U.S. President Joe Biden raised concern about China’s handling of its COVID-19 outbreak hours after the World Health Organisation said it was under-reporting virus deaths, comments likely to provoke a response from Beijing on Thursday.

The United States is one of more than a dozen nations that have imposed restrictions on travellers from China since it scrapped stringent COVID controls last month that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years.

Global health officials are now trying to get to grips with an outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes, at odds with China’s low official virus death toll.

Mike Ryan, emergencies director at the World Health Organisation (WHO), told a media briefing on Wednesday that current numbers being published from China under-represent hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths.

Speaking hours later, Biden said that he was worried about how China was handling the outbreak.

“They’re very sensitive … when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming,” he told reporters while on a visit to Kentucky.

The comments from the WHO on the lack of data were some of the most critical to date and could earn a critical response from Beijing when it holds a regular foreign ministry press briefing later on Thursday.

There was no immediate coverage of the remarks by Biden or the WHO in Chinese state media on Thursday. The government has recently played down the severity of the situation.

The state-run Global Times said in an article on Wednesday that COVID infections had peaked in several cities including the capital, Beijing, citing interviews with doctors.

China reported one new COVID-19 death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.

With one of the lowest COVID death tolls in the world, China has been routinely accused of under-reporting infections and deaths for political reasons.

Chinese health officials have said only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths.

The methods for counting COVID deaths have varied across countries since the pandemic first erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Yet disease experts outside China have said its approach would miss several other widely recognised types of potentially fatal COVID complications, from blood clots to heart attacks as well as sepsis and kidney failure.

International health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year without urgent action. British-based health data firm Airfinity has estimated about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID.

Surging COVID infections are hurting demand in China’s $17 trillion economy, with a private-sector survey on Thursday showing services activity shrank in December.

But investors remain optimistic that China’s dismantling of COVID controls will eventually help revive growth that has slid to its lowest rate in nearly half a century. Those hopes were seen lifting Asian equity markets (.MIAPJ0000PUS) on Thursday.

“China reopening has a big impact … worldwide,” said Joanne Goh, an investment strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, since it not only spurs tourism and consumption but can ease some of the supply-chain crunches seen during 2022.

“There will be hiccups on the way,” Goh said, during an outlook presentation to reporters. “We give it six months adjusting to the process. But we don’t think it’s reversible.”

China’s yuan steadied around a four-month high against the dollar.

While countries try to get more information on the extent and severity of China’s outbreak, several have imposed requirements on travellers from China to be tested for COVID.

European Union officials recommended on Wednesday that passengers flying from China to the 27-member bloc should have a negative COVID-19 test before they begin their journeys.

The officials also called for testing and sequencing of wastewater on planes arriving from China and at airports that handle international flights, among other measures.

China has criticised border controls imposed by other countries on its residents as unreasonable and unscientific.

While China will stop requiring inbound travellers to quarantine from Jan. 8, it will still require them to take a COVID test before arrival.

The government said on Thursday that its border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong would also reopen on Sunday, for the first time in three years.

Hong Kong residents have swamped clinics to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of the expected reopening, which some people fear will bring a surge of infections to the financial hub.

Related Galleries:

The United States plans to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela under a program paired with expulsions of people from those countries caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. and Mexican officials said.

The expanded humanitarian program would build on a policy launched in October that allowed thousands of Venezuelans to enter by air if they applied from abroad and could demonstrate they had a U.S. sponsor, two U.S. and one Mexican official said on Wednesday.

The details on the planned program come as U.S. President Joe Biden plans to give a border security-themed speech on Thursday and intends to visit the U.S.-Mexico border next week, addressing an issue that has challenged the Democratic president during his first two years in office.

The two U.S. officials expected the new policies to be rolled out on Thursday but the White House did not respond to a request for comment seeking official confirmation.

Biden told reporters at the White House on Wednesday after a visit to Kentucky that he wants to see “peace and security” at the border. He said earlier in the day that he intended to visit the southwest border but that details were still being finalized.

“I’m going to see what’s going on,” Biden said of the border trip. “I’m going to be making a speech tomorrow on border security, and you’ll hear more about it tomorrow.”

Biden did not reply when asked which city he planned to visit although the news website Axios later reported he would visit El Paso, Texas, a border city that declared a state of emergency in December amid high levels of migrant arrivals.

Biden is scheduled to travel to Mexico City on Jan. 9 and 10 for the North American Leaders’ Summit, where he will meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Biden, who took office in January 2021, has struggled operationally and politically with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and migration is expected to be on the agenda at the meeting.

Republicans have criticized what they say are lenient border security policies, while Biden officials say they are trying to create a more orderly and humane system.

Reuters reported last week that the Biden administration is planning to use pandemic-era restrictions to expel many Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants caught at the southwest border back to Mexico, while simultaneously allowing some to enter the United States by air on humanitarian grounds.

Migrant advocates and some Democrats have pushed back on expanding the expulsions, saying the restrictions block migrants from exercising their right to apply for asylum and expose them to risky situations in Mexico.

---

Inflation in the United States has not “turned the corner yet” and it is too early for the Federal Reserve to declare victory in the fight on rising prices, a top IMF official said in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday.

Gita Gopinath, a deputy managing director of the Fund, urged the U.S. central bank to press ahead with rate rises this year.

She said it was important for the Fed to “maintain restrictive monetary policy” until a “very definite, durable decline in inflation” was evident in wages and industries not related to food or energy.

“If you see the indicators in the labour market and if you look at very sticky components of inflation like services inflation, I think it’s clear that we haven’t turned the corner yet on inflation,” she told the newspaper.

The comments follow Wednesday data showing that job openings, closely watched as a proxy for labour market shortages and pressure on employers to hand out wage increases higher than normal, fell only moderately in November in the United States.

Minutes of the Fed’s Dec. 13-14 policy meeting, published on Wednesday, showed that officials agreed that the central bank now needed to balance its fight against price pressures with the risks of slowing the economy too much.

In October, the IMF cut its outlook for global economic growth in 2023, reflecting the continuing drag from the Ukraine war as well as inflation pressures and high interest rates engineered by central banks to rein in those price pressures.

In the interview Gopinath added that she expected China’s economy to suffer significantly in the near term. A rebound is possible later this year, however, as Chinese demand recovers, the report quoted her as saying.

Related Galleries:

After estranged British Prince Harry and his brother Prince William appeared together after their grandmother’s death last September, it may have seemed like the feuding royals would put the worst of their differences behind them. Not so fast.

In a shocking new revelation, Harry has alleged that William once physically attacked him over the former’s marriage to Meghan Markle, according to the Guardian, which obtained a prerelease copy of Harry’s forthcoming memoir in which the incident is reportedly detailed. The allegation represents the latest dramatic twist in the yearslong saga of the couple’s acrimonious split from Buckingham Palace.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The Guardian reported on Thursday that a passage in Spare, which publishes Jan. 10, asserts that in 2019 William showed up at Harry’s home in London and “knocked” the younger prince to the floor during a heated conversation.

The book, believed by royal watchers to be a juicy tell-all of Harry and Meghan’s dealings with the House of Windsor, has been kept closely under wraps by publisher Penguin Random House before it’s set for worldwide release next week.



Since their public stepback from royal duties in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spoken out on their struggles within the so-called Firm, including dealing with mental health woes, British media vitriol, and alleged racism within the monarchy’s circles. The Palace has steadfastly refused to comment on the couple’s claims.

Here’s what to know about the newest allegation Harry has brought to light.

How does Harry describe what happened in London in 2019?

Based on Harry’s account, as reported by the Guardian, he and his brother had an argument in Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace. William had come over “piping hot” to talk about Harry’s “whole rolling catastrophe” of his relationship with Meghan, as well as their issues with the British press, which has been critical of their marriage.

William allegedly called Meghan “difficult,” “rude,” and “abrasive,” to which Harry replied that his older brother was parroting false media narratives. Harry accused his brother of “acting like an heir,” and the two exchanged insults.

According to the account, William claimed he was only trying to help, to which Harry then replied: “Are you serious? Help me? Sorry – is that what you call this? Helping me?”



That remark purportedly angered William, so Harry went to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. William, tailing his younger brother, set down the water and then “came at [Harry].”



“It all happened so fast. So very fast,” Harry reportedly writes in his memoir. “He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog’s bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out.”

Harry reportedly writes that William urged him to hit back, but he refused. According to the telling, William left the cottage though he returned shortly after to apologize; then he left again but not before saying that Harry did not “need to tell Meg about this”—referring to the altercation.

Meghan is said to have later discovered the “scrapes and bruises” on Harry’s back, which prompted him to disclose the fraternal fight to her.

What to know about Harry’s memoir, Spare

The book’s title references the concept of a firstborn royal child being in line to inherit the throne, while subsequent children represent merely backups should something happen to the eldest. In the U.K., William, who is 40, was born the “heir,” while Harry, who is 38, has thus always been a “spare.”

According to the Guardian, Harry’s resentment of this second-tier status “is the unifying theme of his book, through chapters on his childhood, his schooling, his career as a royal and in the British army, his relationship with his parents and brother and his life with Meghan through courtship, wedding and marriage to their own experience of parenthood.”

In a press release, Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, calls Harry’s memoir “a remarkably moving personal journey from trauma to healing.”

Proceeds from Spare’s sales will go to British charities, according to the publisher’s website.

How is Harry promoting the book? What else has he said?

The Duke of Sussex did two TV interviews in the lead-up to the book’s release: one with British broadcaster iTV, the other with news program 60 Minutes on CBS. Both interviews are set to air Sunday.

In a snippet of the iTV interview, Harry told British journalist Tom Bradby, “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back,” referring to King Charles III and William. “They’ve shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile,” he said. “They feel as though it’s better to keep us somehow as the villains.”

In a clip from his upcoming 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, Harry says he and his wife would have liked to live a private life since they moved to Canada and then California, but he accuses Buckingham Palace of planting disparaging stories against them. “There becomes a point when silence is betrayal.”

The interviews come on the heels of the December release of a six-part documentary series by and about Harry and Meghan on Netflix. The show, which set the record for Netflix’s most-viewed documentary premiere, highlights the rift between Harry and his family, particularly William. “The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother,” Harry says in one episode, “so that he’s now on the institution’s side, and part of that I get. I understand—that’s his inheritance.”

Though Harry may have been destined to be the spare, however, with his words and the stories he’s decided to reveal, he’s proven to be anything but.

Amazon.com Inc. is laying off more than 18,000 employees — a significantly bigger number than previously planned — in the latest sign that a technology slump is deepening.

Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced the move in a memo to staff Wednesday, saying it followed the company’s annual planning process. The cuts, which began last year, were previously expected to affect about 10,000 people. The reduction is concentrated in the firm’s corporate ranks, mostly Amazon’s retail division and human resources functions like recruiting.

Read more: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hurting Workers Far Beyond Silicon Valley

“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” he said. “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Though the prospect of layoffs has loomed over Amazon for months — the company has acknowledged that it hired too many people during the pandemic — the increasing total suggests the company’s outlook has darkened. It joins other tech giants in making major cuts. Earlier Wednesday, Salesforce Inc. announced plans to eliminate about 10% of its workforce and reduce its real estate holdings.

Read more: Big Tech Is Laying Off Tons of Workers. That’s a Bad Sign for Your Company, Too

Amazon investors gave a positive reaction to the latest belt-tightening efforts, betting it may bolster profits at the e-commerce company. The shares climbed nearly 2% in late trading after the Wall Street Journal first reported on the plan.

Eliminating 18,000 workers would be the biggest cut yet for tech companies during the current slowdown, but Amazon also has a far bigger workforce than Silicon Valley peers. It had more than 1.5 million employees as of the end of September, meaning the latest cuts would represent about 1% of the workforce.

At the time the company was planning its cuts in November, a spokesperson said Amazon had roughly 350,000 corporate employees worldwide.

The world’s largest online retailer spent the end of last year adjusting to a sharp slowdown in e-commerce growth as shoppers returned to pre-pandemic habits. Amazon delayed warehouse openings and halted hiring in its retail group. It broadened the freeze to the company’s corporate staff and then began making cuts.

Jassy has eliminated or curtailed experimental and unprofitable businesses, including teams working on a telehealth service, a delivery robot and a kids’ video-calling device, among other projects.

Read more: Andy Jassy on Figuring Out What’s Next for Amazon

The Seattle-based company also is trying to align excess capacity with cooling demand. One effort includes trying to sell excess space on its cargo planes, according to people familiar with the matter.

Amazon, which began as an online bookstore, is seeing parts of its business level off. But it continues to invest in its cloud-computing and advertising businesses as well as video streaming.

The first wave of cuts landed heaviest on Amazon’s Devices and Services group, which builds the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speaker, among other products. The group’s chief told Bloomberg last month that layoffs in the unit totaled less than 2,000 people, and that Amazon remained committed to the voice assistant.

Some recruiters and employees in the company’s human resources group were offered buyouts. Jassy told employees in November that more cuts would come in 2023 at its retail and HR teams.

In Wednesday’s memo, Jassy said the company would provide severance, transitional health benefits and job placement to affected workers. He also chided an employee for leaking the news, an apparent reference to the Wall Street Journal report. The company plans to begin discussing the moves with affected employees on Jan. 18, he said.

“Companies that last a long time go through different phases,” Jassy said. “They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year.”

 

Inflation in the United States has not “turned the corner yet” and it is too early for the Federal Reserve to declare victory in the fight on rising prices, a top IMF official said in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday.

Gita Gopinath, a deputy managing director of the Fund, urged the U.S. central bank to press ahead with rate rises this year.

“If you see the indicators in the labour market and if you look at very sticky components of inflation like services inflation, I think it’s clear that we haven’t turned the corner yet on inflation,” she told the newspaper.

Related Galleries: