Analysis of third quarter trends also highlights hybrid demand overtaking electric vehicles, the ongoing balance between new car inventory and sales, and more
BOSTON, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CarGurus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARG), the No. 1 visited digital auto platform for shopping, buying, and selling new and used vehicles1, today released its Quarterly Review for Q3 2024, identifying areas of opportunity as the consumer need for affordability becomes more pronounced.
“As we near the end of 2024, it’s clear that consumers are speaking loudly with their wallets. After years of post-pandemic revenge spending, consumers are becoming more prudent as they face economic uncertainty, still-high interest rates, and vehicle prices that remain elevated,” said Kevin Roberts, Director of Economic and Market Intelligence at CarGurus. “As a result, we’re seeing concentrated demand for more affordable cars, with sales of certain price segments—$20,000 to $30,000 for new and $15,000 to $20,000 for used—accounting for the greatest share of annual sales growth, 43% and 59% respectively.”
According to CarGurus data, the shift is especially pronounced in the used market, with vehicles $30,000 and under driving year-over-year sales growth, while cars over $30,000 declined. Further reflecting this trend, used cars over $35,000 are remaining on dealer lots longer compared to more affordable options.
Additional highlights from the report include:
Hybrids are having the year many expected for electric vehicles (EVs): There were big expectations for EV demand in 2024, but hybrids have taken the spotlight with more affordable pricing and fewer concerns around range and charging. Year-to-date, new hybrids accounted for nearly 11% of total retail sales, while EVs were 4% (excluding direct-to-consumer sales volumes). New hybrid retail sales volumes are up nearly 44% year-over-year.
New car inventory working to find equilibrium with demand: As automakers try to balance new inventory with demand, a larger share of aging new cars remain on dealer lots. At the end of September, about 58,000 new listings nationwide were two years or older (a nearly 58% increase compared to pre-Covid averages). With 2025 models rolling onto lots, the surplus of these new, but slightly older, models could present an opportunity for price-conscious shoppers.
The upcoming election could impact new and used sales demand: In analyzing vehicle sales from 2002 onward—and comparing the seasonality of non-presidential election years to presidential election years—presidential election years tend to see a decline in sales demand in August, October, and November before rebounding at year-end.
Immediate impact of interest rate cuts might be muted: While interest rate reductions are a welcome update, the September cuts will do little to improve near-term affordability concerns. Because auto rates tend to follow two- and five-year treasury rates as opposed to the short-term Federal Funds Rate, consumers will not immediately see significant declines. Additionally, with auto loan delinquencies rising, financial institutions may be more hesitant to lend credit or quickly lower rates.
To read about these trends and more, the complete Quarterly Review for Q3 2024 is available here.
About CarGurus, Inc.
CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG) is a multinational, online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles that is building upon its industry-leading listings marketplace with both digital retail solutions and the CarOffer online wholesale platform. The CarGurus platform gives consumers the confidence to purchase and/or sell a vehicle either online or in-person, and it gives dealerships the power to accurately price, effectively market, instantly acquire and quickly sell vehicles, all with a nationwide reach. The company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms and data analytics to bring trust, transparency, and competitive pricing to the automotive shopping experience. CarGurus is the most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S.1
CarGurus also operates online marketplaces under the CarGurus brand in Canada and the United Kingdom. In the United States and the United Kingdom, CarGurus also operates the Autolist and PistonHeads online marketplaces, respectively, as independent brands.
CarGurus® is a registered trademark of CarGurus, Inc., and CarOffer® is a registered trademark of CarOffer, LLC. All other product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
1Similarweb: Traffic Insights (Cars.com, Autotrader.com, TrueCar.com), Q2 2024, U.S.
Media Contact: Maggie Meluzio Director, Public Relations & External Communications pr@cargurus.com
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
October 07, 2024
Text of Letters (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) wrote to the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills, pressing their executives on the companies’ pattern of profiteering off consumers, both through “shrinkflation” and dodging taxes on the profits they made from that price gouging.
All three of these companies have shrunk the size of their packaging to squeeze profits out of their customers, and then paid a very slim federal income tax on their billions of dollars in profits. In other words, the companies are sticking the American people with the bill twice over, with American families (1) paying higher prices for smaller packages of food, and (2) paying their taxes while big corporations like PepsiCo avoid chipping in their fair share to run our country.
It is clear that these big companies are engaging in shrinkflation. In fact, reporting indicates that one of the key reasons that General Mills’ profits continue to grow is because they’ve shrunk some of their packaging. For example, the “Family Size” box of Cocoa Puffs went from 19.3 ounces to 18.1 ounces while charging the same price, at least initially. Similarly, PepsiCo replaced its 32 oz Gatorade bottle with a 28 oz bottle for the same price. And Coca-Cola has openly told its shareholders that it had “earn[ed] the right” to hike prices for consumers because of their company’s market power.
“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,” wrote the lawmakers. “Unfortunately, this price gouging is a widespread problem, with corporate profits driving over half of inflation.”
While these companies continue to profit off consumers, the company is also turning around and paying less of those profits in taxes than the families it price gouges.
According to a recent report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, from 2018 to 2022, Coca-Cola made $13.4 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 13.5 percent, General Mills made $12 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 14.8 percent, and PepsiCo made $22.4 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 15 percent. These tax rates are even lower than the corporate tax rate that was reduced from 35 to 21 percent by President Trump and Congressional Republicans in 2017.
“We strongly oppose these corporate tax giveaways, and have fought to pass tax increases on big corporations, including the 15 percent minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations,” wrote the lawmakers. “No corporation should pay a lower tax rate than working Americans – especially when that same corporation turns around and gouges consumers on the other end through shrinkflation.”
As a champion for American consumers and a secure and healthy economy, Senator Warren has engaged in oversight of corporations for unfairly increasing prices for consumers. She has also been calling for more competition and stronger enforcement of antitrust laws to bring down prices for families:
On February 15, 2024, Senators Warren, Baldwin, Casey, and U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) reintroduced the Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2024, which would protect consumers and prohibit corporate price gouging by authorizing the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce a federal ban against grossly excessive price increases.
In December 2023, Senator Warren urged the FTC to block the Kroger-Albertsons merger, which would give the five largest food retail companies control of 55 percent of all grocery sales, allowing them to further control and ultimately raise consumer prices, while also reducing job competition, decreasing wages, and decreasing the bargaining power of organized labor.
In November 2023, Senator Warren called out TransDigm for its refusal to provide cost and pricing information needed to prevent price gouging of taxpayers and the Department of Defense.
In November 2023, Senator Warren expressed disappointment at the FTC’s decision to allow pharmaceutical giant Amgen to move forward with its acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics (Horizon) given the potential impacts on the price of medicine.
In the past few years, Senator Warren has urged the Biden administration to closely scrutinize other potentially anticompetitive mergers that could lead to higher prices for consumers and accelerate industry consolidation. She has led letters about the proposed mergers of Frontier and Spirit airlines, JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, Sanderson-Wayne, WarnerMedia-Discovery, and Amazon-MGM.
In March 2022, Senator Warren introduced the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act to help stomp out rampant industry consolidation that allows companies to raise consumer prices and mistreat workers. The bill would ban the biggest, most anticompetitive mergers and give the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission the teeth to reject deals in the first instance without court orders and to break up harmful mergers.
In February 2022, at a hearing, Senator Warren called out corporations for abusing their market power to raise consumer prices and boost profits.
That same month, Senator Warren requested the Department of Justice to take aggressive action against corporations violating antitrust laws to hike prices for consumers.
In January 2022, Senator Warren questioned Federal Reserve nominee Lael Brainard about market concentration and price gouging driving inflation.
At a January 2022 hearing, Senator Warren pressed Fed Chair Jerome Powell on the role of corporate concentration in driving up prices for consumers during his renomination hearing to be Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
In a New York Times op-ed published in April 2020, Senator Warren urged Congress to focus on cracking down on price gouging in its ongoing effort to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
In March 2020, Senator Warren joined her colleagues in urging the FTC to use its full authority to prevent abusive price gouging on consumer health products during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An interactive online “StoryMap” has been launched to bring forward a partnership approach to promoting the City of Inverness as the hub of economic, social and cultural activity in Highland.
The site, which features extensive visuals, is part of the Inverness Strategy workstream and draws together recent projects and initiatives into a single, coordinated framework. This overview of ‘what’s happening’ and ‘in the pipeline’ makes clear what projects are intended to be delivered, when this looks likely to happen, and who is responsible.
City Leader, Councillor Ian Brown said: “The Inverness Strategy is about collating recent and anticipated projects across the City and area to build on one another to bring about a much bigger, collective vision.
“The site is a great resource to capture what’s happening across our city with details of projects planned, underway or completed in an easy-to-use format that reflects the partnership approach across the public, private and community sectors.”
Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans said: “The city of Inverness is at an exciting stage in its evolving role as the main economic, service and administrative centre for Highland and a transport hub for the wider Highland and Islands region.
“By bringing together what’s happening across the City, the site clearly lays out the collective vision all partners have. This collective approach will improve the coordination, funding and delivery of existing and emerging plans, projects and workstream to ensure Inverness remains Highland’s prime destination for those who live, work, visit and invest here.”
A public face-to-face event to showcase projects highlighted as part of the Inverness Strategy and featured on the StoryMap website will be held at Inverness Town House on 26 November from 2pm – 7pm.
Inverness City Centre Vision (360 Architecture): Post-Covid review of how the city centre can continue to be a vibrant, healthy and attractive place to work, live and do business.
Inverness 2035: One City, One Vision (Inverness Futures Group).
National Planning Framework 4: qualities of successful places.
Highland Local Development Plans and associated supplementary guidance: including the Indicative Regional Spatial Strategy (IRSS), emerging Local Development Plan, city-specific development briefs.
Factors including climate change, disruption of animal habitats, poverty and global travel mean we’re only likely to see more pandemics in the future.
It’s impossible to predict exactly when the next pandemic will happen, or what it will be. But experts around the world are working to prepare for this inevitable “disease X”.
One of the cornerstones of being prepared for the next pandemic is being in the best possible position to design and deploy a suitable vaccine. To this end, scientists and researchers can learn a lot from COVID vaccine development.
A look back
After SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) was discovered, vaccine development moved very quickly. In February 2020 the first batch of vaccines was completed (from Moderna) and the first clinical trials began in March.
An mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech was the first to be approved, on December 2 2020 in the United Kingdom. Approvals for this and other vaccines, including shots developed by Moderna (another mRNA vaccine) and Oxford/AstraZeneca (a viral vector vaccine), followed elsewhere soon afterwards.
Previously the fastest vaccine developed took around four years (for mumps in the 1960s). Had COVID vaccines taken this long it would mean we would only just be rolling them out this year.
An estimated 13.72 billion COVID vaccine doses have now been administered, with more than 70% of the world’s population having received at least one dose.
The rapid development and rollout of COVID vaccines is likely to be one of the greatest achievements of medical science ever. It also means we are in a much better position to respond to future emerging pathogens.
New vaccine technology
A lot of work over many years prepared us to develop COVID vaccines as quickly as we did. This included developing new platforms such as viral vector and mRNA vaccines that can be adapted quickly to new pathogens.
While scientists had been working on mRNA vaccines for decades before the COVID pandemic, the COVID shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were the first mRNA vaccines to be approved for human use.
These vaccines work by giving our body instructions (the “m” in mRNA stands for messenger) to make SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. These are proteins on the surface of the virus which it uses to attach to our cells. This means when we encounter SARS-CoV-2, our immune system is poised to respond.
This technology will almost certainly be used to protect against other diseases, and could potentially help with a future pandemic.
In the meantime, scientists are working to improve mRNA technology even further. For example, “self-amplifying RNA” has the potential to enhance immune responses at lower doses compared with conventional mRNA.
While our current COVID vaccines are safe and very effective at protecting against severe disease, they’re not perfect. We may never be able to achieve a “perfect” vaccine, but some additional properties we’d like to see in future COVID vaccines include being better at reducing transmission, lasting longer, and needing to be updated less often as new variants emerge.
Even now there are many COVID vaccines in clinical trials. So hopefully, COVID vaccines that improve on the initial shots will be available relatively soon.
Other desirable attributes include vaccines we can administer by alternate routes to needles. For COVID and other diseases such as influenza, we’re seeing significant developments locally and internationally on vaccines than can be administered via skin patches, through the nose, and even orally.
Some challenges
Developing vaccines for COVID was a huge challenge, but one that can mostly be judged a success. Research has estimated COVID vaccines saved 14.4 million lives across 185 countries in just their first year.
However, the story of COVID vaccination has also had many other challenges, and arguably a number of failures.
First, the distribution of vaccines was not equitable. Analysis of the initial rollout suggested nearly 80% of eligible people in high-income countries were vaccinated, compared with just over 10% in low-income nations.
Supply of vaccines was an issue in many parts of the world, so expanding local capacity to enable more rapid production and distribution of vaccines will be important for the next pandemic.
Further, adverse events linked to COVID vaccines, such as rare blood clots after the AstraZeneca vaccine, affected perceptions of vaccine safety. While every serious adverse event is significant, these incidents were very rare.
However, these issues exacerbated other challenges that hampered vaccine uptake, including the spread of misinformation.
Misinformation remains a problem now and will probably still be prevalent whenever we face the next pandemic. Addressing this challenge involves understanding what’s deterring people from getting vaccinated, then informing and educating, addressing misinformation both about vaccination and the risks of the disease itself.
Restoring and building trust in public health authorities also needs to continue to be a focus. Trust in governments and health authorities declined during the COVID pandemic, and evidence shows lower trust is associated with lower vaccine uptake.
There’s no doubt our recent experience with COVID, particularly the rapid development of multiple safe and effective vaccines, has put us in a better position for the next pandemic.
This didn’t happen by accident. There was a lot of preparation even before COVID was first discovered that facilitated this. Organisations like the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) have been supporting research to develop vaccines rapidly to respond to a new threat for some time.
CEPI has an ongoing program that aims to be able to develop a vaccine against a new threat, or disease X, in just 100 days. While COVID vaccines have been a huge achievement, work continues in the hope we will be able to develop a vaccine even faster next time.
Paul Griffin is a director and scientific advisory board member of the immunisation coalition. He has served on Medical Advisory Boards including for AstraZeneca, GSK, MSD, Moderna, Biocelect/Novavax, Seqirus and Pfizer and has received speaker honoraria including from Seqirus, Novartis, Gilead, Sanofi, MSD and Janssen.
1. It is my pleasure to join you today at the official opening of the redeveloped Pasir Ris Polyclinic. A couple of years ago, we started a new practice in the Ministry of Health (MOH), which is that we will officially open a polyclinic on its first day of operations, instead of waiting months later when you are operationally ready. We thought to have a smaller event to open on the first day of operations.
2. I was told we cannot roll pineapples in a Polyclinic, even if it is on the first day, but I am very happy to be able to share this day with everyone. But just for the record, at a Polyclinic, we wish for health, not wealth.
Primary Care in Singapore
3. Pasir Ris Polyclinic is one of our 26 polyclinics in Singapore. Together with the private General Practitioner (GP) clinics, they form the primary care system of our healthcare system.
4. Primary care is probably the most critical part of any healthcare system. It provides universal access to healthcare for everyone. It ensures efficiency because through primary care, we can treat an illness before it becomes serious. In an ageing society like Singapore, primary care moves further upstream, to deliver preventive care and build health in our community and the population.
5. Many countries recognise that. I have been visiting healthcare and primary care systems in many parts of the world. In China, for example, over the last 10 years, they have been building the equivalent of polyclinics – what they call Community Health Centres – in their cities. I have visited a few of them. In Beijing, there is one centre for every 50,000 residents.
6. Indonesia is also expanding its network of community health centres, called “Pusat Kesihatan Masyarakat”, throughout the archipelago of 18,000 islands.
7. The Philippines is actively building community primary care centres, called BUCAS (Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service) centres. Their Health Minister told me their system is in fact modelled on our polyclinics system.
8. In Singapore, we have always placed strong emphasis and invested significantly in primary care. This includes upgrading the competencies of our family doctors, organising doctors, nurses and care coordinators into teams to deliver more holistic and effective care, and building new polyclinics, facilities and infrastructure.
9. Today, our polyclinics manage almost seven million outpatient visits every year, including 40% of all chronic care patient load. Primary care accounts for about 15% to 20% of total healthcare spending. It is a reasonable and healthy level, which reflects its importance, and we should try to maintain this even as overall healthcare expenditure increases.
10. We will focus on a few key areas of primary care in the coming years. The first is infrastructure, namely the expansion of the polyclinics network. The number of polyclinics will grow from 26 today to 32 by 2030.
11. Second, in preventive care, through the Healthier SG strategy. This is a long journey. But we have an encouraging start, judging by the number of enrollees in the programme. More importantly, I think there is a palpable shift in health habits amongst Singaporeans. We always say Healthier SG depends on three up’s – sign up, turn up and follow up. We have achieved signing up and turning up, and now, we need to follow up. We need to continue to put resources in incentives, outreach, community programmes, new care protocols, technology and IT systems, to make Healthier SG successful in building health for the long term.
12. Third, we also need to upgrade the private family doctor clinics. Excluding aesthetics clinics, we have about 1,600 private clinics. They are an integral part of the national healthcare system. They deliver subsidised primary care through the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS), help manage patients with chronic diseases, and coordinate care with polyclinics, hospitals, as well as social agencies. During pandemics like COVID-19, they stepped forward and became our first line of defence, directly attending to infected patients.
13. We are looking into ways to enhance the professional competencies of private family doctors, improve their premises to encourage multi-disciplinary practice, and strengthen their partnerships with community organisations and other healthcare providers.
Uniqueness of Pasir Ris Polyclinic
14. This newly redeveloped Pasir Ris Polyclinic is a good example of our commitment to improving primary care in Singapore. Our planning team had put in extra effort to create a polyclinic that is community- and patient-centric
15. It is an impressive polyclinic. There will be a wide range of services, including physiotherapy and dental services. In the coming months, the Grace Memory Clinic and Health Wellness Clinic will be opened to support residents with dementia and mental health needs.
16. This polyclinic will be a training site for family doctors. It will also feature an Academic Family Medicine Centre, dedicated to training doctors under the Family Medicine residency programme.
17. It will also enhance service delivery through the use of technology such as telemonitoring, electronic registration, appointment making and payment options for a more seamless patient experience. Teleconsultation services will not only cover traditional areas like preventive care and chronic disease management, but also dietician and physiotherapy services.
Closing
18. I thank everyone who has put in so much effort to plan, design and execute this newly redeveloped Polyclinic. I also want to thank the Grassroots Advisers who have paid a lot of attention to this redeveloped Polyclinic, and helped MOH ensure that it will serve the needs of the community and its residents.
19. As an Adviser in Sembawang who is heavily involved in the development of our community hub called Bukit Canberra, I can fully appreciate what it is like for other Advisers to oversee such a major integrated development like the Pasir Ris Mall.
20. It doesn’t open with a big bang, but facilities are added in phases. Each addition makes the destination even more attractive, evolving into a hub for residents. I am glad that MOH gets to contribute to this key community project in Pasir Ris town. On that note, let me now invite Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, the lead Adviser of this area, to deliver his remarks.
The following text contains opinion that is not, or not necessarily, that of MIL-OSI –
Under Kamalanomics, Americans Are Being Left Behind, And American Manufacturing Stifled
Washington, October 4, 2024
Under Kamalanomics, Americans are getting left behind as American manufacturing is stifled. The failed economic policies of the Biden-Harris Administration have crippled a once booming economy left by President Trump. Despite attempts to cover up their failures, the American people are smart and know Kamala Harris and Joe Biden created today’s economic crisis.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) September jobs report once again exposes the harsh reality of Kamalanomics. Just in the last two months, America has lost at least 34,000 manufacturing jobs as the failed economic policies of Kamala Harris have disincentivized the growth of America’s job market, manufacturing, and economy.
KEY POINTS FROM THE JOBS REPORT:
In September, the unemployment rate remained high, at 4.1%.
Over the past 12 months, 825,000 native-born Americans lost employment, while 1.2 million foreign-born workers found jobs.
There are over 6.8 million Americans who are unemployed which is up from a year ago at 6.3 million.
The labor force participation rate remains well below pre-pandemic levels.
In September, the labor force participation rates decreased for the following demographics:
Women, 16 years and over.
White women, 20 years and over.
Black or African American women, 20 years and over.
Asian Americans.
Hispanic or Latino Americans.
Hispanic or Latino men, 20 years and over.
Hispanic or Latino women, 20 years and over.
Since July of 2023 versus July of 2024, there has been a net zero job growth.
In August, it was announced that 818,000 jobs that the Harris-Biden Administration claimed to have created aren’t there.
The BLS revised down its total tally of jobs created from March 2023 through March 2024 by 818,000.
This included 115,000 manufacturing jobs.
The revision is the largest in 15 years.
In addition to these revisions, the August jobs report revealed the employment in June and July combined is 86,000 lower than previously reported.
The Biden-Harris Administration deserves no credit for economic growth.
Republican-led states are leading the way creating jobs and leading economic growth.
The latest state jobs report shows that 16 of the top 20 states for jobs recovered since the coronavirus pandemic began are led by Republican governors, and 16 of the states have Republican-controlled legislatures.
KAMALANOMICS BY THE NUMBERS:
Nearly half of Americans consider themselves “broke.”
Two-thirds of Americans report living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Americans need a six-figure salary to afford a typical home in nearly half of U.S. states
Inflation is a tax on ALL Americans.
When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, inflation was at just 1.4%.
Since Biden and Harris took office, inflation has risen by 20.3%.
Americans are paying more for just about everything because of inflation since Biden and Harris took office:
Americans are spending $13,200 more annually to buy the basics because of Kamalaflation, compared to three years ago.
Real wages remain lower than when Biden-Harris first took office.
Inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings were $397.90 when Biden-Harris took office and are now $384.47 – the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusts to 1982-1984 dollars – meaning Americans have seen a 3.4% decrease under Biden-Harris.
Kamalaflation outpaced wages for a majority of Biden’s presidency – both year-over-year real average hourly earnings and real average weekly earnings were negative for 25 months.
Beandrarezona (Agenzia Fides) – Contributing to the formation of young people by offering them quality education that gives them equal opportunities compared to other young people in the cities, this is the goal of the Consolata Missionaries’ school (IMC) recently opened in Beandrarezona. “School is a great tool for evangelization in many ways. Although many young people are not particularly interested in religion, through school they can discover the message of the Gospel and their families can also be reached” says Fr. Jean Tuluba, IMC, from the mission of Beandrarezona. “After contact with the local reality we noticed that in Beandrarezona, which is the center of the mission, and in the other villages, there are private and public schools: nursery, elementary and first cycle of middle school, but there were no schools for the second cycle of middle school and high school – he continues. Hence the need, after having spoken with local leaders and parents, to build a secondary school because the young people of Beandrarezona and other nearby villages are forced to leave their families after primary school to continue their studies in the city with a significant economic impact on families and consequently many young people drop out of school to go and work in the fields.” “Among the first 30 students, a good percentage come from other religious confessions. The school also becomes a way to dialogue with other religions through the education we give to their children, since from the beginning these other confessions have placed their trust in us by sending their children to study – the priest points out. In this way, the school is not only an education center, but also a meeting place between religious confessions. Furthermore, we have chosen to manage the school gradually, opening one class per year until the completion of the three-year cycle. This is because the level of education of the students is very low. Opening a class each year will help us to support the formation of students and also the ongoing formation of teachers.” The Consolata missionaries arrived in Madagascar on March 13, 2019 to work in the diocese of Ambanja, in the northwest of the Big Island. After a period of study of the Malagasy language, on October 20, 2019 they began their pastoral service in the new mission of Beandrarezona, created with the arrival of the first three missionaries, Fathers Jean Tuluba (DR Congo), Jared Makori (Kenya) and Kizito Mukalazi (Uganda). “Our mission is the latest parish created in the diocese of Ambanja, in the northwest of the Big Island and is located almost 1,000 kilometers from Antananarivo, the capital of the country,” explains Father Tuluba. “It extends over three rural municipalities and has more than 80 villages, of which only 12 have Christian communities. The villages are very far from each other and the only possible means of transport to visit them is by motorbike, but in most of them you can almost always get there only on foot. To reach some communities we have to walk up to 14 hours. It takes strength and determination to face the difficulties of the roads. Of the 2,587,014 inhabitants (2022 census) of the diocese, only 7% of the population is Catholic and in our mission Catholics are about 3% of the total of 21,170 inhabitants (2018 census). As you can see, it is truly a mission ad gentes that needs our presence and attention”, the missionary remarks. The main activities of the mission are visits to the communities, sacramental catechesis, the formation of catechists, missionary and vocational animation, the formation of young people and children. The majority of the population of the mission is made up of young people and children. In fact, it is estimated that 75% of Madagascar’s population is made up of young people and children. The school, whose construction began in 2021 after the Covid-19 epidemic, was officially inaugurated and opened on September 2, 2024 with the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the diocesan bishop of Ambanja, Francis Donatien Randriamalala, who blessed the building. Other priests, nuns, local administrative and political authorities, representatives of local religious confessions, Christians of the mission, friends and acquaintances participated in the celebration. The following day, lessons began immediately with 30 students. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 5/10/2024) Share:
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
New UK-created therapies for cancer will be trialled in the UK – furthering the nation’s life sciences industry as one of the great drivers of economic growth.
NHS cancer patients to benefit from partnership with pharmaceutical companies and universities to spot cancer sooner through trials for new technologies, such as AI
Innovations have potential to transform treatment for NHS patients and launch a wave of globally significant new Medtech products
Comes ahead of International Investment Summit, which will showcase how key sectors like life sciences drive investment into the UK
A raft of new UK-created therapies for cancer will be trialled in the UK – furthering the nation’s life sciences industry as one of the great drivers of economic growth.
New partnerships backed by public and private sector investment will trial new ways to tackle cancer and other life-threatening diseases with faster diagnoses and better treatments, deploying innovative technologies and approaches .
This could unleash a raft of new medical tech products onto the global market, including more flexible medical scanners and an AI tool to help spot lung cancer sooner. The potential of these breakthrough technologies to give new hope to patients, and to become commercial successes, is a demonstration of this Government’s ambitions for the UK’s R&D base and the NHS to work hand-in-hand with the private sector, to bring the latest high-tech innovations into daily use across the health service as part of the government’s wider mission to reform the NHS.
Medical technologies like these not only offer the hope of longer, healthier lives to people living with diseases like cancer, but also drive economic growth through the UK’s world leading life sciences industry. Their adoption is also critical to building an NHS that is match-fit for the future, as emphasised in the findings of the recent Darzi Review. This independent report laid bare the current problems facing the NHS, including the fact that the cancer survival rates in England are lagging far behind other countries. Today’s package of investment will play a crucial role in the government’s plans to address these challenges and rebuild and reform the NHS, which will prioritise the adoption of innovative technologies and approaches and identify ways to do things differently across the health service in order to provide a better service for patients.
It comes as UK Research and Innovation announces a £118 million fund that will create five new hubs across the country, from Glasgow to Bristol, to help develop new health technologies. The funding will be split between Government funding and partner support – inviting business to help the mission to kickstart the economy and build an NHS fit for the future. The Hubs will work in intimate partnership with the private sector – with experts at UCL developing scanners to improve cancer surgery, delivering their research together with both large MedTech multinationals and British start-ups, for example.
The International Investment Summit, taking place in a matter of days, will see Government form a new partnership with business to grow our economy through more high quality, long-term investment and innovation.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:
Cancer is a disease that has brought pain, misery and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own. But through Government working in partnership with the NHS, researchers, and business, we can harness science and innovation to bring the detection and treatment of this horrendous disease firmly in to the 21st century, keeping more families together for longer.
The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:
As a cancer survivor, I know how vital an early cancer diagnosis and the latest treatments are. This investment will not only save lives, but also secure Britain’s status as a powerhouse for life sciences and medical technology.
When we combine the care of the NHS and the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, we can develop life changing treatments for patients and help get Britain’s economy booming.
The Science Secretary will be speaking to business leaders across the life sciences sector, encouraging a raft of investment into the UK for drug development, clinical trials and MedTech production.
Already contributing £108 billion to the UK economy, the life sciences industry drove £800 million in foreign direct investment into the UK in 2023, and supports around 300,000 jobs up and down the country.
Today’s announcements showcase the impact that could potentially be made to cancer, as well as other diseases, through ensuring the Government and NHS works hand in hand with life sciences research institutions and industry, to drive the development of new treatments and diagnostics.
New medical tech and treatments that could eventually be brought to market include:
Developing cheaper, more easily usable scanners that will help surgeons detect early signs of cancers and remove tumours with greater success. These tools could be more readily available than those currently in use across the NHS.
Speeding up the time required to bring new drugs to market by testing ‘micro-dosing’ – an approach which sees a tiny amount of a drug delivered to a small part of the body. This work could provide a new
pathway for clinically trialling new treatments for lung infection and inflammation much faster and cheaper than at present.
Driving forward personalised treatments for cancer patients who are receiving immunotherapy – using their own immune system to identify and attack cancer cells. New ways of monitoring patients could allow a real-time view of how a therapy is working, offering the opportunity to tweak it to the patient’s needs.
Training AI models to be used in quickly and accurately diagnosing cancer through a new cross-NHS data network that researchers can access.
The life sciences sector is one of the crown jewels of the British economy – exemplified by the work by Oxford University and AstraZeneca that produced the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, as well as the Government’s 10-year partnership with Moderna to anchor the production of millions of lifesaving vaccines here in the UK.
The MedTech sector specifically is also booming, supporting more than 138,000 jobs and exporting more than £5.6 billion in products annually. And there are life sciences clusters right across the UK that provide high-skill, high-wage jobs from Merseyside to the North East.
Support for today’s announcements:
Commenting on MANIFEST, Professor Samra Turajlic, project lead, Clinical Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:
In the last ten years we have made huge progress in the treatment of cancer with immunotherapy, but we are still underserving many patients due to treatment failure and side effects. We have a unique opportunity in the UK, especially given the NHS, to address this challenge.
We are hugely excited to work together with such a large group of clinicians, patients and our industry partners, each with unique experiences and expertise. Research on this scale can get us one step closer to better tests in the clinic, but also fuel more discoveries regarding cancer immunology and new therapies. Ultimately, we want to speed up the delivery of personalised medicine for a disease that affects huge numbers of people across the UK every year.
Also commenting on MANIFEST, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Michelle Mitchell, added:
The Francis Crick Institute is carrying out world-leading research with the backing of Cancer Research UK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. Further funding from the UK Government to support promising immunotherapy research at the Institute is a welcome boost towards kinder, more personalised treatments for cancer. It’s crucial for the UK’s economic wellbeing, as well as its health, for the UK Government to be ambitious in funding world-class cancer research.
Commenting on the UKRI Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs, EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said:
The five new hubs bring together a wealth of expertise from across academia, industry and charities to improve population health, transform disease prediction and diagnosis, and accelerate the development of new interventions.
They represent an exciting range of adventurous techniques and approaches that have great potential to improve the lives of millions of people here in the UK and across the world.
Commenting on the pathology data network, Vin Diwakar, National Director of Transformation at NHS England said:
The investment in AI pathology represents new hope in helping us to treat and cure a range of diseases. By supporting secure access to this unique dataset, we can help researchers to learn more about various conditions, including cancer, so that they can both spot how to prevent disease and also find the next generation of treatments and cures faster.
The NHS is globally unique in holding data for the entire population. This makes the test result information we hold particularly valuable for AI training as we know that it represents the population properly.
Like all data in NHS secure data environments, there are strict access rules, meaning the information will remain under the control of the NHS at all times and will only allow secure access to approved researchers who are conducting analysis which improves health and care.
Commenting on the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call, Professor Mike Lewis, Scientific Director for Innovation at NIHR said:
Developing early diagnosis technologies that are closer to cancer patients is a key aim of this NIHR funding – the potential to find cancers earlier will give patients more choice of treatment, and enable us to save lives in the future.
Funding breakdown
MANIFEST: £9 million; £4 million from Office for Life Sciences, £5 million from the Medical Research Council
UKRI-EPSRC Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs: £118 million; £54 million from Government, £64 million cash and in-kind backing from partners
AI digital pathology data platform: £6.4 million from Government
NIHR i4i Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call: £11 million from Government
Advancing Precision Medicine funding call: £4 million from Government
Notes to editors
The £9 million MANIFEST (Multinomic Analysis of Immunotherapy Features Evidencing Success and Toxicity) consortium is led by the Francis Crick Institute together with the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, as well academic and industry partners. It will support the better targeting of immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer. Led out of the world-leading Francis Crick Institute, MANIFEST will examine the biomarkers – measurable signs of a patient’s health status – present in patients before they start immunotherapy, with a view to developing tests that can monitor these biomarkers during treatment. These tests could help indicate if a given treatment is likely to work, helping doctors to personalise immunotherapy treatments to individual patients. MANIFEST is co-funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and the Office for Life Sciences.
£6.4 million is being invested by the Government in new data infrastructure which will pull together digital pathology data from across the NHS to make it easier for researchers to access. Researchers will be able to train AI models on this unique set of information, in order to improve how quickly and accurately cancer and other diseases can be spotted. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical to cancer survival and recovery. This project is led by the NHS Data for Research and Development Programme. The programme is establishing a health data research infrastructure to provide rapid access to the world’s largest linked data sets for research.
Full details of the £118 million UKRI-EPSRC Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs:
Optical and Acoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Sciences (OASIS) Hub – led by University College London. Working on new imaging tools to help surgeons identify cancers – including breast cancer – and remove tumours with greater success.
MAINSTREAM research and partnership hub for health technologies in Manufacturing Stem Cells – led by University of Glasgow. Working on potential therapies using adult stem cells, which could help cancer patients regenerate bone marrow after chemotherapy.
Research and Partnership Hub in Microscale Science and Technology to Accelerate Therapeutic Innovation (MicroTex) – led by University of Edinburgh. Working on a new method for clinically trialling new drugs with lung disease patients, which could lead to much faster and cheaper results.
The VIVO Hub for Enhanced Independent Living – led by University of Bristol. Developing wearable technologies to help people with age-related mobility issues manage health conditions that impair their mobility.
National Hub for Advanced Long-acting Therapeutics (HALo) – led by University of Liverpool. Looking into the potential of Long-Acting Therapeutics, drugs where the patient only needs to take one dose, which could then last for weeks or even months, rather than having to take doses daily or multiple times daily (which can become a burden, and lead to missed doses and subsequent complications).
The winners of the £11 million NIHR i4i Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation funding call are:
Professor George Hanna, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
PANACEA: PAN Alimentary Cancer Exhaled breath Analysis
Researching the accuracy of a new breath test for multiple gastrointestinal cancers (oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, liver and colorectal) as well as studying how to introduce it into primary care.
Dr Carlos Arteta Montilva, Optellum Ltd
CLEAREST: Clinical evaluation of lung cancer detection and diagnosis software
Studying how artificial intelligence (AI) software could help medical imaging experts to find suspicious ‘spots’ in the lungs and assist them in deciding if they could be early lung cancer.
Professor Ros Eeles, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Integration of the PRODICT TM test into the cancer risk pathway
Evaluating a genetic test to identify people at risk of developing cancer, to find out how it can be integrated into the NHS.
Dr Andrew Shapanis, Professor Paul Skipp, XGENERA Ltd
miONCO-Dx: A novel multi cancer early diagnostic test
Improving the efficiency and evaluating the performance of a new cancer blood test for use as a screening tool.
Professor Andrew Davies, University of Southampton, and Dr Emma Yates, Proteotype Diagnostics Ltd
Cost-effective multi-cancer early detection by measuring patient plasma amino acid cross sections with the Enlighten test
Testing how a new type of multi cancer early detection test performs in an NHS context. Researchers will also plan for how the test could be used within deprived communities.
Professor Brendan Delaney, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Artificial Intelligence to support cancer early diagnosis in general practice. (AI-DIP)
Developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistant to improve the early diagnosis of cancer in general practice, using pancreatic and lung cancer as case studies.
The second round of winners of Innovate UK’s £4 million Advancing Precision Medicine funding call are:
AI-VISION: An observational study validating a predictive algorithm integrating multi-modal data for patient prognostication and treatment stratification in triple negative breast cancer
Project lead: Concr Ltd
Project partner: Durham University; Institute of Cancer Research
AIPIR – Development of an advanced AI proteomic platform to identify, track and predict host response to solid tumour immunotherapies
Project lead: Eliptica Limited
Project partner: University of Edinburgh
ST TCR – Unlocking the discovery of novel shared targets and T-cell receptors for precision cancer therapies
Project lead: Exogene Limited
Project partner: Outsee Limited
End-to end AI-assisted workflow for prostate-specific membrane antigen PET/CT reporting
Project lead: Mirada Medical Limited
Project partners: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Bristol
Revolutionising breast cancer prognosis with OncoSignatur: an innovative, cost-effective qPCR profiling test for improved, personalised patient pathways
Project lead: Signatur Biosciences Ltd
Project partner: University of Oxford
AI digital diagnostics platform to streamline the diagnosis of blood cancers
Project lead: Spotlight Pathology Ltd
Project partner: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Over the nearly five years since COVID first emerged, you’d be forgiven if you’ve lost track of the number of new variants we’ve seen. Some have had a bigger impact than others, but virologists have documented thousands.
The latest variant to make headlines is called XEC. This omicron subvariant has been reported predominantly in the northern hemisphere, but it has now been detected in Australia too.
So what do we know about XEC?
Is COVID still a thing?
People are now testing for COVID less and reporting it less. Enthusiasm to track the virus is generally waning.
Nonetheless, Australia is still collecting and reporting COVID data. Although the number of cases is likely to be much higher than the number documented (around 275,000 so far this year), we can still get some idea of when we’re seeing significant waves, compared to periods of lower activity.
Australia saw its last COVID peak in June 2024. Since then cases have been on the decline.
But SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, is definitely still around.
Which variants are circulating now?
The main COVID variants circulating currently around the world include BA.2.86, JN.1, KP.2, KP.3 and XEC. These are all descendants of omicron.
The XEC variant was first detected in Italy in May 2024. The World Health Organization (WHO) designated it as a variant “under monitoring” in September.
Since its detection, XEC has spread to more than 27 countries across Europe, North America and Asia. As of mid-September, the highest numbers of cases have been identified in countries including the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Denmark.
Although XEC remains a minority variant globally, it appears to have a growth advantage over other circulating variants. We don’t know why yet, but reports suggest it may be able to spread more easily than other variants.
For this reason, it’s predicted XEC could become the dominant variant worldwide in the coming months.
In Australia, 329 SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected from August 26 to September 22 have been uploaded to AusTrakka, Australia’s national genomics surveillance platform for COVID.
The majority of sequences (301 out of 329, or 91.5%) were sub-lineages of JN.1, including KP.2 (17 out of 301) and KP.3 (236 out of 301). The remaining 8.5% (28 out of 329) were recombinants consisting of one or more omicron sub-lineages, including XEC.
Estimates based on data from GISAID, an international repository of viral sequences, suggests XEC is making up around 5% of cases in Australia, or 16 of 314 samples sequenced.
Queensland reported the highest rates in the past 30 days (8%, or eight of 96 sequences), followed by South Australia (5%, or five out of 93), Victoria (5%, or one of 20) and New South Wales (3%, or two of 71). WA recorded zero sequences out of 34. No data were available for other states and territories.
What do we know about XEC? What is a recombinant?
The XEC variant is believed to be a recombinant descendant of two previously identified omicron subvariants, KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. Recombinant variants form when two different variants infect a host at the same time, which allows the viruses to switch genetic information. This leads to the emergence of a new variant with characteristics from both “parent” lineages.
KS.1.1 is one of the group commonly known as “FLiRT” variants, while, KP.3.3 is one of the “FLuQE” variants. Both of these variant groups have contributed to recent surges in COVID infections around the world.
The WHO’s naming conventions for new COVID variants often use a combination of letters to denote new variants, particularly those that arise from recombination events among existing lineages. The “X” typically indicates a recombinant variant (as with XBB, for example), while the letters following it identify specific lineages.
We know very little so far about XEC’s characteristics specifically, and how it differs from other variants. But there’s no evidence to suggest symptoms will be more severe than with earlier versions of the virus.
What we do know is what mutations this variant has. In the S gene that encodes for the spike protein we can find a T22N mutation (inherited from KS.1.1) as well as Q493E (from KP.3.3) and other mutations
known to the omicron lineage.
Will vaccines still work well against XEC?
The most recent surveillance data doesn’t show any significant increase in COVID hospitalisations. This suggests the current vaccines still provide effective protection against severe outcomes from circulating variants.
As the virus continues to mutate, vaccine companies will continue to update their vaccines. Both Pfizer and Moderna have updated vaccines to target the JN.1 variant, which is a parent strain of the FLiRT variants and therefore should protect against XEC.
However, Australia is still waiting to hear which vaccines may become available to the public and when.
In the meantime, omicron-based vaccines such as the the current XBB.1.5 spikevax (Moderna) or COMIRNATY (Pfizer) are still likely to provide good protection from XEC.
It’s hard to predict how XEC will behave in Australia as we head into summer. We’ll need more research to understand more about this variant as it spreads. But given XEC was first detected in Europe during the northern hemisphere’s summer months, this suggests XEC might be well suited to spreading in warmer weather.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
LOS ANGELES – Federal and local law enforcement have arrested 42 members and associates of the SFV Peckerwoods, a San Fernando Valley-based white supremacist street gang, on a 76-count federal grand jury indictment alleging they engaged in a years-long pattern of racketeering activity that included trafficking of drugs – including fentanyl – illegal firearms possession, and COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud, the Justice Department announced today.
The indictment unsealed today charges a total of 68 defendants with a score of federal crimes: conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
The 29 defendants arrested today are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Prior to today’s takedown, 13 defendants were already in custody.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to the indictment.
“The Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”
“The Justice Department has dealt a decisive blow to the San Fernando Valley (SFV) Peckerwoods, a violent white supremacist gang that we charge is responsible for trafficking deadly fentanyl and other drugs, committing robberies, and perpetrating financial fraud to fund both their criminal enterprise and that of the Aryan Brotherhood,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “With today’s charges and arrests, the Justice Department, together with our state, local, and federal partners has targeted the heart of this gang’s operations, and we will continue to zero in on the criminal enterprises that endanger our communities.”
“This operation, led by our Joint Terrorism Task Force, disrupted a racially motivated violent extremist group who engaged in a wide range of criminal activity,” said Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. “This case strikes at the heart of our collective mission to rid our communities of the corrosive elements that fuel violence and extremism that greatly impact our way of life. The FBI, along with our federal, state, and local partners, remains strongly committed to working every day to make sure the people of the Southland remain safe.”
“The San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, the Aryan Brotherhood and their associates are fused by one thing: hatred,” Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Los Angeles Field Division. “It appears, however, that the business of hate was not enough for them. Driven by greed, they engaged in other crimes, including drug distribution, pushing out deadly fentanyl onto our streets. Operating from corners of the San Fernando Valley, they conducted their crimes within and beyond the 8-1-8 community. Today’s large-scale indictments and arrests reflect our relentless commitment to dismantling criminal organizations that continue to harm our communities.”
According to the indictment that a grand jury returned on September 26, the Peckerwoods is a street gang based in communities in the San Fernando Valley whose members engage in a wide variety of criminal activity, including drug trafficking, violent crime, and fraud. As a white supremacist gang, the Peckerwoods at times takes orders from the Aryan Brotherhood, California’s dominant prison-based white supremacist gang, and maintains an alliance with the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which controls most Latino street gangs in California. The Peckerwoods use Nazi tattoos, graffiti, and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology. These tattoos and iconography include swastikas, the symbol “88”, used by violent white supremacy extremists as code for “Heil Hitler,” and images of Nazi aircraft.
Members and associates of the gang used social media to share information with each other about their criminal activities and gang rules, to identify gang members in good standing, and to target people who broke the gang’s rules. The social media use included a members-only Facebook group and private, direct messages between the gang’s members and associates.
From at least December 2016 to September 2024, Peckerwoods members conducted and participated in the affairs of their criminal enterprise by engaging in violence and threats of violence to preserve and expand the gang’s criminal operations, which promoted a climate of fear. Members and associates of the gang illegally maintained firearms and ammunition in furtherance of these aims.
To generate revenue for the gang, its members trafficked narcotics, including fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. Specifically, lead defendant Claire Patricia Haviland, 62, of Chatsworth, and co-defendants Brian Glenn Ekelund, 53, of Chatsworth, and Brianne Brewer, 38, of North Hollywood, maintained and oversaw drug stash houses where large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs were stored prior to distribution. Haviland and Ekelund allegedly mailed illegal drugs to customers and used applications such as Zelle and CashApp to receive money from drug buyers and send money to their drug sources.
They also generated revenue via robberies and financial fraud and participated in identity theft schemes. For example, from at least March 2021 to July 2023, defendants Sean Craig Gluckman, 35, of Encino, Maria Anna James, 30, of Canyon Country, and others submitted false and fraudulent applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was designed to aid businesses harmed by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The defendants – posing as sole proprietors – signed fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of individuals incarcerated in California state prisons and collected a portion of the fraudulently obtained proceeds from co-conspirators as payment for their assistance.
Gluckman in April 2021 submitted an application that falsely stated he was a self-employed “artist/writer” with a gross income of nearly $250,000. Later that month, he obtained a PPP loan in the amount of $20,833. In a separate scheme, Gluckman submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) applications in the names of other people to the California Employment Development Department (EDD) to fraudulently obtain jobless benefits.
“The proliferation of gang related organized crime deteriorates the core of our society,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Dominic Choi. “Taking guns out of the hands of gang members and drugs from our streets is just one more step towards reducing this deterioration. Today is yet another example of how local, regional, and federal law enforcement, with a matched dedication, are working together to investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminals.”
“When criminal organizations cross jurisdictional lines, it makes conducting investigations and subsequent prosecutions much more difficult,” said Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff. “Having our federal law enforcement partners involvement in such cases greatly enhances our ability to protect not only the citizens of our county, but also those of our region of the state.”
“The DOL-OIG will continue to allocate investigative resources to support our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners in the fight against organized crime, particularly when it involves matters within our jurisdiction,” said Quentin Heiden, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General’s Western Region. “This investigation reinforces our commitment to protecting the integrity of the nation’s unemployment system.”
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office are investigating this matter. Other law enforcement agencies that assisted in today’s takedown are the Simi Valley Police Department; California Highway Patrol; the Glendale Police Department; the Burbank Police Department; the Redondo Beach Police Department; the Beverly Hills Police Department; the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; the United States Marshals Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police; the United States Department of Labor; the Federal Bureau of Prisons; the Los Angeles County Probation Department; the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services; the Pasadena Fire Department; United States Customs and Border Protection; and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys Reema M. El-Amamy of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Jeremiah M. Levine of the Violent and Organized Crime Section, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Central and Eastern Districts of California to jointly head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Shell plc Announces Final Results of Exchange Offers
Shell plc (“Shell”) (LSE: SHEL) (NYSE: SHEL) (EAX: SHELL) today announced the final results of its previously announced offers to exchange (the “Exchange Offers” and each, an “Exchange Offer”) up to a maximum aggregate principal amount of $12 billion (the “Maximum Amount”) of any and all validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted notes of twelve series issued by Shell International Finance B.V. (“Shell International Finance” and such notes, the “Old Notes”) for a combination of cash and a corresponding series of new notes to be issued by Shell Finance US Inc. (“Shell Finance US”) and fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Shell plc (the “New Notes”). A Registration Statement on Form F-4 (File Nos. 333-281941 and 333-281941-01) (the “Registration Statement”), including a prospectus, dated September 19, 2024 (the “Prospectus”), relating to the issuance of the New Notes was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and was declared effective by the SEC on September 30, 2024.
As announced on September 5, 2024, Shell is conducting the Exchange Offers to migrate the existing Old Notes from Shell International Finance B.V. to Shell Finance US Inc. in order to optimize the Shell Group’s capital structure and align indebtedness with its U.S. business.
The total aggregate principal amount of Old Notes that were validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for exchange in the Exchange Offers was $11,462,980,000. The aggregate principal amount of each series of Old Notes that was accepted for exchange was based on the order of acceptance priority for such series as set forth in the table below (the “Acceptance Priority Levels”), with Acceptance Priority Level 1 being the highest and Acceptance Priority Level 12 being the lowest, subject to the applicable Minimum Size Condition and the Maximum Amount Condition (each as described in the Prospectus). Because the total aggregate principal amount of Old Notes that were validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on October 3, 2024 (the “Expiration Time”) exceeded the Maximum Amount, we did not accept for exchange all such Old Notes and only accepted for exchange those Old Notes as set forth in the table below under the heading “Aggregate Principal Amount Accepted.” All Old Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) as of the Expiration Time in Acceptance Priority Levels 1 through 8 satisfied the applicable Minimum Size Condition and the Maximum Amount Condition and were accepted for exchange. No Old Notes tendered in Acceptance Priority Levels 9 through 12 were accepted for exchange.
The following table, based on information provided by D.F. King & Co. Inc., the exchange agent and information agent for the Exchange Offers, indicates, among other things, the total aggregate principal amount of Old Notes and the aggregate principal amount of each series of Old Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for exchange in the Exchange Offers.
Series of Old Notes Offered for Exchange
Old CUSIP/ISIN No.
Acceptance Priority Level
Aggregate Principal Amount Outstanding ($MM)
Aggregate Principal Amount Tendered
Aggregate Principal Amount Accepted
New CUSIP/ISIN No.
4.375% Guaranteed Notes due 2045
822582BF8/
US822582BF88
1
$3,000
$2,446,755,000
$2,446,755,000
822905AA3 / US822905AA35
2.750% Guaranteed Notes due 2030
822582CG5/
US822582CG52
2
$1,750
$1,355,391,000
$1,355,391,000
822905AB1 / US822905AB18
4.125% Guaranteed Notes due 2035
822582BE1/
US822582BE14
3
$1,500
$1,192,346,000
$1,192,346,000
822905AC9 / US822905AC90
4.550% Guaranteed Notes due 2043
822582AY8/
US822582AY86
4
$1,250
$960,281,000
$960,281,000
822905AD7 / US822905AD73
4.000% Guaranteed Notes due 2046
822582BQ4/
US822582BQ44
5
$2,250
$1,764,084,000
$1,764,084,000
822905AE5 / US822905AE56
2.375% Guaranteed Notes due 2029
822582CD2/
US822582CD22
6
$1,500
$1,075,279,000
$1,075,279,000
822905AF2 / US822905AF22
3.250% Guaranteed Notes due 2050
822582CH3/
US822582CH36
7
$2,000
$1,664,464,000
$1,664,464,000
822905AG0 / US822905AG05
3.750% Guaranteed Notes due 2046
822582BY7/
US822582BY77
8
$1,250
$1,004,380,000
$1,004,380,000
822905AH8 / US822905AH87
3.125% Guaranteed Notes due 2049
822582CE0/
US822582CE05
9
$1,250
$1,037,100,000
$0
—
3.000% Guaranteed Notes due 2051
822582CL4/
US822582CL48
10
$1,000
$888,919,000
$0
—
2.875% Guaranteed Notes due 2026
822582BT8/
US822582BT82
11
$1,750
$987,472,000
$0
—
2.500% Guaranteed Notes due 2026
822582BX9/
US822582BX94
12
$1,000
$622,831,000
$0
—
Total amount tendered and accepted in the Exchange Offers
$11,462,980,000
Settlement and issuance of the New Notes to be issued in exchange for Old Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for exchange is expected to occur on October 8, 2024.
The exchange agent and information agent for the Exchange Offers was:
D.F. King & Co., Inc.
48 Wall Street, 22nd Floor New York, NY 10005 Banks and Brokers call: +1 (212) 269-5550 Toll-free (U.S. only): +1 (877) 783-5524 Email: Shell@dfking.com By Facsimile (for eligible institutions only): +1 (212) 709-3328 Confirmation: +1 (212) 269-5552 Attention: Michael Horthman Website: http://www.dfking.com/shell
This press release is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein. The Exchange Offers were made solely pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Prospectus, which forms a part of the Registration Statement.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities nor will there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.
Non-U.S. Distribution Restrictions
European Economic Area
The New Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the European Economic Area (“EEA”). For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, “MiFID II”); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive 2002/92/EC (as amended, the “Insurance Mediation Directive”), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II; or (iii) not a qualified investor as defined in Directive 2003/71/EC (as amended, the “Prospectus Directive”). Consequently no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (as amended, the “PRIIPs Regulation”) for offering or selling the New Notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the EEA has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the New Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. The Prospectus has been prepared on the basis that any offer of New Notes in any Member State of the EEA will be made pursuant to an exemption under the Prospectus Directive from the requirement to publish a prospectus for offers of New Notes. The Prospectus is not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Directive.
MiFID II product governance / Professional investors and ECPs only target market—In the EEA and solely for the purposes of the product approval process conducted by any Dealer Manager who is a manufacturer with respect to the New Notes for the purposes of the MiFID II product governance rule under EU Delegated Directive 2017/593 (each, a “manufacturer”), the manufacturers’ target market assessment in respect of the New Notes has led to the conclusion that: (i) the target market for the New Notes is eligible counterparties and professional clients only, each as defined in MiFID II; and (ii) all channels for distribution of the New Notes to eligible counterparties and professional clients are appropriate. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the New Notes (a “distributor”) should take into consideration the manufacturers’ target market assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the New Notes (by either adopting or refining the manufacturers’ target market assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels.
Belgium
Neither the Prospectus nor any other documents or materials relating to the Exchange Offers have been submitted to or will be submitted for approval or recognition to the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (“Autorité des services et marchés financiers”/”Autoriteit voor Financiële Diensten en Markten”). The Exchange Offers are not being, and may not be, made in Belgium by way of a public offering, as defined in Articles 3, §1, 1° and 6, §1 of the Belgian Law of April 1, 2007 on public takeover bids (“loi relative aux offres publiques d’acquisition”/”wet op de openbare overnamebiedingen”) (the “Belgian Takeover Law”) or as defined in Article 3, §1 of the Belgian Law of June 16, 2006 on the public offer of investment instruments and the admission to trading of investment instruments on a regulated market (“loi relative aux offres publiques d’instruments de placement et aux admissions d’instruments de placement à la négociation sur des marchés réglementés”/”wet op de openbare aanbieding van beleggingsinstrumenten en de toelating van beleggingsinstrumenten tot de verhandeling op een gereglementeerde markt”) (the “Belgian Prospectus Law”), both as amended or replaced from time to time. Accordingly, the Exchange Offers may not be, and are not being, advertised and the Exchange Offers will not be extended, and neither the Prospectus nor any other documents or materials relating to the Exchange Offers (including any memorandum, information circular, brochure or any similar documents) has been or shall be distributed or made available, directly or indirectly, to any person in Belgium other than (i) to persons which are “qualified investors” (“investisseurs qualifiés”/”gekwalificeerde beleggers”) as defined in Article 10, §1 of the Belgian Prospectus Law, acting on their own account, as referred to in Article 6, §3 of the Belgian Takeover Law or (ii) in any other circumstances set out in Article 6, §4 of the Belgian Takeover Law and Article 3, §4 of the Belgian Prospectus Law. The Prospectus has been issued only for the personal use of the above qualified investors and exclusively for the purpose of the Exchange Offers. Accordingly, the information contained in the Prospectus or in any other documents or materials relating to the Exchange Offers may not be used for any other purpose or disclosed or distributed to any other person in Belgium.
France
The Exchange Offers are not being made, directly or indirectly, to the public in the Republic of France. Neither the Prospectus nor any other documents or materials relating to the Exchange Offers have been or shall be distributed to the public in France and only (i) providers of investment services relating to portfolio management for the account of third parties (“personnes fournissant le service d’investissement de gestion de portefeuille pour compte de tiers”) and/or (ii) qualified investors (“investisseurs qualifiés”) other than individuals, in each case acting on their own account and all as defined in, and in accordance with, Articles L.411-1, L.411-2, D.321-1 and D.411-1 of the French Code Monétaire et Financier, are eligible to participate in the Exchange Offers. The Prospectus and any other document or material relating to the Exchange Offers have not been and will not be submitted for clearance to nor approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers.
Italy
None of the Exchange Offers, the Prospectus or any other documents or materials relating to the Exchange Offers or the New Notes have been or will be submitted to the clearance procedure of the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (“CONSOB”). The Exchange Offers are being carried out in the Republic of Italy as exempted offers pursuant to article 101-bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998, as amended (the “Financial Services Act”) and article 35-bis, paragraph 3, of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of 14 May 1999, as amended (the “Issuers’ Regulation”) and, therefore, are intended for, and directed only at, qualified investors (investitori qualificati) (the “Italian Qualified Investors”), as defined pursuant to Article 100, paragraph 1, letter (a) of the Financial Services Act and Article 34-ter, paragraph 1, letter (b) of the Issuers’ Regulation. Accordingly, the Exchange Offers cannot be promoted, nor may copies of any document related thereto or to the New Notes be distributed, mailed or otherwise forwarded, or sent, to the public in Italy, whether by mail or by any means or other instrument (including, without limitation, telephonically or electronically) or any facility of a national securities exchange available in Italy, other than to Italian Qualified Investors. Persons receiving the Prospectus must not forward, distribute or send it in or into or from Italy. Noteholders or beneficial owners of the Old Notes that are resident or located in Italy can offer to exchange the notes pursuant to the Exchange Offers through authorized persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 16190 of 29 October 2007, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1 September 1993, as amended) and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority. Each intermediary must comply with the applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-à-vis its clients in connection with the Old Notes, the New Notes, the Exchange Offers or the Prospectus.
United Kingdom
Each dealer manager has further represented and agreed that:
it has complied and will comply with all the applicable provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the “FSMA”) with respect to anything done by it in relation to the New Notes in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”); and it has only communicated or caused to be communicated and will only communicate or cause to be communicated an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the FSMA) received by it in connection with the issue or sale of any New Notes in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply to Shell Finance US or Shell.
The Prospectus is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the U.K. or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the “Order”) or (iii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). The New Notes are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire the New Notes will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents.
Hong Kong
The New Notes may not be offered or sold by means of any document other than (i) in circumstances which do not constitute an offer to the public within the meaning of the Companies Ordinance (Cap.32, Laws of Hong Kong), or (ii) to “professional investors” within the meaning of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap.571, Laws of Hong Kong) and any rules made thereunder, or (iii) in other circumstances which do not result in the document being a “prospectus” within the meaning of the Companies Ordinance (Cap.32, Laws of Hong Kong), and no advertisement, invitation or document relating to the New Notes may be issued or may be in the possession of any person for the purpose of issue (in each case whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere), which is directed at, or the contents of which are likely to be accessed or read by, the public in Hong Kong (except if permitted to do so under the laws of Hong Kong) other than with respect to New Notes which are or are intended to be disposed of only to persons outside Hong Kong or only to “professional investors” within the meaning of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571, Laws of Hong Kong) and any rules made thereunder.
Japan
The New Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law of Japan (the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Law”) and each underwriter has agreed that it will not offer or sell any New Notes, directly or indirectly, in Japan or to, or for the benefit of, any resident of Japan (which term as used herein means any person resident in Japan, including any corporation or other entity organized under the laws of Japan), or to others for re-offering or resale, directly or indirectly, in Japan or to a resident of Japan, except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of, and otherwise in compliance with, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law and any other applicable laws, regulations and ministerial guidelines of Japan.
Singapore
The Prospectus has not been registered as a prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Accordingly, and if the Issuer has not notified the dealer(s) on the classification of the New Notes under and pursuant to Section 309(B)(1) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 Singapore (the “SFA”), the Prospectus and any other document or material in connection with the offer or sale, or invitation for subscription or purchase, of the New Notes may not be circulated or distributed, nor may the New Notes be offered or sold, or be made the subject of an invitation for subscription or purchase, whether directly or indirectly, to persons in Singapore other than (i) to an institutional investor under Section 274 of Chapter 289 of the SFA, (ii) to a relevant person, or any person pursuant to Section 275(1A), and in accordance with the conditions, specified in Section 275 of the SFA or (iii) otherwise pursuant to, and in accordance with the conditions of, any other applicable provision of the SFA.
Where the New Notes are subscribed or purchased under Section 275 of the SFA by a relevant person which is: (a) a corporation (which is not an accredited investor) the sole business of which is to hold investments and the entire share capital of which is owned by one or more individuals, each of whom is an accredited investor; or (b) a trust (where the trustee is not an accredited investor) whose sole purpose is to hold investments and each beneficiary is an accredited investor, shares, debentures and units of shares and debentures of that corporation or the beneficiaries’ rights and interest in that trust shall not be transferable for six months after that corporation or that trust has acquired the New Notes under Section 275 except: (1) to an institutional investor under Section 274 of the SFA or to a relevant person, or any person pursuant to Section 275(1A), and in accordance with the conditions, specified in Section 275 of the SFA; (2) where no consideration is given for the transfer; or (3) by operation of law.
Singapore Securities and Futures Act Product Classification—Solely for the purposes of its obligations pursuant to sections 309B(1)(a) and 309B(1)(c) of the SFA, the Issuer has determined, and hereby notifies all relevant persons (as defined in Section 309A of the SFA) that the New Notes are “prescribed capital markets products” (as defined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018) and Excluded Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of Investment Products and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).
Contacts:
Media: International +44 (0) 207 934 5550; USA +1 832 337 4355
Cautionary Statement
The companies in which Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this press release, “Shell” refers to Shell plc; “Shell Group” refers to Shell and its subsidiaries; “Shell Finance US” or “Issuer” refers to Shell Finance US Inc.; “Shell International Finance” refers to Shell International Finance B.V.; the terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Shell or the Shell Group, as the context may require.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of the Shell Group to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “aim”; “ambition”; ‘‘anticipate’’; ‘‘believe’’; “commit”; “commitment”; ‘‘could’’; ‘‘estimate’’; ‘‘expect’’; ‘‘goals’’; ‘‘intend’’; ‘‘may’’; “milestones”; ‘‘objectives’’; ‘‘outlook’’; ‘‘plan’’; ‘‘probably’’; ‘‘project’’; ‘‘risks’’; “schedule”; ‘‘seek’’; ‘‘should’’; ‘‘target’’; ‘‘will’’; “would” and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of the Shell Group and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release (without limitation):
price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas;
changes in demand for the Shell Group’s products;
currency fluctuations;
drilling and production results;
reserves estimates;
loss of market share and industry competition;
environmental and physical risks;
risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions;
the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions;
legislative, judicial, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change;
economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions;
political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs;
risks associated with the impact of pandemics, such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, regional conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, and a significant cybersecurity breach; and
changes in trading conditions.
All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Shell’s Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023 (available at http://www.shell.com/investors/news-and-filings/sec-filings.html and
These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this press release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, October 4, 2024. Neither Shell nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
The contents of websites referred to in this press release do not form part of this content.
Readers are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.
Federal and local law enforcement today arrested 42 members and associates of the SFV Peckerwoods, a San Fernando Valley, California-based white supremacist street gang, on a 76-count federal grand jury indictment alleging they engaged in a years-long pattern of racketeering activity that included trafficking of drugs — including fentanyl — illegal firearms possession, and COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud.
“The Justice Department has dealt a decisive blow to the San Fernando Valley (SFV) Peckerwoods, a violent white supremacist gang that we charge is responsible for trafficking deadly fentanyl and other drugs, committing robberies, and perpetrating financial fraud to fund both their criminal enterprise and that of the Aryan Brotherhood,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “With today’s charges and arrests, the Justice Department, together with our state, local, and federal partners has targeted the heart of this gang’s operations, and we will continue to zero in on the criminal enterprises that endanger our communities.”
The indictment unsealed today charges a total of 68 defendants with a score of federal crimes: conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
The defendants arrested today are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to the indictment.
“The Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”
“This operation, led by our Joint Terrorism Task Force, disrupted a racially motivated violent extremist group who engaged in a wide range of criminal activity,” said Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. “This case strikes at the heart of our collective mission to rid our communities of the corrosive elements that fuel violence and extremism that greatly impact our way of life. The FBI, along with our federal, state, and local partners, remains strongly committed to working every day to make sure the people of the Southland remain safe.”
“The San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, the Aryan Brotherhood, and their associates are fused by one thing: hatred,” said Special Agent in Charge Matthew Allen of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division. “It appears, however, that the business of hate was not enough for them. Driven by greed, they engaged in other crimes, including drug distribution, pushing out deadly fentanyl onto our streets. Operating from corners of the San Fernando Valley, they conducted their crimes within and beyond the 8-1-8 community. Today’s large-scale indictments and arrests reflect our relentless commitment to dismantling criminal organizations that continue to harm our communities.”
According to the indictment that a grand jury returned on Sept. 26, the Peckerwoods is a street gang based in communities in the San Fernando Valley whose members engage in a wide variety of criminal activity, including drug trafficking, violent crime, and fraud. As a white supremacist gang, the Peckerwoods at times takes orders from the Aryan Brotherhood, California’s dominant prison-based white supremacist gang, and maintains an alliance with the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which controls most Latino street gangs in California. The Peckerwoods use Nazi tattoos, graffiti, and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology. These tattoos and iconography include swastikas, the symbol “88”, used by violent white supremacy extremists as code for “Heil Hitler”, and images of Nazi aircraft.
Members and associates of the gang used social media to share information with each other about their criminal activities and gang rules, to identify gang members in good standing, and to target people who broke the gang’s rules. The social media use included a members-only Facebook group and private, direct messages between the gang’s members and associates.
From at least December 2016 to September, Peckerwoods members conducted and participated in the affairs of their criminal enterprise by engaging in violence and threats of violence to preserve and expand the gang’s criminal operations, which promoted a climate of fear. Members and associates of the gang illegally maintained firearms and ammunition in furtherance of these aims.
To generate revenue for the gang, its members trafficked narcotics, including fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. Specifically, lead defendant Claire Patricia Haviland, 62, of Chatsworth, California, and co-defendants Brian Glenn Ekelund, 53, of Chatsworth, and Brianne Brewer, 38, of North Hollywood, California, maintained and oversaw drug stash houses where large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs were stored prior to distribution. Haviland and Ekelund allegedly mailed illegal drugs to customers and used applications such as Zelle and CashApp to receive money from drug buyers and send money to their drug sources.
They also generated revenue via robberies and financial fraud and participated in identity theft schemes. For example, from at least March 2021 to July 2023, defendants Sean Craig Gluckman, 35, of Encino, California; Maria Anna James, 30, of Canyon Country, California; and others submitted false and fraudulent applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was designed to aid businesses harmed by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The defendants – posing as sole proprietors – signed fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of individuals incarcerated in California state prisons and collected a portion of the fraudulently obtained proceeds from co-conspirators as payment for their assistance.
In April 2021, Gluckman submitted an application that falsely stated he was a self-employed “artist/writer” with a gross income of nearly $250,000. Later that month, he obtained a PPP loan in the amount of $20,833. In a separate scheme, Gluckman submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) applications in the names of other people to the California Employment Development Department (EDD) to fraudulently obtain jobless benefits.
“The proliferation of gang related organized crime deteriorates the core of our society,” said Chief Dominic Choi of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Taking guns out of the hands of gang members and drugs from our streets is just one more step towards reducing this deterioration. Today is yet another example of how local, regional, and federal law enforcement, with a matched dedication, are working together to investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminals.”
“When criminal organizations cross jurisdictional lines, it makes conducting investigations and subsequent prosecutions much more difficult,” said Sheriff Jim Fryhoff of the Ventura County, California, Sheriff’s Office. “Having our federal law enforcement partners involvement in such cases greatly enhances our ability to protect not only the citizens of our county, but also those of our region of the state.”
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The FBI, DEA, Los Angeles Police Department, and Ventura County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case. The Simi Valley Police Department; California Highway Patrol; Glendale Police Department; Burbank Police Department; Redondo Beach Police Department; Beverly Hills Police Department; Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; U.S. Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Department of Veterans Affairs Police; Department of Labor; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Los Angeles County Probation Department; Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services; Pasadena Fire Department; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and IRS Criminal Investigation provided assistance in the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Reema M. El-Amamy, Jeremiah M. Levine, and Alexander Su for the Central District of California are prosecuting this case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit http://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
On Sept. 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Central and Eastern Districts of California to jointly head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Justice Department established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at http://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
There’s a common thread linking our experience of pandemics over the past 700 years. From the black death in the 14th century to COVID in the 21st, public health authorities have put emergency measures such as isolation and quarantine in place to stop infectious diseases spreading.
As we know from COVID, these measures upend lives in an effort to save them. In both the recent and distant past they’ve also given rise to collective unrest, confusion and resistance.
So after all this time, what do we know about the role public health communication plays in helping people understand and adhere to protective measures in a crisis? And more importantly, in an age of misinformation and distrust, how can we improve public health messaging for any future pandemics?
Last year, we published a Cochrane review exploring the global evidence on public health communication during COVID and other infectious disease outbreaks including SARS, MERS, influenza and Ebola. Here’s a snapshot of what we found.
A key theme emerging in analysis of the COVID pandemic globally is public trust – or lack thereof – in governments, public institutions and science.
Mounting evidence suggests levels of trust in government were directly proportional to fewer COVID infections and higher vaccination rates across the world. It was a crucial factor in people’s willingness to follow public health directives, and is now a key focus for future pandemic preparedness.
Here in Australia, public trust in governments and health authorities steadily eroded over time.
Initial information from governments and health authorities about the unfolding COVID crisis, personal risk and mandated protective measures was generally clear and consistent across the country. The establishment of the National Cabinet in 2020 signalled a commitment from state, territory and federal governments to consensus-based policy and public health messaging.
During this early phase of relative unity, Australians reported higher levels of belonging and trust in government.
When state, territory and federal governments have conflicting policies on protective measures, people are easily confused, lose trust and become harder to engage with or persuade. Many tune out from partisan politics. Adherence to mandated public health measures falls.
Our research found clarity and consistency of information were key features of effective public health communication throughout the COVID pandemic.
We also found public health communication is most effective when authorities work in partnership with different target audiences. In Victoria, the case brought against the state government for the snap public housing tower lockdowns is a cautionary tale underscoring how essential considered, tailored and two-way communication is with diverse communities.
The much-touted “miracle” drug ivermectin typifies the extraordinary traction unproven treatments gained locally and globally. Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug, lacking evidence for viruses like COVID.
Australia’s drug regulator was forced to ban ivermectin presciptions for anything other than its intended use after a sharp increase in people seeking the drug sparked national shortages. Hospitals also reported patients overdosing on ivermectin and cocktails of COVID “cures” promoted online.
The Lancet Commission on lessons from the COVID pandemic has called for a coordinated international response to countering misinformation.
As part of this, it has called for more accessible, accurate information and investment in scientific literacy to protect against misinformation, including that shared across social media platforms. The World Health Organization is developing resources and recommendations for health authorities to address this “infodemic”.
National efforts to directly tackle misinformation are vital, in combination with concerted efforts to raise health literacy. The Australian Medical Association has called on the federal government to invest in long-term online advertising to counter health misinformation and boost health literacy.
People of all ages need to be equipped to think critically about who and where their health information comes from. With the rise of AI, this is an increasingly urgent priority.
Australian health ministers recently reaffirmed their commitment to the new Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
From a science communications perspective, the Australian CDC could provide an independent voice of evidence and consensus-based information. This is exactly what’s needed during a pandemic. But full details about the CDC’s funding and remit have been the subject of some conjecture.
Many of our key findings on effective public health communication during COVID are not new or surprising. They reinforce what we know works from previous disease outbreaks across different places and points in time: tailored, timely, clear, consistent and accurate information.
The rapid rise, reach and influence of misinformation and distrust in public authorities bring a new level of complexity to this picture. Countering both must become a central focus of all public health crisis communication, now and in the future.
This article is part of a series on the next pandemic.
Rebecca Ryan receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council through funding to Australian Cochrane entities, and was previously commissioned by the World Health Organization to undertake a rapid evidence review on communication for COVID-19 prevention and control (2020).
Shauna Hurley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In recent months, many Canadian employers in both the public and private sectors have implemented return-to-office mandates, requiring workers that transitioned to remote or hybrid work during the COVID-19 pandemic to work in-person again.
Employers are justifying these mandates by arguing they improve productivity, build more collaborative teams and improve mentorship for junior employees.
Employers are not the only group ecstatic about these mandates. Municipalities and business owners are also expressing hope that the presence of office workers will spin off into greater consumer spending at restaurants and other businesses near office buildings. The expectation is that office workers will once again start spending money on coffee, lunch or after-work beverages.
Our recent study investigated which operational, demographic and land use factors affected restaurant survival during the first year of the pandemic in London, Ont.
We found no significant differences between restaurants that failed and restaurants that survived based on proximity to office uses. Instead, operational decisions made by restaurants individually were much more predictive of their survival than any geographic factor, including the presence of offices.
Restaurants are seen along Richmond Street in downtown London, Ontario, in June 2021. (Alexander Wray), CC BY-NC-SA
We found that restaurants located in areas receiving more CERB (Canadian Emergency Response Benefit) payments, and with a higher density of entertainment venues around them, were less likely to survive.
Restaurants that adapted by offering pickup and delivery options were more likely to survive, though only for those that did their own delivery in-house rather than relying on platforms like UberEats and SkipTheDishes. Restaurants that had drive-thrus, held liquor licenses, or had been established for more than five years were more likely to survive. These older, more established restaurants were likely more resilient because of financial stability and customer loyalty.
Table-service restaurants fared better than fast food outlets, likely because they could offer large patio dining spaces during the summer. Restaurants with liquor licenses substantially benefited, especially after a regulatory change by the Ontario government that allowed alcohol sales with takeout and delivery — a first for the province.
In short, restaurant success was driven more by individual business decisions rather than being in a specific location. People working remotely instead of in the office did not significantly affect restaurant survival during the first year of the pandemic.
Downtown struggles
As Canadian downtowns look to recover, many face ongoing challenges. Activity levels are down by about 20 per cent from pre-pandemic levels in many places, lagging behind many similarly sized downtowns in the United States.
While violent incidents are rare, the social incivilities and disorder on display — public urination and defecation, open drug use, visible tents and property crime — contributes to a perception that Canadian downtowns are unsafe. This perception, whether accurate or not, has an impact on the willingness of people to engage with their downtowns.
A way forward
The damage to the reputation of Canada’s downtowns has been done. Downtown London now has the highest office vacancy rate in the country. The Workplace Safety Insurance Board of Ontario, for instance, recently chose to consolidate its offices in the outskirts of London, rather than downtown.
Many people now elect to spend their time and money in areas that have embraced the “experience economy.” These are places that provide highly manicured entertainment and shopping destinations, with restaurants being the bedrock of enabling high quality experiences in these areas.
These are places that are developing highly attractive economies that provide people with the safe, fun and exciting experiences they are looking for locally and internationally. Instead of trying to force unwilling workers back to the office, Canadian cities should instead focus on developing downtowns that people genuinely want to visit and experience.
One potential way to do this is to provide wrap-around support services and direct pathways to stable housing across the entire community, as the City of London has done. By spreading care and outreach services across the entire city, rather than concentrating them exclusively in downtown areas, the negative effects from Canada’s homelessness crisis can be reduced on urban cores.
This type of strategy will direct those who need help away from downtowns, and may even permanently lift them out of poverty. In turn, Canadian downtowns can return to being places for everyone to shop, eat, relax, and work in comfort.
Alexander Wray is President of the Town and Gown Association of Ontario, and a Board Member of Mainstreet London.
Jamie Seabrook, Jason Gilliland, and Sean Doherty do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Federal and local law enforcement today arrested 42 members and associates of the SFV Peckerwoods, a San Fernando Valley, California-based white supremacist street gang, on a 76-count federal grand jury indictment alleging they engaged in a years-long pattern of racketeering activity that included trafficking of drugs — including fentanyl — illegal firearms possession, and COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud.
“The Justice Department has dealt a decisive blow to the San Fernando Valley (SFV) Peckerwoods, a violent white supremacist gang that we charge is responsible for trafficking deadly fentanyl and other drugs, committing robberies, and perpetrating financial fraud to fund both their criminal enterprise and that of the Aryan Brotherhood,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “With today’s charges and arrests, the Justice Department, together with our state, local, and federal partners has targeted the heart of this gang’s operations, and we will continue to zero in on the criminal enterprises that endanger our communities.”
The indictment unsealed today charges a total of 68 defendants with a score of federal crimes: conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
The defendants arrested today are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to the indictment.
“The Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”
“This operation, led by our Joint Terrorism Task Force, disrupted a racially motivated violent extremist group who engaged in a wide range of criminal activity,” said Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. “This case strikes at the heart of our collective mission to rid our communities of the corrosive elements that fuel violence and extremism that greatly impact our way of life. The FBI, along with our federal, state, and local partners, remains strongly committed to working every day to make sure the people of the Southland remain safe.”
“The San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, the Aryan Brotherhood, and their associates are fused by one thing: hatred,” said Special Agent in Charge Matthew Allen of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division. “It appears, however, that the business of hate was not enough for them. Driven by greed, they engaged in other crimes, including drug distribution, pushing out deadly fentanyl onto our streets. Operating from corners of the San Fernando Valley, they conducted their crimes within and beyond the 8-1-8 community. Today’s large-scale indictments and arrests reflect our relentless commitment to dismantling criminal organizations that continue to harm our communities.”
According to the indictment that a grand jury returned on Sept. 26, the Peckerwoods is a street gang based in communities in the San Fernando Valley whose members engage in a wide variety of criminal activity, including drug trafficking, violent crime, and fraud. As a white supremacist gang, the Peckerwoods at times takes orders from the Aryan Brotherhood, California’s dominant prison-based white supremacist gang, and maintains an alliance with the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which controls most Latino street gangs in California. The Peckerwoods use Nazi tattoos, graffiti, and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology. These tattoos and iconography include swastikas, the symbol “88”, used by violent white supremacy extremists as code for “Heil Hitler”, and images of Nazi aircraft.
Members and associates of the gang used social media to share information with each other about their criminal activities and gang rules, to identify gang members in good standing, and to target people who broke the gang’s rules. The social media use included a members-only Facebook group and private, direct messages between the gang’s members and associates.
From at least December 2016 to September, Peckerwoods members conducted and participated in the affairs of their criminal enterprise by engaging in violence and threats of violence to preserve and expand the gang’s criminal operations, which promoted a climate of fear. Members and associates of the gang illegally maintained firearms and ammunition in furtherance of these aims.
To generate revenue for the gang, its members trafficked narcotics, including fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. Specifically, lead defendant Claire Patricia Haviland, 62, of Chatsworth, California, and co-defendants Brian Glenn Ekelund, 53, of Chatsworth, and Brianne Brewer, 38, of North Hollywood, California, maintained and oversaw drug stash houses where large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs were stored prior to distribution. Haviland and Ekelund allegedly mailed illegal drugs to customers and used applications such as Zelle and CashApp to receive money from drug buyers and send money to their drug sources.
They also generated revenue via robberies and financial fraud and participated in identity theft schemes. For example, from at least March 2021 to July 2023, defendants Sean Craig Gluckman, 35, of Encino, California; Maria Anna James, 30, of Canyon Country, California; and others submitted false and fraudulent applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was designed to aid businesses harmed by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The defendants – posing as sole proprietors – signed fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of individuals incarcerated in California state prisons and collected a portion of the fraudulently obtained proceeds from co-conspirators as payment for their assistance.
In April 2021, Gluckman submitted an application that falsely stated he was a self-employed “artist/writer” with a gross income of nearly $250,000. Later that month, he obtained a PPP loan in the amount of $20,833. In a separate scheme, Gluckman submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) applications in the names of other people to the California Employment Development Department (EDD) to fraudulently obtain jobless benefits.
“The proliferation of gang related organized crime deteriorates the core of our society,” said Chief Dominic Choi of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Taking guns out of the hands of gang members and drugs from our streets is just one more step towards reducing this deterioration. Today is yet another example of how local, regional, and federal law enforcement, with a matched dedication, are working together to investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminals.”
“When criminal organizations cross jurisdictional lines, it makes conducting investigations and subsequent prosecutions much more difficult,” said Sheriff Jim Fryhoff of the Ventura County, California, Sheriff’s Office. “Having our federal law enforcement partners involvement in such cases greatly enhances our ability to protect not only the citizens of our county, but also those of our region of the state.”
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The FBI, DEA, Los Angeles Police Department, and Ventura County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case. The Simi Valley Police Department; California Highway Patrol; Glendale Police Department; Burbank Police Department; Redondo Beach Police Department; Beverly Hills Police Department; Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; U.S. Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Department of Veterans Affairs Police; Department of Labor; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Los Angeles County Probation Department; Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services; Pasadena Fire Department; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and IRS Criminal Investigation provided assistance in the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Reema M. El-Amamy, Jeremiah M. Levine, and Alexander Su for the Central District of California are prosecuting this case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit http://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
On Sept. 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Central and Eastern Districts of California to jointly head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Justice Department established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at http://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
For clarity – I mean all of you from the A List all the way to the C-List.
I am a firm believer that government’s role is to work closely with business: help small ones to innovate, and ensure the settings are right so big ones can thrive.
Governments should invest in research and development to improve access to technology; open opportunities for business on the world stage through trade; and ensure that our investment grows an economy that supports everyone who lives in our great little country to thrive.
I have really enjoyed the past six months, getting out – mostly in Auckland – and sitting down with people across the business sector.
Coming from a niche tax and insurance background, you have all been incredibly generous with your time and I am looking forward to continuing to build our relationships over the next two years of opposition.
When businesses do well, New Zealand does well. Workers do well. New Zealanders do well. You employ people and innovate and create to make people’s lives better.
Labour’s underlying philosophy on work is making sure there are enough jobs for people – you can’t do that without business.
It’s about ensuring people feel secure in their jobs, are able to contribute to their workplace and help build good and successful businesses.
Workers are an asset to any business and shouldn’t be seen as a cost.
If you listened to National, you wouldn’t think that was Labour’s approach.
I am utterly committed to sitting down with you and talking through what works for you and what doesn’t. Dispelling the myths. Understanding what has gone well in the past and what hasn’t.
Something that does concern me is the number of Kiwis choosing to leave New Zealand, and the way the Government’s decisions are giving them an extra push.
6,000 jobs gone in the public sector and counting. Manufacturing jobs disappearing before our eyes. 8,000 fewer people in construction. A freeze on hiring staff at our hospitals. Unemployment up to 4.6 percent, and projected to get to 5.5 percent.
Even through COVID-19, we didn’t see unemployment like this. The forecasts were awful. But keeping people in work, and businesses afloat, was a priority for Labour and I’m really proud of that.
New Zealanders are finding it tough anyway, you all know the statistics. But losing the household income along with the job, can be terrifying.
It’s no wonder so many are looking to greener pastures.
In July this year, a record was set for the number of net New Zealanders leaving. 55,800 Kiwis chose to move away, well exceeding the previous record from way back in 2012.
My concern isn’t only that people are choosing to leave for a better life, it is also the skill loss which will have an effect on our ability to innovate, deliver and grow as a country. It is no surprise that the mood of the boardroom is optimistic, even though the economy is doing it tough.
June 2024 marked the seventh consecutive quarter of stagnant or declining per capita economic activity. We are now very much at the bottom of the economic cycle. Things will get better.
But not because of any action by this government, but from you.
But they will not get better overnight. We know unemployment has some way to go, and there are many, many steps until interest rates are back to a balanced level. But our business community is resilient.
Many of you have made it through the GFC, the Christchurch earthquakes, Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods, and collectively we made it through the COVID-19 pandemic. I know you all just want to get on with it, but also want a vision for what we aspire to be and where we want to get to.
New Zealand faces substantial fiscal challenges over the short and longer-term. Addressing these challenges will require brave decisions that tackle the system we all work in. These are brave decisions that need to be enduring, and that is what Labour does best.
Whether it’s, ensuring Kiwis could retire with dignity by the introduction of KiwiSaver and the SuperFund.
Families could afford the basics and be incentivised to stay in work through Working for Families, or the safety nets introduced by Sir Michael Joseph Savage of state housing and welfare.
And then the list of trade deals UK and EU Free Trade agreements to name a couple, Labour is the party that has always looked ahead to progress our country.
Planning for the future will mean conversations about the appropriate level of government spending and debt.
By 2060, 10% of our GDP will be spent on health care, and 7% on Superannuation.
Returning to surplus is a moot point, if you are not also providing Kiwis with the healthcare they need.
We, as a country, need a government with a positive vision and informed solutions.
Every political party likes to talk about growth and productivity, but you need to back it up.
Often, when thinking about productivity, we focus on cutting-edge tech. And we should. We are seeing the R&D tax credit making a meaningful contribution to research and development.
But we also need back our smaller Kiwi businesses, if we are serious about tackling productivity.
Many of our SMEs are not technologically enabled. They struggle to have time and the capital to make the changes they need.
The Government, along with sector, should be doing more to help.
The Treasury’s Chief Economist came out last week saying “productivity growth alone is not enough to alleviate fiscal pressures”.
We also must realistically assess our economic situation. We are capital poor. We need more sustainable solutions than tinkering around the edges with new levies and revenue-gathering measures.
It’s a conversation our party is having and one I hope many of you can feed into as part of our hui going forward.
Unlike the three-year parliamentary cycle, I know that you have to plan for the future in a much more long-term way. Government’s should do better. I’ve spoken quite a few times about being better at bipartisanship on long-term investment, but we need both parties to come to the table on that!
You will all know better than anyone when looking to the future that there is almost nothing more pressing than preparing for the consequences of climate change.
Two years ago, on this stage, Nicola said that “we share your commitment to emission reduction”. But the governments actions speak differently by rolling back many of the measures Labour introduced to bring down our emissions and prepare for the future.
Many of our free trade agreements have climate obligations, including the EU FTA which “contains ambitious outcomes on climate action and the Paris Agreement, including making these commitments enforceable in the FTA”.
We can’t rely on export driven growth, if this government is risking our export potential.
Climate action is what is required from a moral standpoint and matters for the health of our economy. I do not want our exporters being locked out of markets because of climate-sceptic policies.
I started this speech talking about values. But I will end with a pledge.
I won’t just stand up here and make political promises I don’t intend to work my ass off to keep.
We may not always agree, but I will always take a meeting or a call and I will always listen.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
My dear countrymen, Namaskar. Once again we have the opportunity to connect in Mann Ki Baat. This episode today is going to make me emotional. It’s flooding me with a lot of old memories… The reason is that this journey of ours in Mann Ki Baat is completing 10 years. 10 years ago Mann Ki Baat started on the day of Vijayadashami on the 3rd of October. And what a divine coincidence it is that this year on the 3rd of October when 10 years of Mann Ki Baat are completed, it will be the first day of Navratri. There are many phases in this long journey of Mann Ki Baat that I can never forget. Crores of listeners of Mann Ki Baat have been our companions in this journey, whose continuous support I have kept receiving. They provided information from every corner of the country.
The listeners of Mann Ki Baat are the real anchors of this show. A commonly held belief has become so ingrained that as long as there are no spicy or negative conversations, it does not receive much attention. But Mann Ki Baat has proved that how hungry the people of the country are, for positive information. People like positive stories, inspiring examples, encouraging stories very much. Just as there is a bird called Chakor about which it is said that it drinks only raindrops. In Mann Ki Baat we saw that like the Chakor bird, people too listen with great pride to the achievements of the country, the collective achievements of the people. The 10 year long journey of Mann Ki Baat has created a garland of sorts, in which, every episode encompasses new sagas, new records; new personalities get added. Whatever work is taking place in our society with a sense of collectiveness, it gets recognition through ‘Mann Ki Baat’. My heart also swells with pride when I read the letters that come for ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
There are so many talented people in our country… How much passion they have, to serve the country and society. They dedicate their entire life to serving people selflessly. Knowing about them fills me up with energy. This whole process of Mann Ki Baat for me is like, going to the temple to have a Darshan of The Almighty. When I remember each and every thing, each and every incident, each and every letter connected with Mann Ki Baat, I feel as if I am having a Darshan of the Janata Janaardan, the people, who are like the Almighty to me.
Friends, today I will appreciate all people associated with Doordarshan, Prasar Bharati and All India Radio. On account of their tireless efforts, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has reached this important milestone. I am also thankful to various TV channels, regional TV channels who have consistently broadcast it. Many media houses also ran campaigns on the issues that we raised through Mann Ki Baat. I also thank the Print media for taking it to every home. I would also like to thank those Youtubers who did many programs on Mann Ki Baat. This program can be heard in the country’s 22 languages, besides 12 foreign languages as well. I love it when people say that they, listened to the Mann Ki Baat program in their local language. Many of you might know that, a quiz competition based on the Mann Ki Baat program is also going on, in which any person can take part. By visiting MyGov.in and win prizes too. Today, at this important juncture, I once again seek your blessings – With a pure heart and complete dedication… May I continue singing songs of the greatness of the people of India… May we all continue to celebrate the collective power of the nation in this way… This is my prayer to God, this is my prayer to the people.
My dear countrymen, for the last few weeks it has been raining heavily in different parts of the country. This rainy season reminds us how important ‘water conservation’ is… how important it is to save water.
Water saved during rainy days helps a lot during water scarcity months, and that’s the spirit of campaigns like ‘Catch The Rain’. I am happy that many people are taking new initiatives to conserve water. One such effort has been witnessed in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
You know that ‘Jhansi’ is in Bundelkhand, whose identity is linked with water scarcity. Here, in Jhansi, some women have given a new lease of life to the Ghurari river. These women are associated with a Self Help Group and they have led this campaign by becoming ‘Jal Saheli’. No one would have ever imagined the way these women have saved the dying Ghurari river. These Jal Saheli created a check dam by filling sand in sacks, stopped the rain water from getting wasted and filled the river to the brim with water. These women have enthusiastically contributed to the construction of hundreds of reservoirs and their revival. This has not only solved the water problem of the people of this area; Happiness too has returned to their faces.
Friends, at some places woman power enhances water power whereas at other places water power also strengthens woman power. I have come to know about two very inspiring efforts from Madhya Pradesh. Here in Raipura Village of Dindori, construction of a large pond has raised the groundwater level considerably. The women of this village benefited from this. Here the women associated with ‘Sharada Aajeevika Self Help Group’ have also entered into a new occupation of fish farming. These women have also started a Fish Parlour where their income is also enhancing through the sale of the fish. The efforts of women in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh are also commendable. When the big pond of Khomp village started drying up, the women took the initiative to rejuvenate it. The women of ‘Hari Bagiya Self Help Group’ removed a large amount of silt from the pond… they used the silt removed from the pond on barren land to set up a fruit forest.
Due to the hard work of these women, not only has the pond been filled with water, but the crop yield has also increased substantially. Such efforts of water conservation being done in every nook & corner of the country will prove very helpful in dealing with the water crisis. I fully trust that you too will definitely join such efforts happening around you.
My dear countrymen, there is a border village ‘Jhala’ in Uttarkashi of Uttarakhand. The youth here have started a special initiative to keep their village clean. They are running a campaign, ‘Dhanyvaad Prakriti’ or ‘Thank you nature’ in their village. As part of this, the village is cleaned for two hours every day. The garbage scattered in the streets of the village is collected and dumped at a designated place outside the village. Due to this, Jhala village is also turning clean and people are becoming aware as well. Just imagine, if every village, every street, every locality in your area starts a similar ‘Thank You’ campaign, how much change can come about!
Friends, a cleanliness drive is being promoted aggressively on the beach of Puducherry too. Here, a woman named Ramya ji is leading a team of youth from Mahe Municipality & its surrounding area. The people of this team, through their efforts, are cleaning the Mahe Area, especially the beaches in the vicinity.
Friends, I have discussed only two efforts here. But if we look around, we will find that in every part of the country, some unique effort or the other is definitely going on, associated with ‘cleanliness’. Just a few days later, on the 2nd of October, the Swachh Bharat Mission is completing 10 years. This is an occassion to commend those who turned it into such a big mass movement in Indian history. It is also a befitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, who dedicated his entire life to this cause.
Friends, today it is the success of the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ that the Waste to Wealth’ mantra is becoming popular among people. People have started talking about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, citing their examples as well. Like I just came to know about a great effort in Kozhikode, Kerala. Here, Seventy four (74) years old Subramanian ji has repaired more than 23 thousand chairs and thus made them re-usable again. People also call him ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’, that is, RRR, (Triple R) Champion. His unique efforts can also be seen at the offices of Kozhikode Civil Station, PWD & LIC.
Friends, we have to connect as many people as possible with the ongoing campaign for cleanliness. And this is not a campaign for one day or one year; it is a task to be undertaken continuously for ages. This is work to be done until ‘cleanliness’ becomes our nature. I request all of you to take part in the cleanliness campaign along with your family, friends, neighbors or colleagues. I once again congratulate all of you on the success of the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’.
My dear countrymen, we are all very proud of our heritage. And I always say ‘Development as well as Heritage’. That is why I am getting a lot of messages about a particular aspect of my recent visit to the US. Once again, there is a lot of discussion about the return of our ancient artefacts. I can understand your feelings about this and I would also like to tell the listeners of Mann Ki Baat about it.
Friends, during my visit to the US, the US government has returned around… 300 Ancient Artefacts to India. US President Biden, very affectionately, showed me some of these artefacts in his private residence at Delaware. Returned Artefacts are made of materials such as Terracotta, Stone, ivory, wood, copper and bronze. Many of these are four thousand years old. The US has returned artefacts dating back to 4000 years… those from the 19th century as well.
These include vases, terracotta plaques of gods and goddesses, statues of Jain Tirthankaras, as well as statues of Bhagwan Buddha and Bhagwan Shri Krishna are among the returned artefacts. Several animal statuettes are also among the returned items. From Jammu and Kashmir, terracotta tiles bearing male and female figures are very interesting. These include bronze idols of Bhagwan Ganesha from Southern India as well. A large number of images of Bhagwan Vishnu are also among the returned artefacts. These are mainly from Northern and Southern India. Looking at these artefacts, one realises how much attention our ancestors paid to intricate detailing. They had a great understanding of art. Many of these artefacts were taken out of the country through smuggling and other illegal means – this is a serious crime… in a way it is like destroying our heritage, but I am very happy that in the last decade, many such artefacts and many elements of our ancient heritage have been brought back home. Today, India is also working with many countries as well in this direction. I believe that when we are proud of our heritage, the world also respects it, and as a result of that, today many countries of the world are returning to us such artefacts that were taken away from here.
My dear friends, if I ask you which language a child learns most easily and quickly – your answer will be ‘mother tongue’. In our country almost twenty thousand languages and dialects are there and each one of them is surely a mother tongue of someone or the other. There are some languages which are used by very few people, but you will be happy to know that today, unique efforts are being made to preserve those languages. One such language is our ‘Santhali’ language. A campaign has been started to give a new identity to Santhali with the help of digital innovation. ‘Santhali’ is spoken by the people of the Santhal tribal community residing in many states of our country.
Apart from India, tribal communities speaking Santhali are also present in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Shriman Ramjeet Tudu, resident of Mayurbhanj, Odisha is running a campaign to create an online identity of the Santhali language. Ramjeet ji has prepared a digital platform where literature related to the Santhali language can be read and written in Santhali language. Actually, a few years ago when Ramjit ji started using the mobile phone, he was saddened by the fact that he could not send messages in his mother tongue. After that, he started exploring the possibilities of typing ‘Ol Chiki’, script of the Santhali language. With the help of some of his friends, he developed the technique of typing in ‘Ol Chiki’. Today, due to his efforts, articles written in Santhali language are reaching millions of people.
Friends, when there’s a confluence of our strong resolve and collective participation, it leads to amazing results for the entire society. Its most recent example is ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ – this was an amazing campaign; such an example of public participation is truly inspiring. People in every nook & corner of the country have done wonders in this campaign which was started for conservation of the environment. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana have created a new record by planting more saplings than the set target. Under this campaign, more than 26 crore saplings have been planted in Uttar Pradesh. The people of Gujarat planted more than 15 crore saplings. More than 6 crore saplings were planted in Rajasthan in the month of August alone. Thousands of schools in the country are also participating in this campaign with great enthusiasm.
Friends, many examples related to tree planting campaigns keep coming to the fore in our country. One such example is that of K.N. Rajasekhar ji of Telangana. His commitment to planting trees amazes us all. About four years ago, he started a tree planting campaign. He decided that he would certainly plant a tree every day.
He followed this campaign like a strict vow. He has planted more than 1500 saplings. The most remarkable point is that even after becoming a victim of a mishap this year, he did not waver from his resolve. I heartily appreciate all such efforts. I also request you to join this sacred campaign ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’.
My dear friends, you must have seen… there are some people around us who do not lose patience in any adversity, rather they learn from it. Subhashri, one such lady, with her efforts, has created a wonderful garden of rare and very useful herbs. She is a resident of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Though she is a teacher by profession, she also has great affinity towards medicinal herbs. This affection of hers started in the eighties when her father was bitten by a poisonous snake. At that time, traditional herbs helped her father recover to quite an extent. After this incident, she started exploring traditional medicines and herbs. Today, she has a unique herbal garden in Verichiyur village of Madurai, in which there are more than 500 rare medicinal plants. She has worked very hard to prepare this garden… In search of every plant, she travelled far and wide, gathered information and many a time asked for help from other people. During Covid, she made available to the people immunity boosting herbs. Today people come from far and wide to see her herbal garden. She imparts information about herbal plants and their uses to everyone. Subashree is carrying forward our traditional heritage, which has been a part of our culture for hundreds of years. Her herbal garden connects our past to the future. Our best wishes to her.
Friends, in these changing times, the nature of jobs is changing and new sectors are emerging… Such as gaming, animation, reel making, film making or poster making. If you can perform well in any of these skills… your talent can get a very big platform… if you are a part of a band or working for a community radio, then also there is a huge opportunity for you.
In order to promote your talent and creativity, The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India has started 25 challenges under the theme, ‘Create in India’. You will surely find these challenges interesting. Some challenges even focus on music, education and even on anti-piracy. There are many professional organisations associated with this objective and are providing full support to these challenges. In order to participate, you can log in to wavesindia.org. I specially urge the creators in the country to ensure participation and bring their creativity to the fore.
My dear countrymen, this month marks the culmination of 10 years of another important campaign. The success of this campaign includes the contribution of the country’s big industries as well as small shopkeepers. I am talking about ‘Make in India’. Today, it gives me immense joy to see that the poor, the middle class and MSMEs are getting a lot of benefit from this campaign. This campaign has provided an opportunity to people of every class to showcase their talent. Today, India has become a manufacturing powerhouse and it is because of the youth power of the country that the whole world is looking up to us. Be it automobiles, textiles, aviation, electronics or defence… every sector in the country’s exports are constantly on the rise. The continual rise of FDI in the country is narrating the success saga of Make In India. Now we are mainly focussing on two things… The first is ‘Quality’, that is, goods made in our country should be of global standards… and the other is ‘Vocal for Local. That means, local products should get maximum promotion. In ‘Mann Ki Baat’ we’ve also discussed #MyProductMyPride’. How the people of the country can benefit from promoting local products can be understood through an example.
In Bhandara district of Maharashtra, there is an old textile tradition of, ‘Bhandara Tussar Silk Handloom’. Tussar Silk, is known for its colour, design and strength. In some areas of Bhandara, more than 50 ‘Self Help Groups are working to preserve it. Women have a huge participation in that. This silk is fast becoming popular and empowering local communities… and that is the spirit of ‘Make in India’.
Friends, in this festive season you can once again reiterate your old resolves. Anything you buy, should necessarily be ‘Made in India’… Anything you gift that too should be Made In India. Merely buying earthen lamps is not ‘Vocal for Local’. You should promote local products made in your area more and more. Any such product, that has been made with the sweat of an Indian artisan, that is made on Indian soil, is our pride – we always have to lend glory to this pride.
Friends, in this episode of ‘Mann ki Baat’ I really enjoyed connecting with you. Please send us your thoughts and suggestions related to this program. I am waiting for your letters and messages. Just a few days later, the festival season is about to begin. It will begin with Navratri and then for the next two months, this atmosphere of worshipping, fasting, festivals, joy and happiness will prevail all around. I extend my greetings to all of you on the upcoming festivals. Enjoy the festivals with your family and your loved ones and include others too in your joy. Next month ‘Mann Ki Baat’ will connect with you bringing in some new topics. I thank, all of you.
Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
3 hours ago
Lizzie Somerville has enjoyed studying for the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) at EIT.
A challenging but rewarding Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) journey is coming to an end for an EIT student as she finishes up the final weeks of her degree.
Lizzie Somerville, 20, says that she has loved the degree, especially the placements with local schools, but there were also challenges like Covid-19, Cyclone Gabrielle and breaking a leg during rugby training that required her to have surgery.
Lizzie, who comes from a sheep and beef farm near the small coastal community of Pongoroa in the Tararua District, says that although she is pākehā, she grew up in a te ao Māori world. She says that this saw her spend a lot of time at the local marae, Te Hika O Pāpauma.
Lizzie was earmarked for success when she completed her schooling at Solway College in Masterton. Not only did she receive a Year 13 Scholarship to attend EIT, but she also won a Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award from the then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. This was a further scholarship that would help with her tertiary tuition.
She says that she had not always wanted to be a teacher.
“Originally I wanted to join the police service because I love helping people, but then in high school I worked with the juniors and did an environmental course and that led to me really wanting to get into education. And I found that the EIT degree, because it’s so practical, was more appealing to me than going off to university.”
“But it has definitely been a challenge because there was a lot of things happening in our first year with COVID where we had to be off campus and study online. And then in our second year we had Cyclone Gabrielle, which saw us having to study in different places. I also broke my leg last year, which saw me having to get around on a knee scooter.”
“But it has been really rewarding. The lectures at EIT are small and close-knit. It’s a nice feeling being around everyone.”
The high point of the degree for Lizzie has been spending two days per week each year at an EIT partnership school and then going on two five week placements to a school.
In her first year she was placed at Frimley School in Hastings while her second year saw her at Ebbett Park School in Hastings and Arthur Miller School in Napier. This year her school was Reignier Catholic School in Napier, before doing her final placement at Ormond School in Gisborne, where her partner is from.
Lizzie says that she has no hesitation in recommending that people study the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) at EIT.
“It’s not actually that big and scary. You feel so comfortable at EIT. And in regard to the teaching degree, it is so practical and it sets you up really well for wanting to get a teaching career because of how practical it is.”
“You also get a lot of support on campus and from the school you are at.”
Lizzie says that while she enjoys Hawke’s Bay, she is hoping to start her teaching career in the Gisborne region.
Associate Professor Emily Nelson, Programme Coordinator for EIT’s Bachelor of Teaching (Primary), said: “In addition to being a fully committed Candidate Teacher over the three years of her study, Lizzie has served as a Candidate Teacher Rep, taking on a leadership role for her cohort with the degree teaching team.”
“This leadership experience as well as the resilience she has gained from studying through adversity, and her calm and caring personality, makes me really excited for her future in the teaching profession.”
The end of free Rapid Antigen Tests today is another sign the Government is giving up on the challenge of protecting the community from Covid-19.
“We cannot afford to become complacent with Covid, testing is a tool that should remain accessible to all,” says the Green Party’s Health spokesperson, Hūhana Lyndon.
“Testing is critical to protection, alerting people when they have Covid and when they should avoid interacting with others. It’s one of the most effective things we can do to help protect our immunocompromised and elderly communities.
“By withdrawing funding for tests, many will miss out, which could lead to the virus spreading and proliferating under the radar. The Government is effectively waving a white flag for this deadly virus to spread more through our communities when the need for protection remains high.
“The Health Ministry still advises people who are symptomatic to test and take precautions against spreading the virus, so it also should provide access to testing.
“At up to $11.00 per test it is a cost that many families cannot afford – especially under the current government’s regime, which is leaving so many behind.
“While members of this coalition Government may like to think the pandemic never happened, it is clear that the legacy of the virus lives on.
“Many people became ill with different strains of Covid this past Winter season, and remain sick. As people socialise more towards the end of year, the risk of Covid spreading doesn’t simply abate.
“We must ensure RAT tests are not just accessible for those who can afford it,” says Hūhana Lyndon.
Shri Anil Shastri ji, Chairman, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. I have long association with Anil ji. We both were elected to Lok Sabha in 1989.
We were inducted in the Council of Ministers at the same time, and then I came to know that he reflected the sublime values of his father, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of this country, who lives on in our memories and in our hearts.
I am therefore grateful to you for affording this opportunity to me to confer this prestigious award on one of the finest human beings in the country at the moment, who exemplifies commitment to humanity in all facets, Smt. Rajashree Birla, the awardee. As luck would have it, this is the 25th award. Well earned, well deserved.
Shri Sunil Kumar Gupta, Secretary to Vice president, distinguished members of Shastri family, I know them personally, distinguished members accompanying Rajashree ji, members of the jury and my commendations to you for having being so thoughtful that the reception of this award will be completely as per heart of the people and board of governors.
Let me indicate my connection with the Birla family. It was sometime in the year 1970-71. The venue was a remote village in Jhunjhunu district.
The occasion was late Sri G.D. Birla Ji being received by a relative of our family. There was to be a photograph. Everyone was lined up.
The first row, G.D. Birla Ji was there at the centre. I was in the last row. Given the situation, my age, and the relationship I shared.
So the family members had predominance, Then walked in the elder brother of G.D. Birla Ji. Now no one in the front row was prepared to yield a seat.
Who would miss an occasion to be photographed with G.D. Birla Ji? G.D. Birla Ji quietly made the seat available for his elder brother. And he came to the last row. And put his hand on my young shoulder. I felt blessed by the man.
Then I came to know about him more and what a sacrifice for the country. Imagine those difficult days, daunting scenario, rule of the British – repressive, oppressive, with full vengeance. He fuelled financially the freedom movement. He and great Gandhiji were so frugal in prudently utilising the funds that they would not bear the cost of transaction by paying banking commission.
So the money was transferred as per record, authentic record. If needed at a place, it will be given by someone else so that every contribution is optimally utilised.
All through his life, G.D. Birlaji stood for a value system worth emulation. We got independence man d then the lineage continues. My next association came with Aditya Birlaji. I was elected as I said along with Anil. In 89, I was a minister. There was a function at FICCI in 1990. It had to do something with the great personality of G.D. Birla ji.
That was the day when the entire Council of Ministers were meeting and therefore obviously there was unavailability of a minister to join. I got a message from someone. That being a member of parliament from Jhunjhunu, a land with G.D. Birla family is well connected and the connect is incremental till date.
Birlaji reflects it nationally and globally. I sought leave of my prime minister then to attend that programme. It started a relationship of deep emotive nature with Aditya Birlaji who never had intervention of the kind which we see with politics. But he enquired about my political inclinations and invited me to industry house.
I had the occasion to see two things there. One, We had lunch while others were also having lunch there. And the lunch was tailor made to suit the high productivity post lunch and nutrition value. And then I saw for the first time that Aditya Birlaji had brought about game changing paradigm shift in professionalism. He laid the firm foundations. We lost him early. But in the process he CREATED A group that is known for highest ethical standards and global presence.
I came to know Kumar Manglam ji after I became Governor State of West Bengal. In Birla Park he was stranded on account of Covid. He was so scrupulous about the legal regime that he wouldn’t move, even though I undertook to facilitate.
Then came a very sensitive moment and that moment was that someone known to him, he wanted to visit him because he was ailing, Just 300 metres away. But since there were restrictions Kumar wouldn’t negotiate those 300 metres without legal sanction. I had the occasion to have a conversation with him on several occasions on that time. He followed only the path of love. THAT reminds me what someone said rightly, If you wish to make democracy flourish and blossom. Never take shortcuts. These shortcuts are very painful. In times of need that turn out to be the most challenging and the longest and never ending. These shortcuts lead you into a tunnel when you need, when you don’t see light.
Then, I came to occupy this position and came another occasion to interact with the family. I spent some of the most rewarding moments of my life along with family members and had the occasion to personally interact with the family. The credit for that invariably goes to the awardee. Awardee of this prestigious award!
For three decades with commitment that exemplifies our civilisational depth and ethos, She has been serving Humanity in a varied of forms of education and health care in a very spread out manner and least giving importance to public domain coverage. It is rightly said that wisdom is reflected not by what is written but by….
The best Ambassador is the one who propels an idea through word of mouth. So I can say she stands out tall amongst those at the moment who are serving humanity BY optimal utilisation of corporate social Responsibility by following its funding where it is most needed and therefore this award Is well earned Well deserved.
She has got many awards as I indicated Padam Bhushan. Her son has got Padam Bhushan, when I had the occasion to greet the family by virtue of being Vice- President. But there are some people who do justice. It makes us reflect Yes it has been given to the right person and therefore my congratulations to the jury for having picked up one at the right time because we need in this country In this challenging scenario, when the country is on the rise, the rise is as never before, the rise is exponential and incremental.
In the process we must not lose the guiding principle, the lighthouse that reminds us of our values. What we see is simplicity defined, disarming charm, a connect that makes the other person at ease and then I come to the person whose memory the award is Lal Bahadur Shastri. The very name reminds of patriotism, the very name reminds of a system that yes this is commitment.
Shastriji Defines public service, Shastriji stood for self-sacrifice, Shastriji exemplified by conduct by practise not my sermonising. The entire nation stood with him when we faced the near hunger crisis. He was the first one to innovate Participation of the people by a clarion call. Avoid a meal, if I am not mistaken.
Diminutive like there but a tall figure there are personalities that are not required we sustained by event management or systemic acting. They live in our memory, they guide us, they inspire us, they motivate us. His clarion call I belong to both categories as a matter of fact, jawan and kisan was not just a call. The call was generated by then contemporaneous scenario, a threat of unimaginable dimension.
Imagine the scene, under which he took charge, he was the only one who could take it. Look at the highest standards of public life, when he was holding a ministerial portfolio and then there was a lapse not because of him but he went beyond the copybook. He took the entire responsibility and was persuaded to be minister without portfolio. I see the family continue in the same stream, they have lived by his principles.
We are living in times where iconic status is accorded by event management on parameters that are baffling. People are elevated to a level which we can’t digest. They occupy public space but a paradigm shift has taken place. For instance, Padma Awards, our civilian Awards, our prestigious Civilian awards. They are being conferred on people who imminently deserve it, and that is why the award carries a greater credibility.
This one also is in the same stream, I have been associated on two occasions, maybe more and for me, what can be a greater attainment in life, that who was just in Sainik School class seven when we lost Shastri ji. The one who looked at in great awe the traditions of the great Bidla family is now in a position. A moment that will ever be etched in my memory that I am only one of the greatest contributors of the Bidla family to humanity, Smt. Rajashree Birla and the award carries the tag of one of the finest sons of the soil whose memory will never fade.
I will always be by your side, as you were by my side when were holding the ministerial portfolio. Once again, I feel humbled, honoured, and highly privileged one of the rare moments of privilege for me to confer an award in the name of Lal Bahadur Shastri on Smt. Rajashree Birla.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
ST. LOUIS – The owner of a nonprofit was indicted Wednesday and accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $2 million in funds intended to feed low-income Missouri children, both before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cymone McClellan, 31, of St. Louis, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on four felony counts of wire fraud.
The indictment says McClellan owned and ran a non-profit organization called Sister of Lavender Rose (S.O.L.R.). From about January 2019 to June 2022, McClellan and her nonprofit submitted false and fraudulent meal reimbursement claims to Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). S.O.L.R. submitted reimbursement claims to the Food and Nutrition Programs for Children claiming that she served 860,876 meals to children but only bought enough food and milk to serve fewer than one-quarter of those meals, the indictment says. According to the indictment, McClellan defrauded the State of Missouri out of more than $2 million through her fraudulent reimbursement claims.
The indictment says McClellan attempted to cover up her crime by providing bogus sign-in sheets to DHSS falsely claiming to have taken the attendance of meal recipients at certain food distribution locations. S.O.L.R. submitted management plans to DHSS falsely asserting that state meal reimbursement dollars were spent only in connection with the provision of meals to low-income children, and that the nonprofit did not use meal money to make purchases over $5,000. The indictment says McClellan spent $60,000 on a down payment on a house in Collinsville, Illinois and also bought five vehicles and a house in Florissant, Missouri.
One of the addresses where McClellan informed the State of Missouri that she was purportedly preparing food for low-income children belonged to an adults-only nightclub called Elmo’s Love Lounge, the indictment says.
The indictment seeks the forfeiture of the real estate, as well as a 2021 Chevrolet Traverse, a 2012 Chevrolet Express G3500 van, a 2020 Mercedez-Benz Metris van, a 2012 Ford E350 box truck and a 2018 Lexus RX SUV.
Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The wire fraud charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting the case.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
The two public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines. Professors Susan Goldstein and Haroon Saloojee assess South Africa’s child vaccination programme.
Why are childhood vaccinations so important? What are some essential ones?
A recent study published in The Lancet estimated that since 1974, 154 million lives have been saved by immunisation, most of them children.
A 2016 study of low- and middle-income countries found that for every dollar invested in vaccines, the return on investment was estimated to be US$44, considering broader social and economic benefits.
Childhood vaccines are most effective when they are administered to children at the right age, and with the recommended dosage, as children are susceptible to certain diseases at certain ages.
As an example, polio occurs most frequently in children below the age of five. Five doses of polio vaccinations are recommended, starting at birth.
As the most contagious and fast-moving of the vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is often described as the “canary in the coalmine”: a warning of other disease outbreaks that might spring up where there are gaps in vaccination coverage.
How does South Africa fare?
A case study done in 2011/2012 found South Africa spent US$131 million on basic child vaccine procurement, less than 1%-1.5% of public health expenditure and comparable to Latin American countries known for early vaccine adoption. In 2023 new vaccines were included in the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation to the value of US$194 million.
We do spend appropriately on vaccines.
South Africa has an excellent immunisation schedule with protection offered against 11 diseases.
In 2019, a national household immunisation survey, the first such survey done in two decades, provided the most detailed picture of South Africa’s vaccination programme that we have. The survey screened almost 2 million households and found 84% of babies had received all their shots by the time they turned one.
Although these rates may seem good, they fall short of the 90% target set by the United Nations. They are also lower than in several other sub-Saharan countries, as this graph shows.
A greater concern, however, is the disparity at the district level. For instance, Sekhukhune in Limpopo province had a coverage rate of just 53%, meaning almost one in two children were not fully immunised. Ten other districts had coverage rates below 75%, meaning that at least a quarter of the children were not fully protected.
What is preventing the country from achieving the 90% target?
In the national survey the main reasons for children not being fully immunised were related to the health service:
the vaccine was out of stock (29%)
the child was ill and not offered a vaccine (12%)
caregivers did not know that the child was due for immunisation (19%)
the caregiver forgot that the child had a scheduled immunisation visit (6%)
there was no-one to take the child to the clinic (9%).
Other factors include:
negative interactions with healthcare workers – these can deter caregivers from taking children for their vaccines
waiting times
the dynamics within families – for example, adolescent mothers and elderly caregivers might have difficulty getting children to clinics.
Vaccine refusal by parents for religious or other reasons existed, but this was infrequent (3%).
What needs to be done?
To protect children better, Unicef’s Immunization Agenda 2030 recommends a “people-centred” approach:
ensuring all healthcare workers are skilled at administering inoculations, and not missing opportunities to vaccinate a child whenever they visit a health service
avoiding vaccine shortages by electronically linking central pharmacies to facilities
listening to communities to understand their attitudes towards vaccines and their experiences with health workers at clinics, both good and bad.
In South Africa districts with low coverage warrant special attention, such as increasing access to immunisation services. This could mean opening clinics on weekends or evenings so that working parents could bring their children to be vaccinated.
Vaccinations are the safest method to protect children from life-threatening diseases. We need to ensure that every child gets them.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
The two public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines. Professors Susan Goldstein and Haroon Saloojee assess South Africa’s child vaccination programme.
Why are childhood vaccinations so important? What are some essential ones?
A recent study published in The Lancet estimated that since 1974, 154 million lives have been saved by immunisation, most of them children.
A 2016 study of low- and middle-income countries found that for every dollar invested in vaccines, the return on investment was estimated to be US$44, considering broader social and economic benefits.
Childhood vaccines are most effective when they are administered to children at the right age, and with the recommended dosage, as children are susceptible to certain diseases at certain ages.
As an example, polio occurs most frequently in children below the age of five. Five doses of polio vaccinations are recommended, starting at birth.
As the most contagious and fast-moving of the vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is often described as the “canary in the coalmine”: a warning of other disease outbreaks that might spring up where there are gaps in vaccination coverage.
How does South Africa fare?
A case study done in 2011/2012 found South Africa spent US$131 million on basic child vaccine procurement, less than 1%-1.5% of public health expenditure and comparable to Latin American countries known for early vaccine adoption. In 2023 new vaccines were included in the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation to the value of US$194 million.
We do spend appropriately on vaccines.
South Africa has an excellent immunisation schedule with protection offered against 11 diseases.
National immunisation coverage for children under 1 year. District Health Barometer.
In 2019, a national household immunisation survey, the first such survey done in two decades, provided the most detailed picture of South Africa’s vaccination programme that we have. The survey screened almost 2 million households and found 84% of babies had received all their shots by the time they turned one.
Although these rates may seem good, they fall short of the 90% target set by the United Nations. They are also lower than in several other sub-Saharan countries, as this graph shows.
South African vaccine coverage of one-year-olds compared to other sub-Saharan countries. Unicef 2023
A greater concern, however, is the disparity at the district level. For instance, Sekhukhune in Limpopo province had a coverage rate of just 53%, meaning almost one in two children were not fully immunised. Ten other districts had coverage rates below 75%, meaning that at least a quarter of the children were not fully protected.
What is preventing the country from achieving the 90% target?
In the national survey the main reasons for children not being fully immunised were related to the health service:
the vaccine was out of stock (29%)
the child was ill and not offered a vaccine (12%)
caregivers did not know that the child was due for immunisation (19%)
the caregiver forgot that the child had a scheduled immunisation visit (6%)
there was no-one to take the child to the clinic (9%).
Other factors include:
negative interactions with healthcare workers – these can deter caregivers from taking children for their vaccines
waiting times
the dynamics within families – for example, adolescent mothers and elderly caregivers might have difficulty getting children to clinics.
Vaccine refusal by parents for religious or other reasons existed, but this was infrequent (3%).
What needs to be done?
To protect children better, Unicef’s Immunization Agenda 2030 recommends a “people-centred” approach:
ensuring all healthcare workers are skilled at administering inoculations, and not missing opportunities to vaccinate a child whenever they visit a health service
avoiding vaccine shortages by electronically linking central pharmacies to facilities
listening to communities to understand their attitudes towards vaccines and their experiences with health workers at clinics, both good and bad.
In South Africa districts with low coverage warrant special attention, such as increasing access to immunisation services. This could mean opening clinics on weekends or evenings so that working parents could bring their children to be vaccinated.
Vaccinations are the safest method to protect children from life-threatening diseases. We need to ensure that every child gets them.
Headline: NCDHHS Livestream Fireside Chat and Tele-Town Hall: Understanding Seasonal Vaccines and Respiratory Health In North Carolina
NCDHHS Livestream Fireside Chat and Tele-Town Hall: Understanding Seasonal Vaccines and Respiratory Health In North Carolina rmbeck
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how seasonal vaccines, including flu, COVID-19 and RSV, help protect communities against severe illness, hospitalization and long-term health complications. The event will be moderated by Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, M.D., NCDHHS’ State Health Director and Chief Medical Officer.
The 2024-2025 respiratory virus season is here and everyone ages 6 months and up is due for their flu shot and COVID-19 vaccine. Seasonal vaccines are the best to way to prevent people from experiencing severe cases of flu and COVID-19, especially for those who are at a higher risk of complications from the viruses. This includes people who are under 5, 65 and older, pregnant and/or living with chronic medical conditions. Last year, 95% of people in the United States hospitalized due to COVID-19 had not had the most recent COVID vaccine , and people who skipped their flu shot were twice as likely to need medical help for the flu.
Fireside chat and tele-town hall panelists will discuss the following:
How to get your seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines
What to know about RSV protection, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines
Ways to find a health provider near you and access care
Steps to protect yourself and your household against seasonal illness
How to access free vaccines for children
During the 2023-2024 respiratory season, North Carolina experienced its highest number of pediatric flu deaths (16) since public health reporting began in 2004, with 81% of the flu deaths occurring in children who did not get a flu shot last year.
In addition to flu and COVID-19 vaccines, RSV vaccines are also now available for older adults and those who are pregnant. Some babies and children under two may also need to receive an immunization to help build protection against RSV. It’s important for individuals of all ages to be up to date on all recommended vaccines before enjoying seasonal activities, sporting events or celebrations with loved ones.
Everyone should test for COVID-19 right away if they feel sick or have symptoms to help prevent the virus from spreading to others around them. Free, at-home COVID-19 tests are available at more than 300 local organizations statewide. To find free tests near you visit MySpot.nc.gov/tests.
The fireside chat will stream live from the NCDHHS Facebook and YouTube accounts, where viewers can submit questions. The event also includes a tele-town hall, which invites people by phone to listen in and submit questions. People can dial into the event by calling 855-756-7520 Ext. 111990#.
Visit MySpot.nc.gov for information, guidance and resources on seasonal vaccines and how they support respiratory health.
El Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Carolina del Norte (NCDHHS) presentará un “Fireside Chat”, una conversación virtual y telefónica en vivo el jueves 3 de octubre, de 6 a 7 p.m., para hablar sobre cómo las vacunas estacionales, incluidas las de la gripe (influenza), el COVID-19 y el virus respiratorio sincitial (VRS), ayudan a proteger a las comunidades contra enfermedades graves, hospitalizaciones y complicaciones de salud a largo plazo. El evento será moderado por la Dra. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, directora de Salud del Estado y jefa médica del NCDHHS.
La temporada de virus respiratorios de 2024 a 2025 ha comenzado, y todas las personas de6 meses en adelante deben vacunarsecontra la gripe y el COVID-19. Las vacunas estacionales son la mejor manera de prevenir casos graves de gripe y COVID-19, especialmente para quienes tienen mayor riesgo de complicaciones por los virus. Esto incluye a personas menores de 5 años, mayores de 65 años, personas embarazadas y/o con condiciones médicas crónicas. El año pasado, el 95% de las personas hospitalizadas en los Estados Unidos debido al COVID-19 no habían recibido la vacuna más reciente contra el COVID-19, y las personas que no se vacunaron contra la gripe tuvieron el doble de probabilidades de necesitar atención médica por la gripe.
Los panelistas del evento virtual y telefónico hablarán sobre los siguientes temas:
• Cómo recibir las vacunas estacionales contra la gripe (influenza) y el COVID-19 • Lo que necesitas saber sobre la protección contra el VRS, incluidas las vacunas • Maneras de encontrar un proveedor de salud cercano y acceder a atención médica • Pasos para protegerse y proteger a sus familiares contra las enfermedades estacionales • Cómo acceder a vacunas gratuitas para niños
Durante la temporada de virus respiratoria de 2023-2024, Carolina del Norte experimentó el mayor número de muertes pediátricas por gripe (16) desde que se comenzó a reportar públicamente en 2004, con el 81 % de las muertes ocurridas en niños que no recibieron la vacuna contra la gripe el año pasado.
Además de las vacunas contra la gripe y el COVID-19, las vacunas contra el VRS también están disponibles ahora para adultos mayores y personas embarazadas. Algunos bebés y niños menores de dos años también pueden necesitar recibir una inmunización para ayudar a desarrollar protección contra el VRS. Es importante que personas de todas las edades estén al día con todas las vacunas recomendadas antes de disfrutar de actividades estacionales, eventos deportivos o celebraciones con seres queridos.
Todos deben hacerse la prueba de COVID-19 de inmediato si se sienten enfermos o tienen síntomas, para ayudar a prevenir la propagación del virus a otras personas. Pruebas caseras gratuitas de COVID-19 están disponibles en más de 300 organizaciones locales en todo el estado. Para encontrar pruebas gratuitas cerca de usted, visiteVacunate.nc.gov/pruebas.
El evento virtual será transmitido en vivo desde las cuentas deFacebookyYouTubedel NCDHHS, donde los espectadores pueden enviar preguntas. El evento incluirá una opción de telecomunicación, que invita a las personas a escuchar y enviar preguntas por teléfono. Los participantes también pueden llamar al evento al 855-756-7520 Ext. 111990#.
Visite Vacunate.nc.gov para obtener información, orientación y recursos sobre las vacunas estacionales y cómo apoyan la salud respiratoria.
Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 3
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, August 15, 2024
FRESNO, Calif. — The operator of a Reedley lab, who was indicted in November 2023, faces additional charges of conspiracy and wire fraud after a federal grand jury returned a 12-count superseding indictment today, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
Jia Bei Zhu, 62, a citizen of China, was previously indicted for distributing adulterated and misbranded COVID-19 test kits in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and making false statements to authorities about his identity and involvement with the biolabs. The superseding indictment also charges Zhu’s romantic and business partner, Zhaoyan Wang, 38, a citizen of China, who operated the biolabs Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI) and Prestige Biotech Inc. (PBI) in Fresno and Reedley along with Zhu. UMI and PBI distributed COVID-19, pregnancy, and other types of test kits.
According to court documents, from August 2020 through March 2023, Zhu and Wang conspired to defraud buyers of UMI and PBI’s COVID-19 test kits. They imported hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits from Ai De Ltd., which was a company in China that they controlled, and falsely represented to the buyers that the test kits were made in the United States. They illegally imported the COVID-19 test kits, which they were not approved to import, by falsely declaring them as pregnancy test kits, which they were approved to import.
Zhu and Wang also falsely represented to the buyers that UMI and PBI could make up to 100,000 COVID-19 test kits per week in the United States and that the test kits were made in connection with other labs that were certified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finally, they falsely represented to the buyers that the test kits were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Zhu and Wang made over $1.7 million through their fraud.
When buyers requested to inspect UMI and PBI’s facilities in Fresno and Reedley, Zhu and Wang denied them access and fabricated reasons for the denial. The fabricated reasons included that the facilities were undergoing construction and renovation, and that proprietary and confidential information and technology was inside. In reality, however, they did not want the buyers to know that UMI and PBI were obtaining the COVID-19 test kits from China.
Zhu is currently detained in custody pending his federal trial. His next status conference is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2024. Wang is not in custody.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arelis Clemente, Joseph Barton, and Henry Carbajal III are prosecuting the case.
If convicted, Zhu and Wang each face maximum statutory penalties of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy and wire fraud charges, and an additional three years in prison for the distribution of adulterated and misbranded medical device charges. Zhu also faces another five years in prison for the false statements charge. Any sentences, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations. Zhu and Wang are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This chart essentially shows the stresses that New Zealand’s public health system can expect to face. I have analysed the death data by age, covering all deaths from July 1998 to June 2024. For those years (using June years) I have looked at every age of death from 16 to 99 and every birth year from 1900 to 2022, and counted deaths by birth-year.
For death-age 95, the most frequent birth year was 1928. As we would expect, most deaths at these high ages occurred in 2022 or 2023, thanks to Covid19. Thus, birth years in the 1920s feature in the chart.
Birth years in the early 1930s don’t feature so much because of the low birth numbers in those years. With fewer people born in say 1933, then 1933 will not often feature as the most frequent birth year for any given age.
Birth years around 1950 do not feature. This is both because the classic baby boomer generation is a healthy generation, and also because there were not as many births in the decade after World War Two as there were in the following two decades. So, while classic baby boomers will place an increasing burden on the public health system, the biggest burdens will come from those born between 1955 and 1975. (Also, classic baby boomers have high levels of private health insurance; this will be less affordable for subsequent generations as they age.)
Birth years from 1955 to 1964 feature most strongly, mainly because births in New Zealand peaked in those years. This birth cohort will place massive pressure on New Zealand’s public health system. People dying since 1998 between age 37 and age 67 are most likely to have been born in the years either side of 1960.
The cohort born 1966 to 1974 will also place huge pressures on Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), in part because there are likely to be very many new Aotearoans in this birth cohort. By and large, immigrants are healthier than the New Zealand born population, because their health is considered before New Zealand residency can be granted.
The late 1970s represents a ‘baby-bust’ generation, like the early 1930s. Hence these ‘Gen-Y’ people don’t feature in this chart. The frequencies for the late 1980s’ and early 1990s’ birth years reflect the ‘baby blip’ which began in 1987. Also, these birth years relate to death of young people, which, being less frequent, can also be a bit more random.
People born in 1939 turn 85 this year. From 1938, birth numbers generally increased each year until the early 1960s. The impact of an aging population on New Zealand’s public healthcare system is certainly beginning. This impact will escalate each year for at least the next 25 years. People born in 1961 will turn 85 in 2046.
By contrast, we have been lulled into complacency because the unusually small early-1930s’ birth cohort placed a substantially below-average pressure on public healthcare.
We note that death numbers are a proxy for the demand for high-intensity healthcare. People born after 1955 are already making considerable demands on Aotearoa New Zealand’s health care.
*******
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
ADVISORY – HARRISBURG – Shapiro Administration to Encourage Pennsylvanians to Get Updated Vaccines as Respiratory Virus Season Begins
Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen and Pennsylvania Insurance Department Commissioner Michael Humphreys will join area pharmacists at the See-Right Pharmacy in Harrisburg to stress the importance of getting their annual vaccinations against COVID-19, flu and RSV to safeguard their health as respiratory virus season begins.
The vaccinations are updated to protect against severe illness from new virus variants circulating in Pennsylvania, and the United States. Health care providers recommend flu and COVID-19 vaccinations for people six months of age and older; older adults and pregnant women are encouraged to get RSV vaccinations.
Vaccinations are especially important for high-risk groups including people 65 and older, people with certain medical conditions, and people at a higher risk of developing complications from respiratory illness.
WHO: Department of Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen Pennsylvania Insurance Department Commissioner Michael Humphreys Victoria Elliott, RPh, MBA, CAE, CEO of PA Pharmacists Association Paul Bowers, PharmD, Pharmacy Manager at See-Right Pharmacy
WHEN: September 27, 2024; 1:00 PM
WHERE: See-Right Pharmacy 2647 North 6th Street Harrisburg, PA 17110
VISUALS: Secretary Bogen and Commissioner Humphreys will receive the updated COVID-19 vaccine as part of the event.
MEDIA RSVP: Media interested in attending must RSVP with the name of the reporter and photojournalist to ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov.
An opera artist from south China’s Guangdong Province presents a performance showcasing the charm of China’s Lingnan culture at the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington, New Zealand, Sept. 25, 2024. This cultural promotion event was jointly held by the China International Cultural Association, the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the China Cultural Center in Wellington, and co-organized by the Federation of the Chinese Association of New Zealand. It aims to promote exchanges and mutual learning of civilizations between China and New Zealand. (Photo by Meng Tao/Xinhua)
Artists from Guangdong Province, southern China, showcased the charm of China’s Lingnan culture to New Zealanders at the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington on Wednesday evening.
This cultural promotion event was jointly held by the China International Cultural Association, the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the China Cultural Center in Wellington, and co-organized by the Federation of the Chinese Association of New Zealand. It aims to promote exchanges and mutual learning of civilizations between China and New Zealand.
At the beginning of the event, five inheritors of intangible cultural heritage from Guangdong presented a unique performance, including the Lingnan school of Guqin art, Chaozhou Kung Fu tea art, Canton Porcelain, and art of Dongguan agarwood incense.
The performances also featured Chinese folk musical instrument performance, Chinese folk song and dance, attracting more than 200 people. At the final of the show, the audience cheered and applauded in ovation for the artists’ performance.
A Wellington citizen who named herself only as Barbara told Xinhua that this has been the largest Chinese cultural event ever held in Wellington since COVID-19, and the whole show was “amazing” and “impressive”. The programs about Chinese tea especially broadened her horizon as a tea lover.
“China is the hometown of tea and the birthplace of the tea culture in the world,” she said, “I truly immersed in the profoundness of Chinese tea culture in this event.”
Zhang Yimin, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, said it is exciting to be here to engage in friendly exchanges by enjoying tea and artistic performances.
He hoped this event will help New Zealanders gain a deeper understanding of Guangdong’s culture and tourism, further promote cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong and New Zealand, and inject vitality into the long-term friendly exchanges and mutual learning of civilizations between China and New Zealand.
Guangdong Province is the heart of Lingnan culture, the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, and a pioneer in China’s reform and opening-up. The province is working together with Hong Kong and Macao to build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) into a world-class tourism destination, Zhang added.
I am delighted to be able to speak before you today, as representatives of Hessian family businesses. Family businesses play a significant role for the German economy and German society.
In cooperation with the audit firm EY, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland compiles the Global Family Business Index.[1] It lists the 500 largest family businesses in the world. And, last year, 78 businesses on this list – nearly 16% – were located in Germany. This puts Germany in second place behind the United States, which, however, has nearly five times the GDP of Germany. According to EY data, these 78 businesses generated the equivalent of just over €1 trillion in revenues in 2023.[2] Germany’s share of total revenues is therefore just over 10%. And, let it be noted, these are merely the largest and highest-revenue family enterprises.
However, when we talk about family businesses, it is naturally not just numbers that come to mind. It’s about much more than that, not least about tradition. What I often hear in this context is that “family businesses think in terms of generations, not quarterly reports”. For me, staying power is a good and important quality to have in order to comprehensively rise to challenges and overcome them sustainably. And we are currently facing our share of challenges; of that there is no doubt. I am referring to macroeconomic challenges, which also matter to family businesses.
Once a year, the Society for the German Language (Gesellschaft für die deutsche Sprache) chooses several terms as “Words of the Year”. Krisenmodus – “crisis mode” – took first place last year.[3] The term Krisenmodus will probably ring a bell if you look back across the past few years: the COVID–19 pandemic, disintegrating supply chains, high energy prices. This has also left its mark on economic growth, which, this year, will remain weak as well.
In my speech, I want to discuss in depth the factors that are still continuing to gnaw away at growth. These factors can be either temporary or also permanent in nature. My focus will be on the permanent factors, as we have to address these structural factors in order to make long-term progress. I will subsequently discuss which economic policy measures can specifically help overcome the current weak growth. However, let me first put the current period of economic weakness into context. How serious is the situation really?
2 Are Germany’s days as an industrial superpower coming to an end?
In the first half of 2024, like last year, Germany ranked among the laggards in terms of growth in the euro area. German GDP more or less stagnated in the first six months of the year, whereas the euro area average picked up markedly. Germany does not come off favourably in a global comparison, either. The advanced economies’ collective GDP rose by 0.5% in the spring, and of these, the United States even saw a 0.7% increase.
Third-quarter economic figures for Germany have likewise remained weak. All the while, the media seem to be trying to outdo each other with horror stories about the German economy. “Germany’s days as an industrial superpower are coming to an end” was, for instance, the title of a Bloomberg article in February on the current economic situation in Germany.[4] We read further on in that story that the “underpinnings of Germany’s industrial machine have fallen like dominoes”.
Just a cursory look back over the history of our economy shows us this: there is nothing inherently new about such headlines and debates. Germany weathered a pronounced slump around the turn of the millennium. Bloomberg Businessweek titled the cover page of its February 2003 issue “The decline of Germany”.[5] And, at the end of 2004, German author Gabor Steingart published a book titled Deutschland – der Abstieg eines Superstars (Germany – The decline of a superstar).[6] Is that painful crisis threatening to repeat itself? Are we in decline?
Without wanting to get ahead of myself: we are undoubtedly in a midst of a difficult transformation process. But it’s a process we have the power to shape. And if we shape it right, then my clear response is: No, in my opinion Germany is not in decline! How is today’s situation in Germany different from that at the turn of the millennium? Let’s take a look at the numbers.
At that time, the unemployment rate as calculated by the International Labour Organization (ILO) stood at over 9% on average; it is now 3.3%, and thus also well below the euro area average of 6.5%. Back then, the most pressing labour market problem was unemployment; now, it is the shortage of skilled workers.
Moreover, German firms’ profitability and capital base are much better now than they were 25 years ago. As a case in point, the average capital ratio was 23% then, whereas in the 2020 to 2022 period it averaged 30%. The profit margin went up from 3.4% at the time to 4.5% in the 2020 to 2022 period. These data are subject to a major time lag, which is why we do not yet have any numbers for 2023.
However, what are the reasons for the current feeble growth dynamics? The energy crisis had an outsized impact on Germany, an exporting country where manufacturing has a special status. As, before the outbreak of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, dependency on inexpensive Russian energy deliveries was high – too high. Moreover, the fallout from the high inflation weighed on the economy. Many consumers kept their purse strings tight. In addition, the restrictive monetary policy is dampening economic activity. And last but not least, industry continues to be impacted by weak foreign demand, particularly because our euro area trading partners’ imports rose less strongly than world trade. What we know for sure is that some of these factors are only temporary. We therefore assume that Germany’s economy will be able to slowly regain some momentum.
3 Structural challenges
Some factors, however, have a longer-term effect. We are facing extensive structural challenges which can likewise dampen growth. To wit, energy costs are set to remain higher than before Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine for quite a while to come. The price of natural gas fell from some €240 per kilowatt hour in August 2022 to €30 in early 2024, before then bouncing back up to around €38 in August of this year, still well above the average price of €13 in the pre-crisis year of 2019.
But the desired transition to a carbon-free energy supply will be costly as well, at least over a relatively long transition period. Plus there are further challenges such as demographic change, the reduction of unilateral dependence on imports and fragmentation of international trade.
The transition to a climate-neutral economy, above all, will require massive investment. On this point, a study commissioned by the KfW Group estimated the volume of investment needed to reach Germany’s net-zero targets by mid-century. The result: around €5 trillion. [7] A McKinsey study even puts the figure higher still, at €6 trillion.[8] And just like when you retrofit an old building to improve its energy efficiency, that number includes investment that will be made in any event. But the estimated incremental investment is considerable, too. The KfW study puts this at around €72 billion per year, or just under 2% of German GDP.
And even though the comprehensive digitalisation process that needs to take place will offer huge opportunities, it, too, will require investment, not to mention training or reconceptualising of processes and business lines. But how is investment faring in Germany at the moment? Let’s take a look at the statistics.
They show that investment in buildings, machinery and equipment, and other assets in Germany has not grown over the past few years. And declining investment was a key factor behind the slight contraction in economic output in the second quarter. But not just that: in a recent analysis the audit firm EY found that the number of foreign investment projects in Germany has dropped for the past six years in a row.[9] All things considered, despite the aforementioned challenges and the need for investment that they entail, there is currently no indication of an investment boom.
But what are the reasons for this weak investment propensity? We have investigated this question through our business survey, the Bundesbank Online Panel – Firms. In it, around 7,400 German firms were asked in the third quarter of 2023 about their motives for investment. We published the results in the May edition of our Monthly Report.[10]
The poor macroeconomic setting was evidently the key reason for declining investment. This was closely followed by high energy and wage costs, a shortage of skilled workers, uncertainty about regulation, and high taxes and public levies. Low public funding, inefficient public administration and poor digital infrastructure played a lesser role. These findings may be a year old, but there is much to suggest that they remain valid.
4 The tasks of economic policy
This brings us to the following question: what can economic policy do to remove barriers to investment, or at least mitigate them? One thing it certainly cannot do is directly influence the challenging global setting. For certain other barriers, however, it is very much possible and preferable to tackle them through economic policy. I would like to address three such areas: energy and climate policy, bureaucratic hurdles and the labour market.
4.1 Energy and climate policy
The first area primarily concerns planning certainty and reliability in energy and climate policy. The terms planning certainty and reliability were not plucked out of thin air, as shown by the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index. Developed by the economists Scott Baker, Nicholas Bloom and Steven Davis, this index is based on the analysis of pertinent newspaper articles.[11] According to the index, economic policy uncertainty in Germany has risen much more strongly over the past few years than the average for Europe.[12] Deciding to invest in green technologies is mostly tied up with irreversible costs. So where there is uncertainty about future policy, firms understandably hesitate before making such decisions.
Now, there is no doubt about the basic direction we’re heading in: we have to become carbon neutral if we care even just a little for the welfare of subsequent generations. But when it comes to the details, there is indeed uncertainty. How will the costs of fossil fuels develop? How will the costs of environmentally friendly energy develop and will there be a reliable supply? What will government regulation, taxation, and support look like?
To reduce these kinds of uncertainties about the energy transition, it is vital that we have a transparent, purposeful and consistent overall framework. This framework includes having sufficient capacity to import and store climate-neutral energy, and back-up power plants for the event that a dunkelflaute – a period with no wind or sunlight – coincides with a period of high energy needs. And, of course, an efficient energy grid. It will therefore be increasingly important, too, to expand power lines connecting Germany from north to south, but also connecting us to our neighbours in Europe.
The Bundesbank believes that the key instrument to achieve climate objectives should be a price on carbon emissions. This is because carbon pricing ensures that savings and investment are made where it is possible to do so with the lowest costs. However, the crucial thing is to apply carbon pricing as broadly, uniformly and predictably as possible.
Ambitious carbon pricing not only creates incentives for the use of renewable energy, but also for greater energy efficiency. Our April Monthly Report showed how important advancements in energy efficiency are to not missing climate targets.[13] Increases in energy efficiency reduce aggregate energy intensity and thereby boost aggregate production. They thus counteract the activity-dampening stimuli likely to emanate from a higher carbon price.
So the production losses or gains that would be associated with achieving climate goals depend not least on energy-saving technological progress. Besides carbon pricing, subsidies for research and development are one conceivable instrument to increase energy efficiency. However, subsidies should be used in a measured and purposeful manner.
I’m not just concerned about the burden on government finances, which we naturally have to keep an eye on as well. When government interventions become too complex and too extensive, they can significantly distort market incentives. It is possible, for example, that firms keep putting off the necessary investment in the hopes of receiving future subsidies. Some subsidies still in place in the energy and transportation sectors actually run counter to the climate goals. To a certain extent, they therefore act in the same way as a negative carbon price.[14] And last but not least, excessive government intervention ultimately leads to bureaucratic hurdles.
4.2 Bureaucratic hurdles
That brings me to the second area where economic policy can improve the investment climate: the burden of bureaucracy. We should make a distinction between two different aspects here. First, there is the extent of requirements placed on firms. For example, there has recently been intense debate about the Supply Chain Act and questions surrounding data protection. In this respect, politicians should make sure they don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Even if the objectives are legitimate, the ability to implement measures has to be borne in mind.
Second, the speed of bureaucracy is important. In Germany, congestion occurs not just on the motorways but also in approval processes. It can sometimes take years for a wind turbine to go into operation, say. When it comes to the pace and efficiency of bureaucracy, especially, we should consider digitalisation as a huge opportunity. Digital technologies can simplify and streamline administrative processes. Incidentally, that is very much in the interest of the administration seeing as it, too, is affected by the shortage of skilled workers. It would appear somewhat logical to bundle more processes when it comes to the digitalisation of administration.
That means the targeted transferral of responsibilities to central units, which develop harmonised approaches in a cost-effective way. This would open the door to achieving economies of scale, if the relevant costs per process are reduced thanks to a larger area of application, say. What I’m thinking about here is the digitalisation of the tax administration, for instance. It could likely leverage efficiency reserves if certain tasks were delegated to a single unit. A modern form of federalism could also help us to leverage efficiency reserves, specifically when those responsible actually learn from the best practices of others.
And I’m speaking on this not just as an economist, but also as the president of a large public authority. Dismantling bureaucracy and driving digitalisation often require enormous effort and persistence. But they also present huge opportunities. There’s a reason why the Society for the German Language listed “AI boom” as another “Word of the Year” in 2023, ranking it number eight.
4.3 Labour market
The third area where economic policy can play an important role is the labour market. You, as operators of businesses, have been complaining of a shortage of skilled workers for many years now. Quite apart from the current bout of economic weakness, the problem has been increasingly exacerbated by demographic change. And it will become even greater in the future.
The number of vacancies per unemployed person is often used as an indicator of tightness in the labour market. Up until 2014, there were around three vacancies for every 10 unemployed persons.[15] At the moment, there are roughly six jobs available for every ten unemployed persons. And the number of vacancies has also climbed to an all-time high since the end of the pandemic and is barely coming down. There is a shortage of skilled workers, and a shortage of labour.
There is a host of conceivable measures to reduce this shortage: open up better employment opportunities for women and older people, make a targeted play for skilled workers from abroad, strengthen vocational and further training, and do a better job of getting the long-term unemployed and immigrants into work.
Equally, we shouldn’t lose sight of the groups that so far haven’t participated in the labour market – known as the “hidden reserve”. According to the Federal Statistical Office, Germany’s hidden reserve recently came to almost 3.2 million people.[16] Close to 60% of them have a mid to high-level qualification. Looking at the hidden reserve, there are significant differences between the genders. For example, many women state that they cannot work because they care for children or family members. We should make better use of this untapped potential labour force. Expanded care facilities for children or dependants requiring care are an important way to help more people enter the labour market.
I am certain that many of you have already taken steps at your businesses to make it easier to reconcile work and family life: you operate kindergartens or have spaces reserved at other childcare facilities, offer flexible working time models or the option of working from home – the list of possibilities is long.
The number of older persons in employment could be increased as well, for example if the statutory retirement age were linked to life expectancy after 2030. This would allow the ratio of retirement to working years to be more or less stabilised. Without this link, the ratio would carry on growing as life expectancy continues to rise. Also, in the short term, it might be worth considering limiting the financial incentives to take early retirement.
After all, in the interests of preserving a good employment and investment climate, it is important to see to it that the tax burden on labour and capital remains reasonable. Germany, for instance, has a high corporate tax burden in comparison to other countries.[17]
The Federal Government has the three economic policy areas I have just spoken about on its radar. This can be seen in this year’s growth initiative from 17 July. The bundle of 49 measures is intended – amongst other things – to increase incentives to work, including making it more attractive for older people to remain in work, accelerate the reduction of bureaucracy and secure the further expansion of renewable energy generation. The growth initiative is an important step in the right direction if Germany wants to rise to today’s challenges. Much depends on its implementation, however. And there is still much to be done.
As an economist myself I must of course not forget what the term “budget constraints” implies: it is not easy to deal with all these challenges when the public purse is light. This being as it is, a critical evaluation of economic policy priorities is almost certainly unavoidable, and that evaluation will remain on the agenda even if the debt brake were to be reformed. The Bundesbank would tolerate a reform if it would continue to guarantee sound government finances. And we have proposed some stability-oriented reforms.
4.4 More financing via the capital markets union
I have gone over what politics and politicians can do to improve the investment climate in Germany. But whether or not an investment will pay off over the long term is not the only important factor. Any investment project must also be funded.
That brings me to the European perspective. Because, all too often, businesses come up against internal European borders in their search for funding. An integrated capital market across the whole of Europe could give European businesses access to more funding for important private investments. But to forge that integrated pan-European capital market, we must make swift progress on both the banking and capital markets unions.
To demonstrate my point with figures: securitisation markets in the EU saw a volume of around €800 billion in 2020. In the United States, this volume was at around US$3.2 trillion, excluding government-guaranteed products.[18] So that’s a different magnitude altogether, even though the United States and the EU have comparably large economies when measured by purchasing power parity.[19] The European securitisation market fell apart following the financial crisis and has never fully recovered since. The securitisation volume in the United States, on the other hand, has already exceeded pre-crisis levels, with the caveat that American market structures are not perfectly comparable with European ones.
You may be thinking that securitisation has a bad reputation. And you would be right. After the 2008 financial crisis it was the poster child for “bad financial market innovations” and mainly brought to mind the sale of potentially non-performing loans to unsuspecting investors. As the head of the Bundesbank’s financial crisis management team at the time, I had an unmatched position from which to examine the dynamics of the crisis in detail.
The financial crisis did indeed lay bare the weaknesses in the securitisation process, which can particularly come to bear in highly complex securitisation transactions. These related to deficits surrounding transparency, risk management and valuation methods. Properly structured and well regulated, though, securitisation vehicles can definitely offer added value to our economy. Securitisation markets complement other sources of long-term financing in the real economy. They give enterprises the opportunity to broaden their funding.
This particularly applies to small and medium-sized enterprises, because securitisation gives them indirect access to capital market investors. Moreover, securitisation can relieve the pressure on bank balance sheets and open up additional scope for lending to the private sector. Well-regulated and structured securitisation markets could improve the allocation of resources in an economy and ensure a better distribution of risk.[20] This could reduce funding costs and increase economic growth.
Support for the securitisation market is thus an important element of EU plans for a capital markets union. But there are others. The creation of integrated financial supervisory structures is planned. National insolvency rules, accounting and securities law are to be harmonised. The goal is to create a level playing field for all financial market participants operating at the EU level. And so long as this goal remains abstract, pretty much nobody has a problem with it. As soon as concrete decisions and negotiations enter the picture, however, unity often dissipates. Harmonising national rules is impossible without compromise, after all.
Happily, more and more European policymakers are coming around to the view that we urgently need a common capital market. There’s been some movement on that front in the last few months. I think, for example, that we have made good progress towards developing a European securitisation market. We need to break down the barriers separating European capital markets one by one!
5 Conclusion
Ladies and gentlemen,
As far as the structural challenges are concerned, we need to set the necessary changes in motion and make them fit for purpose. I am certain we can achieve that. The underpinnings of Germany’s industrial machine are still intact, and Germany’s position as an industrial and investment location is better than its present reputation implies. After recording sluggish growth at the turn of the millennium, Germany ranked as an economic powerhouse in Europe for more than decade.[21] Perhaps that should inspire us to invest shrewdly and sufficiently in our future.
Economic policymaking can lay a solid foundation for that investment, but it is not all-powerful. It all comes down to enterprises and their employees in the end. Academic studies show that family businesses have greater resilience when in crisis mode than other enterprises.[22] I therefore firmly believe that all of you, as operators of family-owned businesses, continue to play an important role in ensuring the German economy rises to the challenges it faces today. And thus in ensuring that Germany remains ready for what the future holds
See EBA (2022), Joint Committee advice on the review of the securitisation prudential framework (Banking), p. 24. For comparison purposes, the total volume of the US securitisation market (US$13,131 billion) was adjusted for agency ABSs (75%), while the total volume of the EU securitisation market (€3,058 billion) was adjusted for mortgage CBs (63%) and other CBs (11%).
Buchner et al. (2021), Resilienz von Familienunternehmen – Eine systematische Literaturanalyse, Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis 73, Vol. 3, pp. 225 f.
Make in India Celebrates 10 Years: A Decade of Transformational Growth India’s Manufacturing Revolution Gathers Momentum with Focus on Innovation, Investment, and Self-reliance
Posted On: 25 SEP 2024 3:52PM by PIB Delhi
The ‘Make in India’ initiative, launched on 25th September 2014, completes a landmark decade of empowering India to become a global manufacturing hub. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the program has played a pivotal role in boosting domestic manufacturing, fostering innovation, enhancing skill development, and facilitating foreign investment.
10 Years of Impact: A Snapshot
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Since 2014, India has attracted a cumulative FDI inflow of USD 667.4 billion (2014-24), registering an increase of 119% over the preceding decade (2004-14). This investment inflow spans 31 States and 57 sectors, driving growth across diverse industries. Most sectors, except certain strategically important sectors, are open for 100% FDI under the automatic route. FDI equity inflows into the manufacturing sector over the past decade (2014-24) reached USD 165.1 billion, marking a 69% increase compared to the previous decade (2004 -14), which saw inflows of USD 97.7 billion.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme: The PLI Schemes introduced in 2020 have resulted in ₹1.32 lakh crore (USD 16 billion) in investments and a significant boost in manufacturing output of ₹10.90 lakh crore (USD 130 billion) as of June 2024. Over 8.5 lakh jobs have been created directly and indirectly due to the initiative.
Exports & Employment: India’s merchandise exports surpassed USD 437 billion in FY 2023-24. Exports have surged, with an additional ₹4 lakh crore generated due to the PLI schemes, while total employment in the manufacturing sector increased from 57 million in 2017-18 to 64.4 million in 2022-23.
Ease of Doing Business: India’s commitment to improving business conditions is evident in its sharp rise from 142nd rank in 2014 to 63rd rank in 2019 in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. Over 42,000 compliances have been reduced, and 3,700 provisions has been decriminalized. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, passed by Lok Sabha on 27th July 2023 and Rajya Sabha on 2nd August 2023, which has decriminalized 183 provisions across 42 Central Acts.
Key Reforms
Semiconductor Ecosystem Development: Semicon India Program, worth ₹76,000 crore, aims to provide an impetus to semiconductor and display manufacturing by facilitating capital support and technological collaborations. India has developed policies to support every segment of the semiconductor ecosystem, not just focusing on fabs but also including packaging, display wires, OSATs, sensors, and more.
National Single Window System (NSWS): Launched in September 2021, this platform simplifies the investor experience, integrating clearances from 32 Ministries/ Departments and 29 States/UTs, facilitating rapid approvals.
PM Gatishakti: PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP), a GIS based platform with portals of various Ministries/Departments of Government, was launched in October, 2021. It is a transformative approach to facilitate data-based decisions related to integrated planning of multimodal infrastructure, thereby reducing logistics cost.
National Logistics Policy (NLP): Aimed at reducing logistics costs and increasing efficiency, the NLP, launched in 2022, is key to making Indian products more globally competitive.
Industrial Corridors & Infrastructure: The development of 11 industrial corridors under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme has seen the approval of 12 new projects with a projected investment of ₹28,602 crore. These corridors enhance India’s competitiveness by providing world-class infrastructure.
One-District-One-Product (ODOP): Promoting indigenous products and craftsmanship across India, the ODOP initiative has fostered local economic development, with Unity Malls being set up in 27 states to provide platforms for these unique products.
Startup India: The Government with intent to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and encouraging investments launched the Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016. Sustained efforts by the Government under the Startup India initiative have led to an increase in the number of recognised startups to 1,40,803 as on 30th June 2024, which have created over 15.5 lakh direct jobs.
Government of India has undertaken a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach to boost both domestic and foreign investments, fostering a robust and dynamic economic environment. From landmark reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the reduction in corporate tax, to far-reaching measures aimed at improving ease of doing business and streamlining FDI policies, every step is geared towards creating a more investment-friendly ecosystem. Initiatives like the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), public procurement orders, and Quality Control Orders (QCOs) are focused on driving domestic manufacturing and enhancing product quality.
The Government’s proactive response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, through the Atmanirbhar Bharat packages and targeted investments under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), has turned adversity into an opportunity for growth. Tools such as the India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS), and the National Single Window System (NSWS) further streamline processes for investors. Additionally, Project Development Cells (PDCs) in various Ministries ensure that investment proposals are fast-tracked, making India a more attractive destination for global and domestic investors. These efforts collectively reinforce India’s position as a burgeoning hub for manufacturing and innovation.
As India moves into its next decade of growth, Make in India 2.0 focuses on furthering sustainability, innovation, and self-reliance. With strategic interventions in renewable energy, green technologies, and advanced manufacturing, the initiative is ensuring that Indian products meet the highest global standards.
