It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, November 22, 2020
America is being subjected to a stress test – and Republicans are failing
Robert Reich
THE GUARDIAN
Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Financial regulators subject banks to stress tests to see if they have enough capital to withstand sharp downturns.
Now America is being subjected to a stress test to see if it has enough strength to withstand Donald Trump’s treacherous campaign to discredit the 2020 presidential election.
Trump will lose because there’s no evidence of fraud. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested as never before.
Tragically, most elected Republicans are failing the test by refusing to stand up to Trump. Their cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic.
Trump is also depending on a Star Wars cantina of lackeys, grifters, sycophants and fruitcakes – including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Senator Lindsey Graham, GOP trickster Roger Stone and others – whose reputations weren’t great to begin with but will now and forever be tainted by Trump’s moral squalor.
American democracy wasn’t designed for this degree of political depravity
That squalor extends down to Republican members of a board of canvassers in Wayne county, Michigan (which includes Detroit) who, after Trump phoned them last week, tried to rescind their approval of ballot counts that went overwhelmingly to Joe Biden. On Friday, Trump invited Michigan’s Republican lawmakers to the White House, hoping to persuade them to ignore the popular vote, too.
American democracy wasn’t designed for this degree of political depravity.
Here’s the good news. The vast majority of officials are passing the stress test, many with distinction.
Chris Krebs, who led the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency, last Tuesday refuted Trump’s claims of election fraud – saying the claims “have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent”.
Trump fired Krebs that afternoon. Krebs’s response: “Honored to serve. We did it right.”
Brad Raffensperger – Georgia’s Republican secretary of state who oversaw the election there, and describes himself as “a Republican through and through and never voted for a Democrat” – is defending Georgia’s vote for Biden, rejecting Trump’s accusations of fraud. On Friday he certified that Biden won the state’s presidential vote.
Raffensperger spurned overtures from Trump quisling Graham, who asked if Raffensperger could toss out all mail-in votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures. And Raffensperger dismissed demands from Georgia’s two incumbent Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue (both facing tougher-than-anticipated runoffs) that he resign.
“This office runs on integrity,” Raffensperger said, “and that’s what voters want to know, that this person’s going to do his job.”
Raffensperger has received death threats from Republican voters inflamed by Trump’s allegations. He’s not the only one. Election officials in Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona are also reporting threats.
On Wednesday, Katie Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state who has until 30 November to certify election results there, called on Republican officials to stop “perpetuating misinformation”, adding that threats and “continued intimidation tactics will not prevent me from performing the duties I swore an oath to do. Our democracy is tested constantly, it continues to prevail, and it will not falter under my watch.”
Honors to her, as well.
While we’re at it, let’s not forget all the other public officials who have been stress-tested during Trump’s repugnant presidency and passed honorably.
I’m referring to public health officials unwilling to lie about Covid-19, military leaders unwilling to back Trump’s attacks on Black Lives Matter protesters, inspectors general unwilling to cover up Trump corruption, US foreign service officers unwilling to lie about Trump’s overtures to Ukraine, intelligence officials unwilling to bend their reports to suit Trump, and justice department attorneys refusing to participate in Trump’s obstructions of justice.
If you think it easy to do what they did, think again. Some of them lost their jobs. Many were demoted. A few have been threatened with violence. They’ve risked all this to do what’s right in an America poisoned by Trump, who has no idea what it means to do what’s right.
Above all, this stress test reveals integrity. Democracy depends on it.
The fact that Trump’s attempted coup won’t succeed doesn’t make it any less damaging. A new poll from Monmouth University now finds 77% of Trump supporters believe Biden’s win was due to fraud – a claim, I should emphasize again, backed by zero evidence.
Which means America’s stress test won’t be over when Joe Biden is sworn in as president 20 January. In the years to come we’ll continue to depend on the integrity of thousands of unsung heroes to do their duty in the face of threats to their livelihoods and perhaps their lives.
Of his many odious acts, Trump’s desperate attempt to cling to power by stress-testing American democracy will be his most reprehensible legacy.
Why the race to find Covid-19 vaccines is far from over
While everyone celebrated this month’s news that not one but two experimental vaccines against Covid-19 have proved at least 90% effective at preventing disease in late-stage clinical trials, research into understanding how the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, interacts with the human immune system never paused.
There are plenty of questions still to answer about the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines: how well will they protect the elderly, for example, and how long for? Which aspects of the immune response that they elicit are protective and which aren’t? Can even better results be achieved, with vaccines that target different parts of the immune system?
We are likely to need several Covid-19 vaccines to cover everyone and as a contingency, in case the virus mutates and “escapes” the ability of one vaccine to neutralise it, a real possibility in light of the discovery of an altered form of Sars-CoV-2 infecting European mink. But we also need better methods of diagnosing and treating the disease. The recent suspension of two major vaccine trials due to serious adverse events is a salutary reminder that there’s much still to learn and a pandemic, while no one would wish for one, provides scientists with a golden opportunity for learning.
Like most Covid-19 vaccine candidates, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are injected into the muscle, from where they enter the bloodstream and stimulate the production of antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 (specifically to the protein that forms the spikes covering its surface). But antibodies are only one component of the body’s adaptive immune response, which develops over time, in response to invasion by a virus or other pathogen. There is also innate immunity, which we are born with and that is mobilised instantly upon infection, but is not tailored to any specific pathogen. “There are a lot of moving parts to this,” says immunopharmacologist Stephen Holgate, of the University of Southampton in the UK, who wonders why scientists have focused on so few of them.
1 All those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers.
2 All those 75 and over.
3 All those 70 and over.
4 All those 65 and over.
5 Adults under 65 at high at risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19.
6 Adults under 65 at moderate risk of at risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19.
7 All those 60 and over.
8 All those 55 and over.
9 All those 50 and over.
10 Rest of the population.
Holgate is one of the founders of Synairgen, a University of Southampton spin-off company that has been testing inhaled interferon-beta, an important innate defence that works by shutting down viral replication, as a treatment for Covid-19. A major international study backed by the World Health Organization, called Solidarity, showed that interferon-beta was not effective in treating hospitalised patients, but more recently Synairgen has published the results of a small pilot study suggesting that given in patients with milder disease – and inhaled rather than injected under the skin – it enhanced recovery.
“The reason bats are able to harbour these viruses in such large numbers is that they have such a strong interferon response,” Holgate says. “That is why they don’t develop disease.” Synairgen is now testing whether interferon-beta can prevent hospitalisation in patients who inhale it soon after testing positive, at home. If the approach works, he says, the advantage is that it will continue to do so even if the virus mutates, since interferon’s action does not depend on the structure of the virus.
Another immune response that has received a lot of attention in the context of Covid-19 is that of T-cells. Along with B-cells, which generate antibodies, T-cells form part of the adaptive immune system and they perform two main functions: they help B-cells do their job and they kill infected cells. Both B- and T-cells retain a memory of past infections, meaning they are mobilised more quickly when a pathogen appears for a second or subsequent time.
In May, US researchers reported that T-cells extracted from human blood samples taken before 2019, and exposed to Sars-CoV-2, showed a memory for coronavirus infection. This suggested that previous exposure to different coronaviruses, such as those that cause the common cold, might be sufficient to prime T-cells and raised hopes that they could protect against Covid-19. Those hopes were bolstered by a report of people fighting off infection even though they developed only a T-cell response and no antibodies, though the number of patients in that study was small and the evidence therefore hard to interpret. Lockdown sceptics pointed to these studies as evidence that more of the population was protected against Covid-19 than was thought, but some immunologists say they did so prematurely.
As Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University in the US explains: “T-cells cannot prevent infection, they can only respond when there is an infection.” So although they could potentially reduce the severity of the disease, they can’t stop its transmission between people. Also, there is still no proof that the T-cell response is helpful. “It’s likely that both antibodies and T-cells are important in protection, but we have zero evidence so far for protection of any kind,” says immunologist Zania Stamataki of the University of Birmingham in the UK.
Vials of Covid-19 vaccine candidate in storage at a Pfizer facility in Puurs, Belgium.Photograph: Pfizer/Reuters
Obtaining that evidence will involve seeing how people either exposed to the virus naturally or vaccinated against it respond upon reinfection. Vaccine trials could provide such evidence, as could a number of studies of the correlates of protection in natural infection. Iwasaki’s group, for example, is comparing the immune responses of unexposed, sick and recovered individuals, while virologist Florian Krammer of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, and colleagues are tracking those responses longitudinally, in thousands of people exposed naturally over time. Then there are the so-called challenge trials that are due to be launched by Chris Chiu of Imperial College London and colleagues in January.
In the first stage of these trials, about 30 young, healthy individuals will have their immune status measured before and after deliberate exposure to Sars-CoV-2. The trials will generate data on immune responses in the blood, but also, because the virus will be delivered via the nose, on any local immune response that develops there. Both antibodies and T-cells are made at the body’s mucosal membranes, including those lining the airways, as well as in the blood, and this mucosal immunity is causing excitement among some scientists, though vaccine makers have so far paid it scant attention.
“The virus comes in and it lands on your mucosal surfaces,” explains Krammer. “If it’s neutralised right there, it’s game over.” Unable to replicate and penetrate deeper into the body’s tissues, the virus is prevented from causing not only disease but also infection, meaning the person can transmit it no further. It’s not yet clear if the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines block transmission, as well as preventing disease, but a vaccine that did so could bring the pandemic to an end sooner. And it could do it without the need for an injection just by using a nasal spray or inhaler.
Antibodies come in different forms that vary according to their biological properties and the tissues in which they are expressed. Like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, most Covid-19 vaccines in development elicit IgG antibodies in the blood, but the main antibody secreted in the upper respiratory tract, essentially the nose and throat, is IgA.
Boris Johnson on a visit to vaccine researchers at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, in September.Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
In June, in a study that has now been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a French group detected IgA antibodies in the blood of Covid-19 patients as early as a day after the onset of their symptoms. IgA levels peaked three weeks later, a week before IgG peaked. Then in August, a Canadian group reported the same finding in saliva. “The IgA response comes up early and dissipates quickly, whereas the IgG response persists,” says immunologist Jennifer Gommerman of the University of Toronto, one of the lead authors on that study.
The short duration of that IgA response might not matter as much as the fact that it peaks early – within a day or two of the innate response. The adaptive immune system kicks in if that innate response fails – it’s the second line of defence – but if you could enhance that early IgA response you could still block infection and prevent the person from feeling ill at all. Researchers have some reason to hope this may be possible.
IgA occurs in different forms at the mucosal membranes and in the blood. In the blood, it circulates singly, while at the membranes lining the airways it is secreted in pairs or even clusters. There is some evidence that doubled up, IgA antibodies’ capacity to neutralise the virus increases significantly, probably because each pair has twice as many binding sites at which to capture the invader. “If you have an antibody on its own, it works pretty well,” says Guy Gorochov of the Sorbonne University in Paris, who led the French study of IgA. “If you have a pair of them, it is far more effective.”
An inhaled vaccine against flu that elicits a local immune response in the airways already exists and there are Covid-19 vaccines in development that do the same, though they are a long way from clinical trials. Researchers are intrigued by the possibility that, besides antibodies, such a vaccine could also stimulate a kind of T-cell that is produced in the lining of the respiratory tract, called tissue-resident memory T-cells, and that these could contribute to shutting down infection rapidly. What’s more, measuring this local response could give an early and accurate indication of a person’s capacity to fight off the disease. “The work we’ve done in the past, with other respiratory viruses, suggests that IgA in the nose is often a much better correlate of protection than circulating antibodies,” says Chiu.
A nurse injects a volunteer with a vaccine candidate developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna in July.Photograph: Hans Pennink/AP
There’s a lot more work to be done before the human immune response is fully equipped to fight Covid-19 and what is learned in the context of this disease could be applied to others, especially when it comes to therapies that modify the human immune response rather than the virus. For now, though, most experimental vaccines and therapies target antibodies, which are virus-specific and one type of antibody, IgG, in particular. One piece of good news, where these are concerned, is that several studies, including Gommerman’s and Krammer’s, have now demonstrated that IgG levels remain high for up to eight months after infection. The same durability of antibody response has yet to be demonstrated for any vaccine, but these findings bode well.
The best news of all is that at least two vaccines now exist that seem to protect us against Covid-19 and that the chances are high that some of the most vulnerable people in the world will benefit from them within months. It remains an extraordinary and unprecedented feat to have built such a vaccine, and shown it to be safe and effective, before the disease they protect against is one year old – and before the pandemic is over.
It is abhorrent that big pharma is profiting from a vaccine when so many are dying from coronavirus
Sat, 21 November 2020
Will ‘vaccine nationalism’ become a problem?(Getty/iStock)
Millions are dying from Covid-19. It is abhorrent that pharmaceutical companies seem to be competing with each other to produce vaccines in order to be first and make fortunes for their directors and shareholders out of this crisis, while governments fight over who receives the vaccine.
Governments should be collaborating with each other and the pharmaceuticals to ensure that a viable vaccine can be produced and made available to every nation at a fair and low price, which of course covers the costs of research, production and distribution.
This is not a business but a world emergency, which is having incalculable consequences for every nation and its population.
Peter Fieldman Madrid
Moderna to charge $25-$37 for COVID-19 vaccine - CEO tells paper
Sat, 21 November 2020
MODERNA ANNOUNCES A VACCINE AGAINST COVID-19 EFFECTIVE AT 94.5%
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Moderna will charge governments between $25 and $37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered, Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS).
"Our vaccine therefore costs about the same as a flu shot, which is between $10 and $50," he was quoted as saying.
On Monday, an EU official involved in the talks said the European Commission wanted to reach a deal with Moderna for the supply of millions of doses of its vaccine candidate for a price below $25 per dose.
"Nothing is signed yet, but we're close to a deal with the EU Commission. We want to deliver to Europe and are in constructive talks," Bancel told WamS, adding it was just a "matter of days" until a contract would be ready.
Moderna has said its experimental vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second developer to report results that far exceeded expectations after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
The EU has been in talks with Moderna for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine at least since July.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Potter)
UK
Independent Sage scientists to join climate crisis battle
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage)
Robin McKie Observer Science Editor Sat, 21 November 2020
Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images
It began in the summer when a group of scientists decided to give the government a short, sharp lesson on how to use scientific advice in a transparent manner when tackling Covid-19. Once they had done that, the men and women of the Independent Sage organisation intended to disband.
But now the group, led by former government chief scientist Sir David King, is considering a move six months after its formation that would allow Independent Sage to fight on for years to come – but with an expanded agenda. This time it is considering a plan to hold ministers to account over a range of issues, including the UK’s attempts to tackle the climate crisis.
“I never envisaged Independent Sage lasting longer than three months,” said King. “We have all got other full-time jobs and this is a stressful business, but it is clear that we need to go for a lot longer. First with Covid, but in the longer term with other issues including climate change, which is the greatest threat to humanity, after all.” In the middle of last spring and summer’s first wave of Covid cases, scientists like King were alarmed because the advice and membership of the government’s official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) were not being published. “So when ministers said they were merely following the advice of scientists we had no way of judging whether or not they were,” said King.
This is no longer true – Sage advice and membership is now made public – though this has not stopped Independent Sage from continuing its own analyses and attacking government policies. For example, the group has become highly critical of ministerial failures over the test, trace and isolate system.
“It isn’t good enough to test to people and then trace their contacts. You also have to isolate properly,” said King. “That is not happening in the UK. In cities like Birmingham, where lots of people live in multigenerational families, we are tracing Covid contacts and are then sending them back to those homes – to spread the disease through the whole family.”
Instead, Britain should have followed countries like Greece where hotels were requisitioned and Covid contacts allowed to isolate properly, King added. “That halted the spread there, but we did not isolate properly and so we have not contained the spread.”
King and the other senior scientists have been accused of undermining the established process that is involved in providing scientific advice to politicians. The group is unrepentant, however, and is now considering ways to continue its fight in other parts of British policy, including the nation’s new bid to become a major power in the battle against the climate crisis. Membership of Independent Sage’s new groups would change and include leading scientists in various fields, including climate science.
For the moment, King has welcomed Boris Johnson’s 10-point climate plan, announced last week, which promised to ban combustion engine sales by 2030, quadruple offshore wind power, boost hydrogen production to replace natural gas and invest £525m in new nuclear power.
However, King added that the country would need to be sure that clear scientific advice was used to determine the ways in which we disinvested from the fossil-fuel industry in favour of carbon-free technologies. “This is needed to reverse the established risk of rising sea levels globally over the coming decades which is already threatening to be civilisation’s biggest tragedy,” he said.
The blunders that afflicted Britain’s attempts to deal with Covid must not be repeated, added King. Hence the decision by Independent Sage to track new challenges, including Britain’s response to the climate crisis. Other areas of concern could be added.
King has a fairly strong record over climate issues, though he was criticised over one issue when in government: his initial acceptance that pollution from diesel vehicles could be controlled. “I had not anticipated that car manufacturers, starting with VW, would cheat the EU testing system,” he said. “Diesel became popular, emissions in cities rose dangerously and VW were heavily fined for this deception by US courts.”
The major problem facing the UK today, said King, was that Boris Johnson seems to be stuck in a mode of constant electioneering. “He is not trying to get the trust of the public but he really needs to do that. You cannot afford to be caught telling porkies.”
Secret UN report reveals fears of long and bitter war in Ethiopia
Jason Burke The GuardianSat, 21 November 2020 Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
Ethiopian national forces are meeting heavy resistance and face a protracted “war of attrition” in the northern region of Tigray, a confidential United Nations assessment reveals.
Though officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, have repeatedly claimed that key towns have been secured, paramilitaries and militia deployed by the army are still struggling to clear and secure territory. Heavily armed regular troops have continued to advance into Tigray as they rush to reach the capital, Mekelle, the assessment says.
The UN document and more than a dozen interviews with aid workers from other international organisations give the most comprehensive overview so far of the fighting, and will deepen international concerns that the two-week-old conflict threatens to become a long and brutal battle, destabilising one of Africa’s most fragile regions.
Information has been difficult to obtain and confirm with communications cut to Tigray and journalists banned. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have been killed so far and many more have been displaced. More than 36,000 have fled into neighbouring Sudan, and large numbers are on the move within Tigray to avoid the fighting.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed pledged to end the era of dominance by Tigray when he came to power. Photograph: Reuters
Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister, said early last week that the Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF) were poised to make a “final push” to secure Mekelle and oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party in the region. Last Thursday, government spokesman Redwan Hussein told reporters that national forces were “moving forward and closing in on Mekelle” and that a number of towns had fallen.
The UN assessment, interviews and other international aid organisation analyses all suggest any expectation of a rapid and decisive victory is optimistic, and that resistance is likely to stiffen as Tigray troops fall back into mountains east of Mekelle.
“Although Tigray regional forces may have initially been backfooted by the EDF’s swift advances, the terrain in eastern Tigray is easier to defend… and if they make a stand, they have the capability to stall the EDF advance,” one analysis reads, warning that this will then “change the dimension of the conflict from one of rapid movement into one of attrition”.Ethiopia graphic
Documents seen by the Observer report continuing combat in areas which Addis Ababa claims are now controlled by government forces, though their authors admit information is hard to verify.
“After the EDF have reportedly ‘taken’ key towns such as Humera, Dansha, Shiraro, Alamata and Shire, and then pushed on with their advance, fighting has continued to be reported, or has subsequently erupted again in these locations,” one reliable account said.
The documents describe well-trained and heavily armed frontline units from the Ethiopian army bypassing main towns to avoid costly urban fighting as they hurry towards Mekelle. But the militia and paramilitaries deployed in their wake are neither as well-equipped nor as disciplined and so are vulnerable to counter-attack.
One assessment predicted that if Ethiopian forces continue to advance, their supply lines and rear areas will become more vulnerable to guerilla attacks and casualties will mount.
The conflict in north-west Ethiopia is the culmination of months of rising tensions between the TPLF and the ruling coalition in Addis Ababa. When national elections were cancelled because of the pandemic, the TPLF held polls anyway, in a move that aggravated tensions.
Abiy, who is Africa’s youngest leader and won the Nobel peace prize last year, launched his operation after accusing the TPLF of attacking a military camp and trying to seize military hardware.
Soldiers near the border of the Tigray and Amhara regions. Photograph: AP
The African Union said last Friday that it would send a team of mediators to Ethiopia in a bid to resolve the dispute, but few observers see much immediate prospect for peace.
The US ambassador to Ethiopia, Michael Raynor, said recent conversations with Abiy and with Debretsion Gebremichael, the hardline TPLF leader, had convinced him there was “a strong commitment on both sides to see the military conflict through”.
In a statement this week, the TPLF said hardships are part of life in wartime and promised to give Ethiopian troops “hell”on its home turf.
The reports seen by the Observer depict a complex and dynamic conflict across much of Tigray, with major clashes in the west of the region – as Ethiopian forces sought to advance towards the strategic town of Humera – and in the south-west, along the main road to Mekelle. Heavy fighting has also been reported around the town of Alamata, six miles from the border with neighbouring Amhara province which is fiercely loyal to the central government.
Ethiopian planes have launched air strikes, and Tigrayans have fired missiles into Amhara and Eritrea, which has supported the offensive to remove the TPLF. At least one massacre has been reported: it has been blamed on retreating Tigrayan militia targeting a community seen as loyal to the central government, but there is no confirmation of this.
There are concerns that even if Abiy achieves his aim of forcing out the TPLF and imposing federal authority on Tigray, violence will continue.
Though they number only 6 million out of a total 110 million people living in Africa’s second most populous country, Tigrayans effectively ruled Ethiopia for decades. Until Abiy took power two years ago, they were the strongest force in a multi-ethnic coalition. Abiy, whose parents are from the larger Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, freed thousands of political prisoners and pledged to end domination by one ethnic group.
“Even if the EDF are successful in their mission to take Mekelle,” the UN assessment warns, “this will not necessarily end the conflict. It is likely that a protracted asymmetric conflict and insurgency would continue. From a humanitarian perspective, the longer the conflict is drawn out, the more severe the crisis will become.”
Ethiopia has long been a linchpin of US policy in the fragile east African region and so far Washington has supported Abiy.
Tibor Nagy, US assistant secretary for African affairs, told reporters last week: “This is not two sovereign states fighting. This is a faction of the government running a region that has decided to undertake hostilities against the central government, and it has not … had the effect they thought they were going to get.”
On Saturday, Abiy said on Twitter that the safety and wellbeing of the people of Tigray was of paramount importance and the federal government would do everything to “ensure stability prevails in the Tigray region and that our citizens are free from harm and want”.
Thousands attack Brazil supermarket amid violent protests after black man beaten to death by security guard
Reuters Sat, 21 November 2020
Demonstrators make a barrier out of car tyres as they take part in a protest inside the supermarket Carrefour - AFP
More than 1,000 demonstrators attacked a Carrefour Brasil supermarket in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on Friday after security guards beat to death a Black man at the store.
The killing, which has sparked protests across Brazil, occurred late on Thursday when a store employee called security after the man threatened to attack her, cable news channel GloboNews said, citing the Rio Grande do Sul state military police.
Amateur footage of the fatal beating and tributes to the Black victim were published on social media. He was identified in local media by his father as 40-year-old Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas.
News website G1 later reported that an initial analysis by the state forensics institute indicated the cause of death could be asphyxiation.
In a statement on Friday, the local unit of France's Carrefour SA said it deeply regretted what it called a brutal death and said it immediately took steps to ensure those responsible were legally punished.
It said it would terminate the contract with the security firm, fire the employee in charge of the store at the time of the incident, and close the store as a mark of respect.
Products burn at a supermarket Carrefour in Sao Paulo, Brazil - AFP
Demonstrators march in Sao Paulo during the National Black Consciousness Day - REUTERS
In a series of tweets in Portuguese on Friday night, the Chairman and CEO of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, said that the images posted on social media were "unbearable."
"Internal measures have immediately been implemented by the Carrefour Brazil, notably towards the security company involved. These measures do not go far enough. My values, and the values of Carrefour do not allow for racism and violence," Bompard said.
He called for a complete review of employee and sub-contractors' training on security, diversity and tolerance values.
"I have asked the teams of Carrefour Brazil to fully cooperate with judicial authorities to get to the bottom of this odious action," he addded
In Porto Alegre, protesters on Friday afternoon handed out stickers depicting the Carrefour logo stained with blood and called for a boycott of the chain. They held up a banner in Portuguese reading "Black Lives Matter" and signs calling for justice for Beto, a nickname for the victim.
A demonstrator damages a storefront - REUTERS
A man cries during a protest at a Carrefour supermarket after the death of Alberto Silveira Freitas - Shutterstock
The protest turned violent on Friday evening as the demonstrators smashed windows and delivery vehicles in the supermarket's parking area. A Reuters witness saw police firing teargas at the protesters.
In Sao Paulo, dozens of protesters smashed the front windows of a Carrefour store with rocks, pulled off the front doors and stormed the building, spilling products into the aisles before dispersing. In Rio de Janeiro, roughly 200 shouting protesters gathered outside of another Carrefour store location.
November 20 is honored in many parts of Brazil as Black Awareness Day. Brazilians like to think of their country as a harmonious 'racial democracy' and far-right President Jair Bolsonaro denies the presence of racism. But the influence of slavery, abolished in 1899, is still evident.
Black Brazilians are almost three times as likely to be victims of homicide, according to 2019 government data.
"The culture of hate and racism needs to be combated at its source and the full weight of the law should be used to punish those that promote hate and racism," Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, wrote in a tweet.
Protests sweep Brazil after black man beaten to death by supermarket security VIDEO
Sat, 21 November 2020
The death of a black man after being beaten by white security guards at a supermarket has sparked protests across Brazil as the country celebrated Black Consciousness Day. The military police in Rio Grande do Sul state said the man had threatened a female worker at the supermarket, who called security. The victim, named as 40-year-old welder Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, lost consciousness during the assault and died on the spot as medics tried to revive him.
Thousands join annual Taiwan protest, anger focused on U.S. pork
Sun, 22 November 2020
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Thousands of people thronged Taipei's streets on Sunday for the annual "Autumn Struggle" protest march organised by labour groups, with much of the anger focused on the government's decision to ease restrictions on imports of U.S. pork.
Taiwan's main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) rallied its supporters to join in the march for the first time, having mounted an increasingly strident campaign against the pork move, which it says threatens food safety.
President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would from Jan. 1 allow in U.S. pork containing ractopamine, an additive that enhances leanness but which is banned in the European Union and China, as well as U.S. beef more than 30 months old.
While welcomed in Washington, and removing a roadblock to a long sought after U.S. free trade deal for Taiwan, the KMT has strongly opposed the decision, tapping into public concern about food safety after several high profile scandals in recent years.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang, elected in March to help turn around party fortunes following a trouncing in January's presidential and parliament elections, called on Tsai to have a televised debate with him about the issue.
"Taiwanese pigs don't eat ractopamine, and yet you are asking Taiwanese people to? Does this make sense?" he told supporters.
There was no immediate reaction from the presidential office.
Tsai's government and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has a large majority in parliament, says the decision brings the island into line with international norms, is not a safety threat and will boost Taiwan-U.S. ties.
The DPP, which had previously strongly objected to ractopamine, has accused the KMT of spreading fake news about the subject trying to sow public fear.
The KMT is also trying to organise a referendum on the U.S. pork imports for next year.
The pork is due to start arriving from Jan. 1.
(Reporting by Ann Wang; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Michiganders Erupt After Their Maskless Lawmakers Sip Dom Perignon At Trump Hotel
Mary Papenfuss ·Trends Reporter, HuffPost Sat, 21 November 2020,
After appearing to acquit themselves rationally after a controversial White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday, Michigan’s lawmakers were photographed celebrating maskless and downing pricey Dom Perignon champagne in the Trump International Hotel.
Voters erupted, and “Dom Perignon” was quickly trending on Twitter. The bottles go for $500 to $950 each at the hotel, and if it was a treat from Trump, they were likely on an expense account paid for by taxpayers — state, or federal.
Michigan, meanwhile, suffered through 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 Friday — and 53 deaths.
Photos of Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, state Rep. Jim Lilly and other Republicans surfaced on social media, where the men were lashed for their extravagant indulgence and extraordinary callous indifference as their constituents struggle with health and financial hardships.
Chatfield and Republican Senate Majority Mike Shirkey were summoned to Washington by Trump who, observers suspected, talked to them about using their power to sway the state’s electoral votes his way, regardless of Michigan’s vote backing Joe Biden.
The two legislators issued a joint statement after the meeting that they saw no problems with Michigan’s election and intended to proceed with the “normal,” legal process expected to confirm Biden as president-elect.
But then Dom-gate broke, which triggered worries about what was really going on between the president and the lawmakers. Trump also mysteriously tweeted on Saturday that the Michigan legislators’ statement “was true but that wasn’t the way it was reported in the media.”
Voters’ fears about possible continuing plots were heightened Saturday when the Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox asked the state’s Board of State Canvassers in a letter to delay certification of the state’s election results for two weeks. That would “allow for a full audit and investigation” into alleged voting “anomalies and irregularities,” the letter stated.
Neither Chatfield nor Shirkey have yet responded to the uproar, and could not immediately be reached by HuffPost to comment. Shirkey refused to answer reporters’ questions when he landed back in Michigan Saturday. He sang a hymm, ignoring queries about who paid for his trip.
Now further imagine if the bottle of Dom Perignon (actually $795 at trump's gouging hotel) was a gift from Joe Biden, after meeting with him to discuss suppressing the votes of Republicans. — Egalitarian ✨ #Biden/Harris 2020 (@oregonvirginia) November 21, 2020
2. After Donald Trump outed you for lying about your meeting, will you apologize to Michigan voters for scheming to silence their voices? — Michigan Democrats (@MichiganDems) November 21, 2020
Two different Americas. LEFT: Americans on food lines in Texas. RIGHT: Michigan legislators at Trump Hotel drinking Dom Perignon pic.twitter.com/cSVoU5WyAY — JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) November 21, 2020
People in #Michigan are getting sick and dying at record rates from #COVID19, the legislature isn't doing anything about it, and our reps are drinking Dom Perignon at Trump hotel in DC after meeting with @realDonaldTrump. Truly disgusting. https://t.co/iapw9mW2t9 — Dr. Rob Davidson #WearAMask (@DrRobDavidson) November 21, 2020
This is just a complete lack of leadership and a complete disconnect with the people of Michigan and the nation. This is also politically dumb...during a pandemic and economic hardship a good politician, while in the public eye, would at least act as though they care... — Dave Robbins (@DavidDRobbins) November 21, 2020
Michigan attorney general looks at criminal charges for state officials who would overturn election results
Graig Graziosi Sat, 21 November 2020
Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers William Hartmann, left and Republican chairperson Monica Palmer, to his right, were contacted by Donald Trump after they agreed to certify the county’s election results. (AP)More
Michigan's attorney general is reportedly looking into whether or not officials will be violating the law if they act on Donald Trump's instructions to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the state.
The Washington Post reported that Dana Nessel, a Democrat, is one of many officials growing increasingly concerned with the president’s attempts to influence the outcome of the state's election.
The publication cited anonymous sources close to the attorney general.
Michigan was in the spotlight earlier this week when two Republican board members on a canvassing committee in Wayne County refused to certify the results of the 2020 election. After public backlash, the officials buckled and agreed to certify the results.
Mr Trump called the officials on Tuesday night, after which they sought to rescind their vote to certify the election.
Wayne County is the home to the city of Detroit. Refusing to certify the results would result in primarily Democrat and disproportionately Black voters having their legally cast ballots thrown out.
Mr Trump's call was not the only effort he made to influence Michigan lawmakers; on Friday, four Michigan Republicans from the state legislature flew to Washington DC to take a meeting with the president.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the meeting was a standard meeting between the lawmakers and Mr Trump, and that it had nothing to do with the election. However, protesters - convinced that Mr Trump was going to try to pressure the officials to select electors loyal to him who would cast their votes in the electoral college in his favour - met the lawmakers in Washington DC with signs that read "shame."
Following the meeting, the Michigan lawmakers issued a statement saying they had "not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election."
The night after their meeting, the lawmakers were photographed patronising a bar at the Trump Hotel drinking Dom Perignon, sparking criticism on social media.
Hours after meeting with Trump at the White House to discuss his plans to throw out hundreds of thousands of Black votes in Detroit, these Michigan Republicans topped off the night with a $495 bottle of Dom Perignon at Trump Hotel.
According to the sources that spoke to The Washington Post, the attorney general is examining whether any of the state officials engaged in bribery, perjury or conspiracy.
Mr Biden leads Mr Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. In Michigan, a recount can only be triggered if the margin between candidates is 2,000 or fewer. Because the Trump campaign can not utilise a recount to change the election results, it appears the campaign is focused on invalidating ballots.
According to the website MLive.com, an attempt to stall Michigan from certifying the state in favour of Mr Biden, GOP National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and Michigan Republican chair Laura Cox have urged the state's Board of State Canvassers from certifying the election results.
The leaders called for the board to adjourn for two weeks, allowing time for a full audit and investigation into "numerical anomalies and credible reports of procedural irregularities."
The last-ditch effort on the part of the GOP appears to be a response to Mr Trump's apparent failure to pressure the Michigan lawmakers to intervene in the election on his behalf.
According to the Detroit News, Michigan's secretary of state Jocelyn Benson said her office would eventually perform an audit of Wayne County and other areas for any evidence of irregularities, but said she could not do so prior to the state certifying the results, as she would not have access to the legal documents she would need for the inquiry until after certification.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Shocking inequality: why San Francisco voted for 'overpaid executive tax'
Rupert Neate Wealth correspondent Sat, 21 November 2020
The “extreme, shocking inequality” he and the other 900,000 residents are forced to navigate every day led Haney, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city’s legislative body, to propose a new “overpaid executive tax” designed to help tackle the problem.
San Francisco voters overwhelming backed a new law that will levy an extra 0.1% tax on companies that pay their chief executive more than 100-times the the median of their workforce. The surcharge increases by 0.1 percentage point for each factor of 100 that a CEO is paid above the median, up to a maximum of 0.6%.
Many of the biggest and best-known US companies would easily fall into the highest bracket. For example, Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s third richest person, was paid $595m (£449m) last year, almost 10,000 times the firm’s median salary of just under $60,000.
Elon Musk was paid $595m last year, almost 10,000 times the median pay at Tesla. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images
Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, was paid $134m in 2019, more than 2,300 times the firm’s median pay of $57,600.
At Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Sundar Pichai’s $86m was only 350 times the median of $246,804. Unlike Tesla and Apple, Alphabet does not operate high street stores, which brings down average pay.
Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet and Google, was paid 350 time the median pay of his employees. Photograph: Tsering Topgyal/AP
San Francisco’s new tax is estimated to bring in an extra $60m-$140m a year, revenue that will be spent on improving the housing and healthcare provision for the city’s poorest people. The tax, which comes into force in 2021, will be collected from all companies operating in the city, not just those headquartered there. The pay ratio will be calculated comparing CEO pay with the median of workers in the city, not worldwide.
Haney said that while the city desperately needs more money, the tax is also designed to “encourage companies to pay the lowest paid more or cut their executives’ huge pay”. He hopes the new law will set an example for other cities, states and even countries, like the UK, to follow to try and help tackle inequality worldwide.
“San Francisco has some of the most extreme inequality anywhere in the world, and many of the best-known companies growing here have some of the largest gaps between executive pay and worker pay,” said Haney, in an interview over Zoom as he walked to work this week.
Haney, who represents District 6, which includes the Tenderloin, Mission Bay and South of Market, added: “The contrasts are especially stark in my district where I represent some of the richest parts of San Francisco – and the country – and some of the poorest parts with huge numbers of homeless people without access to healthcare.”
The tents set up by homeless people in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.
Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
He said the coronavirus pandemic had exacerbated San Francisco’s inequality problem, which had already created “a city of extreme suffering” that drained local government of resources.
“The heath system was already very strained, and the pandemic has exposed it even more,” Haney said. “It has shown how stark the inequality is, poor people could not afford to shelter and people of colour and essential workers bore the burnt of the pandemic.
“At the same time the richest have gotten much richer [from the pandemic] it shows the fundamental flaw of our economic system. A small number of people continue to make massive profits at a time when almost everyone else was suffering more than ever.
“The only way to solve inequality in San Francisco, is to make those making making huge profits to share it,” he said.
“There is a very dangerous imbalance here, people don’t like where we are going. We want to live in a city where we and our neighbours are doing OK, are healthy and safe, when you have a city so unequal it is very hard to keep everyone health and safe.
“It is the 0.001% of society who are causing the problem, there has to be a reckoning or we will see more suffering and poverty and it is a concern to all of us – our health and quality of life. The pandemic has shown us how we are all connected, and when some people are unable to take care of themselves it can put us all at risk.”
Haney said that in the face of inaction from the national and state government, the city had decided to act on its own. “It is a twofold goal, to address inequality and bring in new resources to allow us to response to the biggest emergency,” he said.
Haney hopes San Francisco could act as a template for others to follow. Portland, Oregon, introduced a similar but more limited levy in 2018 and expected to collect about $3m from roughly 150 companies.
“The overwhelming victory here will lead other cities and states to follow,” Haney said.
“San Francisco is a modern day version of a A Tale of Two Cities everywhere you look, we can’t have a nation that turns into that.”
BP sells its London head office as it shifts to low-carbon energy
BP has agreed to lease its 1 St James’s Square property in central London back from Lifestyle International for two years.
Photo: Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto via Getty Images
BP (BP.L) has announced the sale of its London head office to Hong Kong investment firm Lifestyle International (1212.HK) for £250m ($332m).
The British oil giant also agreed to lease its 1 St James’s Square property in central London back from Lifestyle International for two years, saying the deal would give it the opportunity “to reimagine how and where a reinvented BP should be headquartered.”
BP moved into the premises in 2002 after acquiring it from Ericsson (ERIC) for a reported £110m.
It is the latest string of disposals for BP, which is aiming to sell $25bn of assets by 2025 amid a restructuring that pushes the business into low-carbon energy.
The company, led by chief executive Bernard Looney, has already divested or agreed a deal on half of its target, as it seeks to reduce its debt.
At the time the property was expected to fetch up to £300m. The sale announcement is £50m short of the predicted value.
Earlier this year, Looney said that the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) company will move to a more “hybrid work style”, balancing home and office working.
BP employs 6,500 staff across its offices in London and in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey.
Last week, the oil giant announced it was teaming up with Danish wind power group Orsted (ORSTED.CO) on a green hydrogen project in Germany.
The project is planning to build a renewable energy plant, including a 50 megawatt (MW) electrolyser, at the Lingen refinery, harnessing power from the North Sea to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The move would replace 20% of natural gas-based hydrogen at the plant.
Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
