AN EGO AS BIG AS ALL OUTDOORS

Jeff Bezos wanted to do a big reveal when Amazon announced its Climate Pledge, and Amazon considered having him unveil it from a polar ice cap

ahartmans@businessinsider.com (Avery Hartmans) 

© Provided by Business Insider Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Jeff Bezos wanted a big reveal when Amazon announced its Climate Pledge in 2019.

One idea included having him announce the pledge from a polar ice cap.

Amazon settled on having Bezos unveil it at the National Press Club instead.

When Amazon unveiled its ambitious Climate Pledge two years ago, CEO Jeff Bezos wanted a big reveal.

In the months leading up to Amazon's announcement in September 2019, Amazon employees worked to figure out the best "grand gesture" - like having Bezos reveal the Climate Pledge in a video he would personally film on a polar ice cap, according to the new book "Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire," by Brad Stone.

According to Stone, employees from Amazon's public relations department and sustainability teams spent a few days trying to figure out how to send Bezos to the Arctic before giving up on the idea. The plan would have been incredibly challenging, not to mention it would have left a notable carbon footprint - not the best look given that the Climate Pledge vows that Amazon will be carbon neutral by 2040.

A spokesperson for Amazon declined to comment.

Amazon eventually settled on having Bezos announce the pledge during a conversation at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, with Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Read more: Internal memo shows one tactic Amazon uses to force a set number of employees out every year

As part of the Climate Pledge, Amazon has pledged to regularly measure and report its emissions and to eventually eliminate its carbon use, and will meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations' climate change treaty, 10 years ahead of schedule. Since 2019, other major corporations like Uber and JetBlue have joined the pledge.

But Amazon's own employees have criticized the company's environmental initiatives, saying Amazon should push to be carbon neutral by 2030 instead.

In June of last year, Amazon announced that a Seattle sports arena that's home to the WNBA's Seattle Storm and Seattle's NHL team would be renamed "Climate Pledge Arena" to serve "as a regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action."

From Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk, Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire beat deserves scrutiny

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business 
A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. 

WANTED FOR THEFT OF THE COMMONWEALTH

This era of extreme wealth, expanding inequality, and expected oversharing has given rise to a new beat: Covering America's billionaire class.

Consider just the past few days of headlines: Lots of news and noise about Elon Musk's turn hosting "SNL." New revelations about Bill Gates' divorce. No shortage of opinions about how Mark Zuckerberg should handle Donald Trump's suspended Facebook account.

On a more personal note, new complaints about Zuckerberg's land holdings in Hawaii. And at least two eye-popping stories about Jeff Bezos: One about his new superyacht that will come with its own "support yacht," and another about his sale of nearly $2.5 billion in Amazon stock. Bezos is also the subject of a new book, "Amazon Unbound," by Brad Stone, which hits on Tuesday.


This is a different category of coverage than, say, the classic Forbes lists, or the daily Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world's richest people. Those lists certainly have some value; both Forbes and Bloomberg have dedicated "wealth" teams that do good work. But as the world's richest men and women have an outsized impact on the rest of us, they merit an outsized amount of attention and scrutiny too.

"The other side of inequality"

On Twitter, Recode reporter Teddy Schleifer describes his beat as "billionaires in America," which means subjects like philanthropy, money-in-politics and inequality. "The media does a great job of covering inequality from the lens of the poor," he told me. "But there's actually shockingly little coverage of inequality from the lens of the mega-rich. What motivates these people? Do they feel guilty for, say, getting wealthier during COVID — or is it not their fault? How do they channel their billions into a form of soft power through political donations and philanthropy? I do see the billionaire beat as public-service journalism because it can help us understand the other side of inequality: What it's like to be outrageously rich. It's a challenging beat given all the gatekeepers and fluff, but more newsrooms should be trying to answer these questions."


How to cover the world's richest man

Amazon "is a secretive company and he's a secretive person," Stone said when I asked about his book-length coverage of Bezos and Amazon. So: How to puncture the Bezos bubble? "Fortunately there is a lot of turnover at Amazon," he said, "and there's a vast population of employees who are kind of willing to talk and describe what they saw at the revolution." As for access to Bezos directly, "he's really only done a handful of public appearances, usually with a kind of friendly questioner, and nothing recently," Stone said. Plus, "he's got a lot of channels to go directly to his customers and to his fans." All worthy of scrutiny!


The world's second richest man cracks jokes

On "SNL," Musk "didn't waste any time jumping into jokes about his Twitter account, smoking weed with Joe Rogan, and his son's name," Frank Pallotta wrote in this recap. Musk also shared that he has Asperger's syndrome. "To anyone I've offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship," Musk said. "Did you also think I was going to be a chill normal dude?"

>> Among other firsts, Saturday's "SNL" was the first time the show has ever been live-streamed internationally, via YouTube...


Musk's show -- not very funny?

Brian Lowry writes: "Here's my knee-jerk, 'Old man yells at cloud' reaction to 'SNL:' It was another mostly mediocre episode, in a second half of a season filled with them. The fact that there's a need to make much more out of it because of Musk's appearance/profile frankly says as much about the current traffic-driven media environment as the show itself. And the preliminary ratings -- which show a modest lift, but not a huge one -- are pretty well indicative of how media bubbles can skew one's perceptions..."


There's nothing funny about this

The most-read story on the WSJ website Sunday night was headlined "Melinda Gates Was Meeting With Divorce Lawyers Since 2019."

Emily Glazer and Khadeeja Safdar reported that the Gates divorce was in the works for years. Like this NYT story about the "separate worlds" of the two philanthropists, the Journal story is largely attributed to insiders and other anonymous sources...


"Perhaps the billionaires can't hide any longer"

That's what Stone remarked to me after we got off the air on Sunday. "Social media has put everyone at arms-length," he said. "Everyone in their orbit has a story about them to tell. Elon is an example of someone who has embraced it and bent it to his will, conscripting his following into a fandom. Bezos and Gates are more old-school, and don't do it nearly as gracefully..."


Some intel about the WaPo editor search

On Sunday's "Reliable," Stone said that Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan has been leading the search process for a new exec editor, but Bezos is intimately involved: "Last week I understand that Bezos was in Washington and interviewing some of the finalists for that role..."

LGBT+ campaigners fear more delay to UK conversion therapy ban

Government plan for public to be consulted on measures to tackle practice criticised by gay rights advocates

Jayne Ozanne, a former government adviser on LGBT issues, said a dangerous loophole risked being created if ministers focused purely on coercive practices. Photograph: Sam Atkins


Harriet Sherwood
@harrietsherwood
Tue 11 May 2021 

Campaigners for LGBT+ rights have criticised the prospect of a further delay before ministers fulfil a pledge to ban conversion practices, sometimes known as “gay cure” therapy.

Consultations will be held before measures to ban the “coercive and abhorrent practice” are brought forward, the government said on Tuesday. It first pledged to introduce a ban three years ago.

The government said it wanted to ensure action was “proportionate and effective, and does not have unintended consequences”. Freedom of speech must be defended and religious freedom upheld, it said.

No timeframe has been given for the consultation but the government wants it to be “short and prompt”, the prime minister’s spokesperson said. The government has also commissioned research into the scope of practices and experiences of those subjected to conversion therapy.

Liz Truss, the minister for women and equalities, said: “This government has always been committed to stamping out the practice of conversion therapy. We want to make sure that people in this country are protected, and these proposals mean nobody will be subjected to coercive and abhorrent conversion therapy.”

Jayne Ozanne, who quit as a government adviser on LGBT issues in March, said she was relieved a ban would be introduced but added: “We do not need yet more delay, they have consulted long enough. We need action now before more lives are lost.”

She warned that a “dangerous loophole” risked being created if the government focused purely on coercive practices. Talking therapies and prayer are also used to try to suppress sexuality.

Polling released on Tuesday by YouGov shows that almost two-thirds (64%) of British adults believe conversion therapy should be banned. Support for banning the practice is shared across the political spectrum and all age groups, according to the survey of 1,803 adults in April.

Dr Adrian James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said conversion therapy was “unacceptable and harmful” and the college fully supported a ban.

Business leaders in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin urge court to keep Line 5 operating


WASHINGTON — Business leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin have joined forces with their Canadian counterparts in the legal fight over the Line 5 pipeline.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The U.S. and Canadian chambers of commerce are also included in a new legal brief filed with the U.S. District Court in Michigan.

The filing comes after a similar brief was submitted yesterday by the federal Liberal government urging the court to keep the cross-border pipeline operating.

The chambers spell out in detail a cascade of likely "severe, nationwide and international" consequences if the line running through Michigan is shut down.

They argue that Line 5, which is owned and operated by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., is a vital source of economic growth and energy throughout the U.S. Midwest.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave Enbridge until today to shut down the pipeline, fearing an environmental catastrophe in the Straits of Mackinac, where Line 5 crosses the Great Lakes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021.

Report: U. of Michigan missed chances to stop doctor's abuse

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Staff at the University of Michigan missed many opportunities to stop a doctor who committed sexual misconduct for decades with long-term consequences for hundreds of patients, including generations of student athletes, a law firm hired by the school reported Tuesday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The long-awaited report by the WilmerHale firm comes more than a year after former students publicly accused the late Robert Anderson of molesting them during routine physicals or other visits. Some university officials at the time took no action despite being aware of complaints, including legendary football Coach Bo Schembechler, the report said.

Their failure to act allowed Anderson “countless occasions” to harass, abuse and assault patients during his 37-year career, attorneys for the firm wrote.

“He continued to provide medical services to student athletes and other patients — and to engage in sexual misconduct with large numbers of them — for the rest of his career,” the report said.

A January court filing indicated there could be more than 850 victims, which would exceed the number of women and girls who were part of a $500 million settlement with Michigan State University over abuse by sports doctor Larry Nassar. Ohio State University has paid more than $45 million to 185 people who said they were groped by Richard Strauss, another sports doctor.

The law firm's inquiry found at least 20 occasions when a student, athlete or other individual spoke with university staff about Anderson's actions. Those accounts either came during interviews conducted by attorneys or from reports made to the university's Division of Public Safety & Security during its investigation of Anderson's career.

Thomas Easthope, who was the assistant vice president of student services and oversaw the University Health Service, received complaints about Anderson at least three times in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Easthope claimed he confronted Anderson and fired him, but that was not true, the report said.

“Despite having heard about Dr. Anderson’s misconduct, Mr. Easthope himself signed documentation related to Dr. Anderson’s continued employment at UHS in January 1980 and approved a salary increase for him in or around August 1980,” the inquiry found.

Easthope died in February.

“We express our unconditional support for and hope for the healing of the victims of Dr. Anderson," the Easthope family said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We believe that the WilmerHale report is problematic and scapegoats our father who, while dying of cancer, cooperated in every aspect of the investigation to ensure transparency for the victims of the events that happened over 40 years ago. He was not the final decision-maker at the university regarding Dr. Anderson’s continued employment and he had no say or participation in his eventual transfer to the the athletic department. Our father always stood up for the underdog and the marginalized. He should be remembered for his forthrightness in addressing this tragedy."

Coaches, trainers and other staff in the university’s athletic department also did not question Anderson's status, despite rampant rumors and even jokes among student athletes about the doctor’s behavior, the report said.

“The fact that no one took meaningful action is particularly disturbing in light of the nature, scope, and duration of Dr. Anderson’s misconduct,” the report said in reference to athletics.

Attorneys counted eight instances in which a student athlete directly complained to a coach or another athletics staff member about Anderson.

Three of those accounts came from former Michigan football players who reported telling Schembechler in the 1970s about Anderson's behavior during physical exams.

Schembechler, who died in 2006, is hailed as the greatest coach of college football’s winningest program. He led the Wolverines from 1969-89 and won 194 games at the school, and he had 234 victories including wins over six seasons at Miami of Ohio.

One former player told the school’s department of public safety and security that he told Schembechler in the late 1970s that Anderson had fondled him during an exam and the late coach told him to “toughen up,” according to the report.

Another athlete alleged that Anderson abused him in the early 1980s during a conversation with Schembechler, who instructed him to relay the concerns to then-athletic director Don Canham, who took no action after being told twice, according to the report.

The report also notes that staff who worked with Schembechler told investigators that the late coach would not have tolerated misconduct had he been aware.

His son Shemy Schembechler told The AP on Tuesday that it's “disgraceful,” to say his father didn’t care about his players, and that his father would have acted if any students shared concerns about Anderson.

Canham, who turned Michigan into a modern sports marketing powerhouse, died in 2005. A message seeking comment was left with Canham’s daughter, Clare Eaton.

The university has acknowledged Anderson's abuse but turned to the law firm for an independent, comprehensive review of what happened during the doctor's long career. Anderson retired in 2003 and died in 2008.

WilmerHale said 600 people made reports to the firm about their experiences with Anderson; 300 agreed to be interviewed. Although most victims who have stepped forward or filed lawsuits have been men, the report said women were also abused.

“The medical experts we consulted confirm what many patients suspected: Dr. Anderson’s conduct was not consistent with any recognized standard of care and was, on the contrary, grossly improper,” according to the report.

The law firm credited the university for recent work on sexual misconduct policies and procedures, but recommended more training on recognizing and reporting sexual misconduct.

Athletics employees and student athletes should specifically receive training on how team dynamics and culture can discourage reporting of sexual misconduct, the report said.

Former student athletes reported feeling embarrassed or ashamed about what happened while others were dismissed when they did share concerns with coaches, according to interviews and documents.

“We will work to regain the trust of survivors and to assure that we foster a safe environment for our students, our employees, and our community,” President Mark Schlissel and the Board of Regents said in a written statement.

The university has expressed a willingness to settle lawsuits out of court. A mediator is working with all sides.

Parker Stinar, an attorney who represents more than 170 people who claim they were abused by Anderson, said it's not surprising that the report affirms former patients' accounts.

“More shocking is the WilmerHale Report confirms that the University of Michigan knew about Anderson’s sexual abuse conduct for decades and failed to take any appropriate measures to protect their students, athletes, and individuals against a sexual predator they had known about for forty years,” Stinar said.

Washtenaw County prosecutors first received the university police department’s report on its investigation of allegations against Anderson in late April or early May of 2019. A prosecutor concluded that summer that no criminal charges could be authorized because the primary suspect had died and none of the offenses were within Michigan’s six-year statute of limitations.

___

White reported from Detroit and Foody reported from Chicago.

Ed White, Kathleen Foody And Larry Lage, The Associated Press

U.S. Fed should require banks to hold more cash for climate risks -think tank

By Pete Schroeder 

Reuters/LEAH MILLIS Federal Reserve Board building is pictured in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should force banks to hold more cash to guard against potential losses due to climate change and possible steps to fight it, one of Washington's top liberal think tanks said on Tuesday.

The plan https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=498976, published by the Center for American Progress and seen first by Reuters, is likely to inform a looming debate about exactly how far bank regulators should go in policing climate change as the Biden administration looks to tackle the issue on all fronts.

The paper argues that the Fed could move quickly to bolster banks' capital cushions by establishing several new safeguards, including a new capital surcharge directly tied to how much pollution banks directly finance and heightened stress tests of big banks that incorporate climate risks.

Several of the changes are likely to be strongly opposed by Wall Street, and the Fed itself has taken a much more deliberate approach to climate than sought by progressive Democrats.

After lagging European counterparts on climate change under the Trump administration, the Fed has ramped up efforts in recent months, including devoting new staff specifically to exploring how climate change could impact the economy and the financial system.

"It is increasingly clear that climate change could have important implications for the Federal Reserve in carrying out its responsibilities," said Fed Governor Lael Brainard in a March speech.

But the Fed has yet to adopt any new policies in response to climate change, a move the paper argues the regulator can ill afford.

"It would be quite easy for financial regulators to spend the next decade collecting more data, researching the issue...avoiding any actual steps to safeguard the financial system from these risks," the paper stated. "The potential damage to the financial system is too great for regulators to wait."

Instead, the group argues the Fed should move quickly, directing banks to hold more capital if they are exposed to more heavily polluting industries, arguing they could lose value as the world moves toward cleaner industries.

It adds the Fed should go farther with the largest banks, imposing a new capital surcharge directly tied to how much carbon they finance with their activities.

The report also called on the Fed to create a new exercise to test banks' resilience to climate change over the long term, as well as integrate near-term climate risk into the existing annual stress test of bank finances.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by David Gregorio)

China Sinovac Shot Seen Highly Effective in Real World Study
Bloomberg News 

(Bloomberg) -- Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine is wiping out Covid-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than western vaccines in clinical trials.

Indonesia tracked 128,290 health workers in capital city Jakarta from January to March and found that the vaccine protected 98% of them from death and 96% from hospitalization as soon as seven days after the second dose, Pandji Dhewantara, a Health Ministry official who oversaw the study, said in a Wednesday press conference.

Dhewantara also said that 94% of the workers had been protected against symptomatic infection -- an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in the shot’s numerous clinical trials. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin earlier revealed a smaller version of the study involving 25,374 people in a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg that had the same effectiveness data for hospitalization and infection. Protection against death was 100% in the smaller group.

“We see a very, very drastic drop,” in hospitalizations and deaths among medical workers, Sadikin said. It’s not known what strain of the coronavirus Sinovac’s shot worked against in Indonesia, but the country has not flagged any major outbreaks driven by variants of concern.

The data adds to signs out of Brazil that the Sinovac shot is more effective than it proved in the testing phase, which was beset by divergent efficacy rates and questions over data transparency. Results from its biggest Phase III trial in Brazil put the shot known as CoronaVac’s efficacy at just above 50%, the lowest among all first-generation Covid vaccines.

A spokesman for Sinovac in Beijing said the company cannot comment on the Indonesian study until it acquires more details.

 Bloomberg Vaccination Phase 2 Starts in Bali
A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine in Bali on Feb. 28. Photographer: Putu Sayoga/Bloomberg

The Indonesian study compared vaccinated against non-vaccinated people to derive the estimated effectiveness. The median age of the participants is 31 years old.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg Tuesday, Sinovac’s chief executive officer Yin Weidong defended the disparity in clinical data around the shot, and said there was growing evidence CoronaVac is performing better when applied in the real world.

Places That Use Sinovac’s Shot

East Asia & PacificSouth & Central Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Middle East & North Africa

Central & Eastern Europe

Latin America & Caribbean

China

Hong Kong

Laos

Cambodia

Malaysia

Thailand

Indonesia

Philippines Pakistan

Sudan

Zimbabwe

Guinea

Benin

Equatorial Guinea

Somalia

Egypt

Tunisia

Turkey

Ukraine

Azerbaijan

Hungary

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Moldova

Albania

Brazil

Mexico

Colombia

Chile

Ecuador

Dominican Republic

Paraguay

El Salvador

Uruguay


But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shot’s ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly. In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45,000 people called Serrana, nearly 100% of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated.

In contrast, Chile saw a resurgent outbreak after vaccinating over a third of the population of 19 million -- one of the fastest rates in the world, but not fast enough to stop the spread of the aggressive variant sweeping Latin America.

“The earliest group of people vaccinated in Chile are old people. Less than 15 million of doses given to Chile means only 7 million people can get our shots. That equals to only 36% of a population of 19 million,” said Yin. “It’s normal that the country sees a resurgence of infections as social activities increase among the younger people who are mainly not inoculated.”

Among people vaccinated with CoronaVac in Chile, 89% were protected from serious Covid that requires intensive care, said Yin.

The vaccine’s protection is likely to vary from place to place due to virus variants, but Sinovac’s shot appears to be holding up well against the new mutations of concern, he said.

A key question for all Covid vaccines is whether they can prevent or deter actual transmission of the virus. Yin said Tuesday that Sinovac does not yet know if its shot -- a traditional inactivated vaccine -- can stop or reduce the virus from being contracted in the first place, but the fact it is preventing serious illness and death is more important.

The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90% effective in preventing transmission in Israel.Read more on Chinese vaccines:

World Turns to China for Vaccines After India, U.S. Stumble Are China’s Covid Shots Less Effective? 

Experts Size Up SinovacLow Efficacy of Chinese Shots Sows Concern on Global Rollout

A Missed Opportunity Saw China Fall Behind on Covid Vaccines


While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing. It’s also somewhat of a vindication amid criticism that Chinese vaccine developers disclosed less data and were less transparent about severe adverse events compared with western companies.

“The results from real world application and the scientific data we have from clinical trials will allow the world to judge our vaccine comprehensively,” said Yin. “We encourage our partners and governments in countries where our vaccine is being used to release such data as soon as possible.”

Indonesia was one of the earliest countries to place its bets on a Chinese vaccine. In January, President Joko Widodo became the first major world leader to receive the Sinovac shot in a bid to quell skepticism at home and abroad. Since then, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has administered more than 22 million doses, mostly Sinovac, as it seeks to reach herd immunity for its 270-million strong population by year-end.

“The minimum efficacy rate should be above 50%, so beyond that, the best vaccine is the one you can get as soon as possible, as every shot given can prevent deaths,” Health Minister Sadikin said. “It isn’t only about getting the highest efficacy rate, but inoculating people quickly.”

What’s the Best Covid Vaccine? Why It’s Not So Simple: QuickTake

While neighboring Malaysia and Thailand are seeing a resurgence in cases, Indonesia’s rate of new infections and deaths has stabilized since a January peak. But with its massive population still mostly unprotected, the upcoming Eid holiday could cause cases to rebound by as much as 60% as people gather with family and travel home despite government restrictions, Sadikin warned.

Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist at the University of Auckland, said that the ability of vaccines to control a disease can be higher in the real world than when measured in clinical trials.

“In my experience, we often fail to predict the overall impact of vaccines, something that can only be seen in the real world after widespread use,” she said. “Reducing the bulk of disease is not only essential to save lives but also to reduce the chances of problematic variants appearing.”

(Updates with detail from expanded study from Indonesia.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

VACCINE IMPERIALISM
China and Russia want to vaccinate the developing world before the West. It's brought them closer than ever

Analysis by Ben Westcott, CNN

When Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is unloaded in countries around the world, hundreds of millions of doses will come with the label "Made in China."

© Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a welcoming ceremony on November 14, 2019 in Brasilia, Brazil.

Chinese companies have made agreements over the past month to manufacture more than 260 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, which has been approved for use in more than 60 countries, including a large number of developing nations such as Mexico, India and Argentina.

The deals are symbolic of how China and Russia's international vaccine goals are increasingly aligned, as they assist developing countries neglected by their traditional Western partners who have been accused of hoarding shots.

Duke University research shows that while some countries, such as Canada, the UK and New Zealand, have bought enough vaccines to cover their population more than three times over, the vast majority of countries have barely got doses for half their citizens, including some of the nations worst hit by Covid-19.

Bobo Lo, an expert on China-Russia relations and former deputy head of mission at Australia's embassy in Moscow, said both Moscow and Beijing saw an opportunity for geopolitical gains in the pandemic, winning favor and influence for their autocratic systems.

"It's useful to them to point out that the West is being selfish in limiting the distribution of vaccine to developing countries," he said. "This is a really convenient narrative for both Beijing and Moscow."

There is also a darker side to Moscow and Beijing's vaccine cooperation. In recent months, Russian disinformation efforts have tried to undermine confidence in US and UK vaccines, such as those made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, according to Judyth Twigg, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

China has done the same, with state-run media hyping up reports of deaths from US and European-made vaccines.

Former diplomat Lo said both Russia and China had an interest in discrediting the US-led world order, particularly Beijing, which is keen for a chance to burnish its own reputation and promote itself as the leader of the global south.

"(China is saying), 'We understand you, we're not an imperial power like the Western powers ... we're just here to help,'" he said.


In demand

Russia was the first country to announce it had produced a viable Covid-19 vaccine in August 2020, named Sputnik V after the country's history making satellite launch in 1957.

Initial doubts over its effectiveness were tempered by a study published in the Lancet in February, which found in preliminary results that the vaccine had 91.6% effectiveness.

Now, hundreds of millions of doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, along with China's Sinovac and Sinopharm shots, are making their way around the world, despite only Sinopharm being accepted into the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative. Neither Sputnik nor Sinovac has been approved by the WHO.

In Latin America, traditionally an area of US influence, countries such as Argentina and Chile have been buying up large numbers of Russian and Chinese shots to fill the gaps in their vaccine rollouts.

According to Duke University's records of vaccine procurements, Argentina has placed orders for 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik vaccine and 4 million doses of Sinopharm. To date, Argentina has not been able to strike a deal for the US Pfizer vaccine, although it has ordered 23 million doses of AstraZeneca's shot.

Indonesia, a longtime US ally in southeast Asia, turned to China to order more shipments of Sinovac after its AstraZeneca order was delayed by a year due to the outbreak in India, according state-run Antara News Agency. To date, Indonesia has bought more Sinovac vaccines than any other country, at least 125 million doses, according to Duke University.

The second largest buyer of Sinovac is Turkey, a "critical regional partner" for the US, according to the State Department. Turkey purchased 100 million doses of the Chinese-made shot, and started administering the first doses in January -- it took four more months for US-made Pfizer shots to arrive. Ankara even sent hundreds of thousands of excess Sinovac doses of the drug to Libya.

Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said in February there had been requests for more than 2.5 billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. At the same time, Sinopharm said it had received orders for 500 million doses, according to the state-run tabloid Global Times. Meanwhile, Sinovac was being asked to deliver 450 million doses, and was planning to transfer the technology to manufacture the drug to 10 countries to assist in a rapid rollout, Reuters reported.

Most of Russia and China's vaccine deliveries have been sold rather than donated, but an analysis by Think Global Health found that 63 out of the 65 countries Beijing had donated vaccines to so far were part of Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative.

China isn't just producing its own vaccines -- it is also helping to produce Russia's. By April 19, three privately-owned Chinese companies had struck major deals with Russia's RDIF to produce 260 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine -- 60 million by Shenzhen Yuanxing Gene-tech Co, 100 million by TopRidge Pharma and 100 million by Hualan Biological Bacterin Inc, according to the Global Times.

The deal is partially the result of inadequate manufacturing capacity in Russia. In January, the RDIF warned of delays of up to three weeks for countries waiting for their doses.

China's ability to manufacture vaccines for other countries, including Russia, is partially due to having the Covid-19 outbreak almost completely controlled within its borders and rapid upgrades to the country's manufacturing capacity.

In March, Sinopharm announced plans to create up to 3 billion doses per year, making it the biggest coronavirus vaccine producer in the world, according to state-run media. Sinovac said it was aiming to ramp up its annual capacity to 2 billion.

Meanwhile, Russia has been forced to cut deals with international suppliers to reach its delivery goals for Sputnik -- in April, the RDIF announced 20 manufacturers in 10 countries would be making the shots.

An unlikely partnership

China and Russia have had a rocky relationship over the past century, despite both being large Asian nations with a long history of Communist rule. There have been border clashes, political hostages and a famously long-running chilliness between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and China's Mao Zedong.

But in recent years, under Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the two countries have developed a tight bond built on mutual geopolitical interests. In 2019, amid growing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, Xi described Putin as his "best and bosom friend," while Putin said relations were at an "unprecedented level."

The Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened those bonds further, with Russian ambassador to China Andrey Denisov saying in April 2020 that the two countries would fight the common enemy "hand-in-hand." "As we did in World War II," he said.

In an opinion piece in China Daily on April 7, China's ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui said: "The more the world changes, the more chaotic it is and the more significant the great friendship between China and Russia is."

The cooperation has caused rising concern for some Western leaders. Speaking on March 25, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Russia and China could use their vaccines to exert influence over the developing world, in "a world war of a new type."

Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council for Foreign Relations, said many developing nations were "desperate" for vaccines.

But Bollyky said while there might be some concern from the US government over any political influence China and Russia might be gaining from their rollouts, at the end of the day "the world needs more vaccines."

"My only concern with the China vaccine and Russia's vaccine is they still haven't released the underlying clinical trial data too assess their safety and effectiveness," he said.

Former diplomat Lo said while it was hard to know if the closeness would remain in the long term, for now both Xi and Putin were being brought together by the growing Western opposition to their governments. Under President Joe Biden, the US has increasingly focused on building coalitions of friendly nations to put pressure on Beijing and Moscow.

"For the time being, the US is so evidently, for both Moscow and Beijing, the clear and present danger," he said.

Vaccine diplomacy

China and Russia have denied they are engaged in vaccine diplomacy. Speaking at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on March 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both countries were engaged in "humanitarian work."

"Unlike some major countries that are hoarding the vaccines for their own interests, we want to see more people immunized. Our hope is for the world to beat the pandemic as soon as possible," Wang said.

"For China and Russia, our choice is not to benefit only ourselves, but rather to help the whole world."

Virginia Commonwealth University's Twigg said China and Russia knew they had a very limited window in which to offer their vaccines to the developing world before Western nations caught up.

Questions have already been raised by some world leaders over Russia's motivations behind its rapid rollout of the Sputnik vaccine to developing countries.

"We still wonder why Russia is offering, theoretically, millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progressing in vaccinating its own people," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference in February. "This a question that should be answered."

To date, only 5.9% of Russia's population has been fully vaccinated. China said it had administered over 300 million doses of the vaccine as of May 7, but it isn't clear how many of those are first or second shots.

Even if Russia and China can work quickly to vaccinate the developing world, some experts doubt their efforts will have the desired long-term political payoff.

Twigg said the global rollout is still in its infancy and any number of developments, including Biden's to waive vaccine patent laws, could change the current vaccine landscape. By the end of the pandemic, she said most nations are likely to have inoculated their populations with a variety of vaccines from a number of countries.

"A year or two, or three, from now, the places where Russia or China got there first, I don't think anyone's going to remember," she said.

Unemployment benefits: More GOP states drop pandemic aid early

By Tami Luhby, CNN 

BOURGEOISIE PROMOTE THE TROPE OF THE LAZY WORKER
Five more Republican governors are joining their peers in terminating federal pandemic unemployment benefits early, citing workforce shortages in their states.

© Provided by CNN Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson

Jobless residents in Missouri, Iowa, Idaho, Tennessee and Wyoming join those in several other states who will soon lose the $300 weekly federal boost to their state benefits, though Congress has made it available until early September to those in states that continue to participate. The moves will also end the federal expansion of jobless benefits to freelancers, independent contractors, certain people affected by the virus and those who have run out of their regular state benefits.

"While these benefits provided supplementary financial assistance during the height of Covid-19, they were intended to be temporary, and their continuation has instead worsened the workforce issues we are facing," said Gov. Mike Parsons of Missouri, which has an unemployment rate of 4.2%. Benefits there will cease on June 12. "It's time that we end these programs that have ultimately incentivized people to stay out of the workforce."

These states join Montana -- which last week was the first to announce it was pulling out -- along with South Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and North Dakota. Other red states are likely to follow.

The withdrawals, which are allowed under the terms of the historic expansion of the nation's unemployment benefits system enacted by Congress in March 2020, deepen the divide over safety net programs available in red versus blue states -- much like the ongoing partisan battle over Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. A dozen red-leaning states have yet to provide expanded Medicaid benefits, and two states have yet to implement voter-approved expansions.

The terminations are also likely to widen the split between Republican officials and business owners on one side and Democrats and workers on the other. The former argue that the more generous payments are keeping Americans from returning to the labor market. They point to the growing shortage of workers as evidence that people would rather stay home than accept job offers.

Tennessee's job board has more than a quarter million postings. The state's unemployment rate is 5%, which is lower than the national rate of 6.1% but higher than some other states. Benefits will end on July 3.

"We will no longer participate in federal pandemic unemployment programs because Tennesseans have access to more than 250,000 jobs in our state," said Gov. Bill Lee. "Families, businesses and our economy thrive when we focus on meaningful employment and move on from short-term, federal fixes."

Job openings nationwide jumped 7.9% in March, on top of strong gains in January and February, with available positions hitting a record high, according to JPMorgan, citing Labor Department data released Tuesday.

"We see signs that demand for labor is strong but that supply could be limited," wrote Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan.

Democrats and workers, however, argue that millions of people remain out of work and cannot return easily because their children are still learning remotely or they remain concerned about the coronavirus.

The economy is still down 8.2 million jobs compared with February 2020, and it added a scant 266,000 positions last month, a major disappointment. Nearly 4.2 million people have been out of work for at least six months -- and it's harder for them to return to the labor market.

President Joe Biden, while warning Monday that people who can work must accept offers or lose their benefits, said most Americans want to be employed if possible.

"We still have 8 million fewer jobs than we did when the pandemic started," he said Monday. "And for many of those folks, unemployment benefits are a lifeline."

The Democrats recently extended the pandemic unemployment programs until early September as part of their $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package.

Whether ending benefits early will address the scarcity of workers remains to be seen.

The states' decisions will force some people back into the labor market, but that will not resolve all the workforce shortages, said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. Some people cannot return because they are still contending with virus-related child care issues or health concerns.

"It's not because you end unemployment benefits that everybody will find a job," said Daco, noting that the terminations will do more harm than good because some residents can't return to work at this time. "It's simply not the case, because we are not in a pre-pandemic environment."

Unemployed Americans thought they’d receive benefits until September. Now that aid is in jeopardy

Annie Nova@ANNIEREPORTER

CNBC
PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 11 2021

KEY POINTS

Unemployed Americans thought they’d receive benefits until September.

Now that aid is in jeopardy in a growing number of states, with Republicans saying it’s causing a labor shortage.

Others say cutting the benefits prematurely will only make it harder for people to get back on their feet, and that meaningful solutions include higher wages and more affordable child-care options.


Justin Mackey, his wife, Cassie, and their three young children:

 Camdyn, 14, Connor, 7, and Charlie, 3.

While Justin Mackey worked to rebuild his locksmith business, the 38-year-old was relying on getting a $420-a-week unemployment check for another four months.

That money was a fraction of what he brought home before the coronavirus pandemic shut down his business in Arkansas, but at least it kept his mortgage and other bills paid. And it allowed him to buy clothes and school supplies for his three young children: Camdyn, 14, Connor, 7, and Charlie, 3.


“It’s better than losing everything,” Mackey said.

But last week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the state would be ending the federal unemployment programs early, including the $300 weekly boost. Those benefits will now expire at the end of June, more than two months earlier than Mackey had expected.

“Continuing these programs until the planned expiration date of Sept. 4, 2021, is not necessary and actually interferes with the ability of employers to fill over 40,000 job vacancies in Arkansas,” Hutchinson wrote in a letter. He joins Republican governors in Montana, South Carolina and Mississippi, who have also announced an early end to the aid, saying that it’s stopping people from taking jobs. Other states could follow.

As a result, many jobless people in these states will soon receive only their state benefit. The average weekly check is $248 in Arkansas; in Mississippi, it’s $195.

Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said leaving people with smaller benefits is shortsighted and dangerous.

“We’re going to see family hardship,” Dixon said. “We’re looking at a tsunami of debt, evictions and food insecurity on the horizon, and it’s mostly women and people of color who will bear the brunt of that.”

What’s more, because the federal programs expanded the pool of workers who are eligible for unemployment benefits, many self-employed, gig workers and freelancers will be entirely cut off from aid come July.

Mackey is one such worker.

His unemployment benefits have allowed him to keep his locksmith business, Jonesboro Lock & Key, running. He’s owned it for more than a decade.

But if that aid ends early, he might have to grab a job and abandon the shop. He said the wages on offer in his area were often unsustainable.

“I couldn’t afford to work in a fast-food place,” Mackey said. “I was making that money in high school.” (The minimum wage in Arkansas is $11.)






Before the public health crisis, he earned around $2,000 a week. He and his family lived comfortably.

And Mackey’s business is just starting to improve, he said, with more people calling of late.

“One of the reasons this pandemic unemployment is important for now is because it’s helping people with small businesses like myself try and build back,” he said.

The movement to end the federal unemployment programs took off after April job’s report showed that the U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs, compared with the 1 million expected.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among the voices calling on states to end the $300 federal boost, saying that “paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market.”

The lobbying group also estimates that 1 in 4 jobless individuals are earning more with unemployment than they were when working.

Yet cutting the aid will only make it harder for people to get back on their feet, said Megan Dishong, an attorney at the Montana Legal Services Association.

Instead of looking for jobs, people will be worried about getting evicted and forced to spend their time applying for additional government assistance such as food stamps and rental aid, she said.

“People are in such a bind,” she said. “Ending the $300 benefit is only going to tie the knot tighter.”

If the goal is to get people back to work, she said, the focus needs to be on increasing wages and access to child care. (Among President Joe Biden’s proposals is a plan to make child care affordable or free for many families.)

“Until you have a safe, affordable place to send your kid, you just can’t go to work,” Dishong said.

People are in such a bind. Ending the $300 benefit is only going to tie the knot tighter.
Megan Dishong

LEGAL AID ATTORNEY

Meanwhile, some of the barriers to returning to work are unique to the pandemic, she said. Some of her clients, for example, are dealing with the long-term symptoms of Covid.

“They want to go back to work, but they’re still suffering,” she said.

As the number of states announcing an early end to unemployment benefits grows, Julianne O’Brien fears Florida will be next.

She was laid off at the start of the pandemic from her job as an estimator for a manufacturing company and was recently diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

Without the federal aid, she would be left with just $275 a week. She lives around 40 minutes north of Palm Beach with her two children.

Julianne O’Brien   Source: Julianne O’Brien

“People are saying we’re lazy and collecting unemployment,” O’Brien, 46, said. “I’m just trying to survive.”

Taking a job is not an option for her right now.

“My doctors say I should mostly stay home because my immune system is low,” she said. “Covid is still out there.”

Ashley Broshious said the $300 federal unemployment boost has been a lifeline for her during the pandemic, helping her to start a restaurant consulting and career coaching business.

In the past, she’s worked as a wine director and a general manager at different restaurants and earned more than $65,000. Those same positions are now offering $40,000, or less, an income that wouldn’t allow her to pay all her bills.

She’s been receiving jobless benefits since April 2020 when she was laid off from a restaurant in South Carolina, one of the states to announce an early end to the aid. (She recently stopped receiving her unemployment checks, but is working with a nonprofit lawyer to get them resumed.)

“There’s people like me who need that money to start something new, and if we lose it, all those plans end,” Broshious, 33, said.

It’s not just foiled plans that she fears.

“If these benefits get cut and I don’t win this case, I’ll lose my home,” she said. “I’m going to have to pack up my car and move in with my mom in her tiny house in Toledo, Ohio.”