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Zelenskiy ramps up anti-corruption drive as 15 Ukrainian officials exit | Ukraine
A number of Ukrainian officials have been dismissed or resigned over the last four days amid corruption allegations as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attempts to take a zero-tolerance approach to the issue.
Fifteen senior officials have left their posts since Saturday, six of whom have had corruption allegations levelled at them by journalists and Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities.
The wave of changes started on Saturday when Ukraine’s deputy minister of infrastructure, Vasyl Lozinskyi, was detained by anti-corruption investigators and dismissed from his post. He was accused by prosecutors of inflating the price of winter equipment, including generators, and allegedly siphoning off $400,000. Investigators also found $38,000 in cash in his office.
After Lozinskyi’s detention, Zelenskiy vowed in his nightly address to take a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, a problem that has plagued Ukraine since independence.
“I want it to be clear: there will be no return to the way things used to be,” said the president.
Zelenskiy also said on Sunday that there would be “decisions” made on the issue of corruption this week, without specifying what they would be. The European Union has said Ukraine must meet anti-corruption standards before it can become a member.
Since Zelenskiy’s address, a further four senior officials implicated in separate corruption scandals have been dismissed or resigned.
They include Vyacheslav Shapovalov, the deputy minister of defence, under whose watch alleged inflated food contracts were said to be signed. He has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, who was recorded by journalists driving a car belonging to prominent Ukrainian businessmen, has also denied any wrongdoing. Pavlo Halimon, the deputy head of Zelenskiy’s political party, has not commented on recent evidence presented by journalists that he bought a house in Kyiv above his means.
Also dismissed was Oleksiy Symonenko, the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, who went on holiday to Spain in late December in a Mercedes owned by a prominent Ukrainian businessman. In response to the scandal, Ukraine’s national security council on Monday banned officials from travelling abroad until the war ends, except for those on official business. Until Monday’s decisions, male officials were considered an exception to the ban on military-aged Ukrainian men leaving the country.
The shake-up continued on Tuesday afternoon with Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers announcing that five regional heads had been dismissed, only one of whom is being investigated for corruption, along with a further three deputy ministers and two heads of state agencies – none of whom stand accused of corruption.
The leading anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin said the dismissal of those accused of corruption is evidence that Ukraine’s newly formed anti-corruption system is working.
“Not only is the anti-corruption system working, but the politicians are learning to work in a new way,” said Shabunin. Shabunin gave the example of Lozinskyi, whose boss, Oleksiy Kubrakov, the minister of infrastructure, requested the cabinet of ministers dismiss him an hour after his detention and the search of his office.
Shabunin criticised Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, however, for defending and not firing Shapovalov, his deputy minister in charge of logistics, when Ukraine’s ZN.UA publication published contracts on Saturday showing the price of some food for soldiers was several times higher than in a supermarket.
Shapovalov resigned on Tuesday in order, in his words, not to destabilise the Ukrainian army amid the accusations levied at the ministry.
Reznikov said the allegations were part of an information attack on the ministry and has ordered Ukraine’s security services to investigate who leaked the contracts.
Shabunin said the corruption scheme was “too primitive” for the public not to understand. According to the contracts obtained by journalists, a single egg cost 17 Ukrainian hryvnia (37p). The price of eggs, potatoes and cabbage are well-known in Ukraine, said Shabunin, who noted that wholesale prices should be lower than in the supermarket.
The ministry of defence has not denied the authenticity of the contract but insists the stated price was a technical error.
“The public have lost trust in Reznikov,” said Shabunin. “All (military) contracts are non-public because of the war and that is normal … but why should I now believe him that all the prices in the other contracts are OK? Everything is about trust.”
In a lengthy response on his Facebook page in English and Ukrainian, Reznikov did not deny the authenticity of the contracts. However, he said that the price of eggs was a technical error discovered in December and the person in charge at the ministry had been suspended when it was found. He also said he was willing to establish a parliamentary investigative committee as he was “confident (the ministry) had got it right”.
Corruption has been a thorny issue for Ukrainian journalists and activists since the war began. They worry that raising evidence of corruption could harm international support for their country’s war effort.
Shabunin said that, since the war, a silent contract has developed between activists and journalists and the authorities. “We will not criticise the authorities as we did before the war, but the authorities should in exchange very firmly and quickly react to any, even small-scale, corruption – as they did in the case of [Lozinskyi]. There, they fulfilled the social contract. But the ministry of defence has not.”
Shabunin added that the firing of Reznikov was the only way to reinstate confidence in Ukraine’s western partners.
The US is by far Ukraine’s biggest financial supporter. Its ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, said during a conference in Kyiv on Monday: “There can be no place in the future Ukraine for those who use state resources for their own enrichment. State resources should serve the people.”
Tornado threat ramps up as storm damage reported in Oklahoma and Texas and blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains
Severe storms – with reports of at least one tornado and damaging winds – are raking parts of Oklahoma and Texas, leaving a trail of damage Tuesday morning and threatening more as blizzard conditions build across several states farther north.
This is all part of a giant winter storm system pushing into the central US after walloping the West over the weekend. About 25 million people from Texas to Mississippi are under threat of severe storms Tuesday, including tornadoes. And about 15 million people – largely in the north-central US – are under winter-weather warnings or advisories Tuesday morning, with power outages a key concern.
Two tornado watches are in effect: One for parts of the Dallas area and southern Oklahoma until 11 a.m. CT; and one for for parts of Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas until 5 p.m. CT.
A line of severe storms capable of producing tornadoes and large hail was hitting the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in the midmorning.
Sirens rang out around 9:30 a.m. ET at Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport. “We are in the midst of a tornado warning here on the western side of the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” CNN’s Ed Lavandera said from the airport, “where essentially everything has come to a halt here (as) this really strong line of severe storms is starting to make its way through North Texas.”
Damage on Tuesday morning includes:
• Wayne, Oklahoma: A suspected tornado in that town left “buildings wiped off of their foundation (and) trees snapped over like twigs” early Tuesday, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said. There are no reported injuries, but Wayne has no power, and family structures, outbuildings and barns are damaged, according to McClain County Emergency Management.
• Outside Dallas: Wind damage has been reported Tuesday morning west of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, including tractor-trailers being blown over near the towns of Millsap and Decatur, and barns suffering damage near the town of Jacksboro, the National Weather Service said.
More severe storms capable of tornadoes are expected Tuesday and Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region as the complex snow-or-rain system sweeps through the central US from north to south.
Across the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest, blowing snow and/or freezing rain could snarl travel and threaten power outages into Thursday.
Here’s what different regions can expect in the coming days:
• An “enhanced risk” for severe storms Tuesday stretches from eastern Texas to northern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi, with tornadoes, large hail and damaging straight line winds possible.
• Blizzard conditions are expected Tuesday and Wednesday for parts of the central and northern Plains, with snow at times expected to fall at rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour amid powerful 40 mph winds.
• The greatest flash flooding threat will be Tuesday into Wednesday from the lower Mississippi Valley into the central Gulf Coast, Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians.
• Freezing rain and sleet will be possible through Wednesday in the Upper Midwest.
The storm, which first hit the Western US with much-needed snow and rain, resulted in winter storm alerts from the Canadian border to Mexico’s border with New Mexico.
In Denver, up to 5 inches of snow are expected Tuesday, with 50 mph wind gusts possible.
Blizzard warnings extended Tuesday from parts of Montana and Wyoming into northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska and South Dakota, where harsh, life-threatening conditions are expected.
Snowfall through Wednesday morning generally could be 10 to 18 inches in the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Some areas inside the blizzard warning zones – particularly western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska – could get as many as 24 inches of snow, with winds strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, the Weather Prediction Center said.
“We’re not expecting a quick burst of snowfall here,” Brandon Wills, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said Monday evening. Snow is “going to accumulate the highest in the northern Nebraska panhandle – and it’s going to be blowing around like crazy because of the strong winds that we’re going to have as well,” he said.
Interstates in South Dakota could become impassable amid the blizzard conditions, resulting in roadway closures across the state, the South Dakota Department of Transportation warned Monday.
Ice storm warnings were issued for parts of eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and western Iowa. Up to two-tenths of an inch of ice could accumulate in some of these areas, forecasters said.
In Anchorage, Alaska, an “unprecedented amount of snowfall” has led to schools being closed for four days and on Monday shut down the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University.
“The snowstorms that have hit Anchorage over the last week are historic in nature, bringing anywhere between 30-45 inches of snow to our city,” said Hans Rodvik, a spokesperson for the Anchorage mayor’s office, said Monday in a statement to CNN.
Meanwhile, the southern end of the storm threatens to bring tornadoes.
A tornado watch is in effect Tuesday morning for parts of Texas and southern Oklahoma until 11 a.m. CT. The main threats are tornadoes, hail and wind gusts up to 70 mph.
An alert for enhanced risk of severe weather – level 3 of 5 – was issued Tuesday for eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi River Valley, with the main threats including powerful tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Lafayette, Louisiana, are part of the threatened area, as is Jackson, Mississippi.
“My main concern with the tornadoes is going to be after dark,” CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Tuesday. “We have very short days this time of year, so 5 or 6 o’clock, it’s going to be dark out there. Spotters aren’t as accurate when it is dark. Tornado warnings are a little bit slow; if you’re sleeping, you may not get them. So, that’s the real danger with this storm.”
A zone of slight risk – level 2 of 5 – encircled that area, stretching from eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma to southern Arkansas and much of the rest of Louisiana and central Mississippi. That includes Dallas and New Orleans.
Tuesday also brings a slight risk of excessive rainfall in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, with 2 to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding possible, the Weather Prediction Center said.
On Wednesday, the threat for severe weather is largely focused on the Gulf Coast, with tornadoes and damaging winds possible over parts of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Flu season ramps up with 44 states reporting high activity
NEW YORK — The U.S. flu season keeps getting worse.
Health officials said Friday that 7.5 percent of outpatient medical visits last week were due to flu-like illnesses. That’s as high as the peak of the 2017-18 flu season and higher than any season since.
The annual winter flu season usually doesn’t get going until December or January, but this one began early and has been complicated by the simultaneous spread of other viruses.
The measure of traffic in doctor’s offices is based on reports of symptoms like coughs and sore throats, not on lab-confirmed diagnoses. So it may include other respiratory illnesses.
That makes it hard to compare to flu seasons from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Other years also didn’t have this year’s unusually strong wave of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly.
Meanwhile, 44 states reported high or very high flu activity last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
That may not bode well for the near future. It’s likely there was more spread of respiratory viruses during Thanksgiving gatherings and at crowded airports, experts say.
The dominant flu strain so far is the kind typically associated with higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in people 65 and older.
The CDC estimates there have been at least 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from flu so far this season. The deaths include at least 14 children.
Flu shots are recommended for nearly all Americans who are at least 6 months old or older.
Letter bomb injures one at Ukraine’s Madrid embassy, Kyiv ramps up security
MADRID/KYIV, Nov 30 (Reuters) – A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, prompting Kyiv to order greater security at all its representative offices abroad.
The letter, which arrived by regular mail and was not scanned, caused “a very small wound” on one finger when the officer opened it in the embassy garden, Mercedes Gonzalez, a Spanish government official, told broadcaster Telemadrid.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all of Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security and urged Spain to take investigate the attack, a ministry spokesman said.
The perpetrators, he added, “will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work on strengthening Ukraine and countering Russian aggression.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Madrid, Serhii Pohoreltsev, told TVE later that he was working as usual at the embassy “with no fear”.
[1/5] Police stands outside of Ukrainian embassy after, Spanish police said, blast at embassy building injured one employee while handling a letter, in Madrid, Spain November 30, 2022. REUTERS/Juan Medina
“We have instructions from the ministry in Ukraine that given the situation we have to be prepared for any kind of incident… any kind of Russian activities outside the country,” he said.
Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago in what it calls a “special military operation” that Kyiv and the West describe as an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.
The ambassador declined to give details of how the letter had been handled but said the injured worker had followed protocol and that the embassy would look into improving the system.
Spain’s High Court has opened a probe into the attack as a possible case of terrorism, a judicial source said.
Correos, the Spanish state-run postal company, told Reuters it is cooperating with the investigation.
The residential area surrounding the embassy in northwestern Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene. Reuters footage showed scores of police officers, armed with assault rifles and blocking roads with vans, in the neighbourhood around the embassy.
Reporting by Belén Carreño, Jesus Aguado, David Latona, Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro in Madrid, Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; writing by Charlie Devereux; editing by Aislinn Laing, Frank Jack Daniel, Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Kherson: Russia ramps up relocation of civilians in city. It may be on the brink of losing one of the biggest prizes of its war
CNN
—
The Russian-installed leaders in Ukraine’s Kherson region on Wednesday began massively ramping up the relocation of up to 60,000 people amid warnings over Russia’s ability to withstand a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of generating “hysteria” to compel people to leave. Residents in the city of Kherson began to receive text messages on Wednesday morning from the pro-Russian administration.
“Dear residents,” it read. “Evacuate immediately. There will be shelling of residential areas by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There will be buses from 7:00, from Rechport [River port] to the Left Bank.”
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had signed a law introducing martial law in Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions the Kremlin claims to have annexed, in violation of international law. The other regions are Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
In his first outing on Russian state television as the Kremlin’s new commander for Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin said Tuesday evening that the situation in Kherson was “far from simple” and “very difficult.”
“Our further plans and actions towards the city of Kherson will depend on the military and tactical situation on the ground,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have been advancing through several parts of the Kherson region in recent weeks, capturing villages and farmland along the western bank of the Dnipro River, also known as the right bank.
Russia’s ability to resupply its troops in Kherson has been severely hampered by frequent Ukrainian missile and artillery strikes on Russian-controlled bridges crossing the Dnipro. The explosion earlier this month that badly damaged the Kerch bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea, further bottlenecked Russia’s logistics.
Last week the head of the Russian-backed administration appealed to the Kremlin to help with the evacuation of civilians near the frontline.
On Tuesday, the rhetoric hit a new level. Just past 11 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET), Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-backed administration, posted a video to his Telegram channel.
“The Ukrainian Nazis pushed by the West will start their attack on Kherson very soon,” he said. “We are strongly advising to leave the right bank area.”
This morning, just after 8 a.m., he followed that up with: “Cross as quickly as possible onto the left bank [the eastern side] of river Dnipro.” Hours later, the Russian-backed administration went so far as to close off all entry to the right bank of the Dnipro River for seven days.
Ukrainian officials believe that fewer than half of Kherson’s civilian population are left in the city – around 130,000 people.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed leader in the Kherson region, told Russian state television on Tuesday evening that they planned to move 50,000 to 60,000 people from the right to the left bank of the Dnipro River.
Hear what Russian officials texted Ukrainian residents under Putin’s martial law order
The Ukrainian leaders-in-exile of the Kherson region accuse the Russia leaders of drumming up “hysteria” to intimidate the population and enact “voluntary deportations” to Russia, where they’ve been promised help with housing.
“On the one hand, we understand that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will liberate Kherson and the region – accordingly, there may be active hostilities, and this is a risk for the local population,” Yurii Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Ukraine’s regional council for Kherson, told CNN on Wednesday.
“On the other hand, there are no guarantees that the evacuated people will be safe there and far from the front line. Now people make their own decisions – to leave or stay. It is difficult to say what decision they will make.”
The “massive deportation of civilians” by Russia could, along with other alleged abuses, constitute crimes against humanity, according to a July report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In September, the UN Security Council also said Russia’s forcible deportation of 2.5 million people from Ukraine – including 38,000 children – constitutes human rights violations.
Ukraine denounced Russia’s “filtration” scheme at a United Nations Security Council meeting last week. Deputy Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said Ukrainians forced to head to Russia or Russian-controlled territory are being killed and tortured.
Hayovyshyn told the Security Council that thousands of Ukrainian citizens are being forcefully deported to “isolated and depressed regions of Siberia and the far east.
Ukrainian citizens are terrorized, under the pretense of a search for “dangerous” people by Russian authorities, Hayovyshyn said. Those who have different political views or are affiliated with the Ukrainian government or media disappear into a gray area. Children are ripped from the arms of their parents, the Ukraine representative declared.
In the heady early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when confusion reigned, the capture of the southern city of Kherson was a key strategic and propaganda victory for the Kremlin.
On just the seventh day of the war, Kherson’s mayor announced that Russian soldiers had entered his office, and the city had fallen.
Geographically, it was vital: Kherson lies on the mouth of Ukraine’s central artery, the Dnipro River, and not far from the canal that supplies water to Crimea. Ukraine’s government had shut that canal down in 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the peninsula.
It was the first major city Russia captured, and the only regional capital taken since February. (In addition to Crimea, Russian-backed forces have controlled Donetsk and Luhansk cities since 2014.) It’s the second-biggest population center that Russia has captured after Mariupol.
Seventh months later, the Kremlin considers the Kherson region to be part of Russia, after claiming to annex it last month. And yet, everyone from Russia’s designated leaders in the region to the new commander of its entire Ukrainian war effort are sounding the alarm on their ability to withstand a Ukrainian offensive in the region.
Russia’s puppet administration has promised that there is no plan to abandon Kherson city, and that once the military “solve all of the tasks,” normal life will return.
In his remarks on Russian television, Surovikin, the Russian commander, repeated what has become a bit of a trope in Russian circles: That the Ukrainian military was preparing to shell Kherson’s city center, of even to strike the dam that’s part of a hydroelectric plant at Nova Kakhovka, and unleash floodwaters on low-lying areas downstream.
Ukrainian officials have dismissed that idea as Russian propaganda. It will not be easy for Ukraine to retake Kherson city if Russia seriously contests it, and the Ukrainian military will be reluctant to attack an urban center where tens of thousands of civilians could remain.
But Ukraine’s military brass remain bullish over the Kherson offensive.
“We will make significant progress by the end of the year,” the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, said on Tuesday.
“These will be significant victories. You will see it soon.”
Nio Earnings Mixed, Outlook Weak As Tesla China Rival Ramps Up Models, Markets
Nio stock slid further below key levels Wednesday morning with Nio (NIO) reporting a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss and weak revenue guidance.
X
Nio’s EV deliveries rose 14%, year over year, in Q2. They slowed in July and August vs. June, but held above 10,000 both months.
The once red-hot Chinese EV startup has seen headwinds mount. Those headwinds include new export curbs on Nvidia (NVDA), a Nio chip supplier. It also includes fierce new competition and fresh Covid-19 lockdowns in China.
Investors will be keen to learn how Nio is managing through persistent supply challenges while pursuing ambitious growth strategies. The emerging Tesla (TSLA) rival is launching several new EVs, expanding overseas, and eyeing a mass-market foray.
Nio Earnings
Estimates: Analysts polled by FactSet expect net loss to widen to 16 cents per American Depositary Share from 6 cents a year ago. Revenue is seen growing 8.5% to $1.415 billion, below the low end of Nio’s Q2 guidance range.
Results: Nio lost 20 cents a share, while revenue climbed 22% to $1.54 billion.
Outlook: Nio sees Q3 revenue of $1.918 billion-$2.03 billion. Wall Street had expected Q3 revenue of $2.38 billion, a 55% gain. The EV maker also sees Q3 deliveries of 31,000-33,000. With 20,729 EVs delivered in July and August already, that implies September deliveries of 10,271-12,271.
Nio Stock
Shares fell 4.4% before the open on the stock market today. Nio stock lost 3.5% to 17.11 on Tuesday. Nio stock met resistance at the 50-day moving average in late August and remains far below the 200-day average.
Startup rivals Li Auto (LI) and Xpeng (XPEV) fell about 1% early Wednesday after losing more ground Tuesday. Li Auto stock edged lower to a three-month low while XPEV stock sank 5.1% to a record low.
China EV giant BYD (BYDDF) rebounded 0.8% Tuesday, following a four-session plunge as Warren Buffett sold a small amount of his big stake. Tesla stock rose 1.6%, back above its 50-day moving average as it fights for support there.
Futures Rise After Nasdaq Falls Yet Again; This Solar Stock Shines
Nio EV Sales, Growth Strategies
Founded in November 2014, Nio targets the Chinese market for premium electric cars. As of August, it had produced and sold almost a quarter-million electric vehicles cumulatively.
EV sales more than doubled for Nio — and for China overall — in 2021. But the lingering chip shortage and other supply disruptions hit Nio’s production and EV sales earlier this year.
Nio sold 25,059 EVs in Q2, roughly in line with the top end of its delivery guidance. It sold 10,052 EVs in July and 10,677 EVs in August, both below June’s level.
But the EV startup did increase deliveries in August vs. the prior month, trumping Xpeng and Li Auto, which reported declines.
In July, a shortage of casting parts hurt the production of Nio EVs, including the flagship new ET7 electric sedan. But Nio began delivering the new ES7 SUV on Aug. 28 and plans to launch the smaller ET5 sedan on Sept. 30.
Besides a growing EV lineup, Nio plans to expand abroad, shipping the luxury ET7 to Europe. It already sells EVs in Norway and aims to be in 25 countries by 2025.
Various reports suggest that Nio could launch a mass-market EV, challenging the likes of Volkswagen (VWAGY) in China.
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Fernando Tatis Jr. meets with surgeon, ramps up on defense
PHOENIX — Fernando Tatis Jr. arrived in Arizona this week and quickly received good news.
On Tuesday, the Padres shortstop met with the surgeon who performed the March 16 operation to repair the fractured scaphoid bone in his left wrist. Manager Bob Melvin said Tatis was cleared to “ramp up what he’s doing on the defensive end.”
The star was with the team prior to the series opener vs. the D-backs at Chase Field.
“I know he’s excited about the fact that he’s going to be on the field with us, no restrictions as far as taking ground balls, throwing and so forth,” Melvin said. “Hitting’s going to be the last thing.”
After his meeting with the surgeon, Tatis didn’t wait long to accompany his San Diego teammates to the field. He joined them during batting practice to scoop grounders and work through defensive drills. Prior to this, he had been playing catch, fielding ground balls hit directly to him, taking some light dry swings and hitting briefly off a tee with a fungo bat.
Tatis still isn’t swinging a bat at full speed quite yet, but he’s expected to potentially do so in about two weeks. At that point, he’ll need to work through a hitting progression and then go on a Minor League rehab assignment after that.
So it doesn’t appear likely that Tatis will be back until after the All-Star break, possibly around late July or early August, depending on how things go once he begins to hit. Melvin doesn’t have an exact timeline, and he won’t until Tatis adds that final piece to his recovery plan.
“It depends on how we kind of configure it before he starts playing games. And then how he feels during the rehab process,” Melvin said. “You certainly want him coming back when he feels good about how he’s swinging the bat. More days with us is probably better than less days with us. But he doesn’t have a Spring Training, so it will be literally a day-to-day process, even though once he starts [hitting], we’ll probably have it mapped out and then go from there on how he feels.”
Flying into Beijing is tougher than ever as China ramps up its zero-Covid measures
Flights from Tokyo to Beijing this week were impossible to find — the closest available flight was to Kunming, southern Yunnan province, around 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) away. There, I’ll spend 21 days in quarantine, and even then, there’s no guarantee I’ll be allowed into the Chinese capital.
Since mid-December, China’s average daily case count has surged from double-digits to more than 20,000. At least 27 cities across the country are under full or partial lockdown, impacting around 180 million people, according to CNN’s calculations.
Some of the strictest measures are in force in the country’s financial powerhouse, Shanghai, where many of its 25 million residents have been sealed inside their residential compounds for more than a month, creating discontent that has flooded China’s heavily policed internet.
Government censors have been racing to keep up with a torrent of anger over food shortages, lack of medical access, and — for those who test positive — poor conditions at makeshift quarantine camps. Protests have even broken out — a rare sight in authoritarian China — and residents have clashed with the police.
The number of cases in Beijing remains low compared to Shanghai — 34 new cases were reported in the capital Friday, taking the total number of cases to 228 during this outbreak.
But China is taking no chances as it seeks to stop the virus from spreading inside its political hub.
Traveling into China
My journey into China this week was even harder than when I traveled to Beijing in February for the Winter Olympics, held under the world’s strictest Covid countermeasures. Then, officials, media and athletes were separated from the Chinese public by an extensive network of physical barriers, quarantine periods and regular Covid testing.
Now, to enter China, I had to provide three negative PCR tests from government-approved clinics, taken seven days before departure, then two more within 48 hours of the flight.
On the plane, all the flight attendants wore hazmat suits, as did the staff at Kunming Airport. Upon landing, all the passengers on my flight were immediately directed to take another Covid test, an eye-watering nasal and throat swab.
Most of the passengers on my flight appeared to be holding Chinese passports.
Foreigners can only enter under very limited circumstances, and it’s exceptionally difficult for American journalists to get a China visas due to deteriorating US-China relations. Both countries agreed to relax visa restrictions for the others’ journalists after a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last November. I was granted a visa earlier this year after several rounds of interviews.
But still, when I handed over my American passport, the immigration officer spent several minutes flipping through the pages, then called over a group of workers with “police” written on their hazmat suits. It seemed I was the only one from the flight pulled aside.
They took me to a private room for questioning, and after a lengthy police interrogation about my professional and personal life, I was allowed to continue through immigration and customs.
After clearing immigration, I struck up a conversation with the man standing beside me as we waited to board the bus to the quarantine hotel. He’s from Shanghai, but had been living in Japan for the past 30 years. He hadn’t been back to China since the pandemic started, but eventually decided the 21-day quarantine to enter the country was worth it to visit his elderly mother in Shanghai. The city is now under a weekslong Covid lockdown, so his only option was to fly to Yunnan and wait until the situation improved.
China’s National Health Commission said Friday the “zero Covid-19 policy” had shown initial results in Shanghai, and the situation across the country is showing a downward trend.
21 days in hotel quarantine
Not a single seat was empty on the bus, and our luggage was piled in the aisles. From the bus window, I watched Kunming, a city of 6.6 million people, pass by in the night — bright lights illuminating the buildings and highways.
After a two- to three-hour drive, we arrived at our quarantine location: a hotspring hotel converted into a quarantine facility. Workers in hazmat suits escorted me to my room.
The next morning, I realized my room overlooks a breathtaking view of Kunming — an expanse of green trees and mountains dotting the horizon. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province, a popular tourist destination, famous for its beautiful landscape and tea producing regions.
There’s a balcony, but I can’t step outside. But I’m grateful for the view, and more importantly, the ability to open the window for fresh air — in some quarantine facilities that’s banned.
I can’t open my door, except for health checkups and food pick up. I get two temperature checks a day and regular Covid tests, sometimes twice daily.
Food deliveries aren’t allowed, but breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the quarantine fees, which vary depending on which hotel you’re taken to — there’s no choice where to go.
Meals come in plastic containers, placed in a chair outside the door three times a day — typically rice, soup, and stir fried meats and vegetables. I supplement the meals with snacks I brought from Tokyo, after hearing about the subpar food at the quarantine hotels. Luckily, I don’t mind the food at mine.
In my room, there’s no refrigerator, microwave, or laundry services. Only one towel is distributed for the entire 21 days. I packed my own yoga mat, jump rope and weights for exercise. Despite the hot weather — it’s about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) — the hotel won’t turn the air conditioning on because of concerns about Covid transmission.
Assuming I continue to test negative, I still may not make it to Beijing. If the capital goes into a full lockdown, all flights are likely to be canceled.
Even before this latest outbreak, arrivals from parts of China deemed “high risk” were required to spend another 14 days in government quarantine in Beijing. Fortunately, Yunnan isn’t one of them at the moment. Incoming domestic travelers from lower risk destinations have to spend at least seven days sealed in their homes for health monitoring.
China’s authorities have doubled down on the zero-Covid policy, reasoning that it has allowed the country to avoid the explosion of deaths in other parts of the world and will buy time to vaccinate vulnerable groups like the elderly and children.
“If we lose the Covid control measures, a large number of people will be infected with many critical patients and deaths, causing the overwhelming of (the) medical system,” National Health Commission Vice Director Li Bin said Friday.
But critics say the policy is more about politics than science.
President Xi has put his personal stamp on “zero-Covid,” and officials have frequently used the low death rate to argue that China’s system is superior to the West, where restrictions have eased to reflect rising vaccination rates.
But in China, there’s no sign of change, and people are growing fatigued.
In year three of the pandemic, China still refuses to live with Covid. No case is tolerated, no matter the cost.
Amazon ramps up FedEx, UPS rivalry by expanding Prime to third parties
Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Amazon will let other online merchants piggyback on its Prime service to deliver goods quickly to their customers.
The company on Thursday launched a new service, Buy with Prime, that lets third-party merchants use Amazon’s vast shipping and logistics network to fulfill orders on their own sites, while also appealing to Amazon’s 200 million-plus Prime customers.
These web sites will be able to put the Prime badge on their websites next to items that are eligible for free two-day or next-day delivery. Prime members will use the payment and shipping information stored on their Amazon account to place an order.
Buy with Prime won’t be free for sellers, and pricing will vary depending on payment processing, fulfillment, storage and other fees.
To start, the service will only be available by invitation to sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA. With that service, merchants pay to have their inventory stored in Amazon’s warehouses and to make use of the company’s supply chain and shipping operations. Eventually, it will be extended to other merchants, including those not selling on Amazon.
Amazon has long set its sights on being the fastest in the online delivery race. For years, the company has plowed profits back into physical expansion, growing its fulfillment centers and shipping partnerships across the country in order to offer two- and same-day delivery in more markets. It has amassed a hefty fleet of its own delivery drivers, trucks and planes to speed packages to customers’ doorsteps.
Industry watchers have paid close attention to Amazon’s growing in-house logistics operations, speculating it aims to directly compete with major carriers like UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. Indeed, Dave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of worldwide consumer, told CNBC last year Amazon is on track to become the nation’s largest delivery service by early 2022.
The company already handles some orders for products sold on some other web sites. It offers a program called Multi-Channel Fulfillment, which lets sellers store and ship products using Amazon’s services regardless of whether they’re selling on the home site.
Amazon previously offered a service where its drivers picked up packages from retailers and delivered them to consumers, but it was paused at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as Amazon became overwhelmed with online orders.
While Buy with Prime is likely to remain small at launch, it could grow into a lucrative service for Amazon over time, said Bob O’Donnell, founder and chief analyst at Technalysis Research.
“If you think about it, one of Amazon’s most successful businesses was started as an internal tool,” said O’Donnell. “That being AWS [Amazon Web Services], of course.
“They’ve built this huge logistics business initially for their own purposes and now what they’re starting to do is leverage that as its own service,” O’Donnell added.
In some ways, Amazon has already turned its massive shipping and logistics operations into a cash machine. Amazon reported that third-party seller services, which includes commissions, fulfillment and shipping fees, along with other services, grew 11% year-over-year to $30.3 billion in the latest quarter.