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January transfer spends up almost 75% from last year, says FIFA study

TRANSFER spending in men’s soccer went up by 74.7% in the January window compared to last year as clubs signed more players in a sign of a recovery following two pandemic-hit years, world governing body International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) said on Tuesday.

Clubs spent $1.03 billion on players last month, just shy of the $1.16 billion recorded in January 2020.

A total of 3,791 international transfers were completed across men’s and women’s soccer — a rise of 28% compared to 2021 among male players, and a new all-time high of 42.8% increase in the women’s game.

“For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, transfer fees and the number of transfers experienced significant growth,” a study from FIFA said.

English clubs topped spending with an outlay of $349.5 million, followed by Italy with $113.6 million and Spain with $111.1 million. England was also the top gainer in terms of transfer receipts, earning $108.6 million.

Serbia striker Dusan Vlahovic’s move from Italian Serie A club Fiorentina to rival Juventus was reported to be the most expensive in the window, with the deal worth up to €80 million ($91.34 million).

Ferran Torres swapping Manchester City for Barcelona and Luis Diaz moving to Liverpool from Porto was second and third on the list, with the reported fees of €55 million ($62.79 million) and €45 million ($51.38 million), respectively. — Reuters

Palmeiras beats Al Ahly to reach Club World Cup final

PALMEIRAS midfielder Dudu scored a superb second-half goal as the Copa Libertadores winners earned a clinical 2-0 win over Egypt’s Al Ahly at Abu Dhabi’s Al Nahyan Stadium on Tuesday to book their place in the final of the Club World Cup.

The Brazilian side will meet the winner of Wednesday’s second semifinal between Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal and European champions Chelsea for the title.

After a drab opening that produced few chances, the game sprung to life in the 39th minute when Raphael Veiga turned in Dudu’s excellent first-time throughball to put Palmeiras in front.

Al Ahly were jolted again early in the second half after Dudu got on the scoresheet himself, rifling home from the right side with a powerful shot following some slick buildup play.

Al Ahly, who beat Monterrey 1-0 in the second round, enjoyed more of the ball after the interval but failed to break down a resolute Palmeiras defense.

A tap-in from Mohamed Sherif after a howler by Palmeiras keeper Weverton in the 72nd minute seemed to have set up an exciting finish but the goal was ruled out for offside following a VAR check.

Any hopes of a comeback for the Egyptians were completely wiped out in the 81st minute when Ayman Ashraf was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle from behind on frontman Rony.

It capped off a difficult week for the 30-year-old, who was part of the Egypt side that lost to Senegal in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday. — Reuters

A strategic plan for Philippine education

DUALTECH TRAINING CENTER/FACEBOOK

(Part 2)

The improvement of the quality of the workforce in the education industry is conditio sine qua non for the attainment of its long-term goals. The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) has formulated a workforce development program targeted at improving employment outcomes.

The long-term goal in human resource planning for the Philippine education sector is a highly skilled workforce that is able to lead productive lives and support Philippine competitiveness.

Again, let us be reminded that here we are discussing education as an industry sector of the Philippine economy. Education as such has many more concerns than just economic development which is just a part of total human fulfillment, which, in the final analysis, is the ultimate goal of education.

A highly skilled workforce can be attained through well-defined competencies which are articulated in the curricula, recognized by companies and reflected in the resulting credentials. It is also imperative that there is institutional industry participation in lifelong learning.

Especially in imparting technical skills, the ultimate in industry participation in the learning process is found in the German-inspired “dualvoc” training which consists in combining classroom or theoretical and practical training with simultaneous exposure to actual jobs in the factory setting or workplace, already perfected in the last 40 years in the Philippines by Dualtech Training Center Foundation, Inc., in Canlubang, Laguna. This technical school was established in 1982 with the generous help of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, headquartered in Bavaria. Another variation of the same model is the MFI Polytechnic Institute established with the help of Meralco.

Over the next five to seven years, to coincide with the Administration that will be in place by next July 2022, the targeted outcomes are:

• Skills Qualifications Framework

• Career guidance through a national labor market information system

• Industry-led training programs for the future of work (JobsNext)

• Established sustainable coalitions with industry, academe and government.

The workforce development program efforts could be coordinated among several agencies (which should include the newly created Department of Migrant Workers) or one workforce development agency.

For 2022, the operational plan (as distinguished from the strategic plan) should include:

• Setting up a Skills Qualifications Framework which will consist in defining two career pathways in two sectors by the third quarter and launching three sector skills councils publicly by the fourth quarter.

• Defining a Philippine Labor Market Intelligence (LMI) by launching three local and sectoral LMI systems by the first quarter and launching a national LMI framework in partnership with a lead government agency by the fourth quarter. Obviously, it is suggested that the Duterte Administration already pave the way for all these steps even during the first semester of 2022.

• Mainstreaming industry-led training programs for the Future of Work through the following efforts: lobby for the JobsNext bill in the third quarter; pilot the JobsNext Program in two local government units (say, Bataan Province or Iloilo City); train 4,200 out of school youth who will work in industry-led work-based techvoc training by the fourth quarter; train 9,600 youths in employable skills by the fourth quarter.

• Building sustainable coalitions by strengthening one existing Government-Industry-Academe Council and setting up two new ones by the second quarter and reviving the National Industry-Academe Council (NIAC) by the third quarter.

• Informing Workplace Development Governance through research and policy discussions on a workforce development agency by the second and third quarters.

For greater impact, there should be close coordination with the various stakeholders of the education sector. The long-term goal is to ensure that the stakeholders (Government, Business, Academe and Civil Society) are active and engaged in helping to advocate for an inclusive education system. This can be achieved through: a) A strong, professional and friendly relationship with education policy and decision makers; b) Active and deeply rooted network with media; c) Wider and deeper recognition and participation of business community in education and lifelong learning; d) High confidence of development partners in the approval of new long-term programs.

For the next Administration (2022–2028), the outcomes will include an identified and engaged pipeline of business leaders committed to quality education; an established media beat and network; and strong relationships with development partners and donors. For the immediate future (2022), the plans should include: a) Building relationships with policy and decision makers in Government by paying the President-elect a courtesy call in the third quarter; hosting dinners for legislators and new Cabinet secretaries also in the third quarter; b) Engaging the media by organizing quarterly media forum or Kapihan; c) Engaging young, next-generation business leaders by organizing two education roundtable discussions for young business leaders in the first and third quarters; d) Maintaining close relationships with donors by, among others, hosting lunches for the United States Agency for International Development and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the third quarter.

These long-term objectives and short-term goals formulated by PBEd are generic enough to be adopted and modified, if necessary, by any other group committed to improving the quality of Philippine education for the purpose of increasing the chances of sustainable and inclusive economic development in the next twenty to thirty years. As we wrote in previous articles about the long-term economic future of the Philippines, the past thirty-year set of political and economic reforms have set the stage for the Philippines to become, like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, a First World country by 2050. The probability of reaching such a goal will be greatly enhanced if we are able to implement in the next three Administrations the Strategic Plan for Education outlined in this series of articles.

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

Populism may be losing its influence over markets

FREEPIK

A POPULAR tenet of investing wisdom is to focus on the long-term. This is usually applied to quantitative methods of investing, such as considering historical 10- and 20-year returns of global asset classes rather than looking at what specific sectors or companies did last year, and what analysts guess they will do next year.

A new report from the UK’s Cambridge University Centre for the Future of Democracy offers investors a rare chance to think about the overall economy over the next decade. The authors compiled a large global dataset that suggests some not-often-heard claims, such as that the tide of populism, nationalism and inequality has turned, and is rapidly receding in favor of a more prosperous, peaceful, egalitarian and cohesive globe in the next decade.

I am no starry-eyed optimist rebalancing my entire portfolio on the expectation of 10 years of peace, love and understanding. But a major focus of the last 10 years has been protecting against populism, war, depression and nationalism, so perhaps it’s time to broaden my attention. I don’t think the report’s authors, or anyone else, have a crystal ball. But they present us with a plausible, data-driven scenario. I know the post-pandemic economy will be very different from 2019, so thinking about what might happen is important.

Back in 2007–2009, when the financial world was collapsing, the story seemed to be governments seizing vast new powers. Central banks invented ad hoc rationales for inflating their balance sheets beyond anything contemplated in the past and choosing winners and losers, without clear legal authority. Governments disregarded budget constraints and claimed near war-time emergency powers. Courts mostly deferred to the changes. At that time, populist uprisings such as the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street seemed to be sideshows to crisis management by top officials.

Key populist ideas are that the world is divided into ordinary people and a corrupt elite (the “deep state” for the right, “white supremacists” for the left), the will of the people trumps established norms and rule of law, and that the people’s will is revealed by protests and street battles rather than elections. Populists blame secretive special interests for blocking natural progress and think important information is deliberately concealed from the people.

Looking back, populism, not government actions, was the big story. Throughout the world, nationalism soared and globalism entered defensive retreat. People stopped quoting Sun Tzu, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” because Carl von Clausewitz’s “War is the continuation of politics by other means” seemed more relevant. The major political shifts of the time — gay marriage, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, defund the police — all bubbled up from below, catching established politicians by surprise. In both the Republican and Democratic parties, central planks starkly contradicted past policy positions and the long-published opinions of their partisan experts. Similar things were happening in democracies around the globe.

Government actions in response to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 resembled the 2007–2009 power grab. But according to the Cambridge report, they seemed to have had the opposite effect. Rather than inciting a populist backlash, they may have killed populism. For all the criticism of public health officials, the pandemic seems to be rallying people around a common human cause. Populist leaders are perceived to have mismanaged things. Traditional elite leaders are seen as flailing and often failing, but to be doing the best they can and deserving of support.

It’s hard to see this reading US headlines about anti-vaxxers, “Stop the Steal” and intensely partisan gridlock in Washington, but worldwide surveys rigorously comparing to 2019 attitudes suggests those things are the death throes of the past, not the future. As in 2007–2009, the headlines can be misleading and the sideshows the important indicators.

Other headlines suggest that the pandemic has increased inequality. While that seems to be true according to some metrics, populists can only exploit inequality between cohesive groups — rural farmers versus urban manufacturing workers, workers versus owners, tenants versus landlords, one racial or ethnic group versus another. The pandemic seems to have made these more equal on average over the entire world. Other inequalities measured on statistical categories rather than groups with strong social identities may be increasing, but they cannot be used to acquire political power.

The Cambridge report is not entirely optimistic. Along with the decline of populism seems to be an increasing taste for authoritarian leaders and reduced respect for civil rights and democracy. While that’s directionally bad, it will take some years — if ever — for that to develop into a problem as big as the fully mature raging populism of the 2010s. And much of it may fade away if the pandemic eases and military confrontations cool.

The scenario laid out by the report seems like a good one for bonds and currencies, less so for stocks. For all the economic damage of populist policies like tariffs, immigration restrictions and anti-bank policies, the 2010s was a great time for the stock market. War, and threat of war, means weapons. Defanging the elite is a form of deregulation. Partisan gridlock makes raising taxes difficult and increases the voice of big companies. An authoritarian elite consensus is likely to impose medicine such as higher taxes, especially on investors and companies, strong environmental controls, increased pay and benefits for workers and more constraints on creditors and landlords. While those policies have benefits for some groups, they’re generally negative ones for equity investors.

Most investors today are focused on protecting themselves from the consequences of populism and partisanship: inflation, confiscation, government default, war and trade restrictions. Those are real risks, but so is the opposite, an authoritarian global consensus with little respect for rights and elections. Investors have to be careful not to fight the last war.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Doping in sports

MARCO VERCH UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS 2.0

Doping in sports through the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) has long been a problem since countries and sports bodies have put pressure on their athletes to surpass existing records and win almost all medals in sight at all costs.

Athletes, of course, have — with the help of their coaches and unethical chemists — taken such performing-enhancing substances for one and only one reason: money.

State-sponsored and organized doping was the reason the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) was suspended by the then International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 2015 as evidence mounted of such systematized doping and the subsequent state-organized cover-up. Reports of threats to the lives of whistle blowers forced to seek asylum in other countries occupied thousands of column inches. Stories of personnel in Russian labs disappearing or being murdered also surfaced.

The doping issue in athletics continued to be a matter of serious concern and in 2017, RusAF’s membership in the international federation governing athletics remained suspended. Its application for reacceptance still failed to comply with certain conditions set by the world athletics body.

Russia’s continued suspension was overwhelmingly supported by the IAAF, which, by then, had rebranded itself as World Athletics (WA) under president Sebastian Coe, who instituted broad and wide-ranging governance and integrity reforms in the organization. The latest vote on the issue was taken in November 2021.

The doping issue engulfed all of Russia’s national sports federations as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned in 2017 the participation of Russia in the Olympics.

However, Russian athletes can still compete in the Games under the neutral “ROC,” or Russian Olympic Committee.

How is it possible that a country that has been banned from the Olympics is still allowed to compete? The basic explanation is that “strictly speaking, it’s the National Olympic Committees that compete in the Olympics and not countries.”

Use of country name and flag is allowed to give the event the extra marketing push stemming from nationalistic or patriotic sentiments. It always feels good to “root and cheer for one’s country, play for one’s country and wear the flag on one’s chest” even if the motivation is really the money trail that lies ahead and is waiting to be traversed.

Yes, money is a major motivator simply because sport — most of all, the Olympics — has become, in the words of some, “capitalistic.”

There is nothing wrong with having money as a motivator. An athlete invests time and effort, forgoes other opportunities, even risks his personal safety, to perfect his skills, very often with the support of the government. In a developing country such as the Philippines — and countries that combine government and private support such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany — government provides the seed fund or starting capital and eventually, the working capital so that the athlete can avail himself of the best coaches, equipment, training and competition environment, nutrition, medical care, etc.

The investment of the athlete is his time, his skill (which, by the way, is developed through investments made by the state and private sponsors who also hope for a cash return or enhancement of their reputation as a good socially responsible corporate citizen which has, incidentally, an equivalent in money).

In exchange for this support from the state, the athlete promises to abide by certain conditions as part of character and moral development and to maintain good order in the sports structure to justify additional investments.

It’s when the athlete prioritizes in a most unreasonable way the commercial part of sports and sports administrators take advantage of an athlete’s needs and problems that things go haywire.

This then provides openings for one creating undue advantage over competitors by, for example, knowingly taking banned substances.

This compromises the basic rule of sport and life: the creation of a level playing field. It all boils down to decency and fair play.

A few of these performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) are anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, erythropoietin (EPO), beta-blockers, stimulants, and diuretics.

There are many fairly obvious manifestations of taking performance-enhancing drugs. One is the appearance of acne in the face, and usually in the chest and in the shoulders.

The sudden appearance of pimples in the face of one noted Mexican fighter who battled Manny Pacquiao was one of the reasons the late boxing commentator and manager Hermie Rivera hinted in a post-fight press conference that Pacquiao’s opponent, two to three years older than Pacquiao, seemed to be “loaded” and unusually strong and powerful.

Noted boxing promoter Bob Arum brushed aside the question. This did not, however, stop Rivera from pursuing the angle in his columns and in private conversations and gatherings. It did not help however that one member of this Mexican boxer’s team was a strength and conditioning coach who, according to USA Today, used to supply performance-enhancing designer drugs to elite athletes.

Other indicators of taking PEDs, according to physical fitness and gym instructors, are an “unusually pungent” body odor and unusual aggressiveness.

In what could qualify as an unofficial condemnation of professional boxing, multi-awarded trainer of the year and Pacquiao trainer, Freddie Roach, once declared in a private dinner that “all of them (boxers) do (take PEDs), except Manny.” Roach had accused the Mexican boxer’s strength and conditioning coach of getting his prized boxer to use PEDs as a matter of course.

Too many athletes and athlete managers and advisers are lured by the prospect of tons of money created by PED-fueled success. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will have none of these. The WADA comes down hard on violators of anti-doping rules. In one of my discussions with some of WADA’s officials, I stated that the Philippines Athletics federation does not promote the use of PEDs for the reasons that it is immoral, unethical, illegal, harmful to the health and “we can’t afford it.”

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Are you still undecided?

PCH VECTOR-FREEPIK

FOR this coming race in May or even past political surveys, I confess I have not been approached for my preference “if the elections are held today.” My closest brush with surveys deals with customer feedback in restaurants. I always answer this with a stub of a pencil with no eraser. (Was your carrot soup free of dead flies?)

Surveys have a biased sample in terms of those bothering to fill up forms, maybe out of sheer frustration with the service, or those randomly approached by masked researchers and stopping to be queried on their take on a free chocolate chip cookie sample. (Can I take two more?)

With online surveys, the concept of randomized and stratified respondents just got more complicated. Trolls, even from outside the country, can participate in electoral preference surveys even if they can’t vote. In-person surveys have become more challenging with the pandemic making one suspicious of any approaching masked stranger walking towards a respondent poised to ask questions. Time to walk away.

There is nothing wrong with not making up one’s mind until it’s time to vote. Even the undecided knows the candidates he loathes. These hate objects are more obvious to him than the one he will eventually choose, maybe between two possibilities.

Winnability becomes a factor as the election time approaches. Casting a vote on principle may be considered a wasted ballot if the preferred classmate is at the bottom of the survey heap as an asterisk.

Isn’t voter education concerned with providing more information on the candidates, both positive and negative — for the benefit of the undecided? The paid ads don’t provide an unbiased projection of the candidate. And fake news is just meant to muddle the issue.

The undecided may be waiting for more information. Are debates going to help? Theoretically, they provide the opportunity for fence sitters (with small letters) to make up their minds.

In this election, there seem to be few undecided voters left.

True believers stick to their candidates no matter how they do in debates. Anyway, these events are pretty much anticipated with the questions and issues known in advance, so seeming to be brilliant and up to date on the effect of the pandemic on the economy, the effectiveness of the war on drugs, and the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, can put the candidate at par with the interviewers and debate hosts in terms of preparedness.

Responses are not as off-the-cuff as they are made to appear, even with the time constraints. Still, the gong and switching off the audio when the allotted time is up is often a relief for the respondent.

Debates or serial answers to the same questions are supposed to define the candidates. But most answers seem too pat and don’t really help the undecided to change his uncertain status. Up to the day before he goes to the polls, he may not have made up his mind. There are, after all, other positions to fill up aside from the top two.

It’s best to appreciate the importance of customer (or voter) feedback, as in our restaurant. The survey form is intended to get a reading of how the service went and whether the customer liked the food he was served. The information is important in improving customer retention, and hoping for continued patronage — how can we improve the product?

So, when the customer comes back, he will not be as undecided as he may have been in his previous visit. He knows what he likes and what to order — the dish his companion seemed to have enjoyed?

In this election, with just about three months to go, there are probably few undecided voters left. Still, after more information from the interviews and debates, as well as pending cases and surprise revelations in late night announcements, some certainties may be shaken up.

So, as in the restaurant where we already know what to order on the next visit, it may be good to have a second choice, in case the first preference is unavailable. (Yes, it used to be on the menu.) But due to supply chain disruptions from the pandemic or the disqualification of certain ingredients due to their already expired status, it is good to have a second choice.

At some point, there will be no undecided left… as the counting begins.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Macron calls for calm to resolve Ukraine crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 1, 2022. — REUTERS

KYIV — French President Emmanuel Macron, the first leader of a major Western power to meet Vladimir Putin since Russia massed troops near Ukraine, said on Tuesday he believed steps can be taken to de-escalate the crisis and called on all sides to stay calm.

Mr. Macron, who in contrast to the US and British leaders, has played down the likelihood that Russia may soon invade its neighbor, shuttled from Moscow to Kyiv on Tuesday in a bid to mediate a settlement and avoid war.

The French president had no breakthroughs to announce but Mr. Macron said he thought his talks had helped prevent the crisis from escalating further. He said he had never expected “for one second” that Mr. Putin would make concessions.

Mr. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told him they were committed to the principles of a 2014 peace agreement, he said, adding that this deal, known as the Minsk accords, offered a path to resolving their ongoing disputes.

“This shared determination is the only way allowing us to create peace, the only way to create a viable political solution,” Mr. Macron told a joint news conference with Zelensky.

“Calm … is essential from all parties in words and in deeds,” Mr. Macron said, praising Mr. Zelensky for the “sangfroid” he and the Ukrainian people were showing as Russia amasses more than 100,000 troops, tanks and heavy weapons on Ukraine’s borders.

Mr. Zelensky made clear he was sceptical of any assurances Mr. Macron may have received from Mr. Putin. “I do not really trust words, I believe that every politician can be transparent by taking concrete steps,” he said.

Moscow denies any plans to invade but is seeking sweeping concessions from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military alliance which has underpinned security in western Europe since 1949.

The demands include a promise of no missile deployments near Russia’s borders, a scaling back of NATO infrastructure and a ban on Ukraine ever joining the alliance.

Russia’s military build-up gained momentum on Tuesday with the arrival of three warships in the Black Sea, according to a Reuters witness. Turkish sources said another three were expected to pass through the Bosporus on Wednesday, in what Russia’s Interfax news agency reported as a pre-planned exercise.

Mr. Macron flew later to Berlin for meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In a statement alongside Mr. Macron before the talks began, Mr. Scholz told reporters: “Our common goal is to prevent a war in Europe.”

“Our appraisal of the situation is united, as is our position on this: any further attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is unacceptable and will draw wide-reaching consequences for Russia — politically, economically and geo-strategically,” he added.

Mr. Macron and Mr. Scholz also met in Berlin with Polish President Andrzej Duda. The French presidency said after the talks the three leaders expressed their joint support for Ukrainian sovereignty.

The meeting further illustrated the European convergence on a “committed and demanding approach” toward Russia, the French presidency added.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, asked in an interview with CNN about the likelihood of a Russian invasion, said: “There’s no certainty but what we see is a continued military buildup with more and more forces… The warning time is going down and the risk of an attack is going up.”

  The United States and European Union have threatened Russia with sanctions if it attacks Ukraine. Moscow, still Europe’s biggest energy supplier despite already being under sanctions since seizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, has largely dismissed new sanctions as an empty threat.

While Western countries have stood together to back Ukraine, they disagree about the likelihood of war.

French officials have suggested they think Washington has overstated the threat, and Kyiv has also played down the likelihood of a large-scale invasion.

Mr. Macron, who is expected to stand for re-election in April, said before he left on his trip to Moscow that he believed Russia did not have designs on Ukraine but wanted to renegotiate European security arrangements.

But whatever Moscow’s true aims, Western countries say they cannot safely assume the crisis will end without war unless Russia pulls back its troops.

The European Central Bank is preparing banks for a possible Russian-sponsored cyber attack as tensions with Ukraine mount, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as the region braces for the financial fallout of any conflict.

Japan would divert some LNG to Europe if the Ukraine crisis disrupted supplies, national broadcaster NHK reported. — Reuters

Novavax underdelivers on COVID vaccine promises

Image via Jernej Furman/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

NOVAVAX, INC. has delivered just a small fraction of the 2 billion COVID-19 shots it plans to send around the world in 2022 and has delayed first-quarter shipments in Europe and lower income countries such as the Philippines, public officials involved in their government’s vaccine rollouts told Reuters.

Novavax said it has completed delivery of around 10 million vaccine doses to Indonesia and that shipments of several million shots arrived in Australia and New Zealand on Monday. The company declined to comment on the exact number of deliveries it has made but said it is moving as quickly as possible to ship its contracted supplies for this quarter.

Some shipments have been held up by regulatory processes and are waiting in a distribution warehouse to go to healthcare providers, Novavax spokesperson Amy Speak said.

Novavax shares fell nearly 10% in early trading.

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Novavax, which had never launched a product, had ambitions to provide a vaccine for the world, promising to deliver its shots by mid-2021.

When the tiny company missed 2021 targets, buyers turned to rivals including Pfizer, Inc./BioNTech SE, Moderna, Inc., and Chinese drugmakers.

Shipments to the European Union (EU), Indonesia and the Philippines were held back by a late regulatory approval from the World Health Organization (WHO), export limitations of its production partner the Serum Institute of India, and delayed approval of individual vaccine batches by European regulators, who must vet the shots before they can be distributed, according to officials in those regions.

The delivery delays have left at least one country reconsidering its Novavax order.

The company has yet to deliver vaccine on its largest contract for 1.1 billion doses to COVAX — a global vaccine distribution program for poorer countries — which would make Novavax its third largest supplier, according to business data and analytics firm GlobalData Plc.

Novavax did not provide a timeline but told Reuters it expects to deliver around 80 million doses in the current quarter to COVAX, less than 10%.

A spokesperson for the GAVI vaccine alliance that co-runs COVAX with the WHO said it expected Novavax doses to be delivered soon.

“It’s concerning when they have been saying they have been ready to ship millions of doses but the numbers you’re hearing are different,” said Mayank Mamtani, a healthcare analyst at B. Riley Securities.

Novavax is expected to earn around $5 billion in 2022 from COVID-19 vaccine sales, according to Refinitiv data.

Its two-dose vaccine has been authorized by WHO and European Union regulators, as well as countries including India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Trial data has shown the vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing severe illness and death.

Low- and middle-income countries will feel the pinch the most if Novavax is missing planned shipments, said Stephen Morrison, the director of the global health policy at Washington D.C. research group Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s going to be painful for COVAX and painful for its bilateral partners.”

Novavax began delivering Serum Institute-produced doses to Indonesia late last year.

Although India has said Serum Institute shipped around 10 million shots to Indonesia in November and December, an Indonesian official who declined to be named said the country has received only around 200,000 doses. The Indian government has cleared 20 million Serum shots to be shipped to Indonesia, Novavax said.

RENEGOTIATING ITS CONTRACT
A Philippines official said the country has not received any of the 30 million shots it ordered.

The Philippines is renegotiating its contract and considering reducing its order from Novavax, in part because it has 96 million vaccine doses in its national stockpile, said Vaccination Secretary Carlito Galvez, head of COVID-19 vaccine procurement for Philippines. The country has authorized nine COVID vaccines.

Novavax did not comment on the Philippines deliveries or new contract but said it is working with governments to meet regulatory requirements for release of doses.

Novavax had said it would roll out shots in Europe by January but that has been delayed, the company spokesperson said. The initial shipments from Serum Institute were delivered to its distribution facility in the Netherlands and are awaiting final regulatory clearance for release, she said.

At least two EU countries have pushed back their planned timelines for administering Novavax shots as a result, a person familiar with the matter said.

Novavax has had difficulty getting the final regulatory nod because it has yet to provide sufficient information about batches produced in India, a person familiar with discussions between Novavax and EU officials said. Under the EU deal, initial supplies to the bloc would come from India.

Dutch health authority RIVM, which is tasked with clearing the batches, declined to comment on the reason for the timing but said the vaccine will be available from early March.

“We expect to ship as soon as the testing and release is complete and we are working to make that happen as quickly as possible,” the Novavax spokesperson said.

The UK approved Novavax’s shot on Feb. 3, but the drugmaker has not said when it will begin distributing doses there.

Novavax filed for US authorization late last month, almost a year after it had originally planned to do so.

Peter Shapiro, a pharmaceutical industry analyst at GlobalData, said: “The question is whether these manufacturing and logistics issues are going to get better with time.” — Reuters

US accuses couple of laundering $4.5 billion in bitcoin tied to 2016 hack

ALEKSI RAISA-UNSPLASH

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — The US Justice Department said on Tuesday it has unraveled its biggest-ever cryptocurrency theft, seizing a record-shattering $3.6 billion in bitcoin tied to the 2016 hack of digital currency exchange Bitfinex and arresting a husband-and-wife team on money laundering charges.

Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, New Yorkers who were arrested in Manhattan Tuesday morning, spent the illegal proceeds on items ranging from gold and non-fungible tokens to a $500 Walmart gift card, prosecutors said.

The couple had active public profiles, with Morgan known as rap singer “Razzlekhan,” a pseudonym that she said on her website referred to Genghis Khan “but with more pizzazz.”

It was the Justice Department’s biggest financial seizure, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, adding in a statement that it shows cryptocurrency is “not a safe haven for criminals.”

Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan face charges of conspiring to commit money laundering as well as to defraud the United States. The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.

At their initial appearances in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, US Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman set bond at $5 million for Mr. Lichtenstein and $3 million for Ms. Morgan and demanded that their parents post their homes as security for their return to court.

The pair is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin stolen after a hacker broke into Bitfinex and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Justice Department officials said the transactions at the time were valued at $71 million in bitcoin, but with the rise in the currency’s value, the value now is over $4.5 billion.

A key clue may have come from the 2017 bust of an underground digital market used to launder a portion of the funds. US officials said some of the money was transferred to AlphaBay, an anything-goes version of eBay hosted on the dark web.

When the site was taken down, it likely allowed authorities to access AlphaBay’s internal transaction logs and connect them to a cryptocurrency account in Mr. Lichtenstein’s name, according to digital currency tracking company Elliptic.

Bitfinex said in a statement it was working with the Department of Justice to “establish our rights to a return of the stolen bitcoin.”

‘PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS FROM CYBERCRIMINALS’

Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan also tried to launder money via a network of currency exchanges or claimed that the money represented payments to Morgan’s startup, the Department of Justice said.

In addition to her rap singer profile, Morgan had sidelines in the painting, fashion design, and writing worlds, where she pitched herself as a kind of corporate coach. One of her recent pieces was titled, in part, “Tips to Protect Your Business from Cybercriminals” and featured an interview with a cryptocurrency exchange owner about how to prevent fraud.

Ms. Morgan, wearing a white hoodie at her court appearance, frequently glanced back at her parents, who were seated in the audience of the courtroom. Both she and Mr. Lichtenstein, who holds dual US-Russian citizenship, nodded as Ms. Freeman warned them of severe consequences if they tried to flee.

They will both be placed on house arrest, with electronic monitoring, and will be barred from engaging in cryptocurrency transactions pending trial, Ms. Freeman said. A judge in Washington, where further hearings will be held, could later set different conditions, she said.

Prosecutors sought to have both detained ahead of trial, arguing they posed a flight risk. But Ms. Freeman said she was swayed by defense lawyer Anirudh Bansal’s argument that both Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan had known they were under investigation since November and nonetheless remained in the United States.

Tuesday’s criminal complaint came more than four months after Monaco announced the department was launching a new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which comprises a mix of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts.

Cyber criminals who attack companies, municipalities and individuals with ransomware often demand payment in cryptocurrency.

In one high-profile example last year, former partners and associates of the ransomware group REvil caused a widespread gas shortage on the US East Coast when it used encryption software called DarkSide to launch a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

The Justice Department later recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom that Colonial paid to the hackers.

Cases like these demonstrate that the Justice Department “can follow money across the blockchain, just as we have always followed it within the traditional financial system,” said Kenneth Polite, assistant attorney general of the department’s Criminal Division. — Reuters

Discovery of Omicron in deer raises concern over possible new variants Use file pic of coronavirus

NEW YORK — The discovery of the Omicron variant in white-tailed deer in New York has raised concerns that the species, numbering 30 million in the United States, could become hosts of a new coronavirus strain, a lead researcher said on Tuesday.

Blood and some nasal swab samples from 131 deer captured on New York’s Staten Island revealed that nearly 15% had virus antibodies. The finding suggested that the animals had previous coronavirus infections and were vulnerable to repeated reinfections with new variants, researchers led by Pennsylvania State University scientists said.

“Circulation of the virus in an animal population always raises the possibility of getting back to humans, but more importantly it provides more opportunities for the virus to evolve into novel variants,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, a Penn State veterinary microbiologist.

“When the virus completely mutates, then it can escape the protection of the current vaccine. So we’d have to change the vaccine again,” Kuchipudi said.

The discovery — the first time Omicron was detected in a wild animal — comes as a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections fueled by the variant are abating among the US human population.

While there is no evidence that animals are transmitting the virus to humans, most coronavirus infections were reported in species that had close contact with a person with COVID-19, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

In August, the US government said it found the world’s first cases of COVID-19 in wild deer in Ohio, expanding the list of animals known to have tested positive for the disease.

The finding was based on samples collected from deer months before the heavily mutated variant Omicron emerged to replace the previously dominant Delta variant in people in countries around the world.

The USDA had previously reported COVID-19 in animals including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas and minks. — Reuters

Peso climbs as oil prices drop

THE PESO rebounded versus the greenback on Wednesday amid a correction in global oil prices and gains in the local stock market.

The local unit closed at P51.34 per dollar on Wednesday, appreciating by 16 centavos from its P51.50 finish on Tuesday, based on data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines.

The peso opened Wednesday’s session stronger at P51.43 versus the dollar. Its weakest showing was at P51.445, while its intraday best was at P51.32 against the greenback.

Dollars exchanged dropped to $992.1 million on Wednesday from $1.005 billion on Tuesday.

The peso closed stronger following a decline in international oil prices following a reported resumption of the US and Iran’s negotiations on a nuclear deal, a trader said in a Viber message.

Reuters reported that oil prices decreased for a third session on Wednesday. Brent crude futures slipped by 8 cents or 0.1% to $90.70 a barrel by 0825 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude declined by 0.2% or 18 cents to $89.18 a barrel.

Both contracts dropped by about 2% on Tuesday as Washington renewed indirect talks with Iran to revive a nuclear deal which could lift US sanctions on Iranian oil and in turn boost supply.

Meanwhile, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort in a Viber message said the peso appreciated on upbeat sentiment due to gains in the local stock market. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 44.25 points or 0.59% to close at 7,502.48 on Wednesday. The broader all shares index likewise increased by 22.40 or 0.57% to 3,951.58.

For Thursday, Mr. Ricafort gave a forecast range of P51.25 to P51.45 versus the dollar, while the trader expects the local unit to move within P51.25 to P51.50.

Meanwhile, the dollar stayed in a holding pattern on Wednesday, a day before the release of US consumer price data that may offer new clues on the pace of Federal Reserve policy tightening.

The dollar index — which gauges the greenback against six major peers, including Europe’s single currency — was also little changed at 95.587, after bouncing off a 2-1/2-week low of 95.136 reached Friday. It touched the highest since June 2020 at 97.441 at the end of last month.

The dollar index is “in a holding pattern while markets weigh up the prospect of an abrupt Fed policy tightening against the ECB’s (European Central Bank) hawkish backflip,” Westpac strategists wrote in a client note.

The dollar briefly touched a one-month high versus the yen on Wednesday, boosted by a climb in Treasury yields to multi-year peaks overnight.

The dollar hit 115.69 yen before pulling back to last trade about flat at 115.50.

The Aussie added 0.17% to $0.7156, while sterling added 0.07% to $1.3555. — LWTN with Reuters

PSEi tracks Wall St.’s rise ahead of inflation data

PHILIPPINE STAR/KRIZ JOHN ROSALES

STOCKS advanced on Wednesday to track Wall Street on bargain hunting due to rate hike fears ahead of the release of latest US inflation data.

The 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 44.25 points or 0.59% to end at 7,502.48 on Wednesday, while the broader all shares index gained 22.40 points or 0.57% to close at 3,951.58.

“Philippines shares rode on the rebound of Wall Street as investors continued to bargain hunt ahead of Thursday’s key consumer price index report,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message.

First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) Head of Research Cristina S. Ulang said foreign buying continued on Wednesday “as the bond rout has spread from the US to Europe, pushing investment flows into cheaply valued Asian equities with good macro and corporate earnings growth prospects like the Philippines.”

Net foreign buying was at P428.86 million on Wednesday, higher than the P191.24 million recorded on Tuesday.

“The positive spillovers from Wall Street also helped in the climb,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Senior Research Analyst Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message.

Asian shares advanced on Wednesday with tech stocks particularly catching a lift following a strong session on Wall Street, while US treasury yields held near multi-year highs ahead of closely watched inflation data this week.

Barring any big surprises, the consumer price index should cement expectations the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month, with a strong print offering further support to those tipping a larger 50 basis point rise.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 1% to its highest in two weeks, helped by a 3% gain in Hong Kong-listed tech stocks.

Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.9%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.06% to end at 35,462.78 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.84% to 4,521.52. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.28% to 14,194.46.

US Treasury yields held firm in Asian trading, after touching multi-year highs the day before as did yields in the euro zone.

“Market rose as it started pricing in the election spending kick benefiting consumption around 60% of the economy and corporate earnings with the start of the campaign season,” FMIC’s Ms. Ulang added.

Most sectoral indices went up on Wednesday, except for holding firms, which dropped 38.21 points or 0.53% to 7,170.02.

On the other hand, property rose 77.23 points or 2.34% to 3,364.52; services advanced 26.01 points or 1.31% to 2,012.13; mining and oil gained 52.55 points or 0.48% to 10,801.36; industrials climbed 37.40 points or 0.34% to end at 10,848.84; and financials inched up 3.46 points or 0.19% to 1,754.84.

Value turnover jumped to P8.41 billion on Wednesday with 975.43 million shares switching hands from the P6.99 billion with 1.07 billion issues traded the previous day.

Advancers beat decliners, 112 against 89, while 58 names closed unchanged. — MCL with Reuters

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