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Business

Food, rents boost U.S. consumer inflation in September

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Shoppers browse in a supermarket while wearing masks to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in north St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. April 4, 2020. Picture taken April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant

  • Consumer price index increases 0.4% in September
  • Food, rents account for more than half of the rise
  • Core CPI gains 0.2%; increases 4.0% year-on-year

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices increased solidly in September as Americans paid more for food, rent and a range of other goods, putting pressure on the Biden administration to urgently resolve strained supply chains, which are hampering economic growth.

With prices likely to rise further in the months ahead following a recent surge in the costs of energy products, the report from the Labor Department on Wednesday could test Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s repeated assertion that high inflation is transitory. Powell and the White House have blamed supply chain bottlenecks for the high inflation.

Supply chains have been gummed up by robust demand as economies emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has caused a global shortage of workers needed to produce raw materials and move goods from factories to consumers.

“Today’s number, with food price inflation and shelter inflation moving higher, suggests growing pressure on consumers,” said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors. “Keep in mind too that the recent rise in oil prices hasn’t yet fed through to the numbers – that’s still to come, while the renewed rise in car prices is also likely to drive inflation numbers higher in the coming months.”

The consumer price index rose 0.4% last month after climbing 0.3% in August. Food prices jumped 0.9% after increasing 0.4% in the prior month. Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence, which is what a homeowner would receive from renting a home, increased 0.4% after gaining 0.3% in August.

Food and rents accounted for more than half of the increase in the CPI in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the overall CPI would rise 0.3%.

In the 12 months through September, the CPI increased 5.4% after advancing 5.3% on a year-on-year basis in August.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI climbed 0.2% after edging up 0.1% in August, the smallest gain in six months. In addition to rents, the co-called core CPI was lifted by a 1.3% increase in the cost of new motor vehicles, which marked the fifth straight month of gains above 1%.

A global semiconductor shortage has forced auto manufacturers to cut production. There were also increases in the prices of household furnishings and operations last month. Consumers also paid more for motor vehicle insurance.

But prices for airline fares and apparel as well as used cars and trucks all fell. The so-called core CPI rose 4.0% on a year-on-year basis last month, matching the gain in August.

HIGH ENERGY PRICES

Oil prices jumped on Monday to the highest levels in years amid a rebound in global demand after the pandemic. Though Brent crude futures fell on Wednesday, prices remained above $80 a barrel. Natural gas prices have also surged.

Expensive energy products would add to accelerating wage growth in exerting upward pressure on inflation. The government reported last week that average hourly earnings increased by the most in seven months on a year-on-year basis in September because of worker shortages.

With the number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs hitting a record high in August and at least 10.4 million unfilled positions, wage inflation is set to rise further.

“The right place to look for inflation is not just in the so-called inflation data itself, but also in the tighter labor market and associated wage growth,” said Andrew Hollenhorst, chief U.S. economist at Citigroup in New York.

“Firms confident of passing on input costs may make higher energy prices a driver of broader inflation.”

September’s CPI report will have no impact on the Fed’s timeline to begin scaling back its massive monthly bond-buying program. The U.S. central bank signaled last month that it could start tapering its asset purchases as soon as November.

Economists expect that announcement will come at the Nov. 2-3 policy meeting.

“The central bank has already said that inflation has met the threshold for tapering, it’s the job market that hasn’t,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “The CPI could garner a reaction in the bond market as it could alter market expectations for the timing of the first rate hike by the Fed, which in our opinion, is still far off on the horizon.”

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure for its flexible 2% target, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, increased 3.6% in the 12 months through August, rising by the same margin for a third straight month. September’s data will be published later this month.

The Fed last month upgraded its core PCE inflation projection for this year to 3.7% from 3.0% in June.

Despite strong wage gains, high inflation is cutting into consumers’ purchasing power.

That, together with motor vehicle shortages, led economists to cut their gross domestic product estimates for the third quarter to as low as a 1.3% annualized rate from as high as a 7% pace. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its 2021 U.S. growth forecast by a full percentage point, to 6.0% from 7.0% in July. read more

Reporting by Lucia Mutikani
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Christmas isn’t cancelled despite choked port, Britain says

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  • People should buy normally for Christmas – minister
  • Maersk diverts vessels from UK’s biggest port
  • Trucker shortage snarls Felixstowe
  • Maersk says lack of truck drivers is a problem
  • PM Johnson is on holiday

LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Britain said on Wednesday that people should buy normally for Christmas and there would be no shortage of gifts, after shipping containers carrying toys and electrical goods were diverted from the country’s biggest port because it was full.

Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, has diverted some vessels from Felixstowe port in eastern England because a lack of truck drivers means there is nowhere left to stack containers.

“I’m confident that people will be able to get their toys for Christmas,” Conservative Party co-Chairman Oliver Dowden told Sky. He said he was sure Christmas gifts would be delivered this year.

Dowden, a cabinet minister without portfolio, said the issues at the port were easing and the supply chain problems facing the world’s fifth largest economy were global – such as a shortage of truckers and port congestion.

“The situation is improving,” Dowden said, referring to Felixstowe, which handles 36% of the country’s containerised freight. Asked whether people should start to buy now for Christmas, he said: “I would say just buy as you do normally.”

He said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is on holiday abroad, was very much engaged with domestic and international issues. “He’s very much engaged with the job.”

Britain’s economy is forecast to grow at 6.8% this year, the fastest in the G7 leading economies, though supply chain disruption and inflationary pressures are constraining the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said.

A view shows stacked shipping containers at the port of Felixstowe, Britain, October 13, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

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Britain’s economy returned to growth in August after contracting for the first time in six months in July.

But its exit from the European Union has exacerbated some of the problems by constricting immigration.

Britain is short of about 100,000 truckers, leading to queues for fuel at filling stations and worries about getting food into supermarkets, with a lack of butchers and warehouse workers also causing concern.

“Felixstowe is currently among one of the affected ports. The main factors in addition to pandemic impact behind this situation are high consumption demand and lack of truck drivers for land side distribution,” Maersk said.

It was diverting some ships “to alternate continental ports” to regulate the flow of cargo and minimise the impact on supply chains and British consumers ahead of Christmas, it said.

A lack of labour is also affecting farmers.

Two sisters running a pig farm in northeast England urged Johnson to lift strict immigration rules for butchers or risk seeing the pork sector collapse under the weight of overly fattened animals.

“The pressure is like pressure we’ve never had before, emotionally it’s absolutely draining, financially it’s crippling,” Vicky Scott told Reuters over the squeals of a couple of hundred pigs. “We’re in a fairly bad place right now.”

Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; Editing by Alistair Smout and Barbara Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Gabby Petito: A coroner has ruled she died by strangulation. But these questions are left unanswered

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Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue had previously ruled Petito’s death a homicide, and though the cause was revealed Tuesday, he declined to provide details about Petito’s autopsy or a potential suspect, saying he was limited in what information he could legally release.

Who killed Petito, when she was killed and what happened leading up to her death remain a mystery.

Even though there are more than 90,000 active missing person cases in the US, few met with as much urgency and national attention as that of Petito, who was reported missing in September 11 and whose remains were found more than a week later in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Authorities are still searching for her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who returned to Florida without her after their trip across the Western US.

The autopsy of Petito’s remains included a whole-body CT scan, an examination by a forensic pathologist and by a forensic anthropologist, and a toxicology analysis, Blue said at the news conference Tuesday.

A legal document Blue filed on October 5 with the Teton County Clerk of District Court specified that the cause of death was “manual strangulation/throttling.”

“We believe this was strangling by a human being,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Blue said Petito’s body was left in the wilderness for three to four weeks before being found, but uncertainty remains about the exact date of her death. Death certificates in the state of Wyoming allow for approximate dates and variability of those dates, Blue said.

“There will not be an exact date of death on the death certificate,” the coroner added.

The time since her death and the weather conditions she was subjected to make it harder to pinpoint an exact date of her death, Blue said.

The autopsy has revealed more information than was released but will be held back due to the ongoing investigation, Blue said.

Blue said working on the case was “quite the media circus and continues to be.” In addition to disappearance and death, the case has sparked conversations around domestic violence due to the release of body camera footage of an interaction between Petito, Laundrie and the police over one of the couple’s fights.

“Unfortunately, this is only one of many deaths around the country, of people who are involved in domestic violence,” Blue said. “And it’s unfortunate that these other deaths did not get as much coverage as this one.”

Mysterious text messages and a police call

The couple had spent the summer traveling in a white van and documenting their adventures on social media. But Laundrie returned to the Florida home they shared with his parents on September 1 without Petito, and her family was unable to get in touch with her.
She was first reported missing by her parents on September 11, and after an extensive search, her remains were found September 19 near where their van was last seen three weeks earlier. The national focus on her whereabouts revealed they were involved in a domestic dispute in Utah in August.
From the posts on social media, Petito’s final days looked idyllic. But after she was reported missing, accounts surfaced of rising conflict between the couple.

Petito called her mom regularly, and those conversations appeared to reveal there was “more and more tension” in Petito’s relationship, according to a police affidavit for a search warrant of an external hard drive found in the couple’s van.

On August 27, an “odd text” from Petito worried her mother that something was wrong, according to a search warrant.

“Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls,” the message read, according to the affidavit. Stan was a reference to Petito’s grandfather, who her mother said Petito never referred to that way, according to the affidavit.

Along their travels, the couple was stopped by police after a 911 caller told dispatchers August 12 he saw a man hitting a woman, according to audio provided by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office in Moab, Utah.

“We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” the caller said. “Then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.”

CNN obtained dispatch audio recordings from the Grand County Sheriff’s office last month that shed more light on what Moab police were told about “some sort of altercation.”

And on August 27, a witness described a “commotion” as they were leaving the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming.

Petito was in tears and Laundrie was visibly angry, going into and out of the restaurant several times, showing anger toward the staff around the hostess stand, the witness Nina Angelo said.

Angelo told CNN she did not see any violence or physical altercation between Petito and Laundrie.

The search for Laundrie

Before he disappeared, police in North Port were surveilling Laundrie as best they legally could, a police spokesperson told CNN’s Randi Kaye.

Investigators said Laundrie’s parents told them on September 17 he had left home days earlier and was headed to the nearby Carlton Reserve — sparking a search of the nature reserve’s 25,000 acres. Initially, his parents said he left on September 14, but last week, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said, “We now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday, September 13.”

When he left, he didn’t take his cell phone and wallet with him, and his parents were concerned he might hurt himself, a source close to Laundrie’s family told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
He was later indicted on charges of allegedly using two financial accounts that did not belong to him in the days following her death.

In a statement Tuesday, Laundrie’s family attorney Steve Bertolino said Laundrie had used a debit card that belonged to Petito but noted he was not a suspect in her death.

CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Rob Frehse, Jennifer Henderson, Christina Maxouris, Kari Pricher, Leyla Santiago, Jenn Selva, Amir Vera and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.

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Health

U.S. to lift Canada, Mexico land border restrictions in Nov for vaccinated visitors

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WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – The United States will lift restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals in early November, ending historic curbs on non-essential travelers in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement the administration next month “will begin allowing travelers from Mexico and Canada who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 to enter the United States for non-essential purposes, including to visit friends and family or for tourism, via land and ferry border crossings.”

The new rules are similar but not identical to planned requirements announced last month for international air travelers, U.S. officials said in a call earlier with reporters.

Lawmakers from U.S border states praised the move to lift the unprecedented restrictions which harmed the economies of local communities and has prevented visits to friends and families for 19 months.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of our shared cross-border community have felt the pain and economic hardship of the land border closures. That pain is about to end,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Unvaccinated visitors will still be barred from entering the United States from Canada or Mexico at land borders.

The officials from President Joe Biden’s administration emphasized that the White House would not lift the “Title 42” order put in place by former President Donald Trump’s administration that has essentially cut off access to asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to enter from Mexico.

The precise date in early November when the restrictions will be lifted on both land and air travel will be announced “very soon,” one of the officials said.

Homeland Security said the administration was creating “consistent, stringent protocols for all foreign nationals traveling to the United States – whether by air, land, or ferry.”

Canada on Aug. 9 began allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors for non-essential travel.

A U.S. and a Canadian flag flutter at the Canada-United States border crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge, which remains closed to non-essential traffic to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada September 28, 2020. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg/File Photo

‘GREAT RELIEF’

Once the U.S. curbs are lifted, non-essential foreign visitors crossing U.S. land borders, such as tourists, will be able to visit if they are vaccinated. In early January, the United States will require essential visitors, like truck drivers or healthcare workers, to be vaccinated to cross land borders, the officials said.

U.S. lawmakers have been pushing the White House to lift restrictions that have barred non-essential travel by Canadians across the northern U.S. border since March 2020, and many border communities have been hit hard by the closure. Mexico has also pressed the Biden administration to ease restrictions.

Senator Maria Cantwell said the announcement “will provide great relief to those waiting to see friends and loved ones from Canada.”

The White House announced on Sept. 20 that the United States in early November would lift travel restrictions on air travelers from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It also said it would extend the vaccine requirements to foreign air travelers from all other countries.

Foreign visitors crossing into the United States by land or ferry will need to be vaccinated but will not necessarily need to show proof of vaccination unless they are referred by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for secondary inspections.

By contrast, all non-U.S. air travelers will need to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, and will need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test. Foreign visitors crossing a land border will not need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test.

On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the United States would accept the use by international visitors of COVID-19 vaccines authorized by U.S. regulators or the World Health Organization.

One question unanswered is whether the United States will accept vaccines from visitors who received doses of two different COVID-19 vaccines.

The U.S. land border restrictions have not barred U.S. citizens from returning home.

Reporting by David Shepardson, Steve Holland, Tim Ahmann and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Beech, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Richard Pullin

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Asian shares edgy amid inflation fears, dollar at one-year high

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  • Dlr near 3 year high against yen; 1-year high vs basket of peers
  • Oil prices edge lower, but still near multi-year highs
  • Investors waiting for Chinese trade, U.S. CPI figures
  • Most Asian stock markets subdued, Hong Kong closed for typhoon

HONG KONG, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Asian shares were on edge on Wednesday as worries about soaring power prices fuelling inflation weighed on sentiment and drove expectations the United States would taper its emergency bond buying programme, holding the dollar at a one-year high.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 0.1% in early trading, steadying after falling over 1% a day earlier, in what was its worst daily performance in three weeks.

Moves were muted in most markets. Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) were flat, Australia (.AXJO) eeked out a 0.06% gain, while Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) shed 0.2%.

Hong Kong’s stock market was closed in the morning because of a typhoon.

Also contributing to the uneasy mood, investors are waiting for a raft of data releases due to be published Wednesday, including Chinese trade figures, U.S. consumer price inflation data, and minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting.

The looming start of company earnings season also deterred some investors from placing large bets.

“This week, inflation is overriding pretty much everything else, because that pushes Fed expectations one way or the other and that’s just so dominant,” said Stefan Hofer, chief investment strategist for LGT in Asia Pacific.

“This earnings season is also critical because in the previous one, earnings especially in the U.S., were very strong, partly because of the base effect. The third quarter may be a little more standard,” he added.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is inching closer to starting to taper its pandemic relief massive bond purchase programme, a decision that is complicated by growing fears around the world that rising energy costs will stoke inflation while also curtailing the economic recovery.

Oil prices are currently near multi-year highs, but were steadier in Asian morning trading.

Brent crude fell 0.29% to $83.18 a barrel, just off Monday’s three-year high of $84.6, while U.S. crude shed 0.2% to $80.48 off Monday’s seven-year high of $82.18.

Despite growing inflation worries, there is growing optimism about the state of the economic recovery. Three U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers on Tuesday said the U.S. economy has healed enough for the central bank to begin to withdraw its crisis-era support. read more

As a result, shares slipped on Wall Street overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 0.34%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.24%, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 0.14%.

The liklihood tapering also meant the dollar was strong, sitting just below a one-year high versus other majors hit the previous day.

The dollar index was last at 94.413, just off just Tuesday’s high of 94.563, the highest since September 2020.

It was particularly strong against the yen with one dollar buying 113.39 yen, in sight of Monday’s near three year low. As Japan buys the bulk of its oil from overseas, a week yen means it is struggling even more with the high prices.

Gold was steady ahead of the data from the U.S. with the spot price up 0.04% to $1,760 an ounce, in the middle of this month’s range.

Editing by Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

China developers’ bonds, shares hit again by Evergrande contagion worries

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SHANGHAI, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Shares and bonds of Chinese property companies fell further on Wednesday after China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) missed a third round of interest payments on its dollar bonds in three weeks, and as others warned of defaults.

In the clearest sign yet of global investors’ worries of spreading debt contagion, the option-adjusted spread on the ICE BofA Asian Dollar High Yield Corporate China Issuers Index (.MERACYC) surged to a fresh all-time high of 2,337 basis points on Tuesday evening U.S. time.

On Wednesday morning, Shanghai Stock Exchange data showed onshore bonds issued by developers Shanghai Shimao Co Ltd (600823.SS) and Country Garden Properties Group were among the biggest losers on the day, falling between 1% and 4.2%.

A sub-index tracking A-shares of property firms (.CSI000952) fell 1.58% against a 0.31% rise in the blue-chip CSI300 index (.CSI300).

Markets in Hong Kong were closed on Wednesday morning due to a typhoon affecting the city.

Evergrande did not pay nearly $150 million worth of coupons on three bonds due on Monday, following two other missed payments in September. While the company has not technically defaulted on those payments, which have 30-day grace periods, investors say they are expecting a long and drawn-out debt restructuring process. read more

The company’s main unit, Hengda Real Estate Group Co, faces a 121.8 million yuan onshore bond coupon payment on Oct. 19 and Evergrande has another $14.25 million dollar bond coupon due on Oct. 30. read more

Debt pressures extend far beyond Evergrande. Chinese property developers have $555.88 million worth of high-yield dollar bond coupons due this month, and nearly $1.6 billion due before year-end, and Refinitiv data shows at least $92.3 billion worth of Chinese property developers’ bonds maturing next year read more

Evergrande’s mid-sized rival Fantasia (1777.HK) has also already missed a payment and Modern Land (1107.HK) and Sinic Holdings (2103.HK) are trying to delay payment deadlines that would still most likely be classed as a default by the main rating agencies.

“These stories have challenged the notion that Evergrande is one of a kind,” analysts at Capital Economics wrote in a note.

While China’s policymakers will likely be able to avoid a “doomsday scenario” the overextended property sector will continue to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy, they said.

“Even following an orderly restructuring of the worst-affected developers with minimal contagion to the financial system, construction activity would still almost inevitably slow much further.”

The IMF said on Tuesday that China has the ability to address the issues linked to Evergrande’s indebtedness, but warned that an escalation of the situation could lead to the emergence of broader financial stress. read more

Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Federal judge allows health care workers in New York to apply for religious exemptions to Covid-19 vaccine mandate

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US District Judge David Hurd made the ruling on Tuesday, granting a preliminary injunction that allows health care workers to apply for religious exemptions considered by their employers.

Hurd stated that the state Department of Health is “barred from interfering in any way with the granting of religious exemptions from Covid-19 vaccination going forward, or with the operation of exemptions already granted.”

Hurd also barred the Department of Health from taking disciplinary or other action on licenses, certifications, residency, or other professional status for those health care workers who have sought or obtained religious exemptions.

Last month, 17 health care workers, many of them unnamed doctors, residents and nurses, filed a lawsuit objecting to the New York State Department of Health’s vaccine mandate, which didn’t allow for religious exemptions. The judge issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 14 related to the religious exemptions.
New York state had issued a rule requiring all health care workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by September 27. At the time of the deadline, about 92% of hospital staff statewide had been vaccinated.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement she stood by the vaccine mandate.

“My responsibility as Governor is to protect the people of this state, and requiring health care workers to get vaccinated accomplishes that,” she said in a statement. “I stand behind this mandate, and I will fight this decision in court to keep New Yorkers safe.”

Meanwhile, Christopher Ferrara, the lead counsel for plaintiffs in the case and the Thomas More Society Special Counsel, praised the judge’s ruling in a statement.

“With this decision the court rightly recognized that yesterday’s ‘front line heroes’ in dealing with Covid cannot suddenly be treated as disease-carrying villains and kicked to the curb by the command of a state health bureaucracy,” he said.

CNN has reached out to the New York Department of Health and the New York Attorney General’s Office, who were all named as defendants in the suit, for comment.

The health care workers protesting the vaccine mandate did so because they objected to being forced to take vaccines that used “fetal cell lines” from “procured abortions.”

A New York State health official confirmed in an affidavit as part of this case that fetal cell lines were used in the testing and production of current Covid-19 vaccines, according to the judge’s order.

“In sum, while none of the FDA approved Covid-19 vaccines contain any fetal cells, fetal cell lines were only ‘used in testing during research and development of the mRNA vaccines [Moderna or Pzifer], and during production of the Johnson and Johnson [Janssen] Vaccine,'” an affidavit from Dr. Elizabeth Rausch-Phung, medical director of the Bureau of Immunization at the New York State Department of Health, reads.

Even so, the Vatican has said it is “morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”

The state entities who were sued argued that their vaccine mandate for health care workers was necessary to control the continued spread of Covid-19, including the Delta variant.

The preliminary injunction was granted as a temporary measure to allow the plaintiffs to continue to argue their cases. Hurd said the question is not whether the plaintiffs are entitled to religious exemptions but whether the state’s vaccine mandate conflicts with the plaintiffs’ “federally protected right to seek a religious accommodation” from their employers.

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US

A Covid-19 vaccine mandate won’t force staff at this rural Missouri hospital to get the shot, CEO says. It will make them quit

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So Tobler can’t afford to alienate any more health care workers, but he believes a Covid-19 vaccine mandate could do just that. Such a requirement won’t make his unvaccinated staff get the shot, he says. It will make them quit.

“Our reality is we need staff to work. And in return for your working, we’re not going to ask you to get a vaccine mandate,” he told CNN. “There were people in the hospital that freely shared that if the vaccine mandate happened on our account or on anyone else’s, they would not work here. That’s just something they weren’t going to put in their body.”

These are arguably the most crucial group of workers to have inoculated, because the vaccines would protect them and their patients, and keep the staff healthy so they can continue working. That’s why they were among the first to be offered a Covid-19 vaccine.

There are indications that vaccine compliance is high among health care workers. Many professional health care associations have surveyed their members, the majority of whom have said they are already vaccinated. But despite evidence vaccines are safe and effective, some health care workers have resisted.

At Scotland County Hospital in rural northeastern Missouri, the difference is stark: Just 60% of the staff is vaccinated, according to the hospital.

Among those who are not is Sheila Balch, who works the hospital’s front desk and is often the first person people see when they arrive. So far, she has decided not to get a Covid-19 vaccine, but that’s not because she doesn’t think the virus is a threat, she told CNN.

“I do believe Covid is terrible. I believe it’s dangerous,” she said. “I watch people every day. And I watch the fear in people’s eyes every day … But I do not think the government has the right to step in and mandate and tell us what we have to do.”

Asked what she would do if Scotland County Hospital mandated that she get vaccinated, Balch said she’d look for another job. She doesn’t want to, she added — she cares for her patients and the people she works with.

“But at the same time, I’m not going to personally go against something that I feel very, very deeply in my soul, would hurt me,” she said.

Mandate ‘is going to backfire’

The vaccine mandate announced last month could apply to as many as 100 million Americans, including the 17 million health care workers at facilities that receive funds from Medicare and Medicaid, like hospitals, home care facilities and dialysis centers.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is still working to develop the rule for the mandate, and it won’t likely be issued until some time later this month. But CMS is urging health care workers in these facilities to begin getting vaccinated immediately.

“I criticized President Biden’s mandate,” Tobler said. “I thought it was a mistake, because I think it’s going to backfire.”

After losing nearly 18% of his nurses during the pandemic, Tobler believes that not requiring the employees to be vaccinated helped prevent the hospital from losing more workers.

“A lot of people were pleased that we honored their right to choose what they want to do with their body,” he said. “And I think that may have helped retain some staff that may have been tempted to jump to other places because of salary or what they perceive as different working conditions.”

Still, Tobler can’t make sense of why so many won’t get vaccinated. For people who have rejected inoculation or remain on the fence, he says, watching a loved one or someone they know get seriously ill or die is often the catalyst that changes their mind.

But even that won’t convince these health care workers, who have spent months watching and caring for Covid-19 patients.

“It’s inexplicable,” Tobler said.

Balch couldn’t be convinced by her own doctor, Shane Wilson, who also works at Scotland County Hospital.

He’s talked with staff members who don’t want the vaccine, and most of them remain skeptical over what they consider to be unknowns, like whether they will have health problems in the future as a result. (Health experts have said any adverse side effects from a vaccine usually show up within at least the first two months.)

“It’s incredibly frustrating to try to get … the understanding across that you’re not just protecting you, yourself. We’re doing this to try to keep our neighbors healthy,” Wilson said. “We’re doing this to try to keep others from losing people.”

‘We’re going to be short a lot of nurses’

Tobler feels his approach is simply a reflection of the community where he and his staff live and work: Just 23% of the population of Scotland County has been fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Curt and Jamie Triplett, two brothers who co-own a farm in the area, aren’t among them. Curt Triplett told CNN he has no problem with the vaccine, but he thinks it’s been turned into a “political football,” and that has turned off some rural Americans.

Jamie, meantime, said he’s not vaccinated because “I just feel like my risk of being exposed to Covid and what it would do to me is not greater than the risks of the vaccine.”

Over breakfast at Lacey’s Family Diner, Ricky Fowler and Stan Barker told CNN they have both gotten vaccinated. Fowler got his vaccine “right off the bat, as soon as I could,” he said, and Barker said he feels “more secure after getting the shot that I won’t get (Covid-19).”

But a third man at their table, Alan — who declined to give his last name — isn’t convinced. He has not gotten a Covid-19 vaccine, and he doesn’t believe they’ve been proven to be safe, even after the vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech received full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Alan’s daughter, a nurse at Scotland County Hospital, also hasn’t been vaccinated, he says, despite working and caring for Covid-19 patients through the pandemic.

A mandate, he said, would “violate my constitutional right. And where Shelby works, my daughter, she’ll just quit … so will, like, three or four others.”

“So if they mandate it,” he said, “we’re going to be short a lot of nurses.”

Back at Scotland County Hospital, Balch echoed that, saying a mandate would hurt health care workers and the care they provide.

“If you lose your health care workers,” she asked, “then who’s going to take care of the people that do have this disease?”

CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.

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Business

JPMorgan’s Dimon blasts bitcoin as ‘worthless’, due for regulation

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NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) chief executive, said on Monday at a conference that cryptocurrencies will be regulated by governments and that he personally thinks bitcoin is “worthless.”

“No matter what anyone thinks about it, government is going to regulate it. They are going to regulate it for (anti-money laundering) purposes, for (Bank Secrecy Act) purposes, for tax,” Dimon said, referring to banking regulations in a conversation held virtually by the Institute of International Finance.

Dimon, head of the largest U.S. bank, has been a vocal critic of the digital currency, once calling it a fraud and then later saying he regretted the statement.

This summer, JPMorgan gave wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds, meaning the bank’s financial advisers can accept buy and sell orders from clients for five cryptocurrency products.

A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin is seen in this picture illustration taken June 7, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Illustration

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Stating that his views are different from those of the bank and its board, Dimon said he remains skeptical.

“I personally think that bitcoin is worthless,” Dimon said. “I don’t think you should smoke cigarettes either.”

“Our clients are adults. They disagree. If they want to have access to buy or sell bitcoin – we can’t custody it – but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible access.”

Bitcoin trading showed no immediate reaction to Dimon’s comments. The cryptocurrency was last up 5% for the day at $57,304.

Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and David Henry; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

EXCLUSIVE U.S., EU line up over 20 more countries for global methane pact

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Methane bubbles are seen in an area of marshland at a research post at Stordalen Mire near Abisko, Sweden, August 1, 2019.REUTERS/Hannah McKay

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Two dozen countries have joined a U.S.- and EU-led effort to slash methane emissions 30% by 2030, giving the emerging global partnership momentum ahead of its launch at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow later this month, a government official told Reuters.

Nigeria, Japan and Pakistan are among the 24 new signatories to the Global Methane Pledge, which was first announced by the United States and EU in September with the aim of galvanizing rapid climate action before the start of the Scotland summit on Oct. 31. It could have a significant impact on the energy, agriculture and waste sectors responsible for the bulk of methane emissions.

The nine original partners include Britain, Indonesia and Mexico, which signed on to the pledge when it was announced at the Major Economies Forum last month. The partnership will now cover 60% of global GDP and 30% of global methane emissions.

U.S. special climate change envoy John Kerry and European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans will introduce the new partners at a joint event on Monday and also announce that more than 20 philanthropic organizations, including ones led by Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, will mobilize over $223 million to help support countries’ methane-reduction efforts, said the official, who declined to be named.

The source said the countries represent a range of different methane emissions profiles. For example, Pakistan’s main source of methane emissions is agriculture, while Indonesia’s main source is waste.

Several countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts, including some African nations and island nations like Micronesia, have also signed the pledge.

In the weeks leading up to the U.N. climate summit, the United States will engage with other major emerging economy methane emitters like India and China to urge them to join and ensure the “groundswell of support continues,” the official said.

‘ONE MOVE LEFT’

Methane is a greenhouse gas and the biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide (CO2). Several recent reports have highlighted the need for governments to crack down on methane to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, the goal of the Paris climate agreement.

Methane has a higher heat-trapping potential than CO2 but breaks down in the atmosphere faster. A landmark United Nations scientific report released in August said “strong, rapid and sustained reductions” in methane emissions, in addition to slashing CO2 emissions, could have an immediate impact on the climate.

The United States is due to release oil and gas methane regulations in the coming weeks, and the European Union will unveil detailed methane legislation later this year.

Larry Kramer, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which contributed to the $200 million fund, told Reuters the money will “help catalyze climate action” and that reducing methane is the quickest way to help carry out the 1.5-degree goal.

Durwood Zaelke, president of the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said the partnership was a “great start” for focusing the world’s attention on the need to slash methane.

“There’s one move left to keep the planet from catastrophe — cutting methane as fast as we can from all sources,” he said by email ahead of the announcement.

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Hugh Lawson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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