their citizens.

The per-dose prices of the vaccines are lower than most brand-name drugs, but the hundreds of millions of doses required to vaccinate entire populations will drive up costs significantly for individual countries. Disparities between the higher prices in the United States and Europe in overall drug prices have long driven outrage in Congress.

Asked about the price differences between the United States and Europe, Pfizer noted that the EU coronavirus vaccine purchase, 200 million doses, was double that of the United States.

“Pfizer and BioNTech are using a tiered pricing formula based on volume and delivery dates,” Pfizer said in a statement. “The agreement with the European Commission for the supply of 200m doses, and an option to request an additional 100m, represents the largest initial order of our candidate vaccine to date.”

It said it would not disclose further details.

“AstraZeneca is providing the vaccine at no profit during the pandemic and the price per dose varies depending on the supply chain. We are unable to comment on specific agreements,” the company said in a statement. The company has previously said it expected its vaccine to cost between $3 and $5 a dose, based on the cost of production. It was not clear why the Belgian figure was so much lower.

The U.S. Pfizer order has already been the subject of frustration, since Pfizer urged Operation Warp Speed over the summer to purchase double what the United States ultimately decided to order. By the time U.S. buyers asked for more doses earlier this month, the availability had been snapped up elsewhere – including by Europe.

Operation Warp Speed said that it had negotiated extensively with each drug manufacturer.

“Based on the significantly varying levels of developmental funding, distribution costs, and other contract terms, we are confident we negotiated the best possible price for the American taxpayer,”‘ the initiative said in a statement. It noted that the price of Pfizer’s vaccine included distribution across the United States and territories, including charter flights from manufacturing flights in Europe.

Most vaccines currently under development require two doses, although Johnson & Johnson’s – $10 in the United States and $8.50 in Europe – is a single shot.

The two vaccines that are first in line for approval – Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – are more expensive than others partly because they are more expensive to make, the result of a never-before-used approach that primes the immune system to defeat the coronavirus.

The EU’s finance arm offered a $122 million loan to BioNTech in June to help develop the vaccine, followed by an additional $458 million from the German government in September.

The other vaccine prices noted on the EU list were $9.30 for the one under development by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, an 11 percent discount on the U.S. cost, and $12.30 for the one under development by CureVac, for which the United States has not signed contracts.

The EU has been secretive about the prices it negotiated for its 2 billion doses of various vaccines, drawing fire from transparency advocates who say the public and policymakers have a right to know how much their governments are paying for the inoculations.

The EU negotiated as a bloc, but most other countries, including the United States, are negotiating individual contracts with pharmaceutical companies. The confidentiality clauses presumably benefit the manufacturers, since they make it easier to vary the prices from country to country.

A spokesman for the European Commission, which negotiated the contracts for the vaccines on behalf of EU members, declined to comment about the pricing on Friday, other than to say disclosure was a breach of confidentiality clauses of the contracts.

The Belgian official, State Secretary for Budget Eva De Bleeker, posted the table of Belgium’s costs for vaccines on Twitter on Thursday, then deleted it shortly afterward. Because the EU has negotiated collectively for vaccines on behalf of its members, the same prices apply across all of its 27 nations.

A spokesman for De Bleeker confirmed the authenticity of the tweet, and said that it came after a Thursday evening discussion in the Belgian Parliament and opposition charges that there was no money to pay for the vaccines in the country’s 2021 budget.

“The communication team posted the tweet to close the discussion,” said Bavo De Mol, the spokesman. “We wanted to be as transparent as possible, but maybe we were a bit too transparent.”

The breach was first reported by HLN, a Belgian newspaper. Late Friday, Belgian media noted there was at least one error in the document – the number of doses of CureVac that the country planned to purchase was incorrect – but said that the prices per dose appeared to be accurate.

Drug pricing is linked to a number of factors, including volume discounts and other specific promises made by governments when they sign the contracts. Some governments have agreed to limit the liability drug manufacturers will face if side effects arise from the vaccines, for instance. In February, the Trump administration offered vaccine manufacturers protection from lawsuits until 2024.

Europe has spread its bets relatively evenly among six vaccines, reserving 200 million to 300 million doses of all of them except the one produced by Moderna, of which it purchased 80 million. A few countries, including Germany and Hungary, have purchased additional vaccines on the side.

The European Medicines Agency is likely to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday, with the vaccine expected to roll out across the EU the final week of this month.

The EU vaccines will be shared equally across the European Union based on each country’s population size.

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WHO-linked plan to start global vaccine rollout in first half of 2021 (nationthailand.com)

WHO-linked plan to start global vaccine rollout in first half of 2021

InternationalDec 19. 2020

By The Washington Post · Emily Rauhala

A multilateral effort to develop and distribute vaccines has secured almost 2 billion doses, potentially allowing some vulnerable groups in participating countries to get vaccinated in the first half of next year, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The announcement came in an end-of-year update on the Covax Facility, a plan to ensure that low- and middle-income countries are not cut out of a vaccine race that has seen rich countries snap up the majority of early doses, leaving the rest of the world to wait.

At a news conference on Friday, officials from the WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, touted progress toward reversing that trend, at least a little, announcing deals with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Officials from Canada and France said they were working to develop and fund a mechanism for rich countries to eventually share surplus vaccine doses through Covax, though they did not offer details on when that might start.

“The arrival of vaccines is giving all of us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday. “But we will only truly end the pandemic if we end it everywhere at the same time, which means it’s essential to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries.”

Tedros cast the update as good news for an initiative that has struggled to secure funding and support from big players including the United States, which has declined to participate.

But his upbeat tone belied growing concern that hoarding by rich countries will leave much of the world without an adequate vaccine supply.

In recent weeks, as the United States, Britain and Canada have cheered the rollout of domestic vaccination campaigns, other countries have scrambled to secure doses of as-yet-unproven candidates.

By mid-November, wealthy nations had reserved 51 percent of various vaccine doses even though they are home to only 14 percent of the world’s population, according to a new study published by two Johns Hopkins researchers in the BMJ, a journal published by the British Medical Association.

An earlier study by researchers at Duke University estimated that people in low-income countries could be waiting for a coronavirus vaccine until 2024.

Covax on Friday announced new deals with drug companies, including an advance purchase agreement with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses and a memorandum of understanding for 500 million doses from Johnson & Johnson.

These deals will build on existing agreements with India’s Serum Institute for 200 million doses, plus options for up to 900 million doses more of either the AstraZeneca or Novavax candidates, as well as a statement of intent for 200 million doses from Sanofi/GSK, according to the WHO.

The U.N. health agency said Friday that at least 1.3 billion donor-funded doses will be made available to 92 relatively poor countries by the end of 2021.

But the figures are estimates. The WHO noted that vaccines are still being evaluated. As it waits for results, the agency will “continue developing” its vaccine portfolio, it said.

In the news conference, Canadian and French officials sketched out plans to share surplus doses through Covax, but details are still scarce.

Karina Gould, Canada’s minister for international development, pledged Canadian money and support for a mechanism to donate or exchange doses. The plan is “not about slowing anyone down, but speeding everyone up,” she said.

Pressed on when Canada will start sharing and whether Canada will vaccinate every Canadian before sharing with others, Gould declined to lay out a specific timeline. Canada, she said, is moving “one day at a time.”

Stéphanie Seydoux, France’s minister for global health, said her country will start sharing “as early as possible” and encouraged other wealthy countries to do the same.

All told, more than 190 countries, representing a large share of the world’s population, have signed on to participate in Covax.

It is seen as one of the only ways that low-income countries will be able to source vaccines. But questions about funding and supply persist.

“We still need more doses, and we still need more money,” Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, said Friday. “But we have a clear path to securing what we need to end the acute stage of this pandemic.”

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Up to 7 feet of snow slams Japan, stranding 1,000 motorists (nationthailand.com)

Up to 7 feet of snow slams Japan, stranding 1,000 motorists

InternationalDec 19. 2020Vehicles are stranded on the Kan-Etsu Expressway at 8 a.m. on Friday near the Yamato rest area in Minami-Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture. MUST CREDIT: Japan News-Yomiuri 

By The Washington Post · Matthew Cappucci

While parts of the Northeast U.S. were getting buried by more than three feet (or around a meter) of snow earlier this week, the high terrain of Japan dealt with about twice that much. Extreme snowfall totaling seven feet (or about 2 meters) in spots snarled travel and buried roadways, trapping more than 1,000 motorists on a clogged highway overnight Thursday.

Drivers were encouraged to remain in their vehicles during the debacle, some forced to melt snow as a means of drinking water.

Several all-time snowfall records had been set as of Friday, 7.1 feet (2.2 meters) falling on the city of Fujiwara in three days’ time. Fujiwara is a community in Gunma Prefecture, a mountain region of central Honshu northwest of Tokyo. A number of ski resorts are located nearby, having experienced a significant accumulation of snow.

Nearly 70 inches (178 centimeters) of Fujiwara’s snow accumulated in just 48 hours, breaking the previous record of 57 inches (145 centimeters) set in 2010.

A record 72-hour December snowfall also occurred in nearby Tsunan, where 5.7 feet (1.9 meters) came down. Elsewhere along the spine of the Japanese Alps and Echigo Mountains, a broad 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) of snow fell, establishing a number of records.

At least 1,000 cars were stranded Thursday on the Kan-Etsu Expressway, which connects Tokyo with Nigata. Some vehicles had been stuck as early as Wednesday night. The traffic jam peaked in severity on Thursday night according to CNN Japan, the chain reaction of halted vehicles spanning nearly ten miles.

By then, snow was falling fast and furious, with conditions continuing to deteriorate as heavy bands of snow pivoted in from the northwest. Impressive snowfall rates, likely topping two inches (5 centimeters) per hour, accompanied the most fierce bands.

The episode was caused by “ocean-effect snow,” similar in dynamics to lake-effect precipitation that frequents the shores of the Great Lakes. A frigid air mass blowing from the northwest over much warmer waters, in this case between 55 and 60 degrees (12.8 to 15.6 Celsius), allowed heat and moisture from the Sea of Japan to be transported inland in the form of heavy snow.

Japan’s high terrain helped focus moisture too, concentrating it on the upslope, or windward side of the mountains. That meant snow could fall for days at a time unimpeded, the wintry blast maintained so long as the wind fetch remained from the northwest.

Japan’s climate routinely favors hefty snowfall in the mountains. Arctic wintertime cold fronts from Siberia surge south across northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, arriving in Japan after passing over the adjacent sea. The Sea of Japan is kept mild by the Kuroshio Current, akin to the Gulf Stream; a branch of it, called the Tshushima Current, meanders west of the Japanese island chain.

At least 600 vehicles remained stuck early Friday according to Japanese broadcaster NHK News; they were all freed late Friday local time.

Meanwhile, another 15 to 30 inches (38 to 76 centimeters) of snow could be on the way for hard-hit areas finally beginning to dig out as the ocean effect kicks in once again this weekend. The Japanese Meteorological Agency has issued warnings for heavy snow and avalanche advisories, anticipating an additional “traffic hindrance due to snowfall.”

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Debate over Fed’s powers is a stumbling block in stimulus talks (nationthailand.com)

Debate over Fed’s powers is a stumbling block in stimulus talks

InternationalDec 19. 2020

By The Washington Post · Rachel Siegel

Debate over the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers has ensnared frantic stimulus negotiations around a roughly $900 billion relief bill for the U.S. economy, and could have long-lasting implications for the central bank itself.

The fight centers on the Fed’s extraordinary actions to prevent an economic collapse. Back in March, the Federal Reserve moved quickly to slash interest rates, flood the financial markets and boost bond purchases. While Congress has struggled for months to extend federal aid programs, the Fed has stuck with its slate of emergency lending programs, and had no intention of winding them down before the recovery was complete.

Some Republicans now want to pare back the Fed’s reach as part of a stimulus deal, wary that the Fed may use programs set up through the earlier stimulus effort, the Cares Act, to become something more akin to a lender of “first resort” instead of “last resort,” as Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., put it Thursday. By contrast, Democrats are concerned Republicans are slashing the Fed’s broader authority, which has been a stabilizing force for the economy, just weeks before the Biden administration takes over.

The Fed faced similar existential threats in the years after the 2008 financial crisis and recession, and lawmakers eventually did reshape the central bank’s oversight over the financial system to guard against another downturn. But now, the Fed is embroiled in a new battle over its powers and independence, just as the recovery is backsliding and the pandemic escalates into a wintertime surge. Jobless claims for the unemployed are rising again after trending downward, and retail sales slipped in November, a month that historically kicks off a strong holiday shopping season.

“What the current [Republican] proposal on the table appears to be is something that goes well beyond the Cares Act,” said Bharat Ramamurti, a Democratic member of the Congressional Oversight Commission, which focuses on the recovery efforts of the Fed and Treasury Department. “This proposal isn’t just, ‘let’s go back to the world as it existed the day before the Cares Act.’ It’s actually a significant reduction of the authorities that the Treasury and Fed had before the Cares Act.”

On Friday, Democratic lawmakers firmly rejected Toomey’s proposal, saying that the call to curb Fed powers is thwarting a relief bill, as well as threatening the Fed’s independence. With lawmakers likely to seek unanimous consensus on a stimulus vote, Toomey’s plan for the Fed programs, which on Thursday he called “the most important thing to me,” could hold up negotiations headed into the weekend.

“These authorities should be maintained to allow for the Federal Reserve to act to prevent hardship to families across the country,” Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in a statement. “If ever there is a time to put politics aside and do the right thing, it should be in the middle of a pandemic and corresponding economic crisis.”

Toomey defended his position Friday afternoon and emphasized that the emergency lending programs that received Cares Act money were always intended to close out at the end of the year.

“The language Senate Republicans are advocating for affects a very narrow universe of lending facilities and is emphatically not a broad overhaul of the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority,” Toomey said.

The coronavirus pandemic spurred the Fed into one of its most active years ever. In the pandemic’s early days, the Fed reached far beyond its playbook from the Great Recession in ways that economists say prevented an even deeper recession. As the coronavirus spread beyond China and U.S. stocks plunged into the red, the Fed quickly slashed interest rates to zero in March. A sprawling set of programs to flood the markets and boost bond purchases further helped reinvigorate the financial system. Plus, the Fed also rolled out loan programs to struggling businesses and local governments.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said the slate of emergency lending programs propped up in the spring were not meant to be permanent.

“When the time comes, after the crisis has passed, we will put these emergency tools back in the box,” Powell said at a news conference Wednesday.

The Fed’s lending programs for businesses and local governments have not been blemish-free. Considering how much money was set aside, the Main Street lending program and municipal lending programs haven’t been well utilized, with critics saying the loans carry onerous requirements. Some Republicans have also bristled at Powell’s repeated calls on Congress to pass a stimulus bill that can fill the economy’s remaining gaps, although Powell stops short of making specific suggestions for what should go into legislation.

The Fed’s vast response has attracted some criticism. Some Republicans argue the Fed is venturing beyond its mandate, which strives for maximum employment and stable prices. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Toomey said the Fed shouldn’t be engaging “in fiscal policy, social policy or allocating credit,” and instead should leave those decisions to elected leaders on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, Democrats have pushed the Fed in the opposite direction. Many wanted to widen the Fed’s lending programs so they could help more businesses and local governments on the brink. Liberal policymakers also want the Fed to put more focus on racial inequality and climate issues, arguing they pose risks to economic growth.

The Fed is one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, and much of its reputation rests on its independence from the White House. The chair cannot be fired by the president over policy differences – a question which came up when Powell was on the receiving end of President Donald Trump’s routine attacks. Fed governors are unelected officials, subject to Senate confirmation, and can fill terms of up to 14 years.

But a highly-partisan climate in Washington, mixed with the Fed’s large footprint, have made for a fraught combination.

Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at Stifel Financial Corp, said there’s “always this give and take about Fed independence,” with the facilities emerging as the latest flash point.

“I think there are a lot of Republicans saying, ‘wait a second, what’s going on here?'” Gardner said. “This is a way to send a message to the Fed about who’s in charge.”

Tensions over the Fed’s lending programs ramped up last month when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the programs would wind down at the end of 2020 and requested that the Fed return hundreds of billions of dollars that went unspent. The move was met with a rare rebuke from the Fed and widespread disagreement from Democrats, who say the facilities are an important backstop and could have had more reach.

There’s agreement from both parties that some of the programs’ unused money could be put to more direct use. But the larger debate about the Fed’s own authority emerged when Toomey, the incoming leader of the Senate Banking Committee, said he is also pushing for a bill that prevents the expiring programs, or anything remotely similar to them, from being created in the future. For example, once the Main Street lending program expires, Toomey warned against a “Main Street lending program 2.”

Toomey insisted the Fed’s emergency lending powers “remain on the books” and that the door would still be open for Congress to approve entirely different programs “if in the future, some dire emergency occurs.”

“We’re not changing the role of the Fed at all,” Toomey said. “We’re saying these programs were meant to be temporary, and they’re going to be temporary.”

That argument was soundly rejected by Democrats, many of whom say Toomey’s proposal goes far beyond the nuts and bolts of a coronavirus relief bill. Democrats said the move cuts into lending powers the Fed had well before the Cares Act and handicaps the central bank’s ability to combat future crises.

“What’s happening here is a rewriting of the Fed’s emergency powers at the last minute, without any hearing, without any debate of what the implications are,” Ramamurti said.

Democrats argue that Toomey’s plan takes away any chance for the Biden administration to revamp the programs.

In a statement Friday, Brian Deese, Biden’s pick for director of the National Economic Council, said the stimulus package shouldn’t “include unnecessary provisions that would hamper the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve’s ability to fight economic crises.”

“Undermining that authority could mean less lending to Main Street businesses, higher unemployment, and greater economic pain across the nation. Congress’s good faith effort to deliver immediate relief should not be delayed by provisions that could put our future financial stability at risk,” Deese said.

Democrats lawmakers also said Toomey is using the Fed as a political instrument in the final days of the lame duck session.

“It’s no surprise that Republicans are drawing a line in the sand over their ability to sabotage the economy, and tie the Biden administration’s hands,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said in a statement.

Toomey disputed the criticism, saying the Cares Act programs were always meant to be temporary, and that he’s held this view for months.

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Sony pulls Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation store after public outcry (nationthailand.com)

Sony pulls Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation store after public outcry

InternationalDec 19. 2020

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Vlad Savov, Konrad Krasuski, Jason Schreier

Sony has removed CD Projekt SA’s Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation Store and is offering full refunds, taking unusual steps to appease customers furious about bugs plaguing one of the year’s most highly anticipated gaming blockbusters.

The radical move to pull the game “till further notice” came after the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 debuted Dec. 10, following several delays, to reviews calling out problems and an online outcry from players frustrated with its poor performance.

CD Projekt shares dropped as much as 20% in Warsaw at the start of Friday’s trading, erasing this year’s gains.

Warsaw-based developer CD Projekt — best known for 2015’s The Witcher 3, part of a franchise that was turned into a successful Netflix Inc. series — has offered refunds to any disappointed players, but Sony is going a step further by entirely removing the game from its store. Cyberpunk features Hollywood star Keanu Reeves as an in-game character and has used the actor as its most visible ambassador in the buildup to its release.

CD Projekt, whose shares have plunged 40% since Dec. 4, confirmed Sony’s decision in a regulatory statement. The studio said it was “working hard” to bring its game back to the PlayStation store and that it had discussions with Sony regarding a full refund for all gamers seeking one.

It said that “all copies, whether digital or physical, will continue to receive support and updates” to help fix the game’s teething problems. Its shares traded 15% lower at 261.8 zloty at 10:43 a.m. in Warsaw.

Trigon analyst Kacper Kopron said that Sony’s decision is one of “worst scenarios” for the company as PlayStation represents two-thirds of the console market. He expects that the move may trim estimates for Cyberpunk sales by 30% to 40%.

Erste Group analyst Emil Poplawski cut his recommendation on CD Projekt’s shares to reduce from buy, setting a target price of 280.5 zloty. Analysts at MBank and VTB Capital expect the game to be restored to PlayStation’s store after larger fixes in early 2021.

On Monday, the developers posted a message on Twitter saying they “should have paid more attention to making it play better on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.” But the company had not cleared its offer of a refund with console manufacturers Sony or Microsoft Corp., both of which have stringent refund policies.

This week, many players who requested refunds found themselves out of luck. Sony said it was working to resolve issues with accessing the refund.

CD Projekt Chief Executive Officer Adam Kicinski was cited as saying by PAP news agency that the gaming studio isn’t currently holding talks with Microsoft about removing Cyberpunk from its Xbox store.

It’s rare for any title to be removed from stores so soon after release. Previous examples include Square Enix Holdings’s Final Fantasy XIV, which was taken offline for an overhaul following its disastrous 2010 launch, and Amazon.com’s Crucible, yanked from PC stores earlier this year and subsequently canceled.

Cyberpunk’s developers faced intense public pressure to get the game out this year, rising to the level of death threats, as Senior Game Designer Andrzej Zawadzki tweeted in October. Six-day work weeks became the norm in the final months leading up to the eventual release, breaking with previous pledges from CD Projekt leaders that the company would avoid imposing a so-called crunch to hurry a game into existence through overtime.

The company has said it’s continuing work to rectify the issues players are encountering in Cyberpunk 2077 — and its prior blockbuster, The Witcher 3, improved drastically after its release thanks to downloadable patches.

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Russia hack confronts Trump with decision that echoes Obama’s (nationthailand.com)

Russia hack confronts Trump with decision that echoes Obama’s

InternationalDec 19. 2020The Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 11, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrey Rudakov. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Nick Wadhams

A massive hack on the federal government presents President Donald Trump with the same choice Barack Obama faced in the waning days of his tenure: whether to impose sanctions on Russia, and how severe to make them. So far, Trump has shown little willingness to impose costs.

Confronted with evidence that Vladimir Putin’s government orchestrated cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the 2016 election, Obama levied sanctions against Russia’s intelligence services and expelled 35 diplomats.

Now, it’s Trump’s turn to decide whether to call out and punish the Kremlin, as Obama did, or go easy on the Russian president and leave it to President-elect Joe Biden to formulate a response to a hack so serious it prompted National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien to cut short an overseas trip and return to oversee daily crisis meetings at the White House.

Government agencies and hundreds of Fortune 500 companies are still assessing the damage done by the cyberattack, which involved code embedded in updates for a widely used network-management software made by SolarWinds Corp.

Unlike in 2016, the latest attack didn’t involve election interference, but there’s little doubt it was a serious strike. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday called it a “grave risk” to federal, state and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure and the private sector. SolarWinds said 18,000 customers downloaded the tampered software update.

Security experts familiar with the hack said that even if evidence is still being gathered, it’s important to come out with a swift condemnation and set about taking measures to establish some sort of deterrence.

“The one thing you can say is the Trump administration has basically given the Russians a green light by not calling them out,” said James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That’s what you want to watch for: Does the Trump administration take any action even if it’s just symbolic? And so far the answer is no.”

Although Obama has been criticized for reacting too slowly to the Russian election meddling, the sanctions he eventually imposed sparked one of the most notorious episodes of the Trump era: the decision by Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to privately urge Russia not to respond to Obama’s sanctions. Trump last month pardoned Flynn after he was convicted of lying about the conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador on the matter.

Trump and many of his top aides have repeatedly tried to shift the spotlight to China as America’s biggest national security threat, sometimes downplaying Russian actions in comparison. Ending his presidency by going after Russia would contradict that strategy.

According to one person familiar with the president’s thinking, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, Trump has never let go of the belief that he could leverage personal ties with President Putin to improve relations with Russia. That would make it much harder for his staff to discuss punishment for fear that Trump would reject it out of hand.

Issues of cybersecurity seem to be particularly fraught for Trump’s aides. In his 2017 book “Fear,” Bob Woodward recounts an episode when Trump’s homeland security adviser at the time, Tom Bossert, tried to approach the president.

“I want to watch the Masters,” Woodward says Trump told Bossert, referring to the annual golf tournament. “You and your cyber…are going to get me in a war – with all your cyber sh_t.”

In an opinion piece in the New York Times on Thursday, Bossert suggested an idea that’s likely to find a better reception from the Biden team than Trump’s. He said the U.S. must call out Russia but also work with allied nations to pressure Russia.

Although Trump has yet to say anything about the hack, Biden echoed Bossert’s argument in a statement Thursday, vowing to united with allies and impose “substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks.” He promised to make cybersecurity a “top priority at every level of government.”

There are many ways for Trump’s administration to respond — new sanctions on Russia’s intelligence services, for example. Yet one challenge officials face is that such actions, as the current episode proves, clearly have failed to deter Russia in the past.

Another issue that Trump — and later Biden — will have to confront is that no one knows the true extent of the hack and what the hackers will do with the information they gleaned. Snooping on an adversary’s networks is something countries routinely do to each other and, as brazen as the hack may be, might provoke only a moderate response, in keeping with what past administrations have done.

But if the hackers use the breach for more nefarious ends — shutting down electrical grids, for example, or wiping out people’s bank accounts or exposing sensitive information publicly — that could provoke a more serious response.

“Sanctions are probably the most politically expedient option,” said Lauren Zabierek, executive director of the Cyber Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “That’s probably the minimum that we can expect out of this from this administration, but I honestly don’t know what they’re going to do especially given their response to previous Russian actions.”

Indeed, top advisers including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have played down the hack. In a recent interview, Pompeo portrayed it as more of the same from Russia.

“The Russian efforts to use cyber capabilities against us here in the United States is something that’s been consistent certainly for – goodness, I guess I was in Congress six years and now four years in the administration,” Pompeo said on the Ben Shapiro Show.

Given that Russia is unlikely to be deterred, experts argue that the best result will have to be a fundamental rethinking of cyber issues, something that will require new money and more time than the Trump team has left before Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

“We’ve been talking about this for 25 years, and we’re not there,” said Christopher Painter, who was the State Department coordinator for cyber issues before Trump shut down his office in 2017.

“The way you do that is you make this whole area much more of a mainstream national security priority and not treat it as this little boutique-y tech issue, which I think in large part it has been relegated to,” Painter said.