In the United States, there will be an academic who is very critical of their power to control the big technology companies
In the United States
Lina Khan is known for conducting critical studies on the role of American tech multinationals. She will now lead the FTC, which presides over antitrust policies
Social media Photo by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay “It is a great honor to have been chosen by President Biden to lead the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). I'm looking forward to working with colleagues to protect the public from corporate abuse. " Thus Lina Khan, 32, associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, welcomed the appointment received by the number one of the White House to lead the Antitrust body of the world's leading economic power. Khan was sworn in a few hours after the Senate voted in favor of 69 to 28 for his confirmation as FTC commissioner.Lina Khan (Wikipedia) Despite being considered a Democratic area, Khan received the support from several Republican representatives. The new president will take the place of Rebecca Slaughter, she will be the youngest ever in the history of the Ftc and her position, until September 25, 2024, is seen as a signal from the administration to prepare for more regulation in technology sector. Khan first came to attention four years ago by publishing a study on what she called the Amazon antitrust paradox in Yale's law journal. In the research she observed how aggressive pricing policies could favor the growth of platforms more, but cause a stagnation of competitiveness in the long run.
Having become a juris doctor, she has embarked on a brilliant career studded with awards for her research, in particular on The separation of platforms and commerce in 2019 and The case of regulation for 'unfair methods of competition' in 2020. L 'last year she became a lecturer at the Columbia School on antimonopoly rules and infrastructure law and before that she served as an advisor to the Antitrust, commercial and administrative law subcommittee in the House. Politico, she has already consecrated her as "the leader of a new school of thought in antitrust", while the New York Times notes that with her work "she has reinterpreted decades of monopoly laws".
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Covid-19 live updates: United States surpasses 600,000 coronavirus deaths
© Lynne Sladky/AP In this Nov. 24, 2020, file photo, Joanna Moore writes a tribute to her cousin Wilton 'Bud' Mitchell who died of COVID-19 at a symbolic cemetery created to remember and honor lives lost to COVID-19, in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 600,000, even as the vaccination drive has drastically slashed daily cases and deaths and allowed the country to emerge from the gloom.Even as California and New York celebrated loosening the vast majority of their social distancing curbs on Tuesday, the United States marked a morbid milestone: at least 600,000 covid-19 deaths.
The precise number is under debate. As of early Wednesday, Reuters said there had been 600,061 reports of covid-linked fatalities since the start of the pandemic, while a Johns Hopkins University tracker placed the death toll at 600,272. Either way, the United States is closing in on the total death toll of the four-year-long Civil War.
The nationwide death rate, however, has dropped sharply since inoculations became widely available. More than 79,000 people died of covid-19 in January, but it has taken almost four months for the death toll to go from 500,000 to 600,000.
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9:38 AM: France to lift outdoor mask requirement, curfew in coming days
Amid continued declines in new coronavirus cases, France on Wednesday said it will no longer require face masks to be worn outside beginning Thursday and will lift its eight-month long nightly coronavirus curfew stating Sunday, June 20.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex made the announcement, calling “very good news.” He noted that curfew would be lifted ten days earlier than the government had initially planned.
After a slow start to its vaccination program, France has inoculated over 58 percent of adults with at least one coronavirus shot, according to the Associated Press. Beginning Tuesday, vaccines are now also available 12 to 18-year-olds.
Public health experts say the risk of transmission of the virus is significantly reduced in outdoor venues.
By: Miriam Berger
8:15 AM: Pandemic aid for Maryland residents who fell behind on electric and gas bills will be forthcoming
Some Maryland residents in debt to their electric and gas utilities will soon receive bill credits as part of $83 million in state pandemic aid, the state’s Public Service Commission said Tuesday.
The commission also extended, from June 30 until at least Nov. 1, a state moratorium on disconnecting electric or gas service for nonpayment for customers who have received state energy assistance within the past four years, officials said. The moratorium also covers residents who have demonstrated a medical need to retain power or are on a utility payment plan, officials said. Shut-offs for other customers were allowed to resume in November 2020.
Thousands of Maryland residents owe their electric and gas utilities $276 million, many because they lost jobs, work hours or income during the pandemic, the commission said. Advocates for the poor have said millions of Americans will need help digging out from pandemic-related debt for unpaid rent, home mortgages, utility bills and other expenses.
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By: Katherine Shaver
7:25 AM: Potentially fatal black fungus cases reported in covid-19 patients in Oman, as infections there surge
© Rajat Gupta/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Brajpal Singh Tyagi and other doctors perform endoscopic surgery on a 39-year-old mucormycosis patient in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, on June 3. (Rajat Gupta/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)Covid-19 cases are surging in Oman, like they are in many countries across Asia and Africa, as variants of the coronavirus take hold and vaccine uptake remains low.
But as the Persian Gulf state’s hospitals fill up, doctors are reporting another worrying sign: cases of a potentially fatal fungal infection among covid-19 patients, the same kind previously detected in India and elsewhere.
Commonly called “black fungus,” mucormycosis is a relatively rare infection that afflicts people with weakened immune systems, spreading through their respiratory tract and eating through facial structures.
Oman’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported that it had detected three cases of the fungus among covid-19 patients, although the condition of those afflicted was not immediately clear.
Oman is facing a surge in cases fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant, with new infections more than tripling within the past month, the Associated Press reported. Hospitals have had to turn away patients amid a shortage in beds as the number of severe cases of covid-19 also rises. Adding to the crisis, just 8.5 percent of the country’s 5 million residents have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
If not detected and treated early, the black fungus requires the infected areas to be removed by surgery to stop its spread. Doctors say increased prescription of steroids to recovering covid-19 patients probably contributed to its surge.
By: Miriam Berger
6:40 AM: Moscow mayor mandates 60% of hospitality workers must be vaccinated
© Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock A waiter wearing a protective face mask waits at an empty restaurant in Moscow, Russia, June 15, 2021.MOSCOW — With Moscow’s coronavirus outbreak taking a “dramatic” turn for the worse, the city’s officials said Wednesday that businesses operating in the hospitality, education, health-care and entertainment sectors will be required to ensure 60 percent of their workforces are vaccinated.
The decree clashes with President Vladimir Putin’s position against compulsory vaccination, which three weeks ago, he called “impractical and impossible.”
Russia, which declared victory in the global vaccine race last August when it authorized its Sputnik V jab for mass use, has struggled with vaccine uptake. Just 12 percent of people are vaccinated despite Sputnik being widely available and free for citizens.
A poll from the independent Levada Center in February found that 62 percent of Russians were not willing to receive the Sputnik V vaccine.
In a blog post about the mandatory vaccination for workers in the service sector, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said vaccination is a “personal matter … as long as you sit at home or in the country.”
“But when you go out into public places and come into contact with other people, willingly or unwillingly, you become an accomplice of the epidemiological process,” he added. “We are simply obliged to do everything in order to carry out mass vaccinations in the shortest possible time and stop this terrible disease.”
Sobyanin, who described Moscow’s coronavirus outbreak as “dramatic” on Tuesday, said there’s been “an explosive growth” in serious cases over the past few days. The number of patients hospitalized in Moscow and in critical condition has increased by 70 percent, he said.
Russia’s coronavirus headquarters reported more than 3,000 new cases on Wednesday, and more than 5,700 of those were in Moscow.
By: Isabelle Khurshudyan
6:09 AM: Tokyo hopes to allow up to 10,000 spectators at summer events
Tokyo is hoping to allow up to 10,000 spectators to attend mass events, potentially including the Olympics, after a state of emergency covering much of the country is lifted this weekend, according to Japanese media reports.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, a minister leading the country’s covid response, said that the new limits could apply from July through August, the Kyodo News agency reported. (The Games begin July 23.)
The call will be made by a panel of experts who will take into account factors like the prevalence of coronavirus variants, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters Wednesday.
The government is slated to make a decision on whether to allow domestic spectators at the Olympics by the end of the month. Overseas fans have been barred from attending the Games.
Japan’s coronavirus case count has dipped sharply in recent weeks as an inoculation program takes off. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had been under significant pressure to cancel or delay the already-postponed Games, but one recent poll showed a small majority is now in favor of going ahead as an end to the current pandemic wave looks within reach.
Some of the country’s top medical experts have warned against relaxing restrictions too quickly, with one group of researchers warning that infections might increase by 10,000 if spectators were allowed at the Olympics, according to Kyodo News.
Video: U.S. exceeds 600,000 COVID-19 deaths (Reuters)
U.S. exceeds 600,000 COVID-19 deaths
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The national government is also reportedly considering putting Tokyo under a “quasi-state of emergency,” with some restrictions on hospitality business hours during the Games.
Japan on Tuesday reported a seven-day rolling average of 1,702 new infections, down from over 6,000 in mid-May. More than 14 percent of the population has received at least one shot of a vaccine.
By: Katerina Ang
5:25 AM: E.U. recommends lifting ban on U.S. travelers for first time since pandemic began, say diplomatic sources
© Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg Tourists at a restaurant on the marina in Lagos, Portugal, on Sunday, May 30, 2021.BRUSSELS — The European Union is officially recommending that the 27-member bloc lift restrictions on U.S. travelers, a long-anticipated move that will allow a return to near-normal travel with the continent for the first time since the pandemic began, according to diplomats.
The European diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement planned for Friday.
E.U. ambassadors decided Wednesday to approve a proposal to add the United States — along with Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Serbia — to its “white list” of places where nonessential travelers are allowed in from across the bloc, sources said. Although this list is nonbinding, it seeks to harmonize travel rules across the European Union. Some European countries, including Greece, Portugal and Spain, are already accepting vaccinated U.S. travelers.
The full resumption of transatlantic travel still has one further hurdle: The United States has yet to say when it will reciprocally lift its ban on E.U. travelers, although that move is similarly expected within weeks.
Inclusion on the “white list,” created in June 2020, means E.U. countries can accept travelers regardless of their vaccination status, although each individual country can set its own requirements for entry and quarantine. Australia, Israel, Japan and New Zealand are among the countries already on the list.
The resumption of travel will be a major boost to tourism-dependent economies across the continent.
Following a slow start to vaccine rollouts, European officials and policymakers hope that the bloc will reach herd immunity by July. So far, around 45 percent of the nearly 450 million E.U. residents have been inoculated with at least one shot, and around half of those have been fully vaccinated.
Earlier this week, the E.U. Parliament also formally approved legislation to create a digital certificate system starting July 1 that would scrap quarantine requirements for people who can prove they are vaccinated or that they have recently recovered from covid-19 or tested negative for the virus.
By: Quentin Ariès
4:40 AM: North Korea’s Kim calls food situation ‘tense’ as reports of shortages mount
TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the country’s food situation “tense,” state media reported on Wednesday, amid mounting reports of shortages.
Opening a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s central committee, Kim claimed the economy had improved this year, with industrial production up 25 percent from a year earlier, and generally struck a more upbeat tone than in February, when he had admitted the country’s economic plan had “failed tremendously.”
Nevertheless, Kim’s admission about food shortages speaks of a problem that can’t be glossed over.
Last year, North Korea faced its worst slump in more than two decades, experts say, largely due to the self-imposed closure of the border with China, a measure designed to keep the coronavirus pandemic at bay.
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By: Simon Denyer
3:50 AM: Maldives relaxes curfew as infections fall
© Channi Anand/AP The Maldives has been partly reliant on Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines produced by India under the Covishield brand name.The Maldives relaxed a curfew in its capital Wednesday as new coronavirus infections continued to decline. Residents in Male will now be allowed out between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. to exercise, though a curfew from 4 p.m. until 4 a.m. will remain in place for at least two more weeks, health officials announced, according to local media reports.
The archipelagic state in the Indian Ocean instituted the curfew in early May as coronavirus infections climbed. The curfew was then tightened as the per capita rate of new cases soared to among the highest in the world.
The Maldives reported relatively few infections in 2020, despite the tourism-reliant country reopening its borders in July. But cases began to spike in April after restrictions on public movement were lifted during Ramadan, Reuters reported. Adding to the outbreak were local elections and an influx of people escaping hard-hit India.
New infections in the country of half a million people have plummeted in recent weeks from a seven-day rolling average of more than 1,600 per day in late May to under 300 this week, according to Our World in Data. Just under 60 percent of the population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the website, which tracks publicly available data.
Like the Seychelles — another Indian Ocean tourist destination that endured a recent spike in infections despite a high inoculation rate — the Maldives is heavily reliant on two vaccines. It uses a shot based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca formula and produced by the Serum Institute of India, as well as one developed by Chinese company Sinopharm. Questions have been raised about the latter’s effectiveness against symptomatic infection.
By: Michael E. Miller
3:00 AM: Malaysia lays out plan to fully reopen economy in late October
© Muzzafar Bin Kasim/AP Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was vaccinated in February.Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin plans to fully reopen the country’s economy around late October as coronavirus case numbers, while still high, continue to dip.
The Southeast Asian kingdom has been in a total lockdown since June 1, when a wave of infections struck after the end of Ramadan. At one point, the country of roughly 32 million people was registering more new cases per capita than any medium- or large-sized country in Asia, according to Our World in Data.
The current physical distancing curbs are costing Malaysia over $240 million a day, the prime minister said in a Tuesday televised address. “We cannot continue like this. We need to exit this crisis as soon as possible.”
According to his four-stage plan, physical distancing curbs will start relaxing once new infections drop below 4,000 a day and about 10 percent of the population is fully vaccinated — a milestone Malaysia expects to hit in the next two months, the Straits Times said. By early November, restrictions including a ban on interstate travel could be lifted, Bloomberg News reported.
Crucially, the national Parliament — which has been controversially suspended since January as part of a coronavirus state of emergency — might be able to sit sometime in fall.
The inoculation rate in Malaysia, while still relatively low, has ticked up in recent weeks. As of Monday, about 10 percent of the nation’s residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
The country has logged over 667,000 infections and more than 4,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
By: Katerina Ang
2:17 AM: The new debate in education: More or less virtual learning?
© Karen Strauss Prekindergarten student Logan Strauss participates in a virtual class at home in New Jersey. His family would like him to continue learning virtually until he is vaccinated.Deanna Nye is not ready to send her children back into classrooms come fall, even though she knows the worst of the pandemic may be over. Her 8-year-old twins have medical conditions that put them at greater risk, she said.
The clash comes as elected leaders and educators across the country have been promising a more typical school year in the fall.
Some state and local leaders have called it quits, essentially putting an end to family choices. Elsewhere, virtual learning is expanding, with many school districts creating new virtual “academies” that draw on the lessons of the pandemic.
The crosscurrents have created a new education fault line: School by computer is on the way out in some places and on the rise in others — driven by sharply differing views on the long-term value of virtual instruction and the best way to help the most vulnerable children and families in a moment when the stakes are high.
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By: Donna St. George and Valerie Strauss
1:31 AM: Analysis: Jon Stewart weighs in on the lab leak theory and goes all-in
© J. Scott Applewhite/AP Entertainer and activist Jon Stewart lends his support to House Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Mark Takano, D-Calif. as lawmakers work on legislation to expand benefits and improve care for military veterans at the Capitol in Washington, May 26, 2021.It seems ages ago now, but there was a time in which a comedy show guided a substantial portion of our country’s political debate. “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart cast a spotlight on the absurdities of modern politics like nobody before or since.
Stewart rekindled that posture Monday night in a segment that seems like a potential inflection point in the debate over the coronavirus’s origins.
Appearing on the CBS late-night show of his former Comedy Central buddy Stephen Colbert, Stewart launched into an animated bit, promoting the coronavirus lab leak theory.
“I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic,” Stewart said, before adding with emphasis, “which was more than likely caused by science.”
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By: Aaron Blake
1:31 AM: Video: Why waiving vaccine patents isn’t enough to end the pandemic
Why waiving vaccine patents isn’t enough to end the pandemic
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Experts say waiving patents won’t help poorer nations acquire the technical complexity of manufacturing coronavirus vaccines.
By: Luis Velarde
1:29 AM: Biden and Bowser announce mass July Fourth celebration in D.C.
President Biden, who three months ago said he hoped Americans could celebrate July Fourth with small backyard gatherings, on Tuesday announced he would host as many as 1,000 guests at the White House for the holiday, a sign that the coronavirus’s deadly grip on the country is easing faster than he expected.
Immediately after Biden said he would celebrate with essential workers and military families on the South Lawn of the White House, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) invoked the holiday to urge visitors to return to Washington, where the tourist economy has been battered by the pandemic.
Bowser last year opposed then-President Donald Trump’s call for an Independence Day celebration because of the pandemic. This year, with vaccinations taking hold, she has approved the revival of in-person neighborhood parades in the Palisades, as well as on Barracks Row. The annual Independence Day parade on the National Mall is not being staged.
“DC is open and ready to welcome back visitors to celebrate the way we came together as a city and as a nation this year,” Bowser said in a news release.
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By: Paul Schwartzman and Amber Ferguson