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Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law given asylum in U.K.

InternationalApr 09. 2021Nathan Law, standing committee member of the Demosisto political party, at a news conference in Hong Kong on June 19, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chan Long Hei.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kitty Donaldson

The U.K. granted asylum to Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, a move likely to fuel tensions with China after it imposed sweeping security powers over the former British colony last year.

“The U.K. has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter.

Law, a former elected politician in Hong Kong, fled to London last year after China introduced its National Security Law, which brought unprecedented restrictions to a city accustomed to regular protests and a free media. He faces arrest under the legislation if he returns.

“It means a lot to me because I can reside outside Hong Kong, free from direct political persecution and continue my advocacy work,” Law said in an interview. He urged the U.K. government to help more activists who have a lower profile and are in a “more difficult situation when applying for asylum.”

China on Thursday accused the U.K. of sheltering “wanted criminals” by giving asylum to Law. Beijing says its security law is designed to bring Hong Kong into line with mainland China and clamp down on sedition and terrorism.

“If the U.K. blatantly endorses Hong Kong separatists and provides wanted criminals so-called shelter, they are grossly interfering in Hong Kong’s judiciary, violating international law and basic norms of international relations as well as the rule of law principle,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.

When the legislation was introduced, the U.K. responded by offering a path to British citizenship for eligible Hong Kongers — separate to the political asylum given to Law. That triggered a row with Beijing, which has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government of interfering in its affairs.

The U.K. expects hundreds of thousands to take up the new British National (Overseas) visa. In the three months to March, 27,000 people had applied.

On Thursday, the government said it will spend 43 million pounds ($59 million) to help the settlement and assimilation of Hong Kongers arriving under the new system. The money will fund 12 welcome hubs to help people access housing, education and employment. Schools will also receive resources to teach pupils about the U.K.’s historic connections to Hong Kong.

The U.K. government has faced criticism that it has been too slow to set out help for people arriving from Hong Kong.

“This program will ensure British National (Overseas) status holders and their families have the very best start as soon as they arrive, and support to help them find a home, schools for their children, opportunity and prosperity,” Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said in an emailed statement.  

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EU fails to find united response to AstraZeneca vaccine risk

InternationalApr 09. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Joao Lima, Viktoria Dendrinou, Chiara Albanese

The European Union failed to form a united response to links between AstraZeneca Plc’s coronavirus vaccine and a rare type of blood clotting, missing an opportunity to inject momentum into the bloc’s sluggish inoculation program.

At a meeting that ran until late Wednesday, EU health ministers promised to continue discussions on vaccination planning and process. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides had called on the bloc’s governments to forge a coordinated strategy, saying it “will be key for us to speak with one voice.” The EU needs “an approach which does not confuse citizens and that does not fuel vaccine hesitancy,” she said.

In a statement afterward, the EU said ministers had shared “different interpretations” of a safety report on the AstraZeneca shot by the bloc’s drugs regulator, indicating what may be deep divisions on the way forward. Despite the risks, the EU regulator — and its British counterpart — on Wednesday insisted the product’s benefits outweigh its risks, that the clot occurrences are rare and that the shot should remain a vital tool in the pandemic fight.

In response to the safety concerns, Italy followed Germany and France by recommending it only for people over 60. Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government urged other EU members to implement the same policy, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.

This week Spain will also recommend limiting the Astra vaccine to those over 60, Health Minister Carolina Darias said late Wednesday.

The moves to limit the vaccine’s use came just hours after the European Medicines Agency announced finding a “strong association” with blood clots. The regulator didn’t issue any guidelines about usage, leaving the implementation up to member states.

Thomas Mertens, the head of Germany’s vaccine commission, said that while the EMA bases its decisions on what it believes is best for the whole EU, Germany can afford to be more careful as it is not so dependent on the AstraZeneca shot for its inoculation drive.

“We can therefore greatly reduce or even eradicate the risk of these serious side-effects in certain age groups,” Mertens said Thursday in an interview with ZDF television. “I think you can justify both approaches very well.”

The EU has been hit by a fresh wave of the coronavirus, which has caused more than 600,000 deaths in the region. Italy and France have gone back into lockdown. Germany is debating stricter curbs, while Chancellor Angela Merkel considers taking control from state leaders.

The continent’s immunization program has been bogged down by poor planning, supply delays and increasingly a lack of solidarity. Greek Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias expressed concern about the pluralism that confuses citizens on such an important issue.

With aggressive variants spreading, the region can ill afford further problems. The EU has administered doses for just 9.5% of its population — about a third of Britain’s pace, according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker.

The U.K. conducted a similar safety review of the AstraZeneca vaccine and is now advising that people under 30 be offered an alternative if one is available, the country’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said Wednesday.

The warnings dealt another blow to the vaccine Astra developed with the University of Oxford and continued to cloud its global rollout. The drugmaker said it’s studying the individual cases to understand the “epidemiology and possible mechanisms that could explain these extremely rare events.” It’s also working with regulators on their request for new labels on its shots, AstraZeneca said in a statement.

Concerns about the vaccine center on an unusual type of blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. There were also some cases of clots in the abdomen and in the arteries, which occurred together with low levels of blood platelets.

Italian officials said the change of policy wouldn’t hamper the country’s rollout as supplies increase and doses of other shots get redistributed.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been dogged by controversy. Before the health concerns, the drugmaker got embroiled in a battle with the EU after a production issue led to delivery delays.

Unity among member states has become a broader issue.

“We must not forget that individual decisions affect everybody,” Portuguese Health Minister Marta Temido said, appealing for a coordinated position. “This is a technical decision. It is not a political decision. We must continue to follow the best scientific information provided.”

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Panasonic bets on Tesla ‘beer can’ battery to unlock $25,000 EVs

InternationalApr 09. 2021The Gambit Energy Storage Park in Angleton, Texas, the utility-scale battery project owned by a Tesla subsidiary. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Mark Felix.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · River Davis, Yuki Furukawa

Panasonic Corp. is betting that close to a century of experience making car batteries has prepared it to manufacture a difficult-to-produce next-generation battery championed by Tesla as the key to unlocking cheaper and more ubiquitous electric vehicles.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, first unveiled the 4680 battery at Tesla’s Battery Day in September as a “massive breakthrough” in cell technology that will make it possible for his company to produce EVs that sell for $25,000, roughly a third less than Tesla’s most basic Model 3. While Tesla plans to make the cells in-house, it has also asked its oldest battery supplier, Panasonic, to begin producing them as well.

The catch: the thicker and more voluminous 4680 cells, named after their dimensions of a 46-millimeter diameter and 80-millimeter height, are still largely unproven. Industry experts even question whether the batteries, which resemble a downsized version of the aluminum cans used for sodas and beer, are possible to mass produce.

“There are significant technological issues to get past, issues that many in the industry have been trying to tackle for years,” said Ram Chandrasekaran, a transportation and mobility analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “If achievable, these battery cells would be groundbreaking. But the jury’s still out on whether they’re deliverable.”

Panasonic says it may be best-positioned to see the tricky new cells to market. Right now, the Japanese electronics maker is working to set up a prototype production line for tests.

“Producing these larger cells requires you raise your craftsmanship one or two full levels or there will be safety issues,” Yasuaki Takamoto, Panasonic’s EV battery head, said in an interview. The company’s time-tested safety-management systems “absolutely give us an upper hand here,” he said.

Much of the benefit of the new 4680 cells comes from the fact that they are more than five times the size of the smaller 1865 and 2170 cells Panasonic currently supplies to Tesla. This means that the typical 4,000 to 8,000 cells found in an EV today can be reduced to around 500, which, in turn, means fewer parts such as bonding pieces used to string individual cells together. New cell shapes such as the 4680 are “key to making more affordable EV models that are capable of meaningfully spreading,” said Akira Nagasaki, technical strategy head on Takamoto’s team.

The larger capacity, however, is also what makes the cells more difficult to produce. They are prone to overheating because it’s difficult to disperse heat from their center. They’re also more susceptible to particle contamination, a frequent cause of EV battery fires that occurs when minuscule metal pieces find their way into the center of a cell, causing it to short-circuit, according to Takamoto.

Compared with other EV battery heavyweights, Panasonic has been slow to build scale, instead touting the safety advantage of its batteries and expanding production only at a pace at which it can maintain safety standards, Takamoto said. The same know-how that lets Panasonic produce 2.5 billion cells a year without major safety issues also gives it an advantage in producing the 4680 cells, he said.

Tesla and Panasonic’s push to develop next-generation batteries comes as virtually all automakers jostle to secure their own supply of the core component. Batteries are crucial to differentiating automakers’ models as the industry as a whole shifts to EVs, said Wood Mackenzie’s Chandrasekaran. “It’s a pivotal moment,” he said.

Fearing future shortages, carmakers such as Volkswagen are demanding more batteries and even pushing to manufacture their own. This has led to notable tension between OEMs and their suppliers, as battery makers hesitate to invest in new capacity based solely on buzzy future sales projections, Chandrasekaran said.

That struggle is apparent in the development of the 4680 cells. Musk, who’s set an extremely ambitious goal for Tesla to produce 20 million EVs a year by 2030, plans to make the cells in-house and is also reported to be talking to battery makers other than Panasonic. Panasonic, in turn, says it will seek to sell the batteries to EV makers other than just Tesla.

But the next-generation technology also underscores the potential for mutual benefits if automakers and battery suppliers are able to develop specific technologies today that will let them ride the wave of growing EV sales together in the future.

Musk himself acknowledged the challenge of mass producing 4680 cells when speaking at a European battery conference in November. Tesla had produced the battery at a “bench-top level” and was aiming to have it at “pilot-plant level” soon, but “scaling up the production process is much harder than proving something out on a lab bench,” Musk said.

Panasonic has been mass producing lithium-ion batteries for cars since 2010 – around the same time its biggest battery-buyer was just launching its initial public offering.

“Working with a partner like Panasonic that has extensive experience in large-scale cell manufacturing will boost the likelihood of Tesla achieving the targets the company outlined at its Battery Day event,” BloombergNEF analyst James Frith wrote in a note published shortly after Panasonic’s chief financial officer announced the company was working on the new 4680 cell in October.

For Panasonic, the 4680 battery that Tesla asked it to produce is a potential source of growth as it looks to reduce its reliance on its once-core consumer electronics business. Taking into account the number of EVs Musk wants to see out on roads and demand from other automakers as well, if Panasonic decides to move forward with producing 4680 cells “we will do so on a large scale,” Takamoto said.

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Inflation has gone k-shaped in the pandemic like everything else

InternationalApr 09. 2021A person wearing a protective mask holds a fuel pump nozzle at a Chevron gas station in San Francisco on March 11, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Alex Tanzi

Low-income Americans bore the brunt of job losses when the pandemic arrived. Now they’re getting hit hardest by price increases as the economy recovers.

The headline consumer inflation rate in the U.S. remains subdued, at 1.7% — but it masks large differences in what people actually buy.Some of the biggest price hikes of recent months, for example, have come in gasoline. A gallon of regular is up 75 cents since late last year — adding more than $60 a month to the budget of someone who fills up with 20 gallons a week.

Food-price inflation is running at more than double the headline rate, and staples like household cleaning products have also climbed.

Price increases like these are causing trouble all over the world — and they tend to hurt low-income people most. That’s because groceries or gas take up a bigger share of their monthly shopping basket than is the case for wealthier households, and they’re items that can’t easily be deferred or substituted.

An analysis by Bloomberg Economics, which reweighted consumer-price baskets based on the spending habits of different income groups, found that the richest Americans are experiencing the lowest level of inflation.

Those same high-earners already posted windfall gains during what’s been labeled a K-shaped recovery from the pandemic. Their net worth surged, thanks to booming stock and real-estate markets — and they mostly kept their jobs and were able to work from home.

The richest 10% of households captured 70% of wealth created in 2020, according to the Federal Reserve, while the bottom half got just 4%. A January study by Opportunity Insights, a Harvard research project, found that the recession was essentially over for those making at least $60,000 a year, while employment among the lowest-paid — who earn less than half that amount — was still almost 30% below pre-pandemic levels.

The question of who exactly gets hurt by higher prices could become more urgent as inflation accelerates. Most economists expect a pickup in the next 12 months.

The Fed, which is in charge of keeping inflation under control, says any increase will likely prove temporary. The central bank isn’t planning to use its inflation-fighting tool of higher interest rates anytime soon.

The idea behind the Fed’s new thinking is that allowing the economy to run a bit hotter — and inflation to creep a bit higher — will actually help to reduce income inequalities, because it will encourage a strong jobs market that benefits low-paid Americans the most. There’s some evidence that this is already happening in the restaurant, hotel and other service industries.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration says it will push U.S. statisticians to produce more detailed data that breaks down economic outcomes for different racial or income groups.That initiative could have consequences for people whose incomes are tied to measures of inflation — like recipients of Social Security or food stamps. They can get squeezed when those gauges fail to accurately capture changes in the cost of living. There’s been talk in the past, for example, of pegging Social Security to an index that specifically measures the inflation experienced by older people.

The distributional questions raised by higher prices aren’t just a U.S. phenomenon.

A United Nations gauge of global food costs rose for a ninth straight month in February, the longest run of increases since 2008 when the world faced the first of two food crises within a few years.

“The food price story and inflation story are important to the issue of equality,” says Carmen Reinhart, the World Bank’s chief economist. “It’s a shock that has very uneven effects.”

The problem of K-shaped inflation predates the pandemic and may have deep-rooted causes, according to Xavier Jaravel, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics.His research has shown that a key reason why richer people experience lower rates of inflation is that there’s more competition among producers for their dollars — leading to higher levels of innovation in the kind of goods and services bought by the wealthy, which helps keep prices down.

“One can hope that statistical agencies around the world will soon adopt new data sources and price indices to better measure inflation inequality,” Jaravel wrote in a recent paper, “and that economists will pay more attention to the distributional effects of prices.”