World News

Twitter crashed repeatedly on Wednesday during a highly anticipated live audio chat between Elon Musk, Twitter‘s owner, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, hampering the politician’s announcement he is running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Since Mr. Musk took over the social media platform in October, he has laid off thousands of employees including many engineers who were responsible for fixing software bugs.

Current and former Twitter employees previously told Reuters the steep layoffs would put the platform at risk of crashing during times of high traffic.

“We’ve got so many people here that I think we are kind of melting the servers, which is a good sign,” said David Sacks, a venture capitalist and close friend of Mr. Musk, while attempting to start the event on Wednesday.

Mr. Musk attributed the problems to the number of listeners and his large Twitter following.

About 678,000 people tuned in to listen as Twitter suffered repeated crashes.

The Spaces session eventually resumed, reaching about 304,000 listeners.

About 3 million people listened to Musk’s interview with the BBC on Twitter Spaces last month.

“Failure to Launch”, “Crashed” and #DeSaster were among the trending Twitter topics in the US during the chat session.

Twitter outages have been more numerous under Mr. Musk’s ownership. In March, thousands of users reported problems accessing links posted on the platform.

Internet observatory NetBlocks said the March incident was Twitter‘s sixth major outage since the year began, compared with three in the same period last year.

In between crashes on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden poked fun at the shaky rollout of Mr. DeSantis‘ presidential bid by tweeting out a fundraising appeal: “This link works.” – Reuters

Ratings agency Fitch put the United States’ credit on watch for a possible downgrade on Wednesday, raising the stakes as talks over the country’s debt ceiling go down to the wire, and adding to the jitters in global markets.

Fitch put the country’s “AAA” rating, its highest rank, on a negative watch in a precursor to a possible downgrade should lawmakers fail to raise the amount that the Treasury can borrow before it runs out of money, which could happen as soon as next week.

A downgrade could affect the pricing of trillions of dollars of Treasury debt securities. Fitch‘s move revived memories of 2011, when S&P downgraded the United States to AA-plus and set off a cascade of other downgrades as well as a stock market sell off.

On Thursday, stocks in Asia fell as investors remained wary of risky assets due to the hit the global economy will take if the US government defaults. Treasury bills maturing around June 1, the so-called X-date when the government runs out of money, have been under pressure for weeks and came in for further selling, pushing yields on securities maturing on June 1 912796ZG7= to 7.628%.

“It’s not entirely unexpected given the shambles that is the debt ceiling negotiations,” said Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG Markets in Sydney. “This is not a great sign.”

President Joe Biden’s administration and congressional Republicans are at an impasse over raising the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, and Fitch said its rating could be lowered if the US does not raise or suspend its debt limit in time.

“Fitch still expects a resolution to the debt limit before the X-date,” the credit agency said in a report.

“However, we believe risks have risen that the debt limit will not be raised or suspended before the X-date and consequently that the government could begin to miss payments on some of its obligations.”

Fitch said that the failure to reach a deal “would be a negative signal of the broader governance and willingness of the US to honor its obligations in a timely fashion,” and would be unlikely to be consistent with a “AAA” rating.

A US Treasury spokesperson called the move a warning and said it underscored the need for a deal. The White House said it was “one more piece of evidence that default is not an option.”

WATCH

The “rating watch” indicates that there is a heightened probability of a rating change and the likely direction of such a change, and is different from a “ratings outlook” which indicates the direction a rating is likely to move over a one- to two-year period.

Fitch now predicts that the U.S. government will spend more than it earns, creating a deficit of 6.5% of the country’s total economy in 2023 and 6.9% in 2024.

Among the other credit ratings agencies, Moody’s also has an “Aaa” rating for the U.S. government with a stable outlook – the highest creditworthiness evaluation Moody’s gives to borrowers.

S&P Global’s rating is “AA-plus,” its second highest. S&P stripped the United States of its coveted top rating over a debt ceiling showdown in Washington in 2011, a few days after an agreement that the agency at the time said did not stabilize “medium-term debt dynamics.”

Moody’s previously said it expects the U.S. government will continue to pay its debts on time, but public statements from lawmakers during the debt ceiling negotiations could prompt a change in its assessments.

Fitch previously put the United States on ratings watch negative in October 2013 during the debt ceiling spat at the time. – Reuters

SINGAPORE — Climate-related disruptions to the crucial Hindu Kush-Himalayan water system are posing risks to economic development and energy security in 16 Asian countries, and concerted action is needed to protect regional water flows, researchers said on Wednesday.

The basins of the 10 major rivers that flow from the Hindu Kush-Himalayan water towers are home to 1.9 trillion people and generate $4.3 trillion in annual gross domestic product, and climate change impacts like glacial melt and extreme weather are already posing “grave threats,” the China Water Risk think tank said.

The researchers warned that all rivers would face “escalating and compounding water risks … if we are unable to rein in emissions,” and that the further construction of water-intensive energy infrastructure was aggravating the problems.

The 10 rivers include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra running into India and Bangladesh, China’s Yangtze and Yellow rivers as well as transboundary waterways like the Mekong and the Salween.

They support almost three quarters of hydropower and 44% of coal-fired power in the 16 countries, which also include Afghanistan, Nepal and Southeast Asia.

As much as 865 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity along the 10 rivers is considered vulnerable to climate risk, with most of it reliant on water. More than 300 GW — enough to power Japan — is situated in regions facing “high” or “extremely high” water risks, the researchers added.

China’s Yangtze river basin, which supports around a third of the country’s population and around 15% of its power capacity, experienced a record-long drought last year, with plummeting hydroelectric output disrupting global supply chains.

Since the drought, governments approved dozens of new coal-fired plants to allay future hydropower disruptions. However, coal-fired power also needs water and the surge in capacity in China and India could further aggravate shortages.

As climate risks mount, countries are under pressure to draw up policies that ensure the “dovetailing” of energy and water security, the researchers noted.

“As power choices can impact water and the lack of water can strand power assets, water security should decide energy security,” they said. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — The United States and South Korea on Tuesday announced new North Korea sanctions related to thousands of IT workers, many operating in China and Russia, whose labors allegedly help fund weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, they said.

One individual, Kim Sang Man, and the North Korea-based Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company were sanctioned jointly by the United States and South Korea in relation to their IT worker activities, US Treasury Department said.

South Korea’s foreign ministry separately announced new sanctions on seven individuals and three entities, including Kim and the IT company, Chinyong.

North Korea (NK) oversees thousands of IT workers around the world, primarily located in China and Russia, Treasury said. These workers “generate revenue that contributes to its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs.”

The workers hide their identities, locations, and nationalities and use forged documentation to apply for jobs, it said. They have secretly worked in a variety of positions and industries, including the fields of “business, health and fitness, social networking, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle,” the Treasury Department said.

In the past, the US State Department has warned that hiring North Korean IT workers could also lead to incidents of intellectual property theft.

Three other groups — the 110th Research Center, Pyongyang University of Automation and Technical Reconnaissance Bureau — had been previously sanctioned by South Korea for engaging in cyber operations and illicit revenue generation that support North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs, Treasury said.

“Today’s action continues to highlight (North Korea’s) extensive illicit cyber and IT worker operations, which finance the regime’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said the latest announcement demonstrates joint efforts with the US to block North Korea’s malicious revenue generation through illicit cyber activities.

In its announcement, the Treasury Department noted that the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau currently leads North Korea’s offensive cyber efforts and oversees staff affiliated with the infamous Lazarus hacking group.

Lazarus has been accused of carrying out some of the largest virtual currency heist to date. In March 2022, for example, they allegedly stole about $620 million in virtual currency from a blockchain project linked to the online game Axie Infinity. — Reuters

After more than three years, the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency is officially over. Yet it’s still killing at least one person every four minutes and questions on how to deal with the virus remain unanswered, putting vulnerable people and under-vaccinated countries at risk.

A key question is how to handle a virus that’s become less threatening to most but remains wildly dangerous to a slice of the population. That slice is much bigger than many realize: COVID is still a leading killer, the third-biggest in the US last year behind heart disease and cancer. Unlike with other common causes of death such as smoking and traffic accidents that led to safety laws, though, politicians aren’t pushing for ways to reduce the harm, such as mandated vaccinations or masking in closed spaces.

“The general desire in the world is to move beyond the pandemic and put COVID behind us, but we can’t put our heads in the sand,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri. “Covid still infects and kills a lot of people. We have the means to reduce that burden.”

Even before the World Health Organization declared earlier this month that Covid no longer constitutes an emergency, most governments had already relaxed lockdowns and guidelines. After spending heavily in earlier phases of the pandemic, global leaders have dialed back efforts and are reluctant to pursue preventative measures for which the public no longer has much patience.

Meanwhile, the infection that caused at least 20 million deaths worldwide continues to evolve, leaving the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions at the mercy of luck, uneven access to medicine and little protection from others without face masks or recent vaccinations.

NO LONG-TERM PLAN?
A global, long-term plan to protect the vulnerable and to keep a resurgence at bay hasn’t materialized, partly because of how difficult it is to forge any consensus around Covid. From the start, polarized political discourse overshadowed official guidelines on masking and vaccinations.

Even in developed countries where the vaccine became available in less than a year into the pandemic, many people refused to take it. Lack of immunization led to more than 300,000 excess American deaths, or one out of every two from Covid, throughout 2021. Globally, it could have saved half a million more, studies show.

“We know that politicizing public health is one of the tragedies of the pandemic,” Ziyad Al-Aly said. “Political leaders leveraged their responses not only to advance public health but to advance their own narrative and drum up support for themselves.”

Global coordination has also been hampered by politics. China’s refusal to allow independent experts unfettered access to a wet market thought to be a crucible for Covid or to the Wuhan Institute of Virology added to diplomatic tension and mistrust. Today, Chinese representatives aren’t participating in many global preparation efforts, said Linfa Wang, a virologist and director of the emerging infectious diseases program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

“It’s hindering academic collaboration, and China/US collaboration is almost zero,” Wang said. “With these two superpowers, if they don’t collaborate, how can we say the world is ready for the next disease?”

A waning sense of emergency has also meant the surge of investment in COVID vaccines and therapeutics has also cooled. While companies including Moderna, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc. are still updating their shots, trying to make them easier to manufacture and store, many of the hundreds of novel approaches that were initially conceived have fallen by the wayside.

In the US, experts are due to meet in June to advise on what strain of the virus vaccines should target for the remainder of the year. Those vaccines will only launch in the fall, with just 100 million doses expected in the US according to Moderna’s estimates, far less than in previous years.

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?
Long COVID, estimated to affect around 10% of infected people, is considered one of the biggest post-pandemic medical challenges. The economic costs are also significant.

In the US, long COVID was estimated to cost around $50 billion a year in lost salaries as of late 2022. In the UK, the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year estimated that about one in 10 people with long COVID have to stop working as a result. The number of people with those symptoms, including brain fog, breathing difficulties and fatigue, are rising even as infections are decreasing.

It’s particularly scary for high-risk people, who’ve had to return to work and public spaces where masks are sparse, and the dangers are invisible. A family wedding can still turn into a super-spreader event, and a flight can be catastrophic.

While people with active health issues may know to take precautions, some will learn that they’re vulnerable only after an infection lands them in the hospital. Repeated bouts can add to damage, and that applies to everyone, not just those with pre-existing conditions.

WHAT TO DO
The silver lining is that the world now has vaccines and better treatments. Tests can uncover infections in minutes, and new outbreaks can be quickly spotted.

Health experts say immunization is the best way to protect against it. Only about 16% of Americans have gotten a bivalent booster, according to Pfizer, Inc., compared with almost 70% vaccinated in the first inoculation drive. Increased out-of-pocket costs and vaccine fatigue could cause uptake rates to fall further. Longer term, the hope is that innovative new shots or nasal sprays will provide better protection.

There are other improvements that could help, ranging from ventilation and air quality testing to better masks. There needs to be more investment in surveillance systems so threats can be caught early, experts said.

The US is also planning to spend $5 billion on a new project aimed at developing advanced vaccines and treatments for coronaviruses in concert with drugmakers. The goal is to make medicines available quickly as the virus mutates, so the targeted strain isn’t ebbing when they hit the market.

“Even if governments are tired, we have to face the reality that the virus is still evolving,” said Duke-NUS’s Wang. — Bloomberg

LONDON  — Britain recruited a record number of international nurses in the last financial year to plug hospital staffing shortages, with as many as 10% coming from so-called “red-list” countries where health staff should not be actively recruited.

Britain has long hired from abroad to staff its state-run National Health Service (NHS), and its vote to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016 meant the number of EU staff has dropped sharply in recent years.

In the year to March, nearly half of the 52,148 nurses, midwives and nursing associates who joined the British register were internationally educated, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Nearly 3,500 came from Nigeria, which is on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safeguards list.

The two biggest international contributors to Britain’s nursing workforce — India and the Philippines — are not on the red-list.

The WHO has warned that poorer countries are increasingly losing healthcare workers to wealthier countries, and has flagged concern over active recruitment in some countries.

Jim Buchan, senior fellow at the Health Foundation, said the numbers arriving in Britain from red-list countries, notably Nigeria and Ghana, had gone up markedly.

“The requirement of (WHO) member states is not to actively recruit from these countries, but what the data can’t tell us is how these nurses have come to be on the UK register,” he said.

Caroline Waterfield, director of development and employment at NHS Employers said hospital trusts and others who hire staff in England’s NHS have been told to work only with agencies that are accredited, vetted and not operating in red-list countries.

“The bit which has always been a bit more tricky is if individuals apply themselves,” she said.

The rules do not stop individuals based in red-list countries applying for jobs in Britain, and while an agency may not actively recruit them, community links to people already in the country might mean people apply more from certain countries.

Paul Wanyonyi Simiyu is a nurse, originally from Kenya, who came to Britain four years ago. Kenya is on Britain’s “amber” list, meaning any active nurse recruitment has to be through a bilateral agreement Britain has with Kenya.

Despite that agreement, Mr. Simiyu estimates 90% of the recruitment of Kenyan nurses comes via direct applications to UK jobs, adding that there often aren’t jobs for them in Kenya. He founded KenyanNurse to help train Kenyan nurses for English exams and advises them on how to process their registration.

“It’s not against any international or national laws for me to tell a friend or anyone else, hey, there’s a job somewhere overseas,” he said.

On Friday Britain announced 15 million pounds in funding to strengthen the health workforce in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, citing low staff numbers in their health systems and high unemployment among health workers.

QUICK FIX
Britain’s health service has endured a tough winter, creaking under high demand, staffing shortages, strike action over pay and long waits for operations and ambulance visits.

It pledged in 2019 to have 50,000 more nurses in the NHS in England by next year, and health minister Steve Barclay said the government is on course to hit that target and would publish a new long-term workforce plan shortly. The Health Foundation estimates that NHS England has 43,000 nursing vacancies.

The drop in EU staff has helped fuel demand for more workers, with NMC data showing a 20% fall in health staff from the European Economic Area between March 2018 to March 2023.

Mr. Buchan said that the lower numbers of EU staff, domestic shortages and a lack of UK nurses in training meant further non-EU recruits would be needed to hit the target.

“The target itself has been a driver for international recruitment because it’s the relatively quick fix way of getting nurses into the system,” he said. “Will we have to carry on at high levels of international recruitment to try and fill vacancies in the short term? Yes we will.” — Reuters

HONG KONG – Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd 0293.HK said it fired three flight attendants after a passenger accused them of bias against non-English speakers, prompting criticism on Chinese state media and Hong Kong’s leader to vow it wouldn’t happen again.

Cathay said the experience of passengers travelling on its CX987 flight from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to Hong Kong on Sunday caused “widespread concern” and said it sincerely apologized.

The airline fired three flight attendants involved after an internal investigation, CEO Ronald Lam said.

“I would like to reiterate that Cathay Pacific takes a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to serious violations of company rules and ethics by individual employees and will not tolerate them,” Lam said.

He added that he would lead a cross-departmental working group to conduct a comprehensive review of service processes, staff training and related systems to enhance its service quality.

“Most importantly, we must ensure that all Cathay Pacific staff respect passengers from different backgrounds and cultures and provide professional and consistent service in all areas served,” Lam said.

A passenger on the flight from Chengdu wrote in an online post that flight attendants complained amongst themselves about passengers in English and Cantonese. They said the flight attendants made fun of others for asking for a carpet instead of a blanket in English.

“If you cannot say blanket in English, you cannot have it. … Carpet is on the floor. Feel free if you want to lie on it,” a flight attendant said, according to a recording that was circulated widely online. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the clip, which triggered criticism on social media.

Hong Kong’s flagship carrier has been trying to rebuild itself as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was badly hit by COVID-related flight cancellations, border closings and strict quarantine measures for crew, resulting in drastic headcount reductions since 2020.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, said on Wednesday that the discrimination incident was serious and could not be repeated.

“The words and deeds of the flight attendants hurt the feelings of compatriots in Hong Kong and the mainland and destroyed Hong Kong’s traditional culture and values of respect and courtesy,” he said, according to a post on his Facebook.

Cathay’s Flight Attendants Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China’s state-owned People’s Daily in an online commentary said it was shocked by the incident against Mandarin-speaking passengers and criticized Cathay‘s corporate culture for “worshipping foreigners and respecting Hong Kong people” but looking down on Mainlanders.

“Cathay Pacific can’t just apologize every time, but should rectify heavily, establish rules and regulations, and stop the unhealthy trend from the root,” it said.

The newspaper went on to say that the level of Mandarin in Hong Kong is improving by “leaps and bounds.”

“In Hong Kong the reverse trend of worshipping English and looking down on Mandarin is bound to disappear.” the newspaper said. – Reuters

WASHINGTON – The United States said it signed agreements with Micronesia on Tuesday concluding negotiations to extend economic assistance to the island state under a strategic pact key to US efforts to push back against China in the Pacific.

The State Department said additional negotiations were underway with Micronesia (FSM) to continue federal programs and services currently provided under a Federal Programs and Services Agreement.

Three agreements related to Micronesia‘s Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the United States were signed by the charge d’affaires of the US Embassy in Pohnpei and Micronesian negotiator Leo Falcam Jr.

This marked “the successful conclusion of negotiations with FSM regarding the extension of Compact– related economic assistance” and was “a major milestone” in relations, the State Department said in a statement.

Washington first reached COFA accords with three Pacific island states – FSM, Palau and the Marshall Islands – in the 1980s under which it retains responsibility for their defense and provides economic assistance while gaining exclusive access to huge strategic swathes of the Pacific in return.

Under memorandums of understanding reached on renewing the pacts, the US will commit a total of $7.1 billion over 20 years to the three nations, subject to US Congressional approval.

The US statement called the relationship with FSM “special and historic” and said continuation of COFA-related assistance at “significant” levels reflected this and would support development and help tackle challenges such as climate change.

Renewing the COFAs has become a key part of US efforts to push back against China’s bid to expand its influence in the Pacific. Chinese diplomats have been courting the region and China’s construction and mining companies have expanded their business in many Pacific island nations.

On Monday the US signed a renewed COFA with Palau and chief COFA negotiator Joseph Yun told Reuters on Saturday he hoped to finalize a deal with the Marshall Islands in the coming weeks.

The Marshall Islands’ COFA is due to expire this year. – Reuters

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood should portray safer use of guns in television and film at a time of rampant gun violence in the United States, USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center for Hollywood, Health and Society said in a report released on Tuesday.

“Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for the Media” encompasses more than 20 years of gun data and trends revolving around the statistic that firearms are the leading cause of death in children and teens in the United States.

“If television can embrace depicting gun safety, we will see people in America become more comfortable with securing their guns safely at home,” Norman Lear Center program director Kate Folb told Reuters.

Folb, who has spent years studying the correlation between entertainment and society, says that simply showing safe gun storage onscreen can have a lasting impact.

The guidelines break down the problematic influence of guns in America through myth debunking, intimate partner violence, mass shootings and children’s programming, and offers suggestions for improving the representation without sacrificing storylines.

The report was developed with support from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which after the mass shooting of children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, a year ago, wrote an open letter committing to gun safety onscreen. More than 300 directors, producers and writers signed that letter.

Folb said the Norman Lear Center would hold presentations and meetings on gun portrayal with Hollywood and will have a presence at entertainment festivals.

The Norman Lear Center studies the social, economic and cultural impact of entertainment and has consulted on several television projects, including “Grey’s Anatomy,” “This is Us,” and “Euphoria.”

Award-winning producer and writer Norman Lear celebrated the guidelines and the mission.

“I couldn’t be prouder that the Center which bears my name is releasing this report about gun safety and the entertainment industry,” Lear said. “How guns are portrayed on screen should reflect the public health crisis we are in, and help portray responsible gun ownership.” – Reuters

Choice Hotels International is seeking to buy Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in a deal that would create a US budget hotel giant, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The talks between the companies are at an early stage and it is not clear whether Wyndham is interested in pursuing a tie-up with Choice, the source said, requesting anonymity as these discussions are confidential.

If Wyndham decides not to proceed with a deal, Choice Hotels could choose to go hostile and take an offer directly to Wyndham’s shareholders, the source said.

News of the potential deal comes at a time when high inflation and recession risks could sap consumer spending on travel and drive up demand for affordable hotels such as Choice and Wyndham.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, after which shares of Wyndham Hotels closed 5.1% higher, while Choice Hotels ended about 4.6% lower.

“We don’t comment on rumors. We are focused on business as usual, driving value for our franchisees, team members, guests and stakeholders,” Wyndham said in an emailed statement.

Wyndham had a market value of $5.9 billion as of Monday’s close, while Choice has a market capitalization of $5.8 billion. Wyndham, whose brands include Days Inn and Travelodge, operates and franchises a hotel portfolio of 24 brands that are primarily located in secondary and tertiary cities, according to its annual filing.

Wyndham was formed in 2018. Wyndham Worldwide spun off its $11 billion hotel business to create two separate publicly-traded hospitality companies. Wyndham Worldwide is now known as Travel + Leisure and focuses on timeshare resorts.

Choice Hotels, which operates brands like Econo Lodge, Quality Inn and Clarion, franchises more than 7,000 hotels and caters to customers in the mid-scale to upscale range.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – Reuters