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US-China tensions flare at UN as Trump accuses Beijing of unleashing ‘plague’

NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that China must be held accountable for having “unleashed” COVID-19 on the world, prompting Beijing to accuse him of “lies” and abusing the U.N. platform to provoke confrontation.

China’s President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone in his pre-recorded virtual address to the General Assembly, calling for enhanced cooperation over the pandemic and stressing that China had no intention of fighting “either a Cold War or a hot war with any country.”

But China’s U.N. ambassador Zhang Jun rejected President Trump’s accusations against China as “baseless” and said “lies repeated a thousand times are still lies.”

Trump and Xi, leaders of the world’s two largest economies, laid out competing visions at a time when relations have plunged to their worst level in decades, with coronavirus tensions aggravating trade and technology disputes.

Trump, facing a November re-election battle with the United States dealing with the world’s highest official number of deaths and infections from the coronavirus, focused his speech on attacking China.

He accused Beijing of allowing people to leave China in the early stages of the outbreak to infect the world while shutting down domestic travel.

“We must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world, China,” he said in remarks taped on Monday and delivered remotely to the General Assembly due to the pandemic.

“The Chinese government, and the World Health Organization — which is virtually controlled by China — falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission,” he said.

“Later, they falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease … The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions.”

The president promised to distribute a vaccine and said: “We will defeat the virus, and we will end the pandemic.”

‘GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER’
Xi’s address contained what appeared to be an implicit rebuke to Trump, calling for a global response to the coronavirus and a leading role for the WHO, which the US president has announced plans to leave.

“We should enhance solidarity and get through this together,” he said.

“We should follow the guidance of science, give full play to the leading role of the World Health Organization (WHO) and launch a joint international response … Any attempt of politicizing the issue, or stigmatization, must be rejected.”

The WHO rejected President Trump’s remarks.

“No one gov’t controls us,” its communications director, Gabby Stern tweeted, adding: “On Jan. 14 our #COVID19 technical lead told media of the potential for human-to-human transmission. Since February, our experts have publicly discussed transmission by people without symptoms or prior to symptoms.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the General Assembly the WHO should be strengthened to coordinate the global response to the pandemic and proposed a high-level conference on vaccine cooperation.

China has portrayed itself as the chief cheerleader for multilateralism at a time when President Trump’s disregard for international cooperation has led him to quit global deals on climate and Iran, as well as the U.N. Human Rights Council and the WHO.

Xi took an apparent swipe at Trump’s “America First” policy in a statement on Monday to a meeting celebrating the U.N.’s 75th anniversary. 

“No country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others, or keep advantages in development all to itself. Even less should one be allowed to do whatever it likes and be the hegemon, bully or boss of the world. Unilateralism is a dead end,” he said.

The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 on Monday, by far the highest official number of any country.

Mr. Trump also attacked China’s record on the environment, but leveled no direct criticism at Beijing over human rights.

Mr. Trump, a frequent critic of the U.N., said that if it was to be effective, it must focus on “the real problems of the world” like “terrorism, the oppression of women, forced labor, drug trafficking, human and sex trafficking, religious persecution, and the ethnic cleansing of religious minorities.”

In his U.N. address, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an international mission under U.N. auspices to visit China’s Xinjiang region to look into concerns about alleged abuses of Muslims there.

China’s envoy Zhang Jun issued a statement in response to Mr. Trump’s remarks, accusing the United States of “abusing the platform of the United Nations to provoke confrontation and create division.”

In his speech, Mr. Xi announced plans to boost China’s Paris climate accord target and called for a green revolution, just minutes after Mr. Trump blasted China for “rampant pollution.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world was “moving in a very dangerous direction” with US-China tensions.

“We must do everything to avoid a new Cold War,” he said. “Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a Great Fracture — each with its own trade and financial rules and Internet and artificial intelligence capacities.

“A technological and economic divide risks inevitably turning into a geo-strategic and military divide. We must avoid this at all costs.” — Reuters

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial may beat rivals

THE CORONAVIRUS disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine trial designed by Pfizer, Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE may allow them to find whether their shot works before their fastest-moving rivals.

The companies plan a first look after a mere 32 coronavirus infections have accumulated in their massive 44,000-person trial. That case total could be reached as soon as Sept. 27, according to Airfinity Ltd., a London-based analytics firms tracking vaccine trials. Pfizer has also given itself four chances to get a preliminary result, before reaching the final goal of 164. Some trial experts say the company appears to be looking for a leg up in a race against frontrunners such as Moderna, Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc to be first with a vaccine.

“I’ve never seen a trial where there were four interim analyses; that may be the Olympic record,” said Eric Topol, editor-in-chief of Medscape, a website offering clinical information for health-care professionals, and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. “It’s obvious why it is being done: so you can just keep looking at the data to try to win a race.”

A wide range of symptoms and severity makes the evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines tricky. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that to be approved, vaccines should cut the number of symptomatic cases by half. Yet documents released by the drugmakers show each has its own approach to defining which symptoms count, and when to count them.

Big drug studies usually allow a panel of monitors to get an early peek at the data once or twice before the planned end. The panel can stop the trial early if a treatment is judged overwhelmingly effective — or alternatively, a total dud. Four early looks may give Pfizer an “easy route” to making sure it has results soon, said Marie-Paule Kieny, a former World Health Organization (WHO) official who’s now a research director at the French health-science institute Inserm.

“It seems that there are different levels of stringency,” she said in an interview. “I wouldn’t say that Pfizer-BioNTech comes out as a star of stringency.”

Moderna, working with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, won’t dive in until 53 cases have occurred; its ultimate goal is to make a judgment at 151 diagnoses. Cancer powerhouse AstraZeneca, collaborating with the University of Oxford, will take its first look at 75 cases, and not again until the trial is complete with 150.

“All trials have set the bar quite low for what they test against,” said Rasmus Bech Hansen, Airfinity’s chief executive officer.

Pfizer’s trial was designed to evaluate its vaccine candidate “as fast as possible,” said Amy Rose, a spokeswoman, in an e-mail. The company has worked with government scientists to develop best practices for testing and based its schedule for interim analyses on the vaccine’s “strong profile” in early human trials and animal tests, she said.

Moderna’s plan was agreed upon with U.S. regulators, and the company has been open about the numbers since before the trial began in late July, spokesman Ray Jordan said in an e-mail. Case totals for interim analysis were based on probabilities of success and “were not selected based on timeframes,” he said.

AstraZeneca said its trials are conducted under regulatory oversight and its plans have evolved over time to make sure they produce robust information in a timely way. All the companies said their trials will continue beyond points such as a preliminary readout or potential authorization.

Pfizer says its study will likely yield conclusive results in October. None of the drugmakers will likely know whether their vaccines lower hospitalizations until February, according to Airfinity. But it’s the earlier assessments that have observers most concerned.

Treatments such as Gilead Sciences, Inc.’s antiviral remdesivir and convalescent plasma — a soup of immune factors taken from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients — have already been authorized on the basis of somewhat limited data.  

But those are mainly given to extremely sick patients whose lives are in danger. Authorizing a vaccine, on the other hand, might lead to use in hundreds of millions of uninfected people. If that happens, the data ought to be pretty convincing.

“A small number of additional events occurring or not occurring can tip the balance of a trial as to whether the findings are valid or not,” said Jonathan Kimmelman, director of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University in Montreal. “If you want robust findings that are going to be generalizable, you’re going to want to accumulate a reasonable number of events.”

Some vaccines are approved after just a few cases appear in trials. Merck & Co.’s Ebola vaccine was approved last year based on a 3,500-patient study that identified 10 cases, according to its label. But that shot had perfect effectiveness and was designed to prevent a disease with a sky-high death rate.

Billions of healthy people around the world at low risk of life-threatening disease could get a coronavirus shot, raising the bar for safety. An authorization that’s based on early results could mean that doctors know very little about a vaccine, other than the bare-bones results. The issue is gaining attention as questions persist about the halt of AstraZeneca’s human tests in the U.S. following the appearance of side effects that Oxford said were unlikely to be linked to the vaccine.

If Pfizer’s vaccine were to receive emergency authorization based on results from October, for example, most patients would have had less than two months of follow-up. At that point, there will be little known about its duration of protection, and its impact on severe disease may not be clear.

Along with a positive test for the coronavirus, Moderna requires most patients to have two or more symptoms to count as a case for judging vaccine efficacy, unless they have a telltale marker like shortness of breath.

SORE THROATS
But Pfizer’s trial reaches deeper into patients with mildly symptomatic cases. It officially counts even a coronavirus-positive patient with fever alone, one of the disease’s most common manifestations, as a symptomatic case.

This may allow Pfizer to tally cases faster, but also could mean an early result based mostly on mild cases, according Airfinity’s Mr. Hansen.

“We should really have hospitalizations or deaths as endpoints because ultimately we want to prevent people from getting seriously ill,” he said.

The rush for results may make it harder to get clear answers about how well the vaccines work, said Mr. Topol, the Scripps scientist.

“We want to know this vaccine has strong efficacy,” he said. “And that means two things: that it works in the majority of people and that it works to prevent serious infections, not sore throats or muscle aches.” — Bloomberg

Rich families view markets with ‘extreme’ caution, Citi says

THE CORONAVIRUS disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the response by governments and central banks have family offices and ultra-wealthy individuals around the world on the defensive, according to a survey from Citigroup, Inc.’s private bank.

About three-quarters of respondents described their 12-month investment sentiment as “cautious.” That increased to 84% when adding those who said they plan to exercise “extreme caution,” according to the survey, which was administered in June and July to about 180 participants. Almost one-in-four said they were concerned about social unrest.

The misgivings come as the global death toll from the pandemic has topped 200,000 in the U.S. and almost 1 million globally. The blow from the virus has put gross domestic product on track to grow just 2% in 2020, according to Bloomberg Economics’ projection, which would be the slowest on record since reforms in the late 1970s. About half of respondents in the Citi survey expected total portfolio returns in the next year of only 1% to 5%.

David Bailin, Citi Private Bank’s chief investment officer, said the caution expressed in the survey “may portend” a missed opportunity. Global stocks have recovered quickly from the coronavirus-fueled sell-off, rebounding more than 45% since March and hitting a record high earlier this month.

“We envision a period of recovery of small-and medium-sized business and accelerating global growth in 2021 and 2022 based on the amount of stimulus issued by governments and further benefits from innovation globally,” Mr. Bailin said.

Private offices have survived the pandemic in good shape, but at least half said liquidity was a concern, according to Stephen Campbell, chairman of the firm’s private capital group.

“They are positioned to deploy further capital as they see opportunities arise, especially in private markets,” Mr. Campbell said, adding that clients are “often willing to sacrifice short-to medium-term returns to maintain” liquidity.

The survey found that 59% of family offices increased their allocation to direct investments, with information technology, health care and real estate the most attractive sectors. More than half said they intend to take advantage of low interest rates by refinancing, increasing lines of credit or both. — Bloomberg

Denver Nuggets bounce back

Nuggets hold off Lakers, halve West finals deficit

THE DENVER NUGGETS played their way back into the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night, riding 28 points from Jamal Murray, a postseason career-high 26 from Jerami Grant and a key late defensive stand to a 114-106 victory over the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 near Orlando.

Nikola Jokic contributed 22 points and 10 rebounds as third-seeded Denver recorded its first win in the best-of-seven series.

Murray handed out a game-high 12 assists and grabbed eight rebounds, nearly amassing his first career playoff triple-double.

“We’re in this series,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We let them know we’re not going anywhere. That’s what you guys have done this whole postseason. That’s why everybody is rooting for us. Keep on showing that grit and resilience and playing for each other.”

LeBron James logged a 30-point, 10-rebound, 11-assist triple-double for the Lakers, who had a six-game winning streak come to an end.

Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday (Friday, Manila time).

Down 97-77 with just 10:36 to play, the Lakers used a 19-2 flurry to close within 99-96 with 6:07 remaining.

A layup by James kept the Lakers within 101-98 with 5:26 to go before Los Angeles ran out of gas, missing its next five shots, including four 3-point attempts, and mixing in a pair of turnovers as the Nuggets regained command.

“We turned the ball over too much and we put them on the free throw line,” said James. “I give credit where credit is due. They played better than us. They were more aggressive than us for three quarters.”

Murray’s final two hoops were back-breakers, a 3-pointer with 2:17 to go that pushed the Denver lead to 106-99 and a 29-foot trey that iced the win with 53.3 seconds left.

While Murray and Jokic combined for 50 points, Grant’s scoring was the biggest surprise. He hit seven of his 11 field-goal attempts, including two of five from 3-point range, and made 10 of 12 free throws.

The Nuggets outscored the Lakers 33-18 on 3-pointers and 23-14 from the free-throw line.

Monte Morris added 14 points off the bench for Denver, which came within a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Anthony Davis from evening the series in Game 2.

“I thought Denver played with great energy throughout the game,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “We didn’t match it early, we matched it late. They’re a great basketball team, so credit them for the win.”

Davis backed James with 27 points but was limited to two rebounds. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope chipped in with 12 points and Kyle Kuzma 11 for the Lakers, who lost just one apiece in each of their first two playoff series, against the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets.

Up (29-27) after one period, the Nuggets got the first seven points of the second quarter on a pair of Murray free throws, and 3- and 2-point hoops from Michael Porter Jr. to build the lead to nine.

The margin was 10 at halftime and just 63-58 in the second minute of the third quarter before Grant had a dunk, a free throw, a 3-pointer, and a short-range hoop in an 8-1 run that built a 71-59 advantage.

Denver, which rallied from 3-1 deficits in the first two rounds against the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers, went up by as many as 20 early in the fourth quarter before the Lakers rallied. — Reuters

PBA restart viewed as opening up possibilities amid pandemic

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

APART from restarting their currently suspended season, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) view the league’s targeted restart next month as opening up possibilities both for local sports and the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Shut since March when the pandemic started to make its presence felt in the country, the PBA is looking to resume its season on Oct. 9 in a “bubble” setting at Clark City in Angeles, Pampanga.

Under the bubble setup, which is similar to that employed in the National Basketball Association, players, coaches, and staff of the teams and the league will be holed up in one location for the duration of the tournament and will be shuttled to and from the hotel and the playing venue.

Games will be played at the Angeles University Foundation while the teams will be staying in the nearby Quest Hotel.

The league is just awaiting approval to proceed from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

For PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas, the league’s restart is about time and said that provided they do what is needed it could bode well on various fronts.

“This is the sport that most of us love, that the whole country loves. And bringing it back on air is a win not only from an entertainment value, but also from a mental health or from an economic (standpoint),” Mr. Vargas was quoted as saying by the official PBA website.

“If our bubble is successful, it will [help] open up the economy and it will become a more engaged environment especially in sports,” he added.

Since hitting the country, the coronavirus pandemic has put the local sporting scene largely at a standstill, with the end still to be determined.

Events have been postponed, or worse, cancelled, and training of athletes is still largely prohibited.

The pandemic, meanwhile, is expected to shrink the Philippine economy by 7.3% in 2020, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In its latest update to the Asian Development Outlook 2020 released last week, the ADB slashed its 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the Philippines to -7.3%, much worse than the -3.8% forecast in June and the 2% projection in April.

The government, however, is hoping to get the economy back on its feet as the year ends by, among other things, allowing more industries to further open up and conduct business.

Mr. Vargas assured that the league is doing everything it can to have its return a success, taking cue from the models available in various leagues, particularly abroad, as well as making sure that their plans are aligned with government regulations and protocols to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

“There are a lot of models that we can work with, and if we follow those models, I foresee that sports would be back,” the PBA official, who represents the TNT KaTropa, said.

Once the PBA returns, it will be a compressed tournament, lasting only two months and will feature two games daily. And the league expects to crown a champion by the second week of December.

Tournament format will see a single round-robin elimination, with the top eight teams advancing to the next round. The top four seeds will have a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals. The semifinals will be a best-of-five affair, and the finals best-of-seven.

Azkals throw support to Cooper in extending his tenure

SATISFIED with how he has been steering the Philipppine national men’s football team, the tenure of English coach Scott Cooper has been extended.

In an announcement released early this week, the management of the Azkals moved to keep the services of Mr. Cooper, believing that the latter’s vision moving forward is aligned with that of the team.

“We trust that coach Scott can take the team into where we want it to be,” said Dan Palami, long-time Azkals manager, of the decision to extend Mr. Cooper.

It was a decision that was fully supported by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF)

“I think the team has improved under him and we look forward to him taking the team to another level,” PFF President Mariano Araneta, for his part, said.

Mr. Cooper took over the coaching duties of the Azkals in a full-time capacity at the start of the joint 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers last year.

The Azkals are currently in third spot in Group A of the joint qualifiers with seven points built on a 2-1-2 record.

Syria (5-0-0) is on top of the group with 15 points, followed by China (2-1-1) with seven. Maldives (2-0-3) is fourth with six points while Guam (0-0-5) has no points and is already eliminated in the race.

Since taking over, Mr. Cooper has been very active in sharing his philosophy and building the legs of the team for competitions.

Even when the coronavirus pandemic started to disrupt the team’s affairs, the Azkals coach continued working.

Among the things Mr. Cooper has put in place is expanding the team’s talent pool, identifying several young homegrown stars who have the ability to transition into the senior side.

Both Messrs. Palami and Cooper formed the Azkals Development Team to give promising young talents a chance to flourish.

Among the players in the team are Jarvey Gayoso, Mar Diano, and Lance Ocampo, all of whom are being considered by Mr. Cooper for the senior team.

Given the nod to continue, Mr. Cooper vowed to sustain what he has started and advance the Azkals’ cause as a team and for Philippine football.

“When I first came here, I saw the massive potential of the Azkals. During this pandemic, we’ve been setting goals and putting plans in place to achieve those goals. I can honestly say that we can still get better and I am committed to lead this team as it continues to make its mark in Asian and world football,” he said.

GAB BLACKLISTS GLOBAL FC
Meanwhile, the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) issued a blacklist order against local football club Global FC (Football Club) for the latter’s failure to address complaints against it over unpaid salaries of players and staff.

GAB chairman Baham Mitra signed the order blacklisting Global FC and barring it from applying for or renewing its license, transacting with GAB, or acting as a professional licensee.

Global was spotlighted for being remiss on its financial obligations since the coronavirus pandemic started in the country.

Complaints of non-payment of salaries running to the millions emerged in recent months.

The PFF and Philippines Football League (PFL) gave Global a chance to address the issue, but little came out of it. The PFF has since suspended Global’s licence to compete in the PFL.

In the GAB letter, the agency instructed Global to explain, under oath, its failure to comply with the processes of the board. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Digital esports platform Kalaro set for October launch

TOUTED as “Asia’s first fully integrated end-to-end esports digital platform made in the Philippines,” Kalaro is set to be launched in October.

A product of a collaboration of an internationally experienced team of Filipino tech experts, the digital platform seeks to build on the forward momentum of the local gaming community while, at the same time, garner alliances from international corporate brands geared towards complementing such thrust.

“We are thrilled to finally unveil Kalaro to be the catalyst in rapidly developing world-class Filipino esports talents. With the incredible support we are getting from our partners and the gaming community, we’re excited to realize the synergy Kalaro will create among corporate brands and more than 30+ million esports enthusiasts in the Philippines,” said Renalyn B. David, Board of Directors Member of The-AsiaGroup.com Inc./ Pnex Int’l Corporation, the group set to lead the launch of Kalaro.

Among the alliances formed under Kalaro are those with National Computer Systems (NCS) of Singapore, ERNI from Switzerland, and local companies Union Bank of the Philippines, DragonPay, GCash, and Globe Labs.

NCS handles the technology cloud infrastructure to ensure that Kalaro is globally available to all Filipinos 24/7. It is also in charge of the various integration requirements of the platform so that it can connect online to all other apps like Facebook, GCash, DragonPay, Twitch, and other third-party systems.

ERNI, meanwhile, is responsible for the design of the User Interface (UI) and overall User Experience (UX); translating these designs into actual working systems for Kalaro users to enjoy.

Adding further dimension, the digital platform also paves the way for corporate brands to collaborate with Kalaro’s stakeholders.

They can have storefronts inside Kalaro to enable them to promote and sell their products online to Kalaro users. Brands can also sponsor gamers, streamers, teams and leagues.

Kalaro members can electronically transact 24/7 anywhere around the globe. This e-wallet feature of Kalaro is powered by Union Bank of the Philippines, DragonPay, GCash, and Globe Labs.

For its launch in October, the nationwide online sign-up will be made available to esports fans and players. Interested gamers can join Kalaro using their mobile number, Facebook, Twitch, Razer, or Google accounts.

“We, at Pnex Int’l Corp., are both proud and excited to launch our esports platform, initially, to the Filipino gaming community. The more than 30 million Filipino gamers are a huge market and Kalaro will surely be their gaming companion. Our team has done an incredible job in creating a world-class product we Filipinos can all be very proud of,” said Marvin Alberto, President of Pnex Int’l Corp. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

National youth online chess tourney set

THE Endgame Sports Multi-Events, Inc. and National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) are teaming up in staging the 2020 National Youth Online Chess Championships and Masters Challenge set for Sept. 29 to Oct. 10.

A guaranteed cash pot worth P77,000 will be up for grabs in the tournament divided into several age-group categories — boys open and girls divisions for 7-Under, 9-under, 11-under, 13-under, 15-under and 17-under — plus the masters event for older players including titled ones.

“It is the goal of Endgame Sports to encourage the youth to keep on focusing their training and attain new heights,” said Endgame Sports founding president Cris Aspiras.

“Youth program is the main thrust of the National chess program, they have my support,” said NCFP president Cong. Butch Pichay.

For inquiries, interested parties may contact Michelle Yaon at 0966-8108378 or may log in at www.endgamesportsmgmt.com.

The tournament will start the qualifying tournaments in 7U, 9U and 11U at 9 a.m. on Sept. 29 followed by the 13U, 15U and 17U the next day and the Masters Challenge on Oct. 1.

The grand finals is set for Oct. 3-4 for 7U, 9U, 11U, Oct. 6-7 for 13U, 15U and 17U and Oct. 9-10 for the masters using the time control of 15 minutes plus a five-second increment.

Registration is free to all seeing action in the 7U, 9U, 11U and 13U levels while those playing in the 15U, 17U and masters class must pay P100 to join with all required to have lichess, viber and Zoom accounts.

Former Ferrari team boss Domenicali to be next F1 CEO

LONDON — Former Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali is set to replace Chase Carey as the sport’s chief executive before the start of next season, senior sources confirmed on Tuesday.

There was no official comment from Liberty Media-owned Formula One (F1). The news was first reported by racefans.net and confirmed by Reuters.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also cited senior sources confirming the appointment.

Domenicali, 55, is currently chairman and chief executive of Italian sportscar maker Lamborghini and also serves as head of the governing FIA’s single-seater commission.

The Italian was in charge of Ferrari’s Formula One team from 2008-2014 and presided over their most recent title, the 2008 constructors’ championship.

Carey has presided over Formula One since 2017, when U.S.-based Liberty took over the sport and ousted former supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and could stay on as chairman.

Racefans.net, citing “a source with knowledge of the situation”, said the Italian was expected to take over as chief executive before the start of next season.

The BBC said team bosses had been informed.

The appointment would leave three of the sport’s top jobs in the hands of former Ferrari men.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) is run by a former Ferrari team boss, Frenchman Jean Todt, while Formula One’s managing director for motorsport Ross Brawn is a former Ferrari technical director.

Todt’s third term expires next year, however, and he is not expected to stand again. — Reuters

January new target for NBA season tipoff

THE 2020-21 National Basketball Association (NBA) season is unlikely to start until January, commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday during a panel discussion on CNN.

He said his estimate is based on feedback from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The league most recently had been aiming for a Christmas Day start — the day is an annual festival of games for fans — but that, apparently, won’t happen.

“My best guess is even though it’ll be the 2020-21 season, that the season won’t start until 2021,” Silver said.

Even then, without a COVID-19 vaccine and the coronavirus still spreading across the United States, much remains to be determined, Silver said. Despite the uncertainties, the league’s goal is to play an 82-game regular season, at home arenas, with some fans in the stands.

“There’s still a lot that we need to learn in terms of rapid testing, for example. Would that be a means for getting fans into our buildings?” Silver said. “Would there be other protections from the things that we are learning in Orlando currently on the campus down there?

“And clearly learning from a lot of other sports with what baseball is currently doing and what football is doing and what college sports have begun playing. There is a lot of new information in the marketplace that we have begun looking at, but the goal is to play a standard season.”

The NBA became the first pro league to suspend play amid the pandemic, doing so on March 11. The league finished a shortened season in a bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando and is nearing the end of the playoffs — with no positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests.

Despite the success of the bubble model, Silver said the NBA would prefer to keep teams in their home arenas for a variety of reasons, which include keeping players with their families, revenues produced through ticket sales and the high cost of sequestering the players away from home.

Also still to be determined would be the frequency of COVID-19 testing for players and staff, and whether travel would be modified.

Silver said the end of the NBA season next year could overlap with the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8, which could alter the makeup of the US team.

“There are a lot of great US players. We may be up against a scenario where the top 15 NBA players aren’t competing in the Olympics but other great American players are competing,” he said. — Reuters

Silver says NBA participation at Tokyo Olympics may be limited

NBA participation at the Tokyo Olympics may be limited as the league’s next season, which has been pushed back due to the COVID-19 outbreak, would likely be ongoing at the time of the Games, Commissioner Adam Silver told CNN on Tuesday.

Normal NBA seasons start in late October and finish in mid-June.

Yet with the league hoping to launch a standard 82-game campaign in January followed by playoffs, then barring a condensed schedule, it would still be running when the Olympics open on July 23.

“There are a lot of great US players, and we may be up against a scenario where the top 15 NBA players aren’t competing in the Olympics, but other great American players are competing,” said Silver.

“Obviously, there are many NBA players who participate in the Olympics from other countries. That’s something we’re going to have to work through.”

“These are highly unique and unusual circumstances. I think, just as it is for the Olympic movement, it is for us as well. We’re just going to have to sort of find a way to meld and mesh those two competing considerations.”

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed by a year because of the coronavirus outbreak. NBA players have participated in every Summer Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

The National Basketball Association (NBA), which halted its 2019-20 season in March, resumed play on July 30 in a bubble-like campus at Disney World in Florida without spectators and the championship series will conclude in mid-October if it goes the distance.

“It is a factor in our planning,” Silver said of the Olympics. “It would be tough for us to make a decision in January based on the Olympics happening on schedule when that’s so unclear.”

Silver said his “best guess” is the next season will not tip off until some point in 2021.

“The more I am learning… I continue to believe that we are going to be better off getting into January,” said Silver. “And further, the goal would be to play games in home arenas in front of fans.” — Reuters

Marketing and advertising budgets for 2021: ‘crystal ball stuff’ — experts

By Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo

The incoming year will be marked with uncertainty for marketing and advertising, according to experts in the field. 

“People are trying to budget for the upcoming year, and they want to know how much they should allow for. This year, it really is crystal ball stuff,” said Leela Nair, managing director for Southeast Asia at Ebiquity, a media and marketing consultancy firm, during All That Matters 2020, an online convention on Asia’s music, sports, gaming, media, and entertainment sectors.

Ms. Nair added that she has never seen a year where there is a wider range of opinions on what has happened in terms of inflation and deflation.

According to a report by ECI Media Management, a media auditing company, the pandemic caused huge swings in price across different media types. Traditional media, such as television and print, contracted by up to 17% from January to June, with the main pressure points occurring in March and April. 

Digital media, meanwhile, experienced minimal inflation of up to 1.3% during the same time frame. However, these prices are expected to change depending on what pandemic phase a market finds itself in.

These volatile conditions have caused an industry-wide hyper-focus on data collection and analysis. “While nothing is inherently wrong with that, [the industry] did see at times that we were… trying to find too many specific facts that would support decisions being made and sometimes, frankly, missing opportunities,” said Silas Lewis-Meilus, senior director, head of media APAC (Asia Pacific region) for pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

Mr. Lewis-Meilus said that these opportunities bank heavily on changes in consumer behavior, such as pivots in product categorization. Instead of the usual classifications like food and toiletries, consumers started identifying and ranking products by their necessity to everyday life.

“Rather than using that annual planning and annual commitment as your default position, I think that’s now really a starting point of indicating where we hope things will go. But it requires some tough conversations with those partners and vendors to ensure that they’re coming along the ride with us and they’re pivoting at the right time for our clients,” said Stephen Li, chief executive officer of marketing firm OMD Asia Pacific.

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