Tuesday, April 27, 2021
China probes food delivery giant Meituan amid antitrust squeeze
BEIJING (Reuters) -China launched an antitrust investigation into food delivery giant Meituan, the market regulator said on Monday, the latest target in a crackdown on the country's sprawling internet platform economy.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement that its investigaton was focused on the practice whereby a company forces vendors to use their platform exclusively, known as "choose one from two".
Tencent-backed Meituan, which this month raised $10 billion in a stock and convertible bonds sale, said in a statement it would cooperate with the investigation and that its business was operating normally.
This month, SAMR imposed a record $2.75 billion fine on e-commerce giant Alibaba over the same practice and summoned 34 internet firms including Meituan to tell them to learn from Alibaba's penalty and not use banned practices.
Meituan, which competes with Alibaba-backed Ele.me among others, had an estimated 68.2% of China's food delivery market in the second quarter of 2020, according to Trustdata. Meituan's businesses also include bike sharing, community group buying and restaurant reviews.
China has in recent months taken measures to rein in its once loosely-regulated internet economy in a clampdown backed by President Xi Jinping that has rattled the industry.
Zheng Wei, a partner with Beijing-based law firm Anli Partners, said regulators aimed to reduce the impact of dominant internet players on consumers, employees and smaller firms.
He told Reuters that "regulators aim to prevent internet platforms from using their dominant position to exert influence over governance, including legislative and judicial process."
Reuters reported in April that SAMR was adding staff and other resources as China revamps its competition law with proposed amendments including a sharp increase in fines and expanded criteria for judging a company's control of a market.
In March, Meituan was among five backers or owners of community group-buying platforms fined by SAMR over "improper pricing behaviour" related to subsidies.
(Reporting by Tony Munroe and Yingzhi Yang; Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)
Hearing on objections to Amazon union election to start May 7: labor group
(Reuters) - The labor group that did not secure enough votes from Amazon.com Inc warehouse workers in Alabama to form a union said on Monday the hearing on its objections to the election is set to start on May 7, citing a government filing
(Reuters) - The labor group that did not secure enough votes from Amazon.com Inc warehouse workers in Alabama to form a union said on Monday the hearing on its objections to the election is set to start on May 7, citing a government filing
.
© Reuters/DUSTIN CHAMBERS FILE PHOTO: Congressional delegation to Amazon plant
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The labor group, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), has said Amazon's conduct prevented employees from freely exercising their choice, while the company has denied that intimidation of workers caused them to reject joining the RWDSU by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese)
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The labor group, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), has said Amazon's conduct prevented employees from freely exercising their choice, while the company has denied that intimidation of workers caused them to reject joining the RWDSU by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese)
BROUGHT FOOD SERVICES BACK IN-HOUSE Mississippi prisons end contract with controversial food provider
Justin Carissimo
Justin Carissimo
CBS NEWS
4/27/2021
A company accused of serving rotten and spoiled meals to inmates in Mississippi is no longer providing food in the state's correctional facilities.
A company accused of serving rotten and spoiled meals to inmates in Mississippi is no longer providing food in the state's correctional facilities.
© MDOC pic.jpg
The state began a new, three-year deal with the company Merchants Foodservice on March 1 to provide meals to 15 prisons, youth centers and other facilities across the state, according to an agreement signed by Burl Cain, the state's prison commissioner. The deal ends the state's five-year, multimillion-dollar relationship with the company Aramark.
In an email to CBS News, an Aramark spokesperson said the contract "was not renewed after the terms concluded and the state chose to bring food service in-house at all locations." The state's Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.
Marcy Croft, an attorney with Team Roc who is representing 230 inmates, said inmates had complained the food was often "spoiled, rotten, molded or uncooked" and that portion sizes were too small. "They aren't asking for five-star meals," Croft said. "They're just asking for food that's edible and that can keep them alive — it's a very basic request."
Last year, Croft filed a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections claiming inmates were denied adequate health care, fed both contaminated and spoiled food and were housed in unsafe living quarters — a legal effort bankrolled by Yo Gotti and Jay-Z's Team Roc.
In the lawsuit, Croft and her legal team said inmates complained about receiving food that was undercooked or not defrosted and contained rat, bird, or insect feces. They claimed some suffered adverse side effects, with one inmate vomiting for days from "apparent food poisoning."
"In the correctional system, timely meals are a security issue. People don't want to feel like they need to fight over resources, and that's certainly what was happening at Parchman," Croft told CBS News.
She said some of her clients skipped meals and displayed a disturbing amount of weight loss: "We had a number of clients who have lost massive amounts of weight — anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds because the food was inedible."
An inmate living at Parchman described the food to CBS News last year: "The rice and potatoes be spoiled sometimes. The bologna and lunch meat they serve — instead of a pinkish color — is a gray or dark color, that's how you know it's spoiled. They usually give hard trays that have dried up food on the side. There were some trays with roaches and water inside."
The state began a new, three-year deal with the company Merchants Foodservice on March 1 to provide meals to 15 prisons, youth centers and other facilities across the state, according to an agreement signed by Burl Cain, the state's prison commissioner. The deal ends the state's five-year, multimillion-dollar relationship with the company Aramark.
In an email to CBS News, an Aramark spokesperson said the contract "was not renewed after the terms concluded and the state chose to bring food service in-house at all locations." The state's Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.
Marcy Croft, an attorney with Team Roc who is representing 230 inmates, said inmates had complained the food was often "spoiled, rotten, molded or uncooked" and that portion sizes were too small. "They aren't asking for five-star meals," Croft said. "They're just asking for food that's edible and that can keep them alive — it's a very basic request."
Last year, Croft filed a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections claiming inmates were denied adequate health care, fed both contaminated and spoiled food and were housed in unsafe living quarters — a legal effort bankrolled by Yo Gotti and Jay-Z's Team Roc.
In the lawsuit, Croft and her legal team said inmates complained about receiving food that was undercooked or not defrosted and contained rat, bird, or insect feces. They claimed some suffered adverse side effects, with one inmate vomiting for days from "apparent food poisoning."
"In the correctional system, timely meals are a security issue. People don't want to feel like they need to fight over resources, and that's certainly what was happening at Parchman," Croft told CBS News.
She said some of her clients skipped meals and displayed a disturbing amount of weight loss: "We had a number of clients who have lost massive amounts of weight — anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds because the food was inedible."
An inmate living at Parchman described the food to CBS News last year: "The rice and potatoes be spoiled sometimes. The bologna and lunch meat they serve — instead of a pinkish color — is a gray or dark color, that's how you know it's spoiled. They usually give hard trays that have dried up food on the side. There were some trays with roaches and water inside."
© Provided by CBS News These undated images purportedly show food served at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. / Credit: Team Roc
The conditions at state-run prisons came under national scrutiny last year after a spate of inmate deaths, triggering a Department of Justice investigation and widespread calls for reform. Last year, CBS News spoke to several inmates who complained of squalid conditions inside Parchman's infamous Unit 29, which Governor Tate Reeves vowed to close by the end of 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic upended those plans and more than 400 inmates still remain in Unit 29, according to Croft, who recently met with clients inside Parchman. Both inmates and state health officials have documented dire conditions in Unit 29, such as molding, flooding in cells, as well as rat and cockroach infestations. The cellblock, which has undergone some renovations, is also now being used to hold inmates who display symptoms of COVID-19, Croft said.
The Department of Corrections and Reeve's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Reeves signed legislation that gives more inmates the possibility of parole. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, was championed by criminal justice advocates.
Jessica Jackson, the chief advocacy officer for Reform Alliance, called the signing a "significant effort" to create a pathway for thousands of people to be released from custody.
"This is monumental for Mississippi. It's also the first piece of criminal justice reform legislation that Tate Reeves has signed," she said. "It shows that the issue of criminal justice reform continues to be a bipartisan issue even in the reddest of states."
The conditions at state-run prisons came under national scrutiny last year after a spate of inmate deaths, triggering a Department of Justice investigation and widespread calls for reform. Last year, CBS News spoke to several inmates who complained of squalid conditions inside Parchman's infamous Unit 29, which Governor Tate Reeves vowed to close by the end of 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic upended those plans and more than 400 inmates still remain in Unit 29, according to Croft, who recently met with clients inside Parchman. Both inmates and state health officials have documented dire conditions in Unit 29, such as molding, flooding in cells, as well as rat and cockroach infestations. The cellblock, which has undergone some renovations, is also now being used to hold inmates who display symptoms of COVID-19, Croft said.
The Department of Corrections and Reeve's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Reeves signed legislation that gives more inmates the possibility of parole. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, was championed by criminal justice advocates.
Jessica Jackson, the chief advocacy officer for Reform Alliance, called the signing a "significant effort" to create a pathway for thousands of people to be released from custody.
"This is monumental for Mississippi. It's also the first piece of criminal justice reform legislation that Tate Reeves has signed," she said. "It shows that the issue of criminal justice reform continues to be a bipartisan issue even in the reddest of states."
Native American Nonprofit Calls on CNN to Fire Rick Santorum: 'Reckless and Irresponsible'
J. Clara Chan
J. Clara Chan
THE WRAP
4/26/2021
"Rick Santorum is fueling white supremacy by erasing the history of Native peoples," Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder of IllumiNative, says
IllumiNative, a nonprofit focused on challenging negative narratives about Native Americans, called on CNN to fire Rick Santorum on Monday after he dismissed Native culture and said there was "nothing" in the U.S. before colonizers arrived.
"Rick Santorum perpetuated a myth that whitewashes American history and attempts to erase Native peoples," Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder and executive director of IllumiNative, said in a statement. "American history that does not include Native peoples is a lie and Rick Santorum is fueling white supremacy by erasing the history of Native peoples. CNN should not give Rick Santorum a national platform where he can spew this type of ignorance and bigotry against communities of color on air. Allowing him to spread racism and white supremacy to the American public is reckless and irresponsible."
"CNN must do more to include Indigenous and diverse voices in its programming and fire Rick Santorum," Echo Hawk continued.
A spokesperson for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Santorum gave a speech for the Young America's Foundation, a conservative youth group, in which he claimed there "isn't much Native American culture in American culture" and said colonizers "birthed a nation from nothing." A video clip of his speech went viral Monday on social media, leading to public backlash against Santorum.
"We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn't much Native American culture in American culture," the former Pennsylvania senator and CNN political commentator said. "It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty."
In her statement on Monday, Echo Hawk pushed back on Santorum's baseless claim that Native culture isn't present in "American culture."
"The contributions of Native Americans are everywhere — our history, our land, and our culture are so important and meaningful that they were stolen by the very people who came to these shores," she said. "Despite these attempts to erase us, we continue to thrive."
© TheWrap Rick Santorum
"Rick Santorum is fueling white supremacy by erasing the history of Native peoples," Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder of IllumiNative, says
IllumiNative, a nonprofit focused on challenging negative narratives about Native Americans, called on CNN to fire Rick Santorum on Monday after he dismissed Native culture and said there was "nothing" in the U.S. before colonizers arrived.
"Rick Santorum perpetuated a myth that whitewashes American history and attempts to erase Native peoples," Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder and executive director of IllumiNative, said in a statement. "American history that does not include Native peoples is a lie and Rick Santorum is fueling white supremacy by erasing the history of Native peoples. CNN should not give Rick Santorum a national platform where he can spew this type of ignorance and bigotry against communities of color on air. Allowing him to spread racism and white supremacy to the American public is reckless and irresponsible."
"CNN must do more to include Indigenous and diverse voices in its programming and fire Rick Santorum," Echo Hawk continued.
A spokesperson for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Santorum gave a speech for the Young America's Foundation, a conservative youth group, in which he claimed there "isn't much Native American culture in American culture" and said colonizers "birthed a nation from nothing." A video clip of his speech went viral Monday on social media, leading to public backlash against Santorum.
"We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn't much Native American culture in American culture," the former Pennsylvania senator and CNN political commentator said. "It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty."
In her statement on Monday, Echo Hawk pushed back on Santorum's baseless claim that Native culture isn't present in "American culture."
"The contributions of Native Americans are everywhere — our history, our land, and our culture are so important and meaningful that they were stolen by the very people who came to these shores," she said. "Despite these attempts to erase us, we continue to thrive."
The Pentagon's explanation about why an unknown Florida company took over a giant slice of its internet leaves a key question unanswered
insider@insider.com (Katie Canales)
4/26/2021
A Florida company that took over a Pentagon-owned slice of the internet only stood up in September.
The company also doesn't have experience in working with government contracts.
It now controls about 175 million IP addresses, or roughly 1/25 of the world's internet space, per the AP.
"That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet," as one expert told the AP. It's also more than large internet companies like AT&T, Comcast, and China Telecom controls.
As the outlet notes, the company doesn't have a presence online, and per public records does not have a business license in Plantation, Florida, where it is based. The company filed paperwork in October, per Florida state records, detailing its incorporation in Delaware.
Reporters with the AP and The Washington Post visited the physical addresses listed under the company but were turned away without being given information.
Read the original article on Business Insider
© Provided by Business Insider Carlos Barria/Reuters
A Florida company that took over a Pentagon-owned slice of the internet only stood up in September.
The company also doesn't have experience in working with government contracts.
The Pentagon has responded to the news, but has not answered why it chose such a new firm.
The Pentagon has responded to how a mysterious Florida company was able to take over a large chunk of government-owned internet.
In a statement on Friday, Brett Goldstein, the chief of the Pentagon's defense digital service, said federal officials are working to "assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space" and hopes to "identify potential vulnerabilities" in its fight to curb cyberattacks of US networks, according to the Associated Press.
However, it hasn't explained why it entrusted that work to a firm - identified as Global Resource Systems LLC, which is based in Florida and incorporated in Delaware - that appears to have just launched in September and that lacks experience working with government contracts, the AP reported.
About three minutes before former President Donald Trump's term ended on January 20, the company posted on a global platform that it had taken over a massive section of unused internet that was owned by the Department of Defense, which had chosen Global Resource Systems LLC to manage its address space.
The Pentagon has responded to how a mysterious Florida company was able to take over a large chunk of government-owned internet.
In a statement on Friday, Brett Goldstein, the chief of the Pentagon's defense digital service, said federal officials are working to "assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space" and hopes to "identify potential vulnerabilities" in its fight to curb cyberattacks of US networks, according to the Associated Press.
However, it hasn't explained why it entrusted that work to a firm - identified as Global Resource Systems LLC, which is based in Florida and incorporated in Delaware - that appears to have just launched in September and that lacks experience working with government contracts, the AP reported.
About three minutes before former President Donald Trump's term ended on January 20, the company posted on a global platform that it had taken over a massive section of unused internet that was owned by the Department of Defense, which had chosen Global Resource Systems LLC to manage its address space.
It now controls about 175 million IP addresses, or roughly 1/25 of the world's internet space, per the AP.
"That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet," as one expert told the AP. It's also more than large internet companies like AT&T, Comcast, and China Telecom controls.
As the outlet notes, the company doesn't have a presence online, and per public records does not have a business license in Plantation, Florida, where it is based. The company filed paperwork in October, per Florida state records, detailing its incorporation in Delaware.
Reporters with the AP and The Washington Post visited the physical addresses listed under the company but were turned away without being given information.
Read the original article on Business Insider
US marks slowest population growth since the Depression
AP NEWS 4/27/2021
WASHINGTON — U.S. population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Monday, as Americans continued their march to the South and West and one-time engines of growth, New York and California, lost political influence
AP NEWS 4/27/2021
WASHINGTON — U.S. population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Monday, as Americans continued their march to the South and West and one-time engines of growth, New York and California, lost political influence
.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281 last year, the Census Bureau said, a 7.4% increase over the previous decade that was the second-slowest ever. Experts say that paltry pace reflects the combination of an aging population, slowing immigration and the scars of the Great Recession more than a decade ago, which led many young adults to delay marriage and families.
The new allocation of congressional seats comes in the first release of data from last year's headcount. The numbers generally chart familiar American migration patterns: Texas and Florida, two Republican Sunbelt giants, added enough population to gain congressional seats as chillier climes like New York and Ohio saw slow growth and lost political muscle. The report also confirms one historic marker: For the first time in 170 years of statehood, California is losing a congressional seat, a result of slowed migration to the nation’s most populous state, which was once a symbol of the country’s expansive frontier.
The state population figures, known as the apportionment count, determine distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year. They also mark the official beginning of once-a-decade redistricting battles. The numbers released Monday, along with more detailed data expected later this year, will be used by state legislatures or independent commissions to redraw political maps to account for shifts in population.
It’s been a bumpy road getting this far. The 2020 census faced a once-in-a-century coronavirus pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, allegations of political interference with the Trump administration’s failed effort to add a citizenship question, fluctuating deadlines and lawsuits.
Texas was the biggest winner — the second-most populous state added two congressional seats, while Florida and North Carolina each gained one. Colorado, Montana and Oregon all added residents and gained a seat each. States losing seats included Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The new numbers contain some surprises. Though Texas and Florida grew, the final census count had them each gaining one fewer seat than expected. Arizona, another fast-growing state that demographers considered a sure bet to pick up a new seat, failed to get one. All three states have large Latino populations that represent about half their growth, and this could be an early sign that Hispanics shied away from the Trump administration’s count.
Still, Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund, said he wasn’t ready to “sound the alarm” over the underperformance of states with large Hispanic populations. He noted that he believes Hispanic growth helped states like Colorado and Oregon each gain seats and prevented states like New York and Illinois from losing more.
Congressional reapportionment is a zero sum game, with states divvying up the 435 House seats based on population advantages that can be strikingly small. If New York had counted 89 more residents, the state would have kept its seat and Minnesota would have lost one, officials said. Minnesota, which had the nation’s highest self-response rate, also secured the last House seat in 2010.
The reshuffling of the congressional map moved seats from blue states to red ones, giving Republicans a clear, immediate advantage. The party will have complete control of drawing the congressional maps in Texas, Florida and North Carolina — states that are adding four seats.
In contrast, though Democrats control the process in Oregon, Democratic lawmakers there have agreed to give Republicans an equal say in redistricting in exchange for a commitment to stop blocking bills. In Democratic Colorado, a nonpartisan commission will draw the lines, meaning the party won’t have total control in a single expanding state’s redistricting.
The overall numbers confirm what demographers have long warned — that the country's growth is stalling. Many had expected growth to come in even below the 1930s levels given the long hangover of the Great Recession and the drying up of immigration, which came to a virtual halt during last year's pandemic.
William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., warned that even a recovering economy may not change the trend with the population aging rapidly and immigration contentious. “Unlike the Great Depression, it's part of a process where we're likely to keep having slow growth,” Frey said.
Meanwhile, Americans continue to move to GOP-run states. For now, that shift provides the Republicans with the opportunity to shape new congressional districts to maximize the influence of their voters and have a major advantage in upcoming elections — possibly enough to win back control of the U.S. House.
But in the long term, it's not clear the migration is good news for Republicans. Many of the fastest growing states are increasingly competitive political battlegrounds where the new arrivals — including many young people and people of colour — could at some point give Democrats an edge.
“What's happening is growth in Sunbelt states that are trending Democratic or will soon trend Democratic,” Frey said.
That means Republicans may be limited in how many favourable seats they can draw as Democrats move to their territory.
“It's going to be harder and harder for the Texas Legislature to gerrymander advantageous congressional districts” for Republicans, said William Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston. “Texas hasn't flipped blue yet as a state, but the blue population centres are growing really fast.”
Fulton, who moved to Texas from California, said his new home has become “the new California — the big state that's adding a lot of population.” He believes California risks becoming the new Northeast — which he characterized as a stagnant, crowded area that retains wealth and intellectual clout but loses innovators to more promising places.
Despite California's slow growth, the state still has 10 million more residents than Texas.
North Carolina and Texas, Fulton said, are positioned to become the intellectual powerhouses of the new economy, as the South has snatched away major manufacturing industries like automobiles from the Rust Belt. “We are 10-20 years away from the South and the West being truly dominant in American culture and American society,” Fulton said.
But population booms also bring new burdens, like increased traffic, rising home prices and strains on an infrastructure already grappling with climate change — vividly illustrated when the Texas power grid failed in the winter storms of February.
The pattern outlined in the the Census data was one started in the 1930s with the development of modern air-conditioning and has been steady since then. The change in the pattern this time was California.
Home prices have soared in California, contributing to a stream of residents leaving for other Western states. Those relocations helped turn Colorado and Nevada into Democratic states and made Arizona competitive.
"That's the California exodus, blue state immigrants,” Frey said. “Californians are taking their votes and moving to other places.”
The power shift is also being driven by Hispanics. Over the decade, Hispanics accounted for around half of the growth in Arizona, Florida and Texas, according to figures from the American Community Survey, a Census Bureau program separate from the decennial census.
The legal deadline for turning in the apportionment numbers was Dec. 31, but the Census Bureau pushed back that date to April because of challenges caused by the pandemic and the need for more time to correct not-unexpected irregularities.
More detailed figures will be released later this year showing populations by race, Hispanic origin, gender and housing at geographic levels as small as neighbourhoods. This redistricting data will be used for redrawing precise congressional and legislative districts.
President Joe Biden sent Monday's numbers to the Capitol, where the House clerk has 15 days to notify governors.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi
Mike Schneider And Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press
Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281 last year, the Census Bureau said, a 7.4% increase over the previous decade that was the second-slowest ever. Experts say that paltry pace reflects the combination of an aging population, slowing immigration and the scars of the Great Recession more than a decade ago, which led many young adults to delay marriage and families.
The new allocation of congressional seats comes in the first release of data from last year's headcount. The numbers generally chart familiar American migration patterns: Texas and Florida, two Republican Sunbelt giants, added enough population to gain congressional seats as chillier climes like New York and Ohio saw slow growth and lost political muscle. The report also confirms one historic marker: For the first time in 170 years of statehood, California is losing a congressional seat, a result of slowed migration to the nation’s most populous state, which was once a symbol of the country’s expansive frontier.
The state population figures, known as the apportionment count, determine distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year. They also mark the official beginning of once-a-decade redistricting battles. The numbers released Monday, along with more detailed data expected later this year, will be used by state legislatures or independent commissions to redraw political maps to account for shifts in population.
It’s been a bumpy road getting this far. The 2020 census faced a once-in-a-century coronavirus pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, allegations of political interference with the Trump administration’s failed effort to add a citizenship question, fluctuating deadlines and lawsuits.
Texas was the biggest winner — the second-most populous state added two congressional seats, while Florida and North Carolina each gained one. Colorado, Montana and Oregon all added residents and gained a seat each. States losing seats included Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The new numbers contain some surprises. Though Texas and Florida grew, the final census count had them each gaining one fewer seat than expected. Arizona, another fast-growing state that demographers considered a sure bet to pick up a new seat, failed to get one. All three states have large Latino populations that represent about half their growth, and this could be an early sign that Hispanics shied away from the Trump administration’s count.
Still, Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund, said he wasn’t ready to “sound the alarm” over the underperformance of states with large Hispanic populations. He noted that he believes Hispanic growth helped states like Colorado and Oregon each gain seats and prevented states like New York and Illinois from losing more.
Congressional reapportionment is a zero sum game, with states divvying up the 435 House seats based on population advantages that can be strikingly small. If New York had counted 89 more residents, the state would have kept its seat and Minnesota would have lost one, officials said. Minnesota, which had the nation’s highest self-response rate, also secured the last House seat in 2010.
The reshuffling of the congressional map moved seats from blue states to red ones, giving Republicans a clear, immediate advantage. The party will have complete control of drawing the congressional maps in Texas, Florida and North Carolina — states that are adding four seats.
In contrast, though Democrats control the process in Oregon, Democratic lawmakers there have agreed to give Republicans an equal say in redistricting in exchange for a commitment to stop blocking bills. In Democratic Colorado, a nonpartisan commission will draw the lines, meaning the party won’t have total control in a single expanding state’s redistricting.
The overall numbers confirm what demographers have long warned — that the country's growth is stalling. Many had expected growth to come in even below the 1930s levels given the long hangover of the Great Recession and the drying up of immigration, which came to a virtual halt during last year's pandemic.
William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., warned that even a recovering economy may not change the trend with the population aging rapidly and immigration contentious. “Unlike the Great Depression, it's part of a process where we're likely to keep having slow growth,” Frey said.
Meanwhile, Americans continue to move to GOP-run states. For now, that shift provides the Republicans with the opportunity to shape new congressional districts to maximize the influence of their voters and have a major advantage in upcoming elections — possibly enough to win back control of the U.S. House.
But in the long term, it's not clear the migration is good news for Republicans. Many of the fastest growing states are increasingly competitive political battlegrounds where the new arrivals — including many young people and people of colour — could at some point give Democrats an edge.
“What's happening is growth in Sunbelt states that are trending Democratic or will soon trend Democratic,” Frey said.
That means Republicans may be limited in how many favourable seats they can draw as Democrats move to their territory.
“It's going to be harder and harder for the Texas Legislature to gerrymander advantageous congressional districts” for Republicans, said William Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston. “Texas hasn't flipped blue yet as a state, but the blue population centres are growing really fast.”
Fulton, who moved to Texas from California, said his new home has become “the new California — the big state that's adding a lot of population.” He believes California risks becoming the new Northeast — which he characterized as a stagnant, crowded area that retains wealth and intellectual clout but loses innovators to more promising places.
Despite California's slow growth, the state still has 10 million more residents than Texas.
North Carolina and Texas, Fulton said, are positioned to become the intellectual powerhouses of the new economy, as the South has snatched away major manufacturing industries like automobiles from the Rust Belt. “We are 10-20 years away from the South and the West being truly dominant in American culture and American society,” Fulton said.
But population booms also bring new burdens, like increased traffic, rising home prices and strains on an infrastructure already grappling with climate change — vividly illustrated when the Texas power grid failed in the winter storms of February.
The pattern outlined in the the Census data was one started in the 1930s with the development of modern air-conditioning and has been steady since then. The change in the pattern this time was California.
Home prices have soared in California, contributing to a stream of residents leaving for other Western states. Those relocations helped turn Colorado and Nevada into Democratic states and made Arizona competitive.
"That's the California exodus, blue state immigrants,” Frey said. “Californians are taking their votes and moving to other places.”
The power shift is also being driven by Hispanics. Over the decade, Hispanics accounted for around half of the growth in Arizona, Florida and Texas, according to figures from the American Community Survey, a Census Bureau program separate from the decennial census.
The legal deadline for turning in the apportionment numbers was Dec. 31, but the Census Bureau pushed back that date to April because of challenges caused by the pandemic and the need for more time to correct not-unexpected irregularities.
More detailed figures will be released later this year showing populations by race, Hispanic origin, gender and housing at geographic levels as small as neighbourhoods. This redistricting data will be used for redrawing precise congressional and legislative districts.
President Joe Biden sent Monday's numbers to the Capitol, where the House clerk has 15 days to notify governors.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi
Mike Schneider And Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press
INSIDER TRADING
The CEO of Emergent, the company that ruined 15 million J&J vaccine doses, sold more than $10 million in stock before prices fell
salarshani@businessinsider.com (Sarah Al-Arshani)
salarshani@businessinsider.com (Sarah Al-Arshani)
4/27/2021
The company's CEO, Robert Kramer, sold more than $10 million worth of stock in January and early February.
It was reported last month that their Maryland facility ruined millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines.
The CEO of Emergent BioSolutions, the company that ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, sold more than $10 million worth of his stock in the company before the price fell, The Washington Post reported.
Robert Kramer sold the stocks in January and early February, right before the price fell on February 19 after the company's published financial report. The price has since dropped from $125 a share to $62, a more than 50% drop, the Post reported.
The stocks Kramer sold would now be worth $5.5 million and were his first substantive sales of the company's stock since 2016.
He made his current sale because of the compensation package the company gave him. He was able to buy the stocks for about $2.5 million and then sell them for market price. The sale was a part of a November 13 trading plan, the Post reported.
Those plans are made in advance on when stocks are bought and sold and help protect members of the company from being accused of insider trading.
On March 31, it was reported that Emergent, which also produced coronavirus vaccines for AstraZeneca, had ruined 15 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines due to human error when employees mixed up ingredients for the two different vaccines.
After the news of the ruined doses, shares in the company tumbled by as much as 14.5%.
Democrats in the House of Representatives also recently launched an investigation into whether or not the company was granted a federal contract to make the shots because of a connection to a top former Trump administration official, CNBC reported.
Emergent did not reply to Insider's request for comment at the time of publication but spokeswoman Nina DeLorenzo told the Post: "Mr. Kramer, our executive team, and our board of directors are held to the highest ethical standards and follow strict compliance with all laws and regulations governing financial transactions. Any insinuation of wrongdoing is without evidence or merit."
The company faced issues since April 2020, when a Food and Drug Administration inspector found violations, including failures to follow testing procedures at the Baltimore facility, the Post reported.
A New York Times report from earlier this month revealed that a batch of AstraZeneca's vaccine was discarded in October 2020 because of suspected contamination. The next month a batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccine was also discarded because of employee error.
The Post also reported that the company was sued for $19 million in July 2020 by a company that asked them to produce an experimental ricin vaccine. That company had already given doses of the vaccine produced by Emergent to participants in a study of the drug before it was revealed that Emergent used ingredients that were outside of specifications.
© Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Employees work in a lab at Emergent Biosolutions, which is manufacturing vaccines for AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson on February 8, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland.
There are millions of doses in the building which are awaiting FDA approval to be distributed. The botched rollout of vaccines in Maryland has put more pressure on getting more vaccines out into circulation.
Emergent BioSolutions stock prices fell by over 50% on February 19, The Washington Post reported.
The company's CEO, Robert Kramer, sold more than $10 million worth of stock in January and early February.
It was reported last month that their Maryland facility ruined millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines.
The CEO of Emergent BioSolutions, the company that ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, sold more than $10 million worth of his stock in the company before the price fell, The Washington Post reported.
Robert Kramer sold the stocks in January and early February, right before the price fell on February 19 after the company's published financial report. The price has since dropped from $125 a share to $62, a more than 50% drop, the Post reported.
The stocks Kramer sold would now be worth $5.5 million and were his first substantive sales of the company's stock since 2016.
He made his current sale because of the compensation package the company gave him. He was able to buy the stocks for about $2.5 million and then sell them for market price. The sale was a part of a November 13 trading plan, the Post reported.
Those plans are made in advance on when stocks are bought and sold and help protect members of the company from being accused of insider trading.
On March 31, it was reported that Emergent, which also produced coronavirus vaccines for AstraZeneca, had ruined 15 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines due to human error when employees mixed up ingredients for the two different vaccines.
After the news of the ruined doses, shares in the company tumbled by as much as 14.5%.
Democrats in the House of Representatives also recently launched an investigation into whether or not the company was granted a federal contract to make the shots because of a connection to a top former Trump administration official, CNBC reported.
Emergent did not reply to Insider's request for comment at the time of publication but spokeswoman Nina DeLorenzo told the Post: "Mr. Kramer, our executive team, and our board of directors are held to the highest ethical standards and follow strict compliance with all laws and regulations governing financial transactions. Any insinuation of wrongdoing is without evidence or merit."
The company faced issues since April 2020, when a Food and Drug Administration inspector found violations, including failures to follow testing procedures at the Baltimore facility, the Post reported.
A New York Times report from earlier this month revealed that a batch of AstraZeneca's vaccine was discarded in October 2020 because of suspected contamination. The next month a batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccine was also discarded because of employee error.
The Post also reported that the company was sued for $19 million in July 2020 by a company that asked them to produce an experimental ricin vaccine. That company had already given doses of the vaccine produced by Emergent to participants in a study of the drug before it was revealed that Emergent used ingredients that were outside of specifications.
Read the original article on Business Insid
HSBC profit jumps as vaccine rollout spurs recovery hopes
By Lawrence White 10 hrs ago
© Reuters/Carlo Allegri FILE PHOTO: An HSBC bank logo is pictured in New York
LONDON (Reuters) -HSBC Holdings PLC beat quarterly profit forecasts and released $400 million it had set aside to cover bad loans caused by the pandemic, as rapid vaccine rollouts in the United States and Britain raise hopes for an economic recovery.
Europe's biggest bank by assets cautioned, however, that high levels of uncertainty meant it was keeping the bulk of the $3 billion it set aside a year ago to cover potential bad debts.
"We are still being relatively cautious, and we've retained about 70% of the reserve build up we did last year," Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson told Reuters.
LONDON (Reuters) -HSBC Holdings PLC beat quarterly profit forecasts and released $400 million it had set aside to cover bad loans caused by the pandemic, as rapid vaccine rollouts in the United States and Britain raise hopes for an economic recovery.
Europe's biggest bank by assets cautioned, however, that high levels of uncertainty meant it was keeping the bulk of the $3 billion it set aside a year ago to cover potential bad debts.
"We are still being relatively cautious, and we've retained about 70% of the reserve build up we did last year," Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson told Reuters.
HSBC reported on Tuesday profit before tax of $5.78 billion for the three months to March 30, up from $3.21 billion a year ago and well above analysts' average forecast of $3.35 billion as compiled by the bank.
However, this compared with $6.21 billion in the same period in 2019, showing the lender has some way to go to get back to pre-pandemic profit levels.
HSBC, which makes the bulk of its profits in Asia, said its credit losses for 2021 were likely to be below the medium-term range of 30-40 basis points it forecast in February.
Despite a plan to shift more business to Asia, Chief Executive Noel Quinn said the lender had no immediate plans to move its headquarters from Britain to the region.
London is still "a good place for the head office of an international bank," Quinn told reporters.
HSBC shares rose 1.7 % in London, the best performers in the benchmark FTSE index and reflecting earlier gains in its Hong Kong-listed shares.
"We are more optimistic than we were back in February, we expect GDP to rebound in every economy in which we operate this year," Quinn told Reuters, citing the successful rollout of vaccines in the United States and Britain as a key factor.
RATES SQUEEZE
HSBC's improved outlook and profits paled in comparison to U.S. rival JPMorgan, which earlier this month reported a 400% increase in quarterly profit and released more than $5 billion in bad loan provisions.
That partly reflected the European lender's heavy reliance on global interest rates to make money, which it said in February it would try to address by shifting to more fee-based business, such as wealth management.
Hibor, the benchmark lending rate in HSBC's most profitable market of Hong Kong, was near 10-year lows for much of the quarter, and the lender's revenue overall fell 5% as such low rates compressed income from lending.
"HSBC is not alone in feeling the squeeze of net interest margins, which tightened again slightly over the quarter, but other banks with huge investment banking arms have been able to capitalise on the trading surge over the past year," said Susannah Streeter, analyst at online investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
While HSBC lagged U.S. peers in its performance, it at least avoided losses from the collapse of U.S. investment fund Archegos that blighted European rival UBS's results.
HSBC had no direct or indirect exposure to Archegos, Quinn told reporters.
HSBC also said it was continuing negotiations for the sale of its French retail banking business, but no final decision had been taken. Reuters reported last month that HSBC had entered negotiations to sell the business, which has 270 branches, to private equity firm Cerberus.
The lender likewise had no update on progress to dispose of its similarly underperforming U.S. retail banking business.
(Reporting by Lawrence White. Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Potter)
Credit Suisse investors exposed to collapsed Greensill Capital fund are facing another $190 million of losses
egraffeo@businessinsider.com (Emily Graffeo)
© Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at a branch office in Bern, Switzerland October 28, 2020. Picture taken October 28, 2020. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Credit Suisse investors exposed to the collapsed Greensill Capital fund may face an additional $190 million loss on their holdings.
Greensill filed for insolvency in March when it couldn't roll over insurance coverage for products in sourced and packaged.
Credit Suisse investors who were exposed to funds invested in assets sourced by collapsed financial firm Greensill Capital may face an additional $190 million loss on their holdings, according to Bloomberg.
A discount of roughly 7% will be applied to notes on a book of around $2.8 billion loans held in the funds, which will add to losses stemming from troubled borrowers including Katerra, BlueStone Resources, and GFG Alliance, reported Bloomberg, citing a Credit Suisse statement.
Greensill Capital filed for insolvency on March 8 as it couldn't roll over insurance coverage for some of the products it sourced and packaged and couldn't repay a $140 million loan to Credit Suisse. The firm specialized in supply-chain finance, a type of short-term cash advance to companies to stretch out the time they have to pay their bills.
Credit Suisse added that the valuation on the $2.3 billion notes linked to Katerra, Bluestone and GFG remain uncertain. Credit Suisse did not identify creditors that may not fully repay the loans.
Read the original article on Business Insider
UBS, Nomura push global banks' Archegos losses over $10 billion
4/27/2021
© Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
Logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS reported an unexpected $774 million loss on Tuesday from the collapse of U.S. investment fund Archegos, taking the total hit to global banks from the stricken family office beyond $10 billion.
The charge taken by Switzerland's biggest bank comes as the fallout from Archegos continues to ripple across the banking industry, with Nomura posting on Tuesday its biggest quarterly loss in over a decade as a result of its dealings with the stricken fund. The Japanese bank said it will book losses of around $2.9 billion this year on Archegos.
Morgan Stanley lost nearly $1 billion on the family office's implosion while UBS' cross-town rival Credit Suisse has been hit the hardest with a more than $5 billion charge after Archegos defaulted on margin calls in late March, triggering a fire sale of stocks.
UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, said it was now reviewing all of its client relationships both within its prime brokerage unit, which caters to hedge funds, and within its family office business, which manages very large pools of money for wealthy individuals and families. It is also reviewing its risk management systems.
"I understand you're disappointed. We are disappointed as well," UBS Chief Executive Ralph Hamers told analysts on a call fielding queries over the loss, the extent of which had surprised investors.
UBS shares fell 3.0% in morning trade.
"(The Archegos loss) highlights the inherent risk in its capital markets activities and presents a setback against its (UBS's) otherwise risk-averse culture," Moody's analyst Michael Rohr said in a note. "The bank's strong capital and liquidity remain key credit strengths safeguarding its financial profile and ratings."
UBS, which had previously declined to comment on any fallout from Archegos, said on Tuesday the revenue hit to its prime brokerage business had reduced net profit by $434 million in the first quarter.
Still, net profit of $1.82 billion for the first three months of 2021 beat the $1.59 billion median forecast from 20 analysts polled by the bank amid a bumper quarter for debt and stock deals.
Hamers, who took over from long-time boss Sergio Ermotti in November, was hired to help boost the bank's digitalisation efforts after a successful stint doing so at ING.
But his start at UBS, widely lauded as an opportunity to prime the bank for a more tech-centred future, has been complicated by a Dutch criminal investigation into his role in money laundering failings at ING.
Hamers announced several strategic initiatives when he spoke to analysts on Tuesday, centered around making UBS a faster and more client-driven "digital native" firm focused on sustainable investing.
A simplification of its setup and new digitalisation efforts should help generate approximately $1 billion in gross savings per year by 2023, the bank said.
UBS has taken a back seat in financial headlines over recent months, after a slew of painful missteps at its nearest rival Credit Suisse prompted losses, sackings and probes at Switzerland's No. 2 bank.
Hamers on Tuesday said the bank did not feel the need to disclose the loss on Archegos earlier due to the strong Q1 results, and had no plans to ditch its prime brokerage business following the debacle.
It had exited all remaining positions in April, leading to a further $87 million trading loss in the second quarter, Hamers said.
Taking a cautious approach towards the second quarter, the bank said it expected client activity levels to come down from the highs seen in the first three months of the year, partially offset by a boost in recurring fees it generates off managing client investments due to higher asset prices.
RECORD CLIENT ACTIVITY
UBS derives the biggest chunk of its profits from advising and managing money for the world's rich, while also maintaining smaller global investment banking and asset management operations.
It conducts retail and corporate banking only in its home market.
That business model paid off in 2020, as its low-risk lending book - comprised primarily of mortgages and loans to the wealthy, as well as a smaller portion of corporate and retail credits in its prosperous Swiss home market - suffered fewer losses than many high street peers.
Now, in the first three months of 2021, the bank once again overshot financial targets on the back of record activity across its client franchises.
U.S. banks posted forecast-beating results for the first quarter, with Goldman Sachs boosting profits six-fold and Morgan Stanley raising profits 150% despite disclosing a nearly $1 billion loss on Archegos.
UBS, however, saw investment banking pre-tax profit fall 42% on the back of the charge related to Archegos and more modest revenue growth in the rest of its trading business.
Wealth management saw profits rise 16% as lending growth and high transaction levels helped cushion the impact from falling and persistently low interest rates.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; additional reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Carmel Crimmins)
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS reported an unexpected $774 million loss on Tuesday from the collapse of U.S. investment fund Archegos, taking the total hit to global banks from the stricken family office beyond $10 billion.
The charge taken by Switzerland's biggest bank comes as the fallout from Archegos continues to ripple across the banking industry, with Nomura posting on Tuesday its biggest quarterly loss in over a decade as a result of its dealings with the stricken fund. The Japanese bank said it will book losses of around $2.9 billion this year on Archegos.
Morgan Stanley lost nearly $1 billion on the family office's implosion while UBS' cross-town rival Credit Suisse has been hit the hardest with a more than $5 billion charge after Archegos defaulted on margin calls in late March, triggering a fire sale of stocks.
UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, said it was now reviewing all of its client relationships both within its prime brokerage unit, which caters to hedge funds, and within its family office business, which manages very large pools of money for wealthy individuals and families. It is also reviewing its risk management systems.
"I understand you're disappointed. We are disappointed as well," UBS Chief Executive Ralph Hamers told analysts on a call fielding queries over the loss, the extent of which had surprised investors.
UBS shares fell 3.0% in morning trade.
"(The Archegos loss) highlights the inherent risk in its capital markets activities and presents a setback against its (UBS's) otherwise risk-averse culture," Moody's analyst Michael Rohr said in a note. "The bank's strong capital and liquidity remain key credit strengths safeguarding its financial profile and ratings."
UBS, which had previously declined to comment on any fallout from Archegos, said on Tuesday the revenue hit to its prime brokerage business had reduced net profit by $434 million in the first quarter.
Still, net profit of $1.82 billion for the first three months of 2021 beat the $1.59 billion median forecast from 20 analysts polled by the bank amid a bumper quarter for debt and stock deals.
Hamers, who took over from long-time boss Sergio Ermotti in November, was hired to help boost the bank's digitalisation efforts after a successful stint doing so at ING.
But his start at UBS, widely lauded as an opportunity to prime the bank for a more tech-centred future, has been complicated by a Dutch criminal investigation into his role in money laundering failings at ING.
Hamers announced several strategic initiatives when he spoke to analysts on Tuesday, centered around making UBS a faster and more client-driven "digital native" firm focused on sustainable investing.
A simplification of its setup and new digitalisation efforts should help generate approximately $1 billion in gross savings per year by 2023, the bank said.
UBS has taken a back seat in financial headlines over recent months, after a slew of painful missteps at its nearest rival Credit Suisse prompted losses, sackings and probes at Switzerland's No. 2 bank.
Hamers on Tuesday said the bank did not feel the need to disclose the loss on Archegos earlier due to the strong Q1 results, and had no plans to ditch its prime brokerage business following the debacle.
It had exited all remaining positions in April, leading to a further $87 million trading loss in the second quarter, Hamers said.
Taking a cautious approach towards the second quarter, the bank said it expected client activity levels to come down from the highs seen in the first three months of the year, partially offset by a boost in recurring fees it generates off managing client investments due to higher asset prices.
RECORD CLIENT ACTIVITY
UBS derives the biggest chunk of its profits from advising and managing money for the world's rich, while also maintaining smaller global investment banking and asset management operations.
It conducts retail and corporate banking only in its home market.
That business model paid off in 2020, as its low-risk lending book - comprised primarily of mortgages and loans to the wealthy, as well as a smaller portion of corporate and retail credits in its prosperous Swiss home market - suffered fewer losses than many high street peers.
Now, in the first three months of 2021, the bank once again overshot financial targets on the back of record activity across its client franchises.
U.S. banks posted forecast-beating results for the first quarter, with Goldman Sachs boosting profits six-fold and Morgan Stanley raising profits 150% despite disclosing a nearly $1 billion loss on Archegos.
UBS, however, saw investment banking pre-tax profit fall 42% on the back of the charge related to Archegos and more modest revenue growth in the rest of its trading business.
Wealth management saw profits rise 16% as lending growth and high transaction levels helped cushion the impact from falling and persistently low interest rates.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; additional reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Carmel Crimmins)
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