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The U.S. Treasury Department says it is sanctioning a cryptocurrency exchange for its alleged role in processing illicit proceeds from ransomware attacks.

The move, the department says, is part of a larger effort to crack down on the use of cryptocurrency by illicit actors.

The exchange sanctioned is Czech Republic-based Suex OTC, S.R.O., and it is the first of its kind move against an exchange.

“Exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers’ ability to extract profits from ransomware attackers,” Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a call with reporters previewing the announcement. “Today’s action is a signal of our intention to expose and disrupt the illicit infrastructure using these attacks.”

The Treasury said more than 40% of transactions on Suex involved illicit actors.

Ransomware attacks are becoming more common, the Treasury reports, noting that in 2020, payments over ransomware attacks totaled more than $400 million, up four times from 2019.

One recent, high-profile ransomware attack happened in May when hackers shut down a major fuel pipeline and demanded $4 million worth of Bitcoin to allow operations to resume. The hack led to nationwide gas shortages.

Sanctions on Suex will prevent the company from accessing any U.S.-based assets and will prevent Americans from using the company.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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The United States said Monday that starting in early November it will ease its coronavirus restrictions for foreign travelers arriving in the country. 

Foreign travel to the U.S. had been largely curbed during the 18-month pandemic, even as European nations in recent months eased restrictions on American travelers ahead of the summertime vacation season. 

Under the new U.S. policy, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said foreign travelers will again be allowed into the country if they can demonstrate proof of being fully vaccinated before they board a flight and show proof of a negative COVID-19 test administered within three days of their flight. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson applauded the U.S. action, saying foreign travelers will be able to get to the U.S. before its annual Thanksgiving holiday, celebrated this year on November 25. 

“That’s a great thing,” Johnson said. “I thank the president (Joe Biden) for progress we have been able to make.” 

The U.S. Travel Association trade group also welcomed the move, saying it will “help revive the American economy.” 

“This is a major turning point in the management of the virus and will accelerate the recovery of the millions of travel-related jobs that have been lost due to international travel restrictions,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement Monday. 

Fully vaccinated travelers to the U.S. will not be required to be quarantined, as has been the case in some foreign countries. 

But Biden’s administration, in its effort to push millions more Americans to get inoculated, said unvaccinated Americans returning from overseas will need to be tested within a day of their flight and again after they return home. 

More than 181 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to government health officials, but it is estimated that 70 million people eligible for the vaccine have so far declined, for one reason or another, to get vaccinated. 

The new policy replaces a patchwork of restrictions first instituted by former President Donald Trump last year and tightened by Biden earlier this year that restricted travel by foreigners who in the prior 14 days had been in Britain, the European Union, China, India, Iran, Brazil or South Africa. 

Zients said the new policy “is based on individuals rather than a country-based approach, so it’s a stronger system.” 

He said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also require airlines to collect contact information from international travelers to facilitate contact tracing if there is a coronavirus outbreak related to foreigners arriving in the U.S. 

It is uncertain under the new policy which vaccines would be acceptable to U.S. authorities, with Zients saying that would be left up to the CDC. Vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are used in the U.S. 

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.​ Some information also came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 
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Millions of Americans who were thrown out of work in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic are now encountering a hot jobs market with businesses eager, even desperate, to hire them.

But amid continued spread of the delta COVID-19 variant, workers are trickling, not rushing, back into the labor market, despite the expiration of augmented federal unemployment benefits and offers of higher wages in some sectors.

Consumers eager to spend money would normally be a boon to the service industry in Charlotte, North Carolina. But businesses here, as in many parts of the United States, can’t find enough workers to accommodate the demand.

Help wanted signs are ubiquitous in storefronts across the city, where, since May 2020, the local unemployment rate has fallen from nearly 14% to less than 5%.

“Oh, there’s business here,” Brixx Wood Fired Pizza general manager Lethr’ Rotherttold VOA. “The restaurant stays busy and we’re making loads of money, but I don’t have the staff to keep up.”

It’s a similar situation at The Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters, an independent outfit with a unique business model of roasting coffee beans in-store and right in front of customers. The coffee shop was launched during the pandemic and has struggled to keep up with demand.

“When we think we’re good [for workers], the volume increases, and we suddenly need more help,” said manager Enzo Pazos. “Two people go to school, that’s two less staff on hand, so it’s kind of like it’s never enough.”

“You’re seeing variations of this same theme of a worker shortage across the country,” economist Matthew Metzgar of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte told VOA.

Metzgar notes that a federal economic stimulus program provided some workers with higher temporary incomes than they had received at their old jobs before the pandemic.

“What’s happening is of course with that higher unemployment compensation, people are less willing to work and people are less willing to accept lower wages,” Metzgar said.

Others who remain unemployed say they are reluctant to take jobs that would put them in close contact with the public at a time when the United States is averaging more than 1,500 COVID-19 deaths a day.

“Most people that have stayed on unemployment have done it for safety reasons, it seems,” job seeker Alex Jordan Ku said. “I have some friends on unemployment, and their safety was their main concern. They haven’t been looking for jobs They kind of just went back home to live with their parents so they can be without jobs for a while until things feel safe to them.”

Yet another problem keeping many people out of the workforce has been a shortage of affordable child care – a problem that was exacerbated by COVID-related school closures and remote learning that have forced many parents to remain at home with their children.

That problem may be easing as schools are reopening across the country this fall, but the parents of younger children are still finding it hard to secure placements in child care facilities, which are themselves impacted by difficulty in hiring enough qualified staff.

In a move partly aimed at getting more people back to work, the Biden administration is promoting enhanced child care subsidies as part of a proposed $3.5 trillion plan to fund infrastructure and social safety net programs.

This month’s expiration of supplemental unemployment benefits should force at least some workers back into the labor pool as their bank accounts run dry. But Metzgar says many potential workers are less than eager to return to jobs that pay less than what they received in benefits.

“From the worker’s point of view, there is resistance to coming back to lower-wage positions, and in some situations, there may not be much to entice them back in,” he said.

Adequate compensation

At a recent jobs fair in the neighboring state of Virginia, securing adequate compensation was on the minds of many prospective applicants, several of whom stressed factors beyond an hourly wage.

“What I’m looking for is something where there’s long-term stability, and benefits are important,” Lisette Bez told VOA at the Leesburg, Virginia, event. Even though she has run out of unemployment benefits, Bez indicated she is holding out for a job that includes things like generous health insurance benefits.

“The cost of insurance these days continues to go up. And I think for a lot of people that’s a huge concern,” she said. “So it’s not just enough to have a job that will pay you a certain amount. You have to have those other things.”

While employers have no control over the pandemic, they do have leeway in what they offer to entice workers, say labor advocates.

“In all candor, raising wages is the only thing that’s going to be bringing people back to work,” Charlotte labor organizer William Voltz told VOA.

Voltz, president of Unite Here’s Local 23, a union for airport employees, said workers need an hourly wage in the $17-$22 range to get by, far higher than the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

“Unfortunately, to live in Charlotte you really have to make a livable wage to be able to afford housing and life’s necessities,” he said.

Message heard

Amid fierce competition for labor, a growing number of U.S. employers big and small are sweetening wage and benefits packages offered to job seekers. E-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. recently boosted its average starting wage to $18 an hour, up from a $15 minimum wage the company set before the pandemic.

In Charlotte, Giddy Goat founder Carson Clough said he expects a certain amount of negotiation in determining compensation for new employees.

“If workers do have requests regarding pay and benefits, I am all ears,” Clough told VOA. “My business partner and I started off with the mindset [in] which we’re going to try and meet high-end wage requests, even prior to the pandemic. I’d be very open to hearing different demands, such as ‘How can I go do this’ or ‘How can this be a part of the package’ or something like that.”

Flexibility and creativity will be key to hiring and retaining workers going forward, according to Metzgar.

“Companies may consider thinking about bringing on workers that could contribute in multiple ways, doing something that brings value to the business. This would be a win-win, it would allow the worker to be invested, while the worker receives a higher wage in return,” the economist said.

“The point is to reimagine some of these positions so that the workers have the opportunity to produce more value, so managers set up workers to flourish to produce value for the company, which again comes with higher wages for the worker,” he added.

 
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U.S. experts say Beijing’s establishment of a new stock exchange catering to China’s small and medium-sized companies (SMS) is unlikely to raise the capital the enterprises had anticipated from listing on New York’s Nasdaq.

That funding step, known as an initial public offering (IPO), allows a company to raise capital from public investors. Chinese IPOs have hit a pause due to Beijing’s increased scrutiny of entities with share listings in the U.S. and new stringent reporting requirements imposed on Chinese companies that want to sell shares in the U.S.

“The impact of the new market is likely to be limited, at least compared to the impact of regulatory challenges to U.S. listing imposed by both Beijing and Washington,” Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, told VOA in an email.

“While these regulatory challenges may help the market to get off the ground by forcing companies to turn to it to raise capital, it seems unlikely that the market will be a first choice for companies that would have otherwise looked to the U.S. markets for an IPO.”

Authorities registered the Beijing Securities Exchange Limited Co. (BSE) on Sept. 3, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the plan to raise capital and support innovation and development for SMS at the China International Fair for Trade in Services.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), which oversees the securities and futures industry and reports directly to the State Council, China’s main administrative body, responded by saying its leaders were “excited” at the prospect.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises can do great things,” the CSRC added.

The new exchange would be similar to the Nasdaq in the U.S., which lists technology and biotech behemoths such as Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Amazon and Intel.

State-backed media Global Times said the new stock exchange, which joins two existing boards in Shanghai and Shenzhen, will “play a significant role in the country’s push for innovation-driven high-quality growth,” noting the move comes as the U.S. continues to push for financial decoupling.

But George Calhoun, director of the Quantitative Finance Program at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, is dubious.

“There is an interest in creating a Nasdaq-like venue for high-tech startups, but what’s impeding that is not the lack of another exchange, it’s (China’s) regulatory heavy hand, and it’s gotten heavier lately,” he told VOA via phone. Nasdaq is an acronym for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations.

A third try

China’s two major exchanges – the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange – serve blue-chip companies, which are regarded as stable, safe and profitable. Both exchanges also include technology boards that serve younger and riskier tech and science companies.

“There is an interest to create a venue for smaller entrepreneurial tech companies to be able to go public without the same kind of expectations that you have if you’re going to list on one of the major exchanges,” Calhoun said. “That’s where China draws the comparison with Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.”

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), founded in 1792, is where established companies are listed, which contributes to its reputation as being safer for investors than the Nasdaq, founded in 1971. At that time, startups such as Microsoft, Intel and Apple didn’t meet the requirements for listing on the NYSE. Nasdaq listed, and thus became known, by comparison with the NYSE, as the tech-friendly exchange for innovative science and technology companies in the U.S.

“I think China has looked at that and said, we should do something similar, and they’ve tried it twice, (the) ChiNext board in Shenzhen and Star Market in Shanghai,” Calhoun said. Both those boards list start-ups and billion-dollar tech unicorns, yet both failed due to China’s sluggish policy process for raising capital, he said.

The new Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) will be largely based on the existing National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), or the Third Board, founded in 2012. Created for SMEs, it failed to generate the cash needed by the majority of small companies listed.

It will adopt the faster IPO registration system rather than an older method of registration that required approval by the CSRC. Regulators will allow BSE shares to rise or fall by 30% per day, a wider range than the 20% limit set for Shanghai’s Star Board and ChiNext in Shenzhen, the tech listings on those exchanges. There will be no trading limit on any IPO shares on the first day of BSE trading.

Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida, told VOA Mandarin in an email that the BSE’s primary competitor will be the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) aunched by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 1999. The existing Third Board in Beijing will lose out, he added.

“There are a few small Chinese companies raising $10-20 million that list in the U.S. each year, in addition to more sizable companies. These small companies might list on the new Beijing exchange in the future,” he said.

Chinese tech firms in impasse

The BSE is opening as Washington and Beijing are increasing scrutiny of Chinese tech companies listed in the United States.

In the U.S., there’s growing pressure to require Chinese companies to delist if their auditors aren’t audited. Gary Gensler, SEC chairman, wrote in a Sept. 13 Wall Street Journal op-ep that unless Chinese companies allow an audit of their auditors by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, some 270 China-related companies may be prohibited by early 2021 from continuing their U.S. listings.

Wu Ming-Tse, an associate research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taiwan, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that China’s Xi hopes that the new stock exchange will bring these companies back to Beijing.

“The purpose of this new stock exchange is to slow down the pace of Chinese start-ups going public in the United States,” Wu said.

China’s tech industry crackdown started in December 2020 and has continued since. Several high-profile companies, including Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, its financial services subsidiary, the Ant Group, and the ride-hailing company Didi, have faced investigations, fines or both.

Calhoun from Stevens Institute of Technology said China’s current clampdown has forced its tech companies into a corner.

“China is saying let’s create our own Nasdaq and let those companies come to this exchange, but what they don’t realize is that you really have to have a more liberal regime in terms of allowing companies to go public with a lighter regulation, with less red tape, less of a headwind to float their shares,” he said. “It’s not about having another exchange.”

Norman Yin, a professor of finance at National Chengchi University in Taipei, told VOA in a phone interview that locating the new exchange in Beijing could be seen as reflecting Xi’s desire to grow China’s Nasdaq-like presence under the supervision of political authorities.

“If you take a look at the financial centers around the world, location is usually not a key consideration,” Yin said. “I would argue that China’s decision to set up a third stock exchange in Beijing is to allow President Xi Jinping to supervise the capital market closely by himself.” 

 
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Unless Congress votes to increase the amount of money the U.S. Treasury is allowed to borrow above its current debt of $28.5 trillion, the United States will default on its financial obligations sometime in the next several weeks, experts warn.

Few experts consider that likely to happen, but if it did, it could trigger an economic catastrophe with effects far beyond America’s shores.

In a letter to members of Congress last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned of the damage that would result if the U.S. is unable, even for a short time, to pay its bills.

“A delay that calls into question the federal government’s ability to meet all its obligations would likely cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy and global financial markets,” wrote Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve Board. “At a time when American families, communities, and businesses are still suffering from the effects of the ongoing global pandemic, it would be particularly irresponsible to put the full faith and credit of the United States at risk.”

With that crisis looming, Democrats and Republicans in Washington are battling over who should take responsibility for the politically unpopular task of raising the cap on borrowing, commonly known as the debt limit. Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have vowed that not a single one of them will vote to raise the limit.

For their part, Democrats say that much of the spending the increased debt would finance is the result of policies passed by a Republican-led Congress and signed by a Republican president, Donald Trump. Therefore, they argue, the GOP should participate in raising the limit.

‘America must never default’

The strange thing about the current debate is that there is absolutely no disagreement between the parties about what should happen. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal in his home state of Kentucky last week, McConnell was explicit, saying that “America must never default” and “the debt ceiling needs to be raised.”

However, McConnell said, Republicans will not provide any votes to make that happen. What he is demanding the Democrats do is raise the debt limit unilaterally, using a process called “budget reconciliation,” which would make it impossible for Senate Republicans to block a vote on the measure.

McConnell’s stance has angered Democrats, who point out that enforcement of the debt ceiling was suspended three times during the four years of the Trump presidency, each time with Democratic support for allowing the debt to rise.

Possible House vote next week 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has ruled out the possibility of including a debt ceiling increase in a reconciliation package, creating what appears to be an impasse on Capitol Hill.

On Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the House would vote on a measure to raise the debt ceiling next week. House Democrats could opt to tie the debt limit measure to a must-pass spending bill that would avert a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on September 30, upping the significance of Republican opposition.

If the House bill passes, it would move to the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats have a bare majority because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast a tiebreaking vote. Such a measure, however, would be susceptible to a Republican filibuster if GOP lawmakers choose to block it.

‘Who blinks first?’ 

Many in Washington believe the debt ceiling will be raised before the U.S. defaults, but they aren’t sure of the mechanism. Yet lawmakers have come dangerously close to defaulting in the past. In 2011, when House Republicans battled with Democratic President Barack Obama over the federal debt, the bond rating firm Standard & Poor’s issued the first-ever downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, sparking a major stock market sell-off.

“We know what’s going to happen, but we don’t know how it’s going to happen,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a government spending watchdog. “At the end of the day, one way or another, politicians will raise or suspend the debt limit. The United States cannot and will not default on its obligations. And so somebody is going to budge. But the question is, who blinks first?”

There are multiple ways this could play out, said Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“Congress could enact a debt limit increase or a new suspension, and the amount of that increase or the duration of the suspension could be debatable,” he said. “Congress could choose to add other conditions, but doing so has not been the standard in recent years, for good reason. And it is possible that for political reasons Republicans in Congress will allow this to be done, but only with Democratic votes.”

New borrowing necessary

Until August 2, the country had been operating under the latest of a series of suspensions of the debt ceiling that allowed the Treasury to issue new debt without restrictions. When the suspension was lifted, the government’s debt stood at an estimated $28.5 trillion.

That represented an increase of about $6.5 trillion since 2019, the last time the limit was suspended, and about $8.6 trillion since a suspension that took effect in the first months of the Trump administration.

Most of the increase in federal debt since 2017 happened under the Trump administration, but a significant part of it, mainly in pandemic relief legislation, was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Since August, the Treasury Department has engaged in a series of “extraordinary measures” to avoid defaulting on obligations without additional borrowing. However, Treasury officials have said those measures will become unsustainable sometime next month.

Pressure campaign 

The Biden administration has been trying to increase the political pressure on McConnell and congressional Republicans to force them to participate in a debt limit increase.

On Wednesday, Yellen spoke with McConnell on the phone. The White House said the purpose of the call was to “convey what the enormous dangers of default would be.” But a spokesperson for McConnell made it clear that the conversation had not moved the Republican.

“The leader repeated to Secretary Yellen what he has said publicly since July,” the spokesperson said. “They will have to raise the debt ceiling on their own, and they have the tools to do it.”

On Friday, The Associated Press reported that the administration had been reaching out to state and local government leaders to warn them about interruptions in federal funding that could result if the limit wasn’t raised.

Debt limit history 

The debt limit was not designed to be used as a political cudgel. Its origins go back to World War I, when Congress pre-authorized a certain level of debt so the Treasury would not have to seek congressional authorization every time it needed to issue new bonds.

Since 1917, when it was created, the debt limit has been raised many times. According to the Treasury Department, since 1960, Congress has acted to “raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit” 78 times.

It is only in recent decades, as federal borrowing has accelerated, that raising the debt limit has become a political weapon.

 
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Taiwan’s government called on the European Union to quickly begin trade talks after the bloc pledged to seek a trade deal with the tech-heavyweight island, something Taipei has long angled for.

The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before President Tsai Ing-wen first became Taiwan’s president but has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since then.

Responding to the EU’s newly announced strategy to boost its presence in the Indo-Pacific, including seeking a trade deal with Taiwan, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday talks should start soon. The European Parliament has already given its backing to an EU trade deal with Taiwan.

“We call on the European Union to initiate the pre-negotiation work of impact assessment, public consultation and scope definition for a Bilateral Investment Agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible in accordance with the resolutions of the European Parliament,” it said.

“As a like-minded partner of the EU’s with core values such as democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, Taiwan will continue to strengthen cooperation in the supply chain reorganization of semiconductors and other related strategic industries, digital economy, green energy, and post-epidemic economic recovery.”

EU member states and the EU itself have no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan due to objections from China, which considers the island one of its provinces with no right to the trappings of statehood, so any investment deal could be tricky politically for the EU.

But the EU’s relations with China have worsened.

In May, the European Parliament halted ratification of a new investment pact with China until Beijing lifts sanctions on EU politicians, deepening a dispute in Sino-European relations and denying EU companies greater access to the world’s second-largest economy.

The EU has also been looking to boost cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductors, as a chip shortage roils supply chains and shuts some auto production lines, including in Europe. 

 
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International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday disputed an independent investigation that found that in her previous job at the World Bank, she pressed staff to alter a report to avoid angering China. 

Based on the findings, the World Bank announced it was immediately discontinuing its “Doing Business” report, after the investigation found irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 editions. 

Georgieva, a Bulgarian national who took the helm of the IMF in October 2019, rejected its conclusions regarding her role.

“I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report of 2018,” she said in a statement. 

The allegations could damage her reputation and provide grist for longtime U.S. critics of the multilateral organizations and their treatment of China. 

‘Serious findings’

“These are serious findings,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement, noting that it was “analyzing the report.”

“Our primary responsibility is to uphold the integrity of international financial institutions,” the statement said. 

Georgieva said she briefed the IMF board on the situation. The board was expected to meet to discuss the issue, but it was unclear when. 

Justin Sandefur of the Center for Global Development, who has written extensively about the problems with the report’s methodology, said, “We need to hear her side of the story, but it doesn’t look great right now.” 

“The IMF is in charge of monitoring the integrity of macroeconomic and financial data internationally, and for the head of the IMF to have been involved in data manipulation is a pretty damning allegation,” he told Agence France-Presse. “That does seem like a real hit on their credibility.” 

Report ranks countries

The flagship report ranks countries based on their business regulations and economic reforms and has caused governments to jockey for a higher spot to attract investors. 

According to the investigation, Beijing complained about its ranking of 78th on the list in 2017, and the next year’s report would have shown Beijing dropping even further.

The Washington-based development lender’s staff was preparing the 2018 edition while leadership engaged in sensitive negotiations to increase its lending capital, which hinged on an agreement with China and the United States. 

In the final weeks before the report was released at the end of October 2017, the World Bank’s then-president, Jim Kim, and Georgieva, at the time the bank’s CEO, asked staff to look into updating the methodology in regard to China, according to the investigation by law firm WilmerHale. 

Chinese officials dismayed

Kim discussed the rankings with senior Chinese officials, who were dismayed by the country’s ranking, and his aides raised the issue of how to improve it, according to the summary of the probe, released by the World Bank. 

It is considered one of Kim’s signature achievements that he shepherded a deal for a $13 billion increase in World Bank resources.

The bargain required support from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who opposed concessional lending to China, and from Beijing, which agreed to pay more for loans. 

Amid the pressure from upper management, staff changed some of the input data, which boosted China’s ranking in 2018 by seven places to 78 — the same as it was the previous year, according to the investigation that analyzed 80,000 documents and interviewed more than three dozen current and former employees of the lender. 

Georgieva chastised a World Bank senior official for “mishandling the bank’s relationship with China and failing to appreciate the importance of the ‘Doing Business’ report to the country,” the report said.

After the changes were made, she thanked him for “doing his part for multilateralism.” 

Nobel Prize winner concerned

Georgieva later visited the home of the manager in charge of the report to retrieve a copy, whom she thanked for helping to “resolve the problem.” 

Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize winner who served as the World Bank’s chief economist at the time, resigned in January 2018 after telling a reporter that the methodology for the ranking had been changed in a way that could give the impression political considerations affected the results. 

At the time, the World Bank strenuously denied any political influence over the rankings. 

The investigation also found “improper changes” in the 2020 report affecting the rankings of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. 

Nadia Daar, head of Oxfam International’s Washington, D.C., office, applauded the decision to scrap the report, saying the index “encouraged governments to adopt destructive policies that worsen inequality.” 
…

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment compensation increased last week but remained near the low point during the 18-month coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department reported Thursday. 

A total of 332,000 jobless workers filed for assistance — up 20,000 from the revised figure of the week before. In part, benefit claims increased because Hurricane Ida’s drenching rains played havoc with the economy in the southern state of Louisiana. 

Still, the claims figures for the last month have been on the whole the lowest since the pandemic swept through the U.S. beginning in March 2020, although they remain above the 218,000 average of 2019. 

The jobless claims total has fallen steadily but unevenly since topping 900,000 in early January. Filings for unemployment compensation often have been seen as a current reading of the country’s economic health, but other statistics are also relevant barometers. 

Even as the U.S. government said last month that its world-leading economy grew by an annualized rate of 6.6% in the April-to-June period, in August it added only a disappointing 235,000 more jobs. Economists said that figure was partly reflective of the surging delta variant of the coronavirus inhibiting job growth. 

The number of new jobs was down sharply from the more than 2 million combined figure added in June and July. The unemployment rate dipped to 5.2%, which is still nearly two percentage points higher than before the pandemic started in March 2020. 

About 8.7 million workers remain unemployed in the U.S. There are nearly 11 million available jobs in the country, but the skills of the available workers often do not match what employers want, or the job openings are not where the unemployed live. 

The size of the U.S. economy – nearly $23 trillion – now exceeds its pre-pandemic level as it recovers faster than many economists had predicted during the worst of the business closings more than a year ago. 

How fast the growth continues remains an open question. 

For months, the national government had sent an extra $300 a week in unemployment compensation, on top of often less generous state aid, to jobless workers. But that extra assistance has now ended throughout the country. About 7.5 million jobless workers were affected by the cutoff in extra funding. 

In addition, the delta variant of the coronavirus poses a new threat to the economy.

Political disputes have erupted in numerous states between conservative Republican governors who have resisted imposing mandatory face mask and vaccination rules in their states at schools and businesses, although some education and municipal leaders are advocating for tougher rules to try to prevent the spread of the delta variant. 

U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered workers at companies with 100 or more employees to get vaccinated or be tested weekly for the coronavirus. In addition, he is requiring 2.5 million national government workers and contractors who work for the government to get vaccinated if they haven’t already been inoculated. 

In recent weeks, about 150,000 new cases have been identified each day in the U.S., and more than 1,500 people are dying from COVID-19 daily.

More than 65% of U.S. adults now have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and overall, 54.1% of the U.S. population of 332 million. 
…

Scientists from multiple organizations that monitor and assess the state of the Earth’s climate system warn the world is not on track to meet the target of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.

The United in Science 2021 report warns greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are continuing at record levels, committing the planet to dangerous future warming. It notes the last five-year period has been the warmest since record-keeping began in 1850. 

Scientists say rising temperatures due to human activity are causing higher than average temperatures in the Arctic, Europe and Asia. That is increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, wildfires, storms, and other extreme weather events throughout the world. 

Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Petteri Taalas says weather events that used to happen every 100 years now are happening every 20 years because of climate change. He warns they will occur with even greater frequency in the future if the world does not limit warming to well below two degrees Celsius by mid-century. 

“Now we are heading towards three degrees warming instead of 1.5 to two degrees,” he said.”And it has been shown clearly that it would be beneficial for the welfare of us human beings and the welfare of the biosphere and the planet to reach the lower limit of the Paris Agreement of 1.5 degrees.”

The report notes that COVID-19 has had no impact on climate change. It says pandemic lockdowns and economic slowdowns reduced air pollution for a time, but was only temporary. Now that societies are opening again, it says carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are growing.

Taalas says mitigation measures can reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and reduce climate change, but for this to happen, people must change their daily behavior. 

“If we fail with climate mitigation, we would have a permanent problem for at least hundreds or even thousands of years and both economic and human wellbeing events would be much more dramatic than this COVID pandemic, which has been hitting us all in a dramatic way,” he said.

In a forward to the United in Science report, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns time is running out. He says all countries must commit to net-zero emissions by 2050, backed up by concrete long-term strategies to prevent further irreversible damage.

He says these pledges must be made now for November’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow to be a turning point in the fight for the survival of the planet. 

 
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Canada Goose, the Canadian maker of parkas it claims are designed to keep wearers toasty warm in the “the coldest places on Earth,” is the latest foreign brand targeted by Chinese regulators.

China’s state-controlled CCTV revealed that authorities fined the company’s affiliated operation in Shanghai about $70,000 (450,000 RMB) for “falsely advertising goods or services, deceiving and misleading consumers.”

The Shanghai Huangpu District Market Supervision and Administration Department acted against the local outlet of Canada Goose Holdings Inc. of Toronto in June, a move CCTV made public on Sept. 2.

The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (Shanghai) announced that Shanghai district regulators found that Canada Goose, which was marketing its products as filled with goose down, was using mostly duck to stuff its garments.

The regulators said the company advertised that it uses “Hutterite down,” claiming it is the warmest down available. The Hutterites, a religious group in Canada similar to the Amish and Mennonites in the United States, enjoy a reputation for raising high-quality geese and ducks.

And while the Canada Goose marketing stresses the warming quality of the down it uses, Shanghai regulators said the place of origin has nothing to do with down’s warmth.

On Sept. 8, other state-affiliated media outlets in China began criticizing the expensive parkas that as The New Yorker suggested, broadcast, “I earned the money, and then I spent the money. And now, here I am, warmer than you are.”

The Economic Daily published a commentary titled Catching the Lying Canada Goose on Sept. 8, suggesting that Canada Goose had violated China’s law regarding advertising standards. It continued to accuse the company of failing to credit Chinese buyers as savvy consumers who are capable of market research.

Calling on Chinese consumers to purchase goods from Chinese brands, the Economic Daily urged Chinese companies to seize the opportunity to expand market share.

The newspaper also said Xiji (Shanghai) Trading Co., operator of the Canada Goose Official Flagship Store on China’s online retailer Tmall, had sales of $25.9 million (167 million yuan) in 2020. On the company’s U.S. website, the most expensive Canada Goose parka, the Polar Bear International, costs $1,545. The same coat on the company’s Chinese website costs $1,616 (10,400 yuan).

Canada Goose told Canada’s CBC News on Sept. 8 that a technical error on a partner website caused confusion about the down.

“Earlier this year, a misalignment of text was found on a partner site, Tmall, in our (Asia-Pacific) region. The error was corrected immediately,” the email to CBC said.

The company told CBC that it uses both goose and duck down, depending on the garment. Although Canada Goose is best known for its parkas, it makes other down and non-down products.

VOA Mandarin contacted Canada Goose but did not receive a response.

Consumer nationalism

Canada Goose is not the only company targeted by China’s regulators. Earlier this month, Chinese regulators fined H&M, the Swedish multinational retailer, $51,000, claiming the company misrepresented that some of its products were sold exclusively in China.

This came after Chinese netizens attacked H&M in April for a statement expressing concern about allegations of Uyghur forced labor in cotton production in Xinjiang, a stronghold of the Muslim minority.

Major e-commerce websites removed H&M products, and dozens of Chinese celebrities ended their endorsement contracts with the company. Brands such as Nike and Adidas, which had expressed similar concerns about the situation in Xinjiang, saw China sales plummet.

Experts say that the surge in China’s nationalist sentiment since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with Beijing’s official policy of supporting domestic brands, could lead to consumer nationalism.

According to its official website, Canada Goose currently has 21 stores in China, making it one of the fastest expanding brands in the Chinese market. The company has nine stores in Canada.

“The campaign fits in with ‘equality’ themes recently emphasized by President Xi. Foreign brands are something like private schools — patronized by higher income Chinese households,” Gary Hufbauer, an economist at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA in an email. ”Domestic brands are seen as the preference of ordinary people.”

Analysts believe that as tensions increase between China and the West, Chinese nationalists are equating the purchase of Western brands to approval of Western values. To reject foreign brands is to resist foreign influence, according to the nationalists.

Amid the nationalists’ push, Beijing is actively promoting domestic brands and promoting patriotism in the shopping decisions among Chinese consumers.

In July, Chinese sports brand Erke became famous overnight after donating about $7.6 million (50 million RMB) to the flood-stricken central Henan province. Chinese netizens heralded the move, and Erke experienced its biggest single-day sales jump.

“Foreign companies are facing a less receptive environment in China,” Hufbauer added. ”Official statements are often hostile to the United States, with the result that buying foreign brands, especially U.S. brands, seems unpatriotic to ordinary Chinese.”

Caught in the middle

Canada Goose entered the Chinese market in 2018 when the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing began to fray. Canada detained Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request for fraud in December 2018, and China subsequently took custody of two Canadians — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — over espionage charges. Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison last month.

The Chinese Consulate General in Montreal said Sept. 11 that the current Canada Goose action is related only to market regulations and disputed any “political interpretation of the case.”

Wang Qing, a professor of marketing and innovation at Warwick Business School in London, told VOA via email that the Chinese government has emphasized the importance of building strong Chinese brands for several years. “We have seen real improvement of domestic brands in terms of quality and brand image,” she said.

Yet she argued that currently, the competitive edge between Chinese and Western brands are different.

“In the short term, there is no real threat to high-end foreign brands, as most Chinese brands are value for money. They do not compete directly with foreign brands,” she added.

Reuters contributed additional reporting. 
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House Democrats this week have proposed a bill that would sharply raise taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations while slashing taxes paid by lower-income citizens. On balance, the proposal would raise an estimated $900 billion in additional revenue over 10 years to fund some of the Biden administration’s expansive social spending plans. 

The proposal, released by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard E. Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts, would move policy in the same general direction as a plan released by the Biden administration earlier in the year. This constitutes the opening salvo in what is certain to be a hard-fought battle over future tax policy. But the plan does not go as far as Biden favors in raising taxes on businesses, capital gains from the sale of investments, and the treatment of inherited wealth. 

“I think the way to summarize it is, it’s enormous,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington. “It raises taxes by about $2.1 trillion, it cuts other taxes by about $1.2 trillion — that’s moving around almost three-and-a-half trillion dollars in taxes over 10 years. That’s huge.” 

“It’s a very big mix of raising taxes on high-income people and corporations, and cutting taxes on low and middle income households,” he added in an interview with VOA. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and his panel work on the “Build Back Better” package, cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 15, 2021.

According to an analysis by the Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the bill would raise the average tax rate on people earning $1 million or more a year to 37.3% from 30.2%. At the other end of the financial spectrum, it would assure that people earning less than $20,000 per year would have a negative tax liability — meaning that they would receive tax refund checks from the government, even if they had paid nothing in federal taxes in a given year. 

A more complex tax code 

The Democrats’ proposal continues the trend in U.S. policy of using the tax code as a substitute for direct legislation. The proposal contains tax credits for housing construction, union dues, green energy, local journalism, and more. 

“It seems like every aspect of the [Democrats’] agenda seems to need to have a tax credit component,” said Alex Muresianu, a federal policy analyst at the Tax Foundation in Washington. 

“And it doesn’t necessarily make sense to try to run your policymaking entirely through the tax code.” 

Child tax credit 

As a response to the coronavirus pandemic, earlier this year Congress authorized a tax credit for families with children under 18 years of age, and structured it in a way that delivered monthly payments of several hundred dollars per child directly to parents. The infusion of cash led to a sharp decline in childhood poverty rates in the United States, and the tax proposal would make that credit permanent. 

However, to avoid running afoul of budget rules, the Democrats have proposed having a number of related measures expire in 2025. At the same time, they strive to make sure that the proposal jibes with Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 per year. 

Personal income tax changes 

The House proposal would raise the top marginal income tax rate, which applies only to earnings above $400,000 per year for individuals or $450,000 for married couples, to 39.6%. A bill passed by Republicans and signed into law by former President Donald Trump had reduced the top rate to 37% for all income over $500,000. 

The House proposal includes an additional surtax of 3% on income over $5 million, creating what amounts to another tax bracket for exceptionally high-earning Americans. 

Many businesses in the U.S. are structured as pass-through entities, which means their profits are taxed as personal income to their owners. Current law allows a 20% pre-tax deduction of qualifying income. The bill would cap that deduction at $400,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a married couple. 

Capital gains tax changes 

The proposal’s change in the treatment of capital gains — the earnings an investor sees when selling an asset that has gone up in value — is far less dramatic than the Biden administration had requested. Instead of heeding the president’s request to raise the 20% top rate on capital gains to 39.6%, bringing it in line with normal income, the plan would raise the rate to 25%. 

Under current law, when someone dies with unrealized capital gains, those gains are wiped away when the assets are passed on to heirs. In some cases that allows the very wealthy to pass on large fortunes to their heirs tax-free. 

The Biden administration had wanted the U.S. to begin taxing unrealized capital gains at death, but the Democrats’ proposal does not contain a provision to do that. 

Business taxes 

The Republican-led tax changes in 2017 included a drastic reduction in the corporate income tax, from 35% to 21%. The Democrats’ proposal would raise the corporate rate to 26.5%. That’s not as much of an increase as the 28% the Biden administration had proposed, and is still far below the rate in force in 2017. 

The business tax increases, critics say, will make the United States a less appealing place to do business. 

“It’s lower than previous proposals, but still, when you factor in state level corporate taxes, that  would probably put us about third [highest] in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. So that is a major downside of the plan,” said Muresianu of the Tax Foundation. 

International business taxes 

At a time when the Biden administration is working with partners on the international stage to reform the way multinational businesses are taxed on their income, the House bill proposes a minimum tax on the foreign earnings of U.S. companies that is lower than the administration has requested. 

The Biden administration has advocated for a 21% tax on the overseas earnings of U.S. businesses, but the House plan sets the levy at 16.6%. 

In talks with other developed countries, the Biden administration has been pushing for the worldwide adoption of a 15% minimum tax on the domestic earnings of corporations. The idea is to make it less attractive for companies to transfer their operations to low- or no-tax jurisdictions. 

Experts said it was difficult to tell what impact the House proposal might have on the Biden administration’s efforts, in large part because the talks with foreign governments are considering an entirely different system that would tax companies based on where their goods and services are sold rather than where they are headquartered. 

 
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As Ameruddin Pora’s relatives gathered in his living room, shouting at the final of the Olympics badminton women’s doubles, he locked himself in his room to watch his daughter win Indonesia’s historic gold medal. Apriyani Rahayu, 23, and her veteran partner Greysia Polii picked up the badminton-mad country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo on Monday, and its first-ever Olympic medal in the women’s doubles. “Everyone was screaming with joy outside, I decided to lock myself up in my room so that I can focus (on) praying while watching the game alone, and Allah heard my prayers. She won the gold medal,” 63-year-old Pora told AFP on Tuesday a day after his daughter’s win. Her fellow Indonesians were also celebrating, taking to social media on Monday to hail the gold medal win, while President Joko Widodo said the victory was a gift for the country’s independence day that is slated for August 17. Pora said his daughter used the death of her mother, Siti Jauhar in 2015, as fuel for the momentous victory, a gift to the woman who inspired her rise to become a professional badminton player. One day before flying to Tokyo, Rahayu flew home to Konawe city in southeast Sulawesi island to visit her mother’s grave and to ask for a blessing from her father.  The badminton star’s relatives also came to Pora’s house to pray for her during the short home visit. “She has this tradition whenever she wants to attend a competition, she always returns home to meet her parents, asking me for a prayer,” he said. “Our prayers are finally answered by God.” As soon as Rahayu arrived in Tokyo, she called her dad on a daily basis to ask him to continue his prayers for her. He said his daughter’s success is thanks to a combination of those prayers and her own hard work. “Whenever she leaves the hotel heading to the venue, she always called me asking for prayers. I always tell her to be calm and leave everything to Allah,” he said. He had some advice for his daughter about securing more golds after her Olympic win: listen to your coaches and don’t become arrogant. “She is always a very motivated person. She never gets tired practicing,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t only pray for Rahayu, but also for Greysia. I pray for both. They made us proud.” 
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Calling it a major milestone, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the country has shipped President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus pandemic in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Aug. 3, 2021.In response to a question from VOA on whether other high-income countries should follow the lead of the United States, the president replied: “I think those countries that have been able to cover their population and have the ability to provide either dollars and/or vaccines for the 100 or so net-poor nations that need help should do so.”  Biden added that some Group of 7 countries, which made such pledges at their recent summit in England, have followed through.”We’ve kept the commitment that we would do what we said, which is more than all the rest of the countries combined this far,” the president noted.  Tom Hart, acting chief executive officer of the ONE campaign, a global organization fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, agreed with Biden’s call for other prosperous countries to do more.  “The U.S. is leading the global COVID-19 fight, but the rest of the world must step up to the plate and match the Biden administration’s ambition and action. With COVID-19 raging globally and new variants emerging constantly, wealthy countries face a clear choice: Share more doses and shorten the pandemic or continue to hoard doses and prolong COVID-19 indefinitely,” Hart said in a statement.  A September summit that the U.S. president plans to host “must be a turning point, with new, additional commitments to get vaccines to everyone and address the devastating economic impact of COVID-19. Everyone is on the hook to deliver,” Hart added.  “The Biden administration’s efforts to share excess vaccine doses with other countries will save lives and help end the pandemic faster in the U.S. and around the world,” Sean Simons, press secretary for the ONE Campaign, told VOA. “We won’t end this pandemic anywhere unless we beat it everywhere.” FILE – Members of the Armed Forces queue at the CCK Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires to be inoculated against COVID-19 with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine obtained through the COVAX scheme, on June 15, 2021.Most of the U.S. vaccine doses have been shipped through the World Health Organization-managed COVAX cooperative, as well as through regional partnerships such as the African Union and Caribbean Community.  Biden said that his administration has fulfilled its pledge to give at least 80 million vaccine doses to other nations around the globe and that they are a down payment on hundreds of millions of more doses that the United States will deliver in the coming weeks. “Starting at the end of this month, the administration will begin shipping a half a billion Pfizer doses that the United States has pledged to purchase and donate to 100 low-income countries in need,” according to a White House statement.  The president’s announcement comes amid an increase in infections in the United States and around the world, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.  During the past month, average daily new cases of COVID-19 in the United States have surged above 85,000. That is higher than the peak seen last summer and is at a level not seen since mid-February of this year.  Biden, in his Tuesday remarks, criticized moves by some U.S. states to forbid mask mandates.  “As of now, seven states not only ban mask mandates but also ban them in their school districts, even for young children who cannot get vaccinated,” the president noted. “Some states have even banned businesses and universities from requiring workers and students to be masked or vaccinated.”  Biden called such edicts disappointing and said if governors “aren’t willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it.”  The president repeated his appeal for governors to help, “but if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way. The people are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”  Governors opposing mask mandates say it should be a matter of individual choice. They also claim such mandates are not enforceable nor do they encourage more people to be vaccinated. 
 
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The British government’s scientific advisers have raised the prospect of fighting a forever war against the coronavirus saying the eradication of the virus “will be unlikely.” And they warn “there will always be variants.”They hold out the hope that the virus may evolve in such a way that it causes “much less severe disease,” but they caution that is unlikely to happen for some time. Preventive measures and restrictions will be needed in the meantime as there’s a “realistic possibility” that vaccine-resistant variants will emerge.And, chillingly, in a report released last week by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, otherwise known as SAGE, the scientists do not discount the chance of a new variant arising with the deadliness of MERS, another coronavirus which has a case fatality rate of 35%.FILE – Critical care staff look after a COVID-19 patient on the Christine Brown ward at King’s College Hospital in London, Jan. 27, 2021.Report quietly releasedThe report on the possible long-term evolution of the virus was released late Friday, and opposition politicians in Britain have complained it was sneaked out without little fanfare by the government to try to avoid publicity so as not to undermine public confidence in the easing of British pandemic restrictions and the opening of the country’s borders to travelers from the United States and European Union.”This report should have sent shock waves through the UK Government,” Philippa Whitford, a Scottish Nationalist lawmaker and the vice-chair of an all-party parliamentary group on the pandemic, told local reporters.”It was instead quietly snuck out among a glut of reports during parliamentary recess. Recommendations and comments made by SAGE bring home the simple reality — that we have not yet ‘defeated’ this virus,” Whitford, a qualified surgeon, added.In the paper, the scientists outline the chances that a new variant will evade current vaccines, saying that is “almost certain” to happen. SAGE’s biggest fear is of “antigenic drift,” small changes in the genes of a virus that can lead to changes in its surface proteins. Most of the vaccines in current use target the surface proteins of the coronavirus. The scientists also worry about the possibility of variants recombining to become more infectious.Clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani  says the SAGE report “makes clear that the virus becoming less virulent is unlikely in the short term.”  She tweeted: “So for all those who suggest that we should live with it, and it’ll become like seasonal coronaviruses and benign, doesn’t look like that’s likely to happen anytime soon.”The report has caught the attention of governments in Europe, and officials in Berlin say it played into the decision announced Monday by the German government to offer vaccine booster jabs to people considered potentially vulnerable to developing COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus can trigger.After Another COVID Spike, Israel Launches Third Vaccine DoseHealth officials say decision to offer third dose follows evidence that effectiveness of two doses wanes over timeThird shotsStarting next month, Germany will start administering a booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine to people aged over 60, care-home residents and people with compromised immune systems. Also, a booster shot will be offered to Germans who received AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, whose efficacy against the Delta variant is thought to be weak. “We will be prepared for the fall,” said Klaus Holetschek, Bavarian health minister. “I am convinced that a booster shot is important and right based on prevention alone,” he added, speaking on behalf of the country’s 18 state health ministers.Israel, France and Hungary are already offering booster shots to some people, and Britain will offer booster jabs next month, too. British health officials say they want to maximize protection for the elderly and vulnerable ahead of the country’s winter season, when other seasonal respiratory viruses surge. Italy and Spain will also likely make additional jabs available later in the year, officials in Rome and Madrid have said. Britain to Offer COVID-19 Booster Shots This Fall The nation is also offering incentives to persuade younger adults to get vaccinatedIn the United States, officials are considering a request by vaccine-maker Pfizer for booster shots to be authorized, but so far has withheld permission. But the Biden administration has ordered 200 million more Pfizer vaccines, a move seen by observers as preparation for a regimen of booster shots.Speaking to broadcaster CNCB, Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the US Federal Drug Administration, said he believes vaccine booster shots will start to be given in the US by next month to older people and those with compromised immune systems. “I just think we’re on a slower path here,” he said.But some are criticizing the move by rich nations to start offering booster shots, saying the priority should be getting vaccines to poorer countries, who are lagging with inoculations because of scarce supplies. They say not only is this a moral issue but a practical one: vaccine-resistant variants are more likely to emerge as a result of widespread infections in poorer and developing nations, they say.”Vaccine resources need to be shared with the world to help end this COVID-19 pandemic,” the NGO Doctors Without Borders, tweeted Monday.
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Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said Tuesday she is focused on her safety and seeking refuge in Europe after facing threats from officials at home.“They made it clear that upon return home I would definitely face some form of punishment,” she told The Associated Press in a videocall interview. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”The 24-year-old said she wants to continue her career as an athlete, with plans to compete in at least two future Olympics.“For now, I just want to safely arrive in Europe … meet with people who have been helping me and make a decision what to do next,” Tsimanouskaya said.Polish authorities granted her a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum on Monday after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.Poland Grants Humanitarian Visa to Belarusian OlympianKrystsina Tsimanouskaya told officials she did not feel safe under autocratic Lukashenko government after she criticized management of Belarusian team Tsimanouskaya told officials in Tokyo she feared she would not be safe in Belarus from the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko.An activist group said it had bought Tsimanouskaya a plane ticket for a Wednesday flight to Warsaw.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted late Monday that the Lukashenko government was trying to “commit another act of transnational repression” by forcing Tsimanouskaya to leave “simply for exercising free speech.”The Lukashenka regime sought to commit another act of transnational repression: attempting to force Olympian Krystsyna Tsimanouskaya to leave simply for exercising free speech. Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated.— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 3, 2021“Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated,” Blinken wrote.The political drama unfolded after Tsimanouskaya criticized how officials were managing the Belarusian Olympians, provoking a backlash in state-run media back home, where the government often cracks down on critics.The Belarus National Olympic Committee has been led for more than 25 years by Lukashenko and his son, Viktor.On her Instagram account, Tsimanouskaya said she was put on the country’s 4×400 relay team even though she has never raced in the event.Belarusian officials apparently took Tsimanouskaya to the Tokyo airport, but she refused to board a flight for Istanbul and instead approached police for help.“I was put under pressure, and they are trying to forcibly take me out of the country without my consent,” the 24-year-old runner said in a video message posted on social media.Later, late Monday afternoon local time, she was taken to the Polish embassy in an unmarked silver van and stepped out with her official team luggage. Two women, one carrying the red and white flag considered the symbol of opposition in Belarus, came to the gates to support her.Tsimanouskaya told a Reuters reporter via Telegram the Belarusian head coach showed up at her room Sunday at the athletes’ village and told her she had to return home.“The head coach came over to me and said there had been an order from above to remove me,” she wrote in the message. “At 5 [p.m.] they came my room and told me to pack, and they took me to the airport.”But Tsimanouskaya refused to board and sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport.Belarus was widely condemned by Western governments in May when it diverted a passenger jet carrying an opposition activist and his girlfriend that was flying over the country and forced it to land. Given the reports in the Belarusian media about Tsimanouskaya’s complaints about the management of the country’s team, she said she feared for her safety if she returned home.“The campaign was quite serious and that was a clear signal that her life would be in danger in Belarus,” Alexander Opeikin, a spokesman for the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, told the Associated Press.Through the years, athletes from authoritarian nations have often sought political asylum in other countries while they were competing at the quadrennial summer Olympics or other global sporting events. It happened frequently during the Cold War but also at Olympic Games since then. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that the “abrupt” U.S. withdrawal of all its remaining forces from Afghanistan was the reason for the deteriorating security situation in the country. He added that his government has a plan to bring the security situation under control within six months. VOA’s Sayed Hasib Maududi filed this report, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.Camera: Sayed Hasib Maududi 
 
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Iran will respond promptly to any threat against its security, the Foreign Ministry said Monday, after the United States, Israel and Britain blamed Tehran for an attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman. Tehran has denied any involvement in the suspected drone attack on Thursday in which two crew members, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed. The United States and Britain said Sunday they would work with their allies to respond to the attack on the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime. FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, July 5, 2021.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the incident as “clearly an unacceptable and outrageous attack on commercial shipping.” “Iran should face up to the consequences of what they’ve done,” he said Monday. Britain summoned the Iranian ambassador on Monday. Later, Iran summoned the British charge d’affaires and Romania’s top envoy in Tehran over their countries’ “accusations against the Islamic Republic,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported. “Iran has no hesitation in protecting its security and national interests and will respond promptly and strongly to any possible adventure,” Iranian state television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying. FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks in Jerusalem, June 20, 2021.Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had accused Tehran of “trying to shirk responsibility” for the attack and called its denial cowardly.  Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the attack was an intensification of what he called Iran’s escalation and accused Tehran of intending to hurt and kill civilians. “Israel has a variety of tools and options to defend its citizens, and we will settle the score with anyone who tries to harm us at the time and place and in the way that suits us and our security,” Gantz told the Israeli Parliament. An unidentified Iranian official told Iran’s Nournews news agency earlier that Tehran considered “the threats of Western officials and the Zionist regime (Israel) to be more of a propaganda gesture.” “And Washington and London will be directly responsible for the consequences,” the official told Nournews, which is close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken predicted a “collective response” and said he did not think the incident necessarily signaled anything about Iran’s incoming President Ebrahim Raisi, who takes office on Thursday. Iran and Israel have exchanged accusations of carrying out attacks on each other’s vessels in recent months. Tensions have increased between Iran and Israel since 2018, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Israel has voiced concerns about efforts by Iran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the nuclear pact under which Iran curbed its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.  “In any agreement, should there be one, with Iran, it must also be based on the removal of its threat on the region,” Gantz said. 
 
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