Kathmandu (TIP): Nepal has reported 1,024 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the nation to 239,885, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Ministry of Health and Population said that the cases were detected after conducting 6,074 tests across the country.
“The total number of new cases in the last 24 hours stand at 1,024. With this the total number of cases in the country has reached 239,885,” according to a statement from the health ministry.
So far, 2,206 people have recovered from the disease on Saturday. With this a total of 224,053 people, who earlier tested corona positive, have recovered from the infection. So far, swab samples of 1,778,024 people have been tested in the country to detect coronavirus. There are currently 14,255 corona active people undergoing treatment at different laboratories across the country, the ministry said. The health ministry said confirmed death of 10 people due to corona infection on Saturday, the country’s corona tally has reached 1,577. — PTI
Islamabad (TIP): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has dared the Opposition alliance to table a no-confidence motion in Parliament to oust him, as he criticised its call to lawmakers for mass resignations to force him to call snap polls.
Khan said he did not backtrack from holding a national dialogue to steer the country out of multiple crises.
An 11-party Opposition alliance announced on Tuesday that their lawmakers will resign en masse by the end of this month from Parliament to paralyse the government and force Prime Minister Khan to call snap polls.
The decision was taken after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 11 Opposition parties formed in September this year to overthrow Prime Minister Khan’s government, held a marathon meeting in Islamabad.
Khan said the Constitutional way to send a government packing is to table a no-confidence motion in Parliament.
“If the Opposition wants to move a no-confidence motion, they should come and do so in the assemblies,” he said.
He also criticised the PDM’s call for en masse resignations. “Parliament is the best place for political dialogues and I’m ready to respond to all questions [in Parliament]. Democracy will only work when there is a debate,” he said while talking to the media on Wednesday in Sialkot city in Punjab province.
Khan said the Opposition wanted quashing of corruption cases.
“We have no problem and the government is ready to hold talks on any issue but the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) like concession will not be discussed,” he said, adding that the graft cases would not be closed.
Addressing a ceremony after inaugurating a private airline company, Khan slammed the Opposition parties, saying those who had criticised the government for not imposing a complete lockdown, were now holding public gatherings.
The Opposition alliance has alleged that Khan was supported in the 2018 elections by the ‘establishment’ and also failed to run the country and address chronic issues. — PTI
“Despite the global pandemic, young musicians of Wharton Arts never stopped making music. At our Virtual Winter Celebration, you will see and hear performances from over 450 young people, sharing messages of hope through their gifts of music.” – Helen H. Cha-Pyo, Artistic Director & Principal Conductor
The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts (WIPA) welcomes everyone to ring in the winter solstice by enjoying classical, pops, and holiday favorites with a weekend of virtual events December 18-20. Free online streaming for the Holiday Cabaret for the Arts, ‘Messengers of Hope Virtual Festival’, and ‘Salon Series’ is available at WhartonArts.tv. In the absence of live event experiences, audience members are invited to watch from the comfort of home and enjoy the gift of music from Wharton’s talented young artists. For full concert details, see schedule below or visit WhartonArts.org. “The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts is continuing to make every effort in bringing the music from our students to your homes during these challenging times,” said Peter H. Gistelinck, Executive Director. “We are very appreciative and grateful for all of your support during this month of giving. Please do consider us for a donation by visiting WhartonArtsDonate.org so that we can continue the mission and vision of our educational programs.”
Wharton Arts Winter Celebration
All events take place at 7:00 p.m. EST on WhartonArts.tv unless otherwise indicated.
Friday, December 18 @ 6:00 p.m. EST on Facebook Live!
Holiday Cabaret for the Arts: The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey will join Performing Arts School students for an evening of art and pops favorites followed by a virtual holiday sing along.
NJSO (Photo / Courtesy NJSO)
Saturday, December 19
Messengers of Hope Virtual Festival: Young musicians of the New Jersey Youth Symphony present a virtual compilation of works featuring nearly two dozen ensembles and orchestras
Sunday, December 20
Salon Series: Violinist Mikhail Kuchuk presents works for solo violin by J.S. Bach, Prokofiev, and Ysaÿe
The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ mission is to provide the highest quality performing arts education to a wide range of students in a supportive and inclusive environment, where striving for personal excellence inspires and connects those we teach to the communities we serve. To learn more, visit www.WhartonArts.org
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NJSO – @ Home for the Holidays
Holiday videos premiere daily! New videos premiere daily at 5 pm!
NJSO musicians share festive favorites and holiday traditions, from ‘our homes to yours’.
Enjoy daily musician videos featuring performances, family recipes, holiday memories and more, starting December 9 (videos premiere at 5 pm). And tune in for a pair of can’t-miss features: a fun holiday special hosted by Mark Timmerman (Dec 17 at 7:30 pm) and performances of “And the Glory of the Lord” and “Hallelujah” Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”, featuring friends in the Montclair State University Singers (Dec 18 at 7:30 pm).
Dec 17 at 7:30 pm: Holiday Special
Enjoy an evening of holiday music and fun, featuring solo and chamber performances by NJSO musicians, plus fun surprises, hosted by Mark Timmerman.
MARK TIMMERMAN host
Dec 18 at 7:30 pm:
The New Jersey Symphony Chamber Orchestra and Montclair State University Singers present “And the Glory of the Lord” and “Hallelujah” Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY SINGERS
Heather J. Buchanan, director
NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
These FREE virtual events are available:
NJSYMPHONY.org
NJSO YouTube channel—subscribe and enable notifications for the latest videos.
NJSO social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Follow the NJSO to get notifications to your feed!
To learn more about how to watch NJSO events, visit njsymphony.org/concerts-and-events/njso-virtual-20-21/how-to-watch
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NJPAC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT – “Where Do We Go From Here”
Film Screening FREE on Zoom – Mon Dec 14 @ 7PM
After everything that has happened in 2020, where do we go from here?
NJPAC True Diversity Film Series looks at the tumultuous events of this past year, and talks about what the way forward looks like — and what it ought to look like.
A screening of the film “Where Do We Go From Here,” will take place, a two-part series on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which explores the extraordinary events of 2020 with a range of Black leaders, artists and journalists, including: Stacey Abrams, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Academy award-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay, journalist and Pulitzer prize-winning founder of the “1619 Project” Nikole Hannah-Jones, historian and author Ibram Kendi (“How to be an Anti-Racist”) and actor David Oyelowo (“Selma”), among many others.
This season, the films NJPAC will present through the True Diversity Film Series will focus on social and racial justice, in response to the uprisings against systemic racism that have spread around the globe in 2020. To continue these presentations safely during the pandemic, NJPAC has redesigned this series to work like a book club. After watching the selected films at home virtually, we come together on a Zoom video conference to discuss the film with panelists who can offer context and insight.
Everyone is encouraged to view “Where Do We Go From Here” and then join the teams for two virtual panel discussions.
Program – 1st Panel Discussion
The first panel discussion, at 7PM on Monday, December 14, will focus on the youth perspective on social justice, and what progress that has been made — and not made — over the past year. Moderated by hip hop artist and NJPAC faculty lead Sheikia “Purple Haze” Norris, this panel will bring together high school and university students who are leaders in their communities to discuss the future of the Black Lives Matter movement, the push to defund the police, reparations and what role they believe governments can play in promoting equity.
To RSVP to Part 1, visit njpac.org/event/pseg-true-diversity-film-series-presents-where-do-we-go-from-here-part-1
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ARTS AND CULTURE
Free on Zoom – Wed, Dec 16 @ 7PM
Program – 2nd Panel Discussion
The second of these panels, at 7PM on Wednesday, December 16, will focus on how 2020 has affected artists and the arts. NJPAC’s own Donna Walker-Kuhne, the Arts Center’s Senior Advisor for Community Engagement — as well as the president of Walker International Communication Group, and an adjunct Professor at New York University, Columbia University and Bank Street College — will moderate the discussion with a panel of artists and arts administrators, exploring how artists will continue to produce new work and examine themes of social justice in the new year, and how the arts can be made sustainable in a country upended by a pandemic and economic instability. To RSVP to Part 2, visit
Kwanzaa Festival & Marketplace: Celebrate culture, community and creative expression at NJPAC’s annual event!
This year’s virtual Kwanzaa Festival runs through December 31, featuring online programs inspired by the seven principles of Kwanzaa (Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani). Don’t miss out on any of the fun!
Tune in for a panel discussion about storytelling with the elders, social justice and Black theater. Take an online class to explore West African dance, stepping, Zumba, drumming, capoeira, or Afrobeats. Watch a performance by Step Afrika! or a virtual arts and crafts lesson on-demand at njpac.org. Or stop by the community marketplace for some online shopping.
Get Social! Follow NJPAC Online:
Website: njpac.org
Twitter: @NJPAC
Hashtag: #NJPAC
Facebook: facebook.com/NJPAC
YouTube: NJPACtv
(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, and Health & Wellness)
The pardon clause’s language is broad indeed, unambiguously allowing the president to pardon seemingly any other person convicted for any federal criminal offense. But its language does not unambiguously include the president himself. Had the Framers intended to give the president such broad power, we would expect them to have clearly said so. After all, the new nation was in the process of rejecting a monarchical government in favor of a democratic republic. In June 2018, in the throes of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, the president claimed “the absolute right to PARDON myself,” citing “numerous legal scholars.”
The president was correct that some scholars have reached that conclusion. But those scholars are wrong. The president has no right under the Constitution to pardon himself.
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution provides that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
There is next to nothing from the constitutional convention, state ratification debates or 229 years of Supreme Court decisions that sheds light on whether this language empowers a president to pardon himself for federal crimes.
An acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel tentatively said in August 1974, four days before President Richard M. Nixon resigned, that there is no power to self-pardon. This opinion, a single conclusory sentence, can hardly be regarded as authority on the subject.
The argument often made for the presidential self-pardon is that the authority is absolute, and that the pardon clause does not expressly prevent self-pardons. The argument often made against self-pardons is that they would be inconsistent with the president’s responsibility in Article II, Section 3 to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Neither of these arguments is sufficient to prove its respective point. The pardon clause’s language is broad indeed, unambiguously allowing the president to pardon seemingly any other person convicted for any federal criminal offense. But its language does not unambiguously include the president himself. Had the Framers intended to give the president such broad power, we would expect them to have clearly said so. After all, the new nation was in the process of rejecting a monarchical government in favor of a democratic republic.
Instead, the words they chose to confer the pardon power on the president contemplate his granting of reprieves and pardons only to persons other than himself. The word “grant” connotes a gift, bestowal, conferral or transfer by one person to another — not to himself. That would have been the understanding of this word at the time of the Constitution’s drafting, and it is how the term “grant” was understood and is used elsewhere in the Constitution.
At the same time, the “take care” argument against the power to self-pardon merely assumes the very conclusion it reaches: that the pardon clause does not empower the president to pardon himself, and therefore that his self-pardon would be irreconcilable with his responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. This begs the question just as much as the textual argument made for self-pardons. If the Constitution allows a president to pardon himself, there could be no argument that in pardoning himself the president was not faithfully executing the laws.
So why is it clear that the president lacks the power to pardon himself? There are three reasons. The language of the pardon power itself is ambiguous in the face of a constitutional expectation of clarity if the Framers intended to invest the president with such extraordinary power — a power in the sovereign that was little known to the Framers, if known at all.
Second, the Framers clearly contemplated in the impeachment provisions of the Constitution that the president would not be able to violate the criminal laws with impunity. There, without so much as a hint of a president’s power to avoid criminal liability through self-pardon, they provided that even “in Cases of Impeachment,” for which the president can only be removed and disqualified from holding high federal office, “the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”
And last, but not least, a power in the president to pardon himself for any and all crimes against the United States he committed would grievously offend the animating constitutional principle that no man, not even the president, is above and beyond the law.
In contemporary constitutional parlance, the Framers more likely would have regarded a self-pardon not as an act of justice, grace, mercy and forgiveness, as they did presidential pardons of others. They would have viewed a self-pardon as a presidential act more akin to an obstruction of justice for criminal offenses against the United States by a president, the prosecution for which can be brought, at least according to the Justice Department, only after a president leaves office.
The current president, never shy about violating norms, may well be tempted to challenge the Constitution by pardoning himself for any possible crimes he may have committed during his presidency. If he does, he may discover that neither the Constitution nor the Supreme Court will allow him to forever escape liability for any crimes he may have committed against the nation he served.
((J. Michael Luttig served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals (1991-2006) and as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department (1990-1991).
DIR: Shalini Kantayya l 2020 l USA l Doc Feature l 1h 30m
‘THE RESEARCHER WHO TOOK ON BIG TECH AND WON’ – ‘Fast Company’ Story Title
“10 BEST FILMS OF 2020” – The New York Times
“Thought-provoking. ‘Coded Bias’ serves as both a wake-up call (to invasive practices the public doesn’t yet realize are being implemented) and a call to action.” – (Valerie Complex) VARIETY
“CODED BIAS,” Shalini Kantayya’s feature documentary, premiered at the 2020Sundance Film Festival
The film explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition software does not see dark-skinned faces and faces of women accurately, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms. As it turns out, artificial intelligence is not neutral, and women are leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected. Buolamwini starts her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. Modern society sits at the intersection of two crucial questions: What does it mean when artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly governs our liberties? And what are the consequences for the people Al is biased against?
“Coded Bias” weaves a history of the small homogeneous group of men who defined artificial intelligence and forged the culture of Silicon Valley – a culture rapidly reshaping the world. As humans increasingly outsource decision-making to machines, algorithms already decide who gets hired, who gets health care, and who gets undue police scrutiny. Automated decision making has the unprecedented power to disseminate bias at scale. “Coded Bias” tells the uncharted story of rebels and misfits, women mathematicians and data scientists leading the fight for ethical use of the technologies of the future.
Watch the trailer vimeo.com/video/414917737
To learn about virtual screenings, visit codedbias.com/virtualcinema
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THROUGH THE NIGHT
– WHO CARES FOR THE CAREGIVER?
DIR: Loira Limbal l 2020 l USA l Doc Feature l 1h 12m
“‘THROUGH THE NIGHT is both celebration and indictment.”- The Hollywood Reporter
“a gripping peek into the economic and emotional challenges of Americans.”-The Root
IN VIRTUAL CINEMAS NATIONWIDE, DECEMBER 11TH
Caregiver in “Through The Night.” (Photo Credit/ThroughTheNight.com
“THROUGH THE NIGHT,” directed and produced by Loira Limbal, is an intimate cinema verité portrait of three working mothers whose lives all intersect at a 24-hour daycare center: a mother working the overnight shift as an essential worker at a hospital; another holding down three jobs just to support her family; and a woman who for over two decades has cared for the children of parents with nowhere else to turn. A tender portrait of titanic strength, love, and selflessness, “Through The Night” showcases the multiplicity of “women’s work” — paid, underpaid, and unpaid; emotional and physical; domestic and career-oriented – all while negotiating the terms of a dignified existence under the three arrows of racism, sexism, and capitalism in America.
Website: throughthenightfilm.com
Facebook: throughthenightdocumentary
Instagram: throughthenightdoc
Twitter: thruthenightdoc
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BREAKING SURFACE
DIR: Joachim Heden l 2020 l Sweden,Belgium,Norway l Swedish & Norwegian w/Eng subs l 1h 22m l NR
“All the diving we see in the film is done by Moa and Madeleine themselves without stunt doubles.” – Joachim Heden
In “Breaking Surface,” Swedish filmmaker Joachim Heden (“New York Waiting”) returns with an intense thriller starring Moa Gammel and Madeleine Martin as half-sisters clamoring against time on the ocean floor.
A few days after Christmas, half-sisters Ida and Tuva set out on a winter dive in a remote part of the Norwegian coastline. Towards the end of the dive, a rockslide traps Tuva under water. As Ida surfaces to call for help, she discovers that the rockslide has struck above water as well, burying their equipment, phones and car keys–they are completely cut off from any chance of outside rescue. As the frantic race for survival unfolds, Ida is put to the ultimate test of character and forcefulness. During Ida’s fight to save Tuva, a fractured sisterhood is exposed, and when all seems lost, the stakes rise beyond simple survival. To learn more, visit musicboxfilms.com/film/breaking-surface
Release: On VOD December 15 on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, and YouTube by Doppelganger Releasing.
DOCU SHORTS
THE WAY HOME – Docu Short Series
DIRS: Don Hardy, Camille Servan-Schreiber, Shawn Dailey l 2020 l USA l Doc Short l 44m
“THE WAY HOME” is the launch of Season One of a new short-form documentary series from acclaimed filmmakers Don Hardy, Camille Servan-Schreiber and Shawn Dailey. This inspiring and insightful non-fiction short film series takes a deep dive into the ongoing increasing issues of homelessness in America – specifically in California.
This remarkable series not only focuses on the growing problem impacting our nation, but highlights solution makers and game changers, as they dedicate their lives making a difference in addressing this issue.
DESCRIPTIONS
Episode 1: 14m
How Did We Get Here?
In the first episode of THE WAY HOME we examine the origins of the homelessness crisis in the US and how it has grown to an epidemic in California.
Episode 2: 9m
The Most Vulnerable
More than half of homeless people in California are seniors. One pilot program in Northern California is focused on getting them off the street.
Episode 3: 10m
The Invisible
In one California community volunteers, non-profit organizations, and the local government are working together to find creative ways to get people into sustainable housing … and it’s working.
Episode 4: 11m
The California Dream
California is in the midst of a housing crisis, and the lack of affordable housing is why so many become homeless.
To learn more, visit TheWayHome.com
www.Facebook.com/TheWayHomeDocSeries
The Film is available on iTunes, Amazon & Google Play.
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NO CRYING AT THE DINNER TABLE
DIR: Carol Nguyen l USA l 2020 l Doc Short l 15m
WINNER: SXSWFF & LAAPFF
In this cathartic documentary about things left unsaid, filmmaker Carol Nguyen interviews her own family to craft an emotionally complex and meticulously composed portrait of intergenerational trauma, grief, and secrets. Her films often explore the subjects of cultural identity, family and memory. To learn more about the film, please visit: Carolnguyenfilms.com/no-crying-at-the-dinner-table
Facebook: @ncatdt Instagram: @ncatdt
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TO CALM THE PIG INSIDE (Ang Pagpakalma Sa Unos)
DIR: Joanna Vasquez Arong l Doc Short l 19m
BEST DOC SHORT: HSDFF, SDFF
In a small town, myths are woven to try to understand how the people cope with devastation and trauma in the aftermath of a typhoon. A girl’s voice divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt visiting this ravaged town.
Facebook: @ToCalmThePigInside
Instagram: @ronganna
(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Spirituality, and Health & Wellness)
Once again, the government of India has failed to respect democratic temper. Continuing with their tactics of delaying ac
By Prof. Indrajit S Saluja
ceptance of the genuine demands of far
mers to repeal the farm laws enacted in June 2020, government of India has, once again, engaged the agitating farmers in an exercise in futility.
It reminds me of a famous dialogue from a Hindi movie where a lawyer blasts the judicial system in the country which instead of judging a case, goes on giving adjournments. The dialogue “Tareekh pe tareekh” appropriately describes the policy of the present central government in India who, instead of clinching the issue, keep on prolonging “dialogue”.
Government of India is not bothered how much suffering its intransigence is causing, not only to agitating farmers, but also to a vast majority of people of India. Not only the government is endangering the lives of protesting farmers who are exposed to cold, and worse still, the monster COVID-19, but also causing severe hardship to the common people whohave to suffer because of the bandhs.
It is quite clear that government, as usual, believes the agitators will get tired and will turn against their leaders spearheading the struggle for securing justice for the farming community, and also for the consumers of farm products across the country. It is well known how government of India is well versed in the art of dividing people. One can discern it in their characterization of the struggle as a Sikh or Punjabi struggle which is so untrue. It is a struggle of all farmers regardless of their faith. Again, government is trying to project it as a struggle of a people of a region- Punjab. A blatant lie. It is a struggle of farmers of all regions in India.
We know the farmers’ leaders leading the struggle are a mature people. But they must be reminded that they must not fall to the machinations of the government, which is hell bent on failing the people’s movement , the like of which no government has witnessed in more than half a century, since the movement under Jai Prakash Narayan during Indira Gandhi’s emergency days. It is a test of democracy in India.
It should remind this government which is so insensitive to the people of the country that no government is strong enough to face the onslaught of the collective power of a united people.
Hope, better sense will prevail with the government of India before it is too late.
Some BJP leaders went as far as to call the protesting farmers anti-nationals. It is quite bizarre to hear folks who have abstained during the Independence struggle against the British calling the people of Punjab who shed more per capita blood than anyone else defending India’s soil as anti-national!
This is the mechanism that has been removed in favor of the Ambanis of the world, who have already taken over all other Industry and Business sectors and demanded that the Government must cow down to do the same in the agricultural sector. It is tragic, to say the least, that a democratic government that is supposed to serve all the people ramming through legislation with minimal discussion and no input from farmers. It is reported that 45 farmers commit suicide each day in India. These new laws may only aggravate that situation and increase their plights. Moreover, without the farming community’s active cooperation and support, India would never succeed in shifting to a more efficient, sustainable, and productive farming.
What has motivated hundreds of thousands of farmers to leave their homes braving harsh winter and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to travel to New Delhi to protest the newly enacted Farm laws? This unrelenting protest is not like any other as they have come to the capital’s perimeter with their tractors and food supplies for a long-haul wait. The farmers are protesting these new laws because they honestly believe that it would do irreparable harm to their livelihood, and in the end, they might be sacrificed at the altar of corporate interests. On the other hand, the BJP government remains adamant in sustaining the laws in their current form. Some BJP leaders went as far as to call the protesting farmers anti-nationals. It is quite bizarre to hear folks who have abstained during the Independence struggle against the British calling the people of Punjab who shed more per capita blood than anyone else defending India’s soil as anti-national!
Obviously, the farmers simply do not trust this Government as it has repeatedly failed to keep their promises. Unlike the United States, India does not provide any subsidies to the farmers. However, the current system guarantees farmers a set price for their products, which is known as Minimum Support Pricing (MSP). Although nowhere in the bills is there any mention of removing the MSP, the farmers fear that their worst nightmares might come true. The Modi government continues to assure them that it will preserve the existing mechanism. However, nobody can blame the farmers for their skepticism and uneasiness as they have not forgotten the broken promises from the past.
Prior to the 2014 elections, Narendra Modi had campaigned on the promise that if voted to power, his Government would implement M.S. Swaminathan’s recommendations according to which farmers were to be paid 50% over and above the cost of the crop as the MSP. In the words of Modi, “We will change Minimum Support Price. There will be a new formula – the entire cost of production and a 50% profit.” However, they have not only reneged on that promise but went about filing an affidavit in February 2015 opposing it in the Supreme Court. It was a cruel joke played on the farmers and exposed the Modi Government’s anti-farmer policies at the Centre and Khattar-led BJP Government’s in Haryana. Besides, farmers have not forgotten the police firing and killings in Madhya Pradesh that took place in 2017.
Thanks to the Nehruvian vision and the successive Congress governments’ policies that led to the green revolution, India’s food storage facilities are overflowing with food grains today; however, some would argue that India is not keeping up with changing times. The nation has just witnessed the distribution of free food grains during these pandemic times to those poor laborers walking back to their home villages due to the Government’s draconian lockdown. Lest we forget the great famine in the 1940s, an empty granary would have led to another disastrous famine and social unrest in India. Suppose the current enacted provisions of the farm laws are fully implemented, it may eventually dry up the storage of foods in Government facilities and may even do away with ‘Food Corporation of India’ in favor of the corporate interests.
The existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) system may need reforming, but 425 of them plus 1400 or so purchasing centers are doing their job of buying, storing, and forwarding those food grains to buyers across India. These APMCs include farmers, Traders, Agricultural experts, and others, contributing to purchasing decisions. If they fail to meet a threshold in pricing, farmers currently have the option to sell that to the Government for the Minimum Support Price.
This is the mechanism that has been removed in favor of the Ambanis of the world, who have already taken over all other Industry and Business sectors and demanded that the Government must cow down to do the same in the agricultural sector. Therefore, it would be difficult to argue that these laws are enacted primarily for the benefit of the farmers other than serving the interests of these crony capitalists with little or no social concern or moral compass to accumulate more wealth at any cost to the society-at-large. It is to be noted as well that in these pandemic times when other sectors are showing a downward trend, they are casting their eye on the food grains to make up for the losses.
There is no empirical evidence to prove that getting rid of the Essential Commodity Act will help farmers with more income or stabilize the prices for consumers. Under the new laws, corporates will stock any amount and dispense it entirely at their discretion without any accountability to the public, allowing outlets like Reliance or Amazon to exploit the supply and demand situation to engage in price gouging. These changes will significantly impact small farmers because of their low output that may disallow any bargaining power.
Through this amended law, the Government gives up its power to prevent hoarding and controlling price inflation. Mr. P. Sainath, journalist, and founder of People’s archive of Rural India, said that Businesses tend to undertake buying only when it is profitable in explaining why privatization of Bihar’s agricultural markets has not increased farmer’s income or improved infrastructure. The recent pandemic in the U.S. also showed how the prices were manipulated to maximize these online entities’ profits. There will also be a massive shift in power in favor of Corporates regarding what type of crops the farmers are supposed to plant. One of the other provisions in the law had also limited the farmer’s ability to seek justice before the courts but instead empowered a District collector for providing relief.
Sudan, a country in East-Central Africa, has been beset with civil war and famine for quite an extended period. It has been in deep distress with accumulating debt from borrowings for development programs and poverty reduction. Sudan needed to raise foreign exchange to pay back their mushrooming debt. What were the expert solutions from the reputed world bodies like the IMF and World Bank? Grow cotton on their Nile Delta where they could have grown wheat or Rice to feed the nation. When the cotton was ripe for picking, the prices in the world market plummeted, and they neither had food nor foreign exchange but was placed under the mercy of agencies like WFP. To the rest of the world, it is a lesson hard-learned.
Economists generally agree that India’s agricultural sector needs reforms, and their food storage facilities do require better upkeep to limit unnecessary losses of the food crops due to degradation and rot. However, the need of the hour for the Government is to hear the grievances of the protesting farmers and address their concerns. It is tragic, to say the least, that a democratic government that is supposed to serve all the people ramming through legislation with minimal discussion and no input from farmers. It is reported that 45 farmers commit suicide each day in India. These new laws may only aggravate that situation and increase their plights. Moreover, without the farming community’s active cooperation and support, India would never succeed in shifting to a more efficient, sustainable, and productive farming.
(The author is a former Chief Technology Officer of the United Nations and the Vice-Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, USA)
By Pritam Singh
The government’s effort to portray these laws as empowering the farmers have failed not because of any fault of the public relations campaigns but because of the inherent content of these laws
The democratic mode of governance requires that the Central government should either issue an ordinance repealing these laws or convene a session of Parliament straight away for the purpose. The government has the option to introduce laws later after a due consultation process with all stakeholders.
Despite the deadlock between the farmers and the Central government on the farming laws, there is some perceptible progress. The government’s recognition of flaws in the laws needing amendments is a notable development. Such an acknowledgement must be viewed positively not as an end in itself but as a movement in the right direction. The farmers’ organizations have gone through a massive educational experience through discussions between themselves, with the government, the media and academics. One admirable example of this mass public education is the work of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee from the Amritsar region in translating the three contentious farm laws into Punjabi and distributing one lakh copies among the farmers and workers. It is through such initiatives that the farmers’ organizations have moved on from asking just for the provision of minimum support price (MSP) and public procurement through Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) mandis to an understanding that such piecemeal changes cannot work without changing the whole structure of the three farm laws.
The government’s effort to portray these laws as empowering the farmers have failed not because of any fault of the public relations campaigns but because of the inherent content of these laws. There are limits to PR efforts in converting something to just the opposite of what it is. The spread of mass literacy in India and the development of multiple forms of mass media have certainly enabled a very large section of the Indian population to differentiate between truth and falsehood presented as truth. This deserves to be celebrated as deepening of democracy in Indian institutions and practices.
Effective and truthful communication between the government and the farmers’ representatives is central to strengthening the process of understanding the merits of the farmers’ plea that all the three farm laws should be repealed. The farmers’ argument that the mere provision of MSP and APMC public procurement is not acceptable is based on a slowly emerging iterative and mature understanding that these two issues cannot be delinked from the other key features of the interconnected web of the farm laws.
Let us look at the contradiction between inserting the MSP provision in the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and retaining the existing provision of ‘remunerative price’ to be agreed upon by a farmer in a contract with “agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters and large retailers”. If an agri-business entity were to agree to a ‘remunerative price’ with a farmer, such an entity will not allow him under the agreement to sell his/her crop under the MSP provision in the APMC marketing yard. Such an entity will be legally entitled to take a non-compliant farmer through the litigation process. According to the agriculture census of 2015-16, the overwhelming majority of farmers in India — 86 per cent — are marginal (with holdings below one hectare) and small (with holdings between one and two hectares). The remaining 14 per cent are described as semi-medium (2-4 hectares), medium (4-10 hectares), and large holdings of over 10 hectares. Though in Punjab where 33.1 per cent of land holdings are small and marginal and 33.6 per cent are semi-medium, and in Haryana where 68.5 per cent of the holdings are small or medium, the situation appears slightly better than the all-India average one, the overall picture remains one of low bargaining power of marginal and small farmers. Leave aside the marginal and small holders, even the so-called medium and large landholders will not be in a position to match the legal resources of ‘large retailers’ and agro-business entities. Therefore, keeping the provision for the so-called remunerative price negates the purpose of having the MSP in the APMC mandi.
A similar contradiction emerges regarding the dispute resolution provision in the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act. The threat of penalty ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 10 lakh if a contract is contravened and a further penalty of Rs 5,000-10,000 per day if the contravention continues makes the provision of availing of MSP in the APMC mandi redundant.
There are examples in contemporary history of the governments taking back laws they had passed. The Poll Tax decision taken by the Margaret Thatcher government in the UK in 1990 is well known. This was a tax on everyone on the voting list. It had led to riots and was eventually withdrawn.
The democratic mode of governance requires that the Central government should either issue an ordinance repealing these laws or convene a session of Parliament straight away for the purpose. The government has the option to introduce laws later after a due consultation process with all stakeholders.
Future agricultural reforms ought to deal with making small-scale farming sustainable economically and ecologically. The old development paradigm premised on the demise of agriculture is fundamentally flawed in the era of global climate change where sustainable agriculture is central to a new development paradigm.
(The author is Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Business School)
NEW YORK (TIP): Indian-origin global health expert Anil Soni has been appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer of the newly launched The WHO Foundation, which works alongside the World Health Organization to address most pressing health challenges across the world. Mr Soni will assume his role as The WHO Foundation’s inaugural Chief Executive Officer on January 1 next year. In his new role, Mr Soni will accelerate the Foundation’s “work to invest in innovative, evidence-based initiatives that support WHO in delivering on its mission to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all,” the Foundation said in a press statement on Monday.
The WHO Foundation, an independent grant-making agency headquartered in Geneva, was launched in May 2020 to work alongside the World Health Organization (WHO) and the global health community to address the world’s most pressing global health challenges.
Mr Soni joins the Foundation from Viatris, a global healthcare company, where he served as Head of Global Infectious Diseases.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described Mr Soni as a “proven innovator” in global health who has spent two decades in service of communities affected by HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
“He earned my trust when he and his team at the Clinton Health Access Initiative worked side-by-side with the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia to expand access to treatment and strengthen the management of our health centers,” Mr Ghebreyesus said, adding that Soni has a “unique” set of skills that spans the public and private sectors, and his leadership of the Foundation will provide invaluable support to the mission of the WHO and the billions of people who depend on it. On his appointment, Mr Soni said the world is at a “critical juncture” for global public health.
“After months of combating the COVID-19 pandemic, there is hope for several successful vaccine candidates. Beyond this crucial step, the path to recovery necessitates expanded investment in the many health priorities that have been compromised in recent months – from drops in vaccine coverage and HIV treatment to delays in cancer treatment,” he said, adding that The WHO Foundation represents a unique new opportunity for everyone in the world to play their part in tackling these challenges and in promoting global health, through a strong and vibrant WHO.
Founder and Chairman of the Board of the WHO Foundation Professor Thomas Zeltner said Mr Soni is a “dynamic leader” with deep experience across all aspects of global public health.
“From his work at Viatris where he has led the development and introduction of medicines to treat HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, to his leadership of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and his time at the Global Fund (to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), he has demonstrated his ability to work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors and build successful new organizations from the ground up,” Mr Zeltner said.
The WHO Foundation said Mr Soni is a “seasoned global health expert”, bringing over two decades of experience working across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to expand healthcare access in low and middle-income countries.
“In addition to advisory roles with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MDG Health Alliance, Soni joins the WHO Foundation with a strong track record of mobilizing resources and advocating for global health priorities, as demonstrated through his leadership of the Friends of the Global Fight in the United States,” the Foundation said.
Mr Soni was closely involved in the early years of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, serving as the Advisor to the Executive Director from 2002-2004 and then as the Founding Executive Director of Friends of the Global Fight from 2004-2005.
He served as the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where he worked from 2005-2010, and oversaw the rapid expansion of the organization.
He has been a senior advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MDG Health Alliance. He is an alumnus of McKinsey and Harvard College and serves on the board of The Marshall Project.
As a separate legal entity, the WHO Foundation seeks to complement and strengthen the WHO”s efforts to address global health. It acts as a platform for new types of public-private engagement, while protecting the WHO”s neutrality and independence as the world’s leading international health authority.
The Foundation said the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO, which WHO and the UN Foundation launched earlier in 2020, together with the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, helped test the potential for broader support to WHO by raising USD 238 million in corporate and individual pledges for its and partners” COVID-19 response efforts.
WASHINGTON (TIP): Indian American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has been elected as the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), making her one of the most powerful US lawmakers for the 117th Congress.
Ms Jayapal, 55, who was elected on Wednesday, said that the caucus is going to advance racial justice, tackle poverty and inequality and help transform the country.
“As a lifelong organizer, I am honored that my colleagues have elected me to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus at this pivotal moment,” Ms Jayapal said soon after her election to this most powerful Congressional Caucus, which is slated to play an influential role during the next Biden Administration.
Joe Biden, 78, is due to take over as the 46th president of the US on January 20.
We have massive crises knocking at our nation’s door, and the work of the Progressive Caucus has never been more important. The American people need Congress to lead with vision, conviction, empathy, and dedication to people and families in every community who are struggling right now, said Ms Jayapal.
The incoming Executive Board of Congressional Progressive Caucus is made up of 26 members one Chair, one Deputy Chair, one Whip, two Chair Emeriti, two Special Order Hour Conveners, ten Vice Chairs, one Executive Board Member At-Large and eight Deputy Whips.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus Executive Board is representative of the diversity within the caucus more than half of Executive Board members are people of color and more than half are women.
Incoming CPC Deputy Chair Congresswoman Katie Porter said that in 2018, many of her Democratic colleagues and she successfully ran campaigns rooted in progressive values.
Rather than shying away from our core principles, we embraced them making it clear that a progressive agenda is not only the right policy for America, but also a winning political message, she said.
CPC Whip Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said, we have a unique opportunity to fight for transformative change in the 117th Congress whether that is addressing the coronavirus pandemic, passing universal healthcare, tackling the climate crisis or reorienting our foreign policy.
I look forward to continuing to represent my colleagues in building an effect progressive voting bloc in Congress alongside fearless leaders like Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Katie, she said.
Among others, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has been elected as Deputy Whip, while Congresswoman Rashida Talib as vice chair for member services.
We have massive crises knocking at our nation’s door and our work has never been more important. It’s time for Congress to act boldly and restore power to where it belongs: with the people, Ms Jayapal said in a tweet.
Together, our caucus is going to deliver real relief to families, advance racial justice, tackle poverty and inequality, champion climate justice, and help transform this country so working people can finally get ahead. Let’s get to work, Ms Jayapal said.
FLORIDA (TIP): Indian American Raja Chari is one of 18 astronauts chosen by NASA to form the Artemis Team and help pave the way for the next lunar missions including landing the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024.
Vice President Mike Pence introduced the members of the Artemis Team Wednesday during the eighth National Space Council meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“I give you the heroes who will carry us to the Moon and beyond – the Artemis Generation,” said Pence.
“It is amazing to think that the next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read. The Artemis Team astronauts are the future of American space exploration – and that future is bright.”
The astronauts on the Artemis Team come from a diverse range of backgrounds, expertise, and experience.
Besides landing the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024, US space agency’s modern lunar exploration program will establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade.
NASA will announce flight assignments for astronauts later, pulling from the Artemis Team. Additional Artemis Team members, including international partner astronauts, will join this group, as needed. Chari, a colonel in the US Air Force, joined the astronaut corps in 2017. Raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1999 with bachelor’s degrees in Astronautical Engineering and Engineering Science.
Chari went on to earn a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The US Naval Test Pilot School graduate worked on F-15E upgrades and then the F-35 development program, before coming to NASA.
Currently awaiting flight assignment, Chari’s honors include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Aerial Achievement Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, an Iraq Campaign Medal, a Korean Defense Service Medal and the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal.
Married to Holly Schaffter Chari, also a Cedar Falls native, the couple has three children. His mother, Peggy Chari, lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The astronauts of the Artemis Team will help NASA prepare for the coming Artemis missions, which begin next year working with the agency’s commercial partners as they develop human landing systems, NASA said.
They would also help in the development of training, defining hardware requirements and consulting on technical development besides engaging the public and industry on the Artemis program and NASA’s exploration plans.
“There is so much exciting work ahead of us as we return to the moon, and it will take the entire astronaut corps to make that happen,” Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester said.
“Walking on the lunar surface would be a dream come true for any one of us, and any part we can play in making that happen is an honor.
“I am proud of this particular group of men and women and know that any of them would do an outstanding job representing NASA and the United States on a future Artemis mission,” Forrester said.
TORONTO(TIP): Raj Chouhan, an Indian-origin legislator in Canada, has been elected as the Speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, becoming first from the community to occupy the post, according to a report. Mr Chouhan, who has represented Burnaby-Edmonds constituency five times in the British Columbia legislature, has served as Deputy Speaker in the previous government and would be replacing retiring Darryl Plecas as Speaker, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News reported on Monday.
Punjab-born Mr Chouhan immigrated to Canada in 1973 and started working on a farm.
He was greatly impacted by the plight of other immigrant workers and the wide disparity between the rich and poor in a prosperous country. This contributed to his ongoing advocacy for community and social justice for workers, the report said, citing Mr Chouhan’s biography.
“I am truly grateful to have been entrusted with this role by all members of the legislative assembly,” Mr Chouhan was quoted as saying in the report.
“As a proud member of the Indo-Canadian community, I am tremendously proud of this historic occasion and honored to continue my public service in this new role,” he added.
Mr Chouhan’s selection was the first order of business Monday as British Columbia politicians returned to the legislature for a brief session after the October election that gave the New Democratic Party (NDP) a majority government.
Former NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota called Mr Chouhan’s selection “a historic day for British Columbia.”
“We are in awe of Raj’s accomplishment and what it says about ethnic communities in general, and the degree with which we are beginning to take our place in society,” Moe Sihota said.
NEW YORK (TIP): Two Indian Americans, Sanjiv Goyal, IIT Delhi, and Sunil Hali, IIT Roorkee, are among four eminent IITians given IIT Alumni Council’s Life Fellowship of the PanIIT Institute initiative for their contribution to MarTech and IIT Alumni Council.
The appointment of Life Fellows across all the key areas of Applied Science and Engineering – starting with Martech or Marketing technology is aimed at institutional strengthening of PanIIT Institute, an independent and autonomous partner alumni organization engaged in the development of an end-to-end deep tech Research Ecosystem in India, a media release said.
“We have learnt from the IT and BPO services sector that branding is an integral and critical part of the Country’s strategy to build a new sector like Research,” said Ravi Sharma, President and Chief Volunteer of the IIT Alumni Council.
Goyal, a digital marketing expert, angel investor and PanIIT USA Board Member from Silicon Valley, has been actively associated with Martech in Silicon Valley for over 15 years.
He has been an active angel investor in the domain and one of his investee companies has done a lot of meaningful pro bono work for the IIT Alumni Movement using digital marketing.
His work in the US for global companies like Kellogg, Heinz and Gallo Wines is considered path breaking and highly innovative by Silicon Valley standards.
“I am humbled and honored with recognition and acceptance in the Life Fellowship of the PanIIT Institute, an IIT Alumni Council initiative,” said Goyal.
“In the new normal, our world has shrunk and more connected than ever. I want to impact a billion lives by harnessing the power of innovation and entrepreneurship” he added.
Hali, the Indian media expert from New York launched Radio Zindagi – the first coast to coast India focused South Asian Radio Network and The Indian EYE – considered the most hi tech digital print publication.
“In my own unique way, I have tried to disrupt both print and conventional media like radio to bring in a solid integration of the legacy platforms with a highly personalized online platform,” said Hali, Chairperson of the New York Chapter of the IIT Alumni Council.
“Radio Zindagi is the first coast to coast India focused radio network. The Indian EYE newsweekly integrates personalized video in a mass distributed print file,” he said.
“We quickly built a combination of terrestrial, digital, social platforms along with apps on iOS, Android, Alexa and live streaming with Facebook to deliver functionality and reach which neither new media nor old media could provide on its own” Hali added.
The other two PanIIT Institute Life Fellows are Dr Udaya Dharmalingam, IIT Guwahati, and Sunil Khullar, IIT Bombay.
Dharmalingam is legendary designer of the Indian Rupee logo as well as the main emblem of the IIT Alumni Council
Khullar is a visual communication expert who has evolved the overall unifying Brand strategy for all the initiatives of the IIT Alumni Movement, including development of the IIT Font.
IIT Alumni Council is the largest global body of alumni, students and academicians across all the 23 IITs and partnering Institutes of the India Innovation Network (I2Net). The IIT Alumni Council aspires to catalyze India’s technological renaissance.
WILMIMGTON, DELAWARE(TIP): Chosen to be America’s Doctor again, Vivek Murthy, “grandson of a poor farmer in India” says he will bring to his expanded role to fight the raging coronavirus pandemic an approach learnt at his immigrant parents’ clinic decades ago. Formally introducing his health team in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday, December 8 afternoon, President elect Joe Biden said he had asked Dr. Murthy to serve again as Surgeon General — a role he served under President Barack Obama — but with expanded responsibilities.
“A son of Indian immigrants, who raised their children to always believe in the promise of America,” Biden said Murthy “will be a key public voice on our COVID response, to restore public trust and faith in science and medicine.”
“In my new, expanded role,” Murthy said, “I will work to bring a health perspective to our policies across government so that our schools, workplaces, and communities can be forces for strengthening our health and well being.”
“But the truth is that the best policies – and the best vaccines and treatments – will not heal our nation unless we overcome the fear, anxiety, anger, and distrust so many Americans are feeling right now,” he said.
“So more than anything, I will come to this role as a doctor — one who learned the most important lessons about medicine not in medical school, but in the clinic my parents opened when they first came to America as immigrants decades ago.”
“As a child, I saw how they took the time not just to diagnose illnesses, but to ask about their patients’ families and lives, happily poring over photos of children and grandchildren taken from wallets, listening deeply to people’s stories and struggles, often running well over the appointment time,” Murthy recalled.
“They taught me that the best doctor is not an authority figure who writes prescriptions, but rather a partner in healing, someone who sees patients in their fullest humanity and empowers them to take control of their health,” he said.
“That is the kind of doctor I have always tried to be,” he said. “And if confirmed, that is the approach I will take as I serve as America’s doctor.”
“I will dedicate myself to caring for every American, driven always by science and facts, by head and heart- and endlessly grateful to serve one of the few countries in the world where the grandson of a poor farmer in India can be asked by the president-elect to look out for the health of the entire nation,” Murthy said.
“That is a testament to the promise of America – one that I will work to fulfill every day as Surgeon General.”
Thanking Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris “for your trust and confidence,” Murthy said, “When I left my role as Surgeon General, I never dreamed I would have an opportunity to serve again.”
“And in this moment of crisis, when so many Americans have fallen sick and lost loved ones, when people are losing jobs and struggling with childcare, I feel grateful to be able to do everything I can to end this pandemic,” he said.
“While this is a daunting task, we absolutely have what it takes to get the job done,” said Murthy noting, “We have world class scientists. We have courageous medical professionals who are risking their lives to care for the ill.”
“We have companies on the cusp of delivering vaccines, and we are blessed with generous, compassionate people all across America who are stepping up to help those who are struggling,” he said.
“If we all work together, we will overcome this pandemic and return to our lives,” Murthy said. “But covid-19 is not the only health crisis we face.”
“If anything, it has underscored a host of other epidemics that are devastating families and shortening lifespans: addiction, the opioid crisis, and spiraling mental health concerns; glaring racial disparities and high rates of diabetes and heart disease,” he said.
“These challenges are both caused and exacerbated by broader societal issues – from the economic strains families face to the disconnection and loneliness many of us feel,” Murthy said.
Earlier, introducing his “crisis tested” and “world class” health care team, Biden lavished high praise on Murthy calling him. “A renowned physician and research scientist.”
“A trusted national leader on health care, and for me, a trusted advisor during this campaign and transition,” he said noting, “This will be his second time serving as America’s Doctor, having served in this role under President Obama.”
“During his tenure, he took on some of the most pressing public health issues we face – from the opioid crisis to threats to America’s mental health,” Biden recalled.
As “Surgeon General – but with expanded responsibilities,” he said, Murthy “will be a key public voice on our COVID response, to restore public trust and faith in science and medicine.”
“But he will also be a key advisor to me and help lead an all-government approach to broader public health issues – mental health, addiction and substance use disorders, social and environmental determinants of health, and so much more.”
“Above all,” Biden said, “A son of Indian immigrants, who raised their children to always believe in the promise of America,” Murthy “will help restore faith in this country as a place of possibilities.”
– Biden projected to win 306 electoral votes, Trump set to win 232
– On Monday,, December 14, the 538-member Electoral College will meet to take forward the election process.
WASHINGTON (TIP): With West Virginia certifying its presidential election results, all 50 US states and the District of Columbia have now certified the outcome of the November 3 presidential polls, according to a media report on Thursday, December 10.
President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, is projected to win 306 electoral votes, and incumbent President Donald Trump is set to win 232. It takes 270 electoral votes of the 538 available to become president.
West Virginia became the final US state to certify its presidential election results on Wednesday, December 9, according to CNN’s tally. West Virginia formally declared that President Trump, a Republican, is entitled to the state’s five electoral votes.
On Monday, December 14, the 538-member Electoral College will meet to take forward the election process.
The US president is not chosen directly by the voters, but what is known as the Electoral College. In this process, the states elect the President and Vice President.
Each US state is allotted a different number of electoral votes, based on how many representatives it has in the House, plus its two senators. While California has the maximum electoral votes with 55, Texas is second with 38 electoral votes.
The states’ certifications come as Trump, who has not conceded defeat, has baselessly claimed that the election was rigged and sowed doubt about the outcome of one of the most divisive the presidential race. Dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign challenging the results have been dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country since the election.
Though Trump initially did not allow the transition process to start, he finally relented on November 23. The Biden team now have access to additional office space inside the agencies and the ability to use federal resources for background checks on Biden’s White House staff appointments and Cabinet picks.
Each American state has different processes for certifying results, and some states certified their slate of presidential electors separately from state and local election results, according to the CNN report. The next major step in the Electoral College process is the meeting of the electors, who are required by law to convene on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is December 14.
The electors’ votes are later transmitted to officials and counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6.
Biden, a Democrat, is scheduled to be inaugurated as the 46th US President on January 20.
-Biden promises 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office
-US reported record number of 3,300 Covid deaths on December 10
WASHINGTON (TIP): A panel of independent medical experts voted on Dec. 10 to recommend the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use authorization. UK and Canada have already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday, December 10, welcomed the news that a regulatory panel endorsed Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, calling the development a “bright light in a needlessly dark time.”
The group of independent advisers recommended that the Food and Drug Administration grant emergency use authorization for the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. Although agency approval has not yet been handed down, Biden’s statement inaccurately characterized the panel vote as “approval by the Food & Drug Administration.” A later version corrected that misstatement.
Biden also repeated a plan of the incoming administration to scale up the manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine, assuring 100 million shots are dispersed in the first 100 days in office. He thanked those behind the efforts to create a vaccine for the virus, while taking aim at the outgoing Trump administration because “it didn’t have to be this bad.”
“We are grateful to the scientists and researchers who developed this vaccine. And, we are grateful to the scientists and public health experts who evaluated the safety and efficacy of this vaccine free from political influence. The integrity of science led us to this point,” Biden said in the statement.
Meanwhile, for the second day in a row, the United States has reported a record number of covid-19 deaths, topping even the worst days of the spring surge.
The back-to-back records are dark reminders that, even as vaccines appear to hurtle toward approval, the country is still far from the pandemic’s end. By Thursday, December 10 evening, the daily U.S. toll topped 3,300. The country recorded 3,140 deaths Wednesday, December 9. States in the South and the Midwest, along with California, are contributing most to the increase.
The steadily rising fatality numbers also come after weeks of soaring levels of infection and coronavirus patients in need of hospitalization. Public health experts anticipate that the country will soon exceed the week’s death milestones nearly every day in the coming two to three months.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Responding to the renewed appeal by the Union government to the farmer unions to consider their proposal for amendments in the three agriculture sector laws, the joint front of the farmer unions maintained that they too had not “shut the doors” for negotiations but the government must come up with a “concrete solution” to end the impasse.
Reacting to the government’s appeal for talks, Bharatiya Kisan Union (R) president Balbir Singh Rajewal, in a press conference by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders at Singhu border, the proposals sent by the government on Wednesday, December 9, had been discussed for hours in several meetings and there was nothing new in them.
He reiterated that the agriculture was a state subject and the three laws were “unconstitutional” and be withdrawn. “The ministers in the press conference today conceded that the laws were for trade and commerce, validating our stand,” Rajewal said. He added that the focus of the government was traders and corporate houses and the farmers did not exist for them.
Krantikari Kisan Union president Darshan Pal said the farmer unions were, “in principle”, opposed to contract farming, private markets and hoarding, and therefore, the three laws should be repealed. He also alleged that farmers headed for Delhi from neighboring states such as Uttarakhand, were being harassed by the police.
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday, December 10, made an appeal to farmer union leaders to consider the proposals sent by the Central government and continue the dialogue. He was holding a press briefing with the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal on the matter.
Saying he was “pained” to see that farmers were not able to take decisions despite all their doubts being addressed by the government, Tomar said the government was ready to talk to them with an “open mind”. He added that farmers should soon decide on the next date of talks. Tomar said farmer unions should give up the path of agitation since it was not correct to intensify the stir when talks were on. On the possibility of repealing the three contentious laws, Tomar said that no law was “completely bad”. He reiterated that the government was “ready to discuss with an open mind” any provisions that the farmers felt were against them.
NEW YORK (TIP): The World Food Programme received Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, December, in an event very different from the traditional pomp-filled celebration in the Norwegian capital because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In Oslo, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, gave a webcast statement, after which David Beasley, the UN agency boss, gave an acceptance speech from Rome, where it is based. The body was given the prestigious award for efforts to combat hunger. This year, 12 laureates were named across the six categories. All but the Peace Prize have been awarded over the past days at low-key ceremonies across Europe and the United States in the places where the winners live.
A Nobel prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award — to be shared in some cases — diplomas and gold medals.
Traditionally, the lavish Nobel ceremonies are all held December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel, in Stockholm, except for the Peace Prize that is held in Oslo, in neighboring Norway.
“The pandemic has subjected us all to difficult obstacles. We have been reminded of the importance of cross-border cooperation in resolving humanitarian crises and that, with the help of science, we can find solutions to the challenges we face,” said Lars Heikensten, executive director of the Nobel Foundation. “Since 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has been presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. It is a grand event held in Oslo’s city hall. In a normal year, it would have been filled to capacity, and you would have been greeted by the royal family, the president and the prime minister,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said via video link from the Norwegian capital. Instead, WFP Executive Director David Beasley received the prize, medal and diploma at the organization’s headquarters in Rome.
“Famine is at humanity’s doorstep,” he said, accepting the award. “Because of so many wars, climate change and a global health pandemic that makes all that exponentially worse, 270 million people are marching towards starvation. Failing to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of Covid.”
WASHINGTON (TIP): The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan committee, had recommended that India be added to the ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ list The U.S. government has and will continue to raise issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with the Modi government, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told reporters on Tuesday during a call to discuss the State Department’s annual designation of countries on the basis of their support for religious freedom in their territories. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent bipartisan committee, had recommended that India be added to the ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ [CPC] list –countries with the most egregious violations of religious freedoms. The State Department, which makes its own annual determination of religious freedom across the world, had however rejected the recommendation on India when the list was announced earlier this week. Mr Brownback was responding to a question that asked about the changes to India’s citizenship laws and why India as not designated a CPC.
Also read: News Analysis | U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom’s report may prompt concerns
“There were several recommendations made by the commission that the Secretary did not follow, and this was one of them. And we watch the situation in India very closely. The Secretary’s traveled there multiple times. These issues have been raised in private discussions at the government – high government level, and they will continue to get raised,” Mr. Brownback said.
“I can’t go into the decision-making process that the Secretary went through. He’s well aware of a lot of the communal violence that’s happening in India; he’s well aware of the statute that has been enacted and the issues associated with the Modi government. And as I said, he’s raised it at the highest levels, but just decided at this point in time not to place them on a CPC or a Special Watch List.”
On Monday U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced that Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, the DPRK, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan would be on the CPC list while Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Russia were placed on a Special Watch List for having engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.”
Responding to another question on whether the U.S. was showing “favoritism” by placing Pakistan, but not India, on the CPC list, Mr. Brownback said that in Pakistan a lot of the religious freedom violations were done by the government, while in India some of it was done by the government but “much” of it was communal violence.
“Pakistan – a lot of their actions are done by the government. In India, some of them are done by the government and the law that was passed, and much of it’s communal violence. And then when that takes place, we try to determine whether or not has there been effective – been police enforcement, judicial action after communal violence takes place,” Mr. Brownback said. “But Pakistan has – half of the world’s people that are locked up for apostasy or blasphemy are in Pakistani jails…And that doesn’t mean that India doesn’t have problems. The statute that you talked about or that was asked about earlier is a problem. The violence is a problem. We’ll continue to raise those issues, but those are some of the basis as to why Pakistan continues to be on the CPC list and India is not,” he said.
US Senate unanimously passed a legislation to name a post office in Houston after Dhaliwal
WASHINGTON (TIP): Slain Sikh police officer Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal, who was gunned down in the line of duty during a routine traffic stop in Houston a year ago, was a hero and a trailblazer whose commitment to his faith will inspire generations of Sikhs and other religious minorities to serve in law enforcement, a top US Senator has said. Senator Ted Cruz’s remarks came after the US Senate unanimously passed a legislation to name a post office in Houston after him.
Cruz, the US Senator for Texas, said that Dhaliwal has left a profound legacy on the law enforcement community.
“That is exactly who Deputy Dhaliwal was, a hero. He was deeply committed to his faith, his family, and to serving others with compassion,” Cruz said in his remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
“Moved by his Sikh faith, Deputy Dhaliwal was a trailblazer. When he was first recruited by the sheriff’s office, Deputy Dhaliwal petitioned the office to allow him to wear his turban and beard while in uniform, becoming the first to be allowed to do so,” he said. “Dhaliwal’s commitment to his faith will inspire generations of Sikhs and other religious minorities to serve in law enforcement and protect our communities,” he said.
On September 27, 2019, Deputy Dhaliwal, 42, was killed in the line of duty in service of his community.
In his remarks, Cruz also remembered Dhaliwal’s commitment to love and peace.
“When Hurricane Harvey decimated the Texas Gulf Coast, Deputy Dhaliwal served meals to Houstonians who were left homeless. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, he travelled to Puerto Rico to assist in the relief efforts there. He also worked to deliver water and supplies to Punjab, India, while the area was suffering from a severe drought,” he said.
“Dhaliwal leaves behind an unmistakably beautiful legacy of a life marked with faith, devotion, and service to others. I am grateful my colleagues have moved to rename the US Postal Office in Houston the ‘Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal Post Office Building,’ to ensure Deputy Dhaliwal’s selfless service and heroism is remembered,” Cruz said.
The US House of Representatives and Senate have passed the bipartisan legislation to rename the post office at 315 Addicks Howell Road in Houston as ‘Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal Post Office Building.’ The bill is now headed to the White House for it to sign into law by outgoing President Donald Trump.
The post office named after Dhaliwal in Houston is only the second US post office to be named after an Indian American. The first one was named after the first Indian American Congressman Dalip Singh Saund in Southern California in 2006.
Born in India, Dhaliwal moved to Houston along with his parents.
In 2015, Dhaliwal of the Harris County Sheriff’s office became the first Sikh American in Texas to receive a policy accommodation to serve while wearing his articles of faith, including his turban and beard.
CHICAGO, IL (TIP): “We congratulate Dr. Vivek Murthy on his appointment as the Surgeon General of the United States” Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, President of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) said here , December 10. He praised the appointment of Dr. Murthy to be America’s top doctor by the administration led by President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, and “offered fullest support” to Dr. Murthy, while describing the choice of Dr. Murthy as “cementing the reputation of physicians of Indian origin have across America.”
Dr. Vivek Murthy will serve as the US Surgeon General under Biden-Harris administration, a role Murthy held under the Obama administration, President-Elect Joe Biden said here on Monday, December 7th. As he’s set to return to the same position he held from 2014 to 2017, Murthy is expected to have an expanded portfolio, as the President-elect’s team crafts their plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to Dr. Murthy, Joe Biden nominated Xavier Becerra to lead the sprawling Health and Human Services Department, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The appointments Mr. Biden announced on Monday, including other senior officials to the US Health Department, will help round out Biden’s team charged with addressing the pressing COVID-19 crisis, that has taken over 280,000 American lives,” Dr. Sajani Shah, Chair of AAPI BOT said. Last week, Biden announced that Dr. Anthony Fauci would continue his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases while also serving as his chief medical adviser on COVID-19.
Dr. Anupama Gotimukula, President-Elect of AAPI, that represents over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin in the United States, said, “We are proud of Dr. Vivek Murthy and his many accomplishments and look forward to supporting him throughout the process confirmation to be the US Surgeon General, as the nation and the entire world seeks to find best possible solutions to tackle the pandemic that has taken the lives of millions of people around the world.”
Lauding Dr. Murthy “who has been a key coronavirus adviser to President-Elect Biden, regularly briefing him on the pandemic during his campaign and the transition,” Dr. Ravi Kolli, Vice President of AAPI said, “Dr. Murthy was part of Biden’s public health advisory committee as the pandemic first took hold in the US and has been serving as a co-chair of the President-elect’s Covid-19 advisory board during the transition. His ethics, quiet leadership style and impeccable credentials make him the smart choice for this leadership role.”
“Dr. Vivek Murthy represents the next generation of Indian American physicians,” Dr. Amit Chakrabarty, Secretary of AAPI said. “Dr. Murthy was America’s youngest-ever top doctor, and he was also the first surgeon general of Indian-American descent, when appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014. If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Murthy would play a key role in the administration’s response to many daunting healthcare issuers, including the pandemic that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.”
“Having a wide range of experiences and passion for science-based approach, Dr. Vivek Murthy will bring in new perspectives to the many healthcare issues that require immediate attention and concrete action plan,” said Dr. Satheesh Kathula, Treasurer of AAPI. Offering fullest cooperation from the Indian American Physician community, he said, “We at AAPI, look forward to working closely with Dr. Murthy and his team to end this deadly pandemic.”
Dr. Murthy 43 has said Americans need a leader who works with the people for the progress of the country. As surgeon general under Obama, Murthy helped lead the national response to the Ebola and Zika viruses and the opioid crisis, among other health challenges. Dr. Murthy’s commitment to medicine and health began early in life. The son of immigrants from India, he discovered the art of healing watching his parents – Hallegere and Myetriae Murthy – treat patients like family in his father’s medical clinic in Miami, Florida.
During his prior nomination, Indian American Doctors had lobbied earnestly to have Dr. Murthy confirmed as the US Surgeon General under Obama administration. “The feeling of de ja vu was pervasive, of a triumph over injustice with a hard fought battle by the Indian community during his confirmation, with AAPI playing a major role that secured the prize of the highest position occupied by an Indian American, and that too by one from our second generation,” said Dr. Ravi Jahagirdar, who had led a delegation of AAPI leaders to be at the historic oath taking ceremony of Dr. Vivek Murthy as the US Surgeon General at Fort Myer in Virginia across from Washington DC on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.
“The oath ceremony, a proud moment for Indian Americans, was led by Joseph Biden, Vice President and currently President-Elect, held in a large hall like a school stadium, with flags in abundance rigged in from the ceiling and leaning in from the sidewalls,” recalls Dr. Suresh Reddy, the immediate past President of AAPI, who was present at the oath ceremony in the nation’s capital.
“I am proud of our community of Indian physicians for all the progress that we have made over the years, and I know that AAPI has been a critical force in making this process possible. The advice you shared and assistance you kindly offered were important pieces of this journey,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, stated in a letter to Dr. Jayesh B. Shah, a past president of AAPI, who along with AAPI’s Legislative Affairs Chair, Dr. Sampat Shivangi and several others had led several delegations to US Senators, lobbying for his confirmation.
While expressing pride at the nomination of Dr. Murthy, Dr. Jonnalagadda pointed out to US President-elect Joe Biden’s remarks yesterday, describing Indian American nominee for US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as a “renowned physician” who could help guide Americans safely out of a still ranging coronavirus pandemic. Biden’s remarks came as he spoke to the strength of his “world class” and “crisis tested” health team at an event in Delaware this week.
By 2012, WhatsApp had emerged as the clear global “category leader” in mobile messaging
WASHINGTON (TIP): The US government and 48 states have filed parallel antitrust lawsuits against Facebook, accusing the social media giant of anti-competitive conduct by abusing its market power to create a monopoly and crushing smaller competitors, a move which may force it to sell WhatsApp and Instagram.
Soon after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 48 state attorney generals on Wednesday, December 9, sued the California-headquartered company, Facebook’s shares dropped significantly.
The bipartisan coalition led by New York attorney general Letitia James alleged that Facebook has engaged in a systematic strategy to eliminate threats to its monopoly.
This includes its 2012 acquisition of up-and-coming rival Instagram, its 2014 acquisition of the mobile messaging app WhatsApp and the imposition of anti-competitive conditions on software developers.
According to the federal complaint, this course of conduct by Facebook harms competition, leaves consumers with few choices for personal social networking and deprives advertisers of the benefits of competition.
“For nearly a decade, Facebook used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users,” James told reporters at a news conference.
Opposing the lawsuit, Jennifer Newstead, vice president and general counsel of Facebook, described it as revisionist history.
“This lawsuit risks sowing doubt and uncertainty about the US government’s own merger review process and whether acquiring businesses can actually rely on the outcomes of the legal process.
“It would also punish companies for protecting their investment and technology from free-riding by those who did not pay for the innovation, making those companies less likely over the long term to make their platforms available to spur the growth of new products and services,” she said.
The lawsuit is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp; prohibit Facebook from imposing anti-competitive conditions on software developers; and require the social media behemoth to seek prior notice and approval for future mergers and acquisitions.
“Personal social networking is central to the lives of millions of Americans. Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anti-competitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive,” said Ian Conner, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
The FTC complaint alleged that Facebook undertook a years-long effort to maintain its monopoly through anti-competitive acquisitions and actions that target potential and nascent rivals.
According to the complaint, Facebook is the world’s dominant personal social networking service and has monopoly power in a market for personal social networking services. This unmatched position has provided Facebook with staggering profits. Last year alone, Facebook generated revenues of over USD 70 billion and profits of more than USD 18.5 billion.
The lawsuit alleged Facebook targeted potential competitive threats to its dominance. Instagram, a rapidly growing startup, emerged at a critical time in personal social networking competition, when users of personal social networking services were migrating from desktop computers to smartphones, and when consumers were increasingly embracing photo-sharing.
Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, quickly recognized that Instagram was a vibrant and innovative personal social network and an existential threat to Facebook’s monopoly power. So, the company bought Instagram rather than compete with it. The acquisition for USD 1 billion in April 2012 neutralizes the direct threat posed by Instagram as well as makes it more difficult for another personal social networking competitor to gain scale, the complaint alleged.
Around the same time, it said, Facebook perceived that “over-the-top” mobile messaging apps also presented a serious threat to its monopoly power.
By 2012, WhatsApp had emerged as the clear global “category leader” in mobile messaging. Facebook chose to buy an emerging threat rather than compete, and announced an agreement in February 2014 to acquire WhatsApp for USD 19 billion. Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp both neutralizes the prospect that WhatsApp itself might threaten Facebook’s personal social networking monopoly and ensures that any future threat will have a more difficult time gaining scale in mobile messaging, the complaint said.
Meanwhile, top US lawmakers hailed the twin antitrust lawsuits against Facebook, noting that the accountability was “long overdue”.
Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said in August, she repeatedly asked Zuckerberg about the well-documented instances of Facebook copying, acquiring and killing their competitors.
However, public policy think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation president Robert Atkinson said the antitrust actions “threaten both the US competitiveness and US consumers”.
Silicon Valley enjoys tremendous success globally in part because US tech firms innovate quickly, including through acquisitions that allow them to bring in new talent, intellectual property, and more users. Companies and investors are going to lose faith in regulators if policymakers want to reverse course on prior decisions and call a mulligan this late in the game, he said.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President-elect Joe Biden has said the presidential inauguration on January 20 will not be a “gigantic” event but something closer to what the Democratic convention was like, with a lot of virtual activity across America and an emphasis on safety due to the raging coronavirus pandemic.
Biden said he expected to be sworn in on January 20 on the platform already being constructed on the steps of the US Capitol but plans to avoid the crowds that typically gather on the National Mall and along Pennsylvania Avenue to view the ceremony and parade that attracts millions of people.
“My guess is that there probably will not be a gigantic inaugural parade on Pennsylvania Avenue but my guess is you’ll see a lot of virtual activity in states all across America engaging even more people than before. That’s in train now and I’m not in a position to give you an example of exactly what it will look like,” he said when asked about the inauguration planning at a news conference on Friday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“But I promise you, it’ll be available either virtually or in-person for many and my guess is, there will still be a platform ceremony, but I don’t know exactly how it’s all going to work out. The key is keeping people safe,” he said.
Biden suggested that the festivities could end up looking like the virtual convention Democrats held in August, with online activity in the states.
“We are in discussion with the House leadership and the Senate leadership as to what they plan for the inauguration, particularly those 200,000 spots they control. But I think you’re going to see something that’s closer to what the convention was like than typical inauguration,” he said.
The former vice president said his first and foremost objective was to keep people safe but also allow them to celebrate, to celebrate and see one another celebrating.
“So, we’re in consultation. My team is in consultation with folks who help us put on the convention, as well as with our colleagues, Republican, and Democratic colleagues, in charge of the inauguration,” he said.
Asserting that he can’t do a super version of the president’s announcement in the Rose Garden nationwide, Biden said it would have to be more imaginative.
“But, the convention we put on really opened up avenues that we never thought existed and I doubt there will be another at least the Democratic Convention, that it’s straight like it always has been,” he said.
The swearing-in ceremony and a lunch for the new president and vice president are held at the Capitol.Recent American presidents have been sworn in at an outdoor ceremony at the US Capitol attended by their predecessor.
US President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede the election, has not said if he will attend the ceremony. The Trump campaign has filed a slew of lawsuits across the United States in an attempt to turn his defeat in the November 3 election into a victory. Except for one, all have been rejected by the courts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 2,73,000 people in the US and cases and hospitalizations are surging as the winter months approach.
The previous single-day record was on May 7 at 2,769 deaths
WASHINGTON (TIP): The U.S. has set a new grim record of more than 3,000 COVID-19 related deaths in a single day, reflecting a bleak reminder of the pandemic’s devastating toll, even as two coronavirus vaccine candidates appear to be on the verge of clearing the country’s final regulatory hurdles.
According to The COVID Tracking Project, the U.S. on Wednesday, December 9, reported as many 3,054 reported deaths — the highest single-day total to date.
The previous single-day record was on May 7 at 2,769 deaths, it said.
Overall, there were 1.8 million tests reported on Wednesday, December 9, 210,000 cases, and a record 106,688 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, it said.
The 7-day average for COVID-19 deaths are at an all-time high as deaths are rising throughout the country, it said.
So far more than 15 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 and 286,249 people have lost their lives, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“Based on current production schedules, we expect to have enough doses to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of this year, 50 million total by the end of January, and at least 100 million total by the end of the first quarter,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters at a news conference.
Within 24 hours of an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA, the vaccine could be shipped out to distribution sites across the United States to make it available to the Americans who need it the most, said Army Gen Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed.
“Our goal is to make sure that we can ensure the vaccine is delivered in a timely manner, is to be delivered safely, securely, and it’s ready to be utilized to start administering the vaccine as soon as possible,” Mr. Perna said.
On Tuesday, the FDA released an internal assessment of the Pfizer vaccine’s trial data. The FDA assessment showed that the vaccine was around 95% effective, was efficacious across different groups, including the elderly and people with comorbidities, and did not show any significant safety concerns.
Mr. Perna said that he had given permission to distribute syringes and needles, alcohol wipes and dilutant, which is required in support of the Pfizer vaccine.
“We’ll begin that today. The distribution will be completed by Friday, again only to set conditions. And if it sits there for another week or 10 days or whatever, then it does. But planning for success, we wanted to make sure that the states had all that they needed to have,” he said.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President-elect Joe Biden has said that in the first 100 days of his administration, he would mandate everyone to wear a mask, ensure 100 million Covid vaccinations and reopen the majority of schools. He assured Americans that his “crisis-tested” team of experts would deliver better healthcare and revive the economy. The US is in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has infected almost 15 million Americans and killed 2,86,000. Globally, there are 68.2 million Covid cases and the pandemic has claimed more than 1.5 million lives. Announcing his national health team, Biden asked the Trump administration to act now to purchase the doses it has negotiated with Pfizer and Moderna and to work swiftly to scale manufacturing for the US population and the world.
“This can be fixed. If it does, my team will be able to get at least 100 million vaccinations done in my first 100 days. Third, it should be a national priority to get our kids back into school and keep them in school,” he said on Tuesday. “If Congress provides the funding we need to protect students, educators, and staff, and if states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we all follow, then my team will work to see that the majority of our schools can be opened by the end of my first 100 days,” he added.
(Source: PTI)
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