US Business

The World Bank’s board on Thursday approved creation of a fund meant to finance investments in strengthening the fight against pandemics.

The fund will support prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, the bank said in a statement.

“The devastating human, economic, and social cost of Covid-19 has highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to build stronger health systems and mobilize additional resources,” it said.

The World Bank added that the fund, which it aims to open later this year, was developed under the leadership of the United States, Italy and Indonesia as part of their G20 presidencies, and with broad support from the G20.

It will be used in a number of areas, including disease surveillance, with more than $1 billion in commitments already announced.

“The World Bank is the largest provider of financing for PPR with active operations in over 100 developing countries to strengthen their health systems,” World Bank President David Malpass said in the statement.

The so-called financial intermediary fund (FIF) will provide financing to “complement the work of existing institutions in supporting low- and middle-income countries and regions to prepare for the next pandemic,” the World Bank said.

The World Health Organization is a stakeholder in the project and will provide technical expertise, its president Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

US President Joe Biden said more than 1 million Americans and millions of people around the world have lost their lives to Covid-19, underscoring the importance of boosting investment in pandemic preparedness.

“When it comes to preparing for the next pandemic, the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action,” Biden said in a statement late Thursday. “Investing in preparedness now is the right thing and the smart thing to do.”

In a separate statement earlier in the day, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the fund “a major achievement that will help low- and middle-income countries be better prepared for the next pandemic.”

“Even as we continue to work to end Covid-19, today’s decision by World Bank shareholders will help bolster capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics,” she said.

A spokesperson for the World Bank told AFP that if the Covid-19 pandemic is still ongoing when the fund is implemented, it could be used to provide support against the current as well as future pandemics.

Garbage be gone: California Thursday passed an ambitious law mandating reduction of non-recyclable plastic by at least 30 percent in six years, while also placing responsibility on producers.

The measure is meant to tackle the persistent problem of plastic refuse — in California, about 85 percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills, according to the CalMatters publication.

“California won’t tolerate plastic waste that’s filling our waterways and making it harder to breathe. We’re holding polluters responsible and cutting plastics at the source,” Governor Gavin Newsom said after he signed the law Thursday.

Earlier in the day the bill had passed the state Senate unanimously and had passed the Assembly the day before.

The measure mandates that at least 30 percent of plastic packaging in the state be recyclable by January 1, 2028, and raises the amount to 65 percent by 2032.

It also requires a 25 percent reduction in non-recyclable expanded polystyrene, colloquially known as styrofoam, in three years, with a total ban to go in place if this goal is not met.

Single-use plastic containers, meanwhile, must decrease by 25 percent by 2032.

“This is the most comprehensive plastic waste reduction legislation in the nation,” The Nature Conservancy environmental nonprofit said.

The law, officially titled SB54, shifts the onus of responsibility for the plastic waste from users to producers, a move applauded by environmental organizations.

It clearly states that companies that do not comply with the measures will be fined up to $50,000 per day.

“Reducing plastic pollution at the source will cut emissions to air & water and reduce plastic that gets in our ocean,” tweeted the Oceana nonprofit.

“Countless hours of work have led to this moment,” state senator and bill author Ben Allen tweeted following his chamber’s vote.

“It’s time for California to lead the nation and world in curbing the plastic crisis. Our planet cannot wait.”

The US Supreme Court on Thursday gave President Joe Biden’s administration the green light to end the so-called Remain in Mexico policy instituted by Donald Trump as part of his hardline approach to immigration.

Under the policy, some non-Mexicans who entered the United States illegally across the southern border were sent back to Mexico to wait while their immigration cases played out in court, rather than being detained or provisionally released.

Since the beginning of his term, Biden has been trying to wind down the policy as part of what he claims is a more humane take on immigration.

Advocates for migrants said the policy exposed asylum-seekers to dangerous conditions in Mexico as overwhelmed US courts slowly work through a backlog of cases.

Thursday’s ruling in favor of the Biden administration was split 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining fellow conservative Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justices in the majority.

Roberts, who authored the majority opinion, argued that federal immigration law allows the executive branch to return asylum seekers to Mexico, but does not force it to do so.

“Congress conferred contiguous-territory return authority in expressly discretionary terms,” the opinion states.

Biden’s attempt to terminate the policy, instituted by Trump in 2019, was challenged by a group of Republican-governed states led by Texas. 

These states argued that his move violated US immigration law by forcing authorities to release migrants they had detained onto US territory. They also said that Biden officials had not followed proper administrative procedure.

A lower court in August 2021 ruled against the Biden administration and the case eventually ended up before the nation’s highest court.

At first, the Supreme Court simply refused to freeze the lower court ruling, forcing the administration to restart the policy, formally called Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), while it pressed ahead with its appeal.

From the start of the policy in January 2019 until its suspension under Biden, nearly 70,000 people were sent back to Mexico, according to the American Immigration Council.

During Biden’s tenure as president, more than 200,000 people attempting to enter the country illegally have been interdicted at the border each month and sent back, under MPP or a separate Covid-related policy blocking people at the border.

Illegal border crossings are often dangerous, both for the physical conditions in the region and mistreatment by human traffickers. This week 53 people died after being packed inside a tractor-trailer truck without air conditioning that was later abandoned in San Antonio, Texas.

The American Civil Liberties Union praised the court’s ruling on Thursday.

“The Supreme Court was right to reject the spurious argument that this cruel policy is statutorily required,” said Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

In the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez, which is just across the border from Texas, asylum seekers who had been returned from the United States as part of the Remain in Mexico policy cheered Thursday’s decision.

Nicaraguan Pedro Antonio Rizo, 41, who was staying at a local migrant shelter said the ruling gave him hope for his future and added that only extraordinary circumstances would force one to abandon his home and flee.

“One does not leave one’s house because one wants to leave,” he told AFP.

US airlines are bracing customers for what will probably be another bumpy holiday weekend as the industry struggles to manage a surge in travel demand that probably exceeds its current capacity.  

Yu Su, a computer science professor at Ohio State University, was stranded last Saturday night in Charlotte, North Carolina after his connecting flight home never left. 

The airline didn’t cancel the 8:30 pm flight until around midnight after numerous delays that created “the delusion of hope,” said Yu, who never got a clear explanation for the problem.

Such horror stories are common these days, sparking headlines that warn of airport chaos over the July 4th weekend and drawing scrutiny from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and others in Washington. 

In recent days, plane tracking sites have reported hundreds of flight cancelations and thousands of delays.

In an effort to steer passengers away from “potentially challenging weekend travel days,” Delta Air Lines announced Tuesday it would waive change fees for customers to shift one leg of their trip to within the July 1-8 period.

– Pilot shortage –

Although federal Covid-19 relief aid meant airlines didn’t need to lay off staff, tens of thousands of workers left the industry after carriers urged early retirements.

Today’s industry has about 15 percent less staff compared with the pre-pandemic period to handle about 90 percent of pre-2020 passenger volume, estimated analysts at Third Bridge, a consultancy.

Lack of crew was the problem for Crystal Fricker’s latest flight, which was canceled an hour before she and two other travelers were scheduled to depart Raleigh, North Carolina for Indianapolis. 

Unable to find different flights for all three, the group managed to track down a rental car — no small feat — and drove 10 1/2 hours, arriving at 1 am in time for meetings the next day.

“Pretty much every flight I’ve been on has had some kind of delay,” said Fricker, president of Pure Seed, an Oregon seed company.

Pilots are the most acute issue in a broad airline industry labor crunch, said Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally.

“There’s no short-term fix,” McNally told AFP. “The issue becomes most pronounced during these seasonal peaks.”

Airlines say they’re working to address the issue, recruiting pilots and other staff and trimming summer capacity by 15 percent compared with earlier plans.

While acknowledging the pilot supply problem, airline industry officials point to other exacerbating factors, including turbulent weather, increased staff absences due to Covid and insufficient personnel at flight traffic control at some key sites.

– Blame game? –

“The industry is actively and nimbly doing everything possible to create a positive customer experience,” said Airlines for America CEO Nicholas Calio in a follow-up letter to Buttigieg after a meeting earlier this month.

“Not every air traffic variable is within an airline’s control.” 

But the Federal Aviation Administration pushed back, saying it “acted on the agency staffing issues raised by airlines” by adding more controllers in high demand areas.

“People expect when they buy an airline ticket that they’ll get where they need to go safely, efficiently, reliably and affordably,” the agency said. “After receiving $54 billion in pandemic relief to help save the airlines from mass layoffs and bankruptcy, the American people deserve to have their expectations met.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont progressive, called on Buttigieg to fine the airlines for delayed or canceled flights, blasting the industry for the messy travel season and “outrageously high” fares.

Airlines, meanwhile, are trying to reset expectations for customers.

In a message to frequent fliers Thursday, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian acknowledged “unacceptable” levels of disruption, but said additional hiring efforts and adding more buffer time for crews should help.

“Things won’t change overnight, but we’re on a path towards a steady recovery,” Bastian said.

United Airlines expects nearly 5.2 million customers over the Fourth of July period, a 24 percent increase from 2021 and 92 percent of its 2019 level.

“We anticipate the Fourth of July travel period to be amongst our busiest travel days of 2022 thus far,” said a United spokesperson.

United earlier this month announced it was trimming about 50 daily flights from its Newark, New Jersey hub. 

A company memo cited “many factors including airport construction,” adding that United had sufficient staff to meet the schedule.

Like United and Delta, American Airlines is midway through a recruitment campaign of pilots and other staff. The company has hired 800 new pilots this year, Chief Executive Robert Isom said earlier this month.

The company’s regional carrier, Envoy Air, is offering pilots triple pay for trips next month in an effort to avoid disruption, according to reports.

American Airlines did not respond to AFP questions about the upcoming July 4th weekend.

Jose Mario Licona and his family spent 18 hours in a refrigerated truck being smuggled to the Mexican-US border — a journey he feels lucky to have survived.

Others have been less fortunate, including dozens of migrants from Mexico and Central America found dead on Monday after being abandoned in a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas. In all, 53 people died in the incident.

Licona knew all too well the dangers of entrusting his life to the criminal gangs trafficking migrants in trucks that are often overcrowded and lack ventilation.

But the smugglers — who were paid $13,000 by his relatives to take him, his wife and three children to Texas — left him with no choice, he said.

“When you make a deal, the first thing you ask (the smugglers) is not to be put in a container, but during the journey they do what they want,” Licona told AFP in a shelter in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

“Often they leave the containers abandoned” with people shut inside, the 48-year-old Honduran said.

Licona, his wife and children aged two, six and eight traveled in a truck from Mexico City to the northeastern city of Reynosa, just south of Hidalgo, Texas.

Around 100 people were traveling in the same vehicle, which was not checked even once by Mexican authorities during the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) journey, Licona said. 

From Reynosa the family crossed the border on foot, but they were sent back by the US authorities.

– ‘Criminal enterprises’ –

The smuggling networks operating the tractor-trailers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, said Dolores Paris, a migration expert at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.

“We’re talking about criminal enterprises,” she told AFP.

The tractor-trailer involved in the San Antonio tragedy went through two immigration checkpoints in Texas and had cloned license plates, according to the Mexican government.

Investigators are still trying to establish where the vehicle began its journey.

It was the second such disaster in the city in a little over five years.

In July 2017, 10 migrants were found dead in an overheated truck that was discovered parked outside a Walmart supermarket.

In 2003, 19 migrants died in similar circumstances in Texas.

Licona, a shopkeeper, left Honduras in May after he was shot in the arm during a robbery.

The trailer ride was so grueling that he still regrets it, he said.

“It was very cold. I gave my children two pairs of pants, three shirts and a quilt. They slept during the journey. We brought hydration drinks for them but I didn’t want to wake them. Thank God we’re here,” he said.

The cold made his arm hurt more, but he endured it in the hope of reaching Texas.

After crossing over from Mexico, the family turned themselves over to a US border patrol in an unsuccessful attempt to gain asylum.

They now hope to be given another chance to enter the United States on humanitarian grounds.

– ‘Angel saved me’ –

Migrants staying in shelters near the Mexican-US border said that the journeys last up to two days with as many as 400 people crammed into a tractor-trailer like “animals.”

Some undress or faint in the heat. Others avoid eating or drinking so they do not have to urinate.

When the containers are refrigerated it is like being in a “freezer”, according to one young woman.

Around 6,430 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Of those, 850 were the result of vehicle accidents or linked to hazardous transport, the United Nations agency says.

In December, 56 US-bound migrants from Central America were killed and dozens injured when the truck they were traveling in overturned in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Aware of the risks, a Honduran mother who gave her name as Jenny said she refused to get in a truck in southeast Mexico with her daughters, aged eight and 14.

Instead they continued their journey without the traffickers, despite having been charged $7,500 each.

“It was like an angel saved me,” said the 32-year-old, who fled gang violence in her country and hopes to be granted asylum in the United States on humanitarian grounds.

“Everyone has the right to have a chance,” she said.

On a bright moonlit night, a team of scientists and volunteers head out to a protected beach along the Delaware Bay to survey horseshoe crabs that spawn in their millions along the US East Coast from late spring to early summer.

The group make their way up the shoreline laying a measuring frame on the sand, counting the individuals inside it to help generate a population estimate, and setting right those unfortunate enough to have been flipped onto their backs by the high tide.

With their helmet-like shells, tails that resemble spikes and five pairs of legs connected to their mouths, horseshoe crabs, or Limulidae, aren’t immediately endearing.

But if you’ve ever had a vaccine in your life, you have these weird sea animals to thank: their bright blue blood, which clots in the presence of harmful bacterial components called endotoxins, has been essential for testing the safety of biomedical products since the 1970s, when it replaced rabbit testing.

“They’re really easy to love, once you understand them,” Laurel Sullivan, who works for the state government to educate members of the public about the invertebrates, tells AFP.

“They’re not threatening at all. They’re just going about their day, trying to make more horseshoe crabs.”

For 450 million years, these otherworldly creatures have patrolled the planet’s oceans, while dinosaurs arose and went extinct, and early fish transitioned to the land animals that would eventually give rise to humans.

Now, though, the “living fossils” are listed as vulnerable in America and endangered in Asia, as a result of habitat loss and overharvesting for use in food, bait, and the pharmaceutical industry, which is on a major growth path, especially in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Recruiting citizen scientists helps engage the public while also scaling up the government’s data collection efforts, explains the survey project’s environment scientist Taylor Beck.

– Vital ecological role- 

“Crabs” are something of a misnomer for the animals, which are in fact more closely related to spiders and scorpions, and are made up of four subspecies: one that inhabits the Eastern and Gulf coasts of North America, and the other three in Southeast Asia.

Atlantic horseshoe crabs have 10 eyes and feed by crushing up food, such as worms and clams, between their legs then passing the food to their mouths.

Males are noticeably smaller than females, whom they swarm in groups of up to 15 when breeding. Males grasp females as they head to shore, where the females deposit golf ball-size clusters of 5,000 eggs for the males to spray their sperm on.

Millions of these eggs, tiny green balls, are inadvertently churned up onto the beach surface, where they are a vital food source for migrating shorebirds, including the near-threatened Red Knot.

Nivette Perez-Perez, manager of community science at the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, points out a vast band of eggs that stretch nearly the whole beach at the James Farm Ecological Preserve.

As she gestures, aptly-named laughing gulls with bright orange beaks swoop down to feast. 

Like others in the area, Perez-Perez long ago succumbed to the crabs’ charms. 

“You’re so cute,” she tells a female she has picked up to point out its anatomical features.

– Just flip ’em –

 

Breeding is a dangerous business for horseshoe crabs as it’s on the beach that they are at their most vulnerable: as the tide washes in, some end up on their backs, and while their long hard tails can help some right themselves, not all are so lucky. 

Around 10 percent of the population is lost each year  as their exposed undersides bake in the Sun.

In 1998, Glenn Gauvry, founder of the Ecological Research & Development Group, helped start the “Just flip ’em” campaign, encouraging members of the public to do their part by gently picking up upturned crabs that are still alive.

“Where it matters most of all, is changing the heart,” he tells AFP on Delaware Bay’s Pickering Beach, proudly sporting a “Just flip ’em” baseball cap festooned with horseshoe crab pins.

“If we can’t get people to care and to connect to these animals, then they’re less likely to want legislation to protect them.”

Every year around 500,000 horseshoe crabs are harvested and bled for a chemical called Limulus Amebocyte Lysate, vital for testing against a type of bacteria that can contaminate medications, needles and devices like hip replacements.

Estimates place the mortality rate of the process at 15 percent, with survivors released back to sea.

A new synthetic alternative called recombinant factor C appears promising, but faces regulatory challenges. 

Horseshoe crabs are a “finite source with a potentially infinite demand, and those two things are mutually exclusive,” Allen Burgenson, of Swiss biotech Lonza, which makes the new test, told AFP.