The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has recommended the ending of most Covid-19 restrictions in a letter to government this evening.
The team met earlier today and outlined its advice in a letter to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. It said the limit on attendance at events, the two-metre social distancing rule and restrictions on hospitality could end but has left it to government to decide on exact dates.
Read more at:
Nphet signals end to most restrictions including Covid certs and limits at events | Business Post
Showing posts with label End. Show all posts
Showing posts with label End. Show all posts
1/20/22
8/30/21
The Netherlands-Economy: The Netherlands to end pandemic business relief
The government announced Monday that with the economy back on track, lockdown measures largely over and unemployment low, “Continuing the support would stand in the way of the economic recovery.”
The government has spent some 80 billion euros ($94 billion) since March last year propping up business ranging from individual entrepreneurs to national flag carrier KLM. It says the support helped limit bankruptcies and unemployment.
The Dutch economy is forecast to grow 3.8% this year and 3.2% in 2022. A number of targeted support measures aimed at education programs and night clubs will remain in the final quarter of the year.
Read more at: https://draft.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7267356/3674647997756275155
The government has spent some 80 billion euros ($94 billion) since March last year propping up business ranging from individual entrepreneurs to national flag carrier KLM. It says the support helped limit bankruptcies and unemployment.
The Dutch economy is forecast to grow 3.8% this year and 3.2% in 2022. A number of targeted support measures aimed at education programs and night clubs will remain in the final quarter of the year.
Read more at: https://draft.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7267356/3674647997756275155
5/13/21
Spain: celebrates end of COVID lockdown with street parties
Hundreds of young people across Spain danced in the streets as the clock struck midnight on Saturday, celebrating the end of a six-month-long national state of emergency.
With COVID-19 infection rates stabilizing and progress in the vaccination drive, most of Spain's 17 regions were able to relax coronavirus restrictions.
Read more at: Spain celebrates end of COVID lockdown with street parties | News | DW | 09.05.2021
With COVID-19 infection rates stabilizing and progress in the vaccination drive, most of Spain's 17 regions were able to relax coronavirus restrictions.
Read more at: Spain celebrates end of COVID lockdown with street parties | News | DW | 09.05.2021
5/7/21
USA: Most Voters Want to End Protection for Social Media Companies After Trump Facebook Ban says Poll
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters believe operators of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are politically biased in the decisions they make. Twenty-six percent (26%) disagree and believe social media companies edit their content in a fair and balanced way. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.
Read more at: Most Voters Want to End Protection for Social Media Companies After Trump Facebook Ban - Rasmussen Reports®
Read more at: Most Voters Want to End Protection for Social Media Companies After Trump Facebook Ban - Rasmussen Reports®
11/14/20
American Global dominance coming to an end: It’s time the world looks beyond Pax Americana - by Tee Ngugi
Since World War II, America has been the premier military and economic power. Western Europe, faced with the ‘Russian threat’, worried whether the incoming US administration would still commit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military framework.
The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.
Read more at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/oped/comment/it-s-time-the-world-looks-beyond-pax-americana-3020104
The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.
Read more at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/oped/comment/it-s-time-the-world-looks-beyond-pax-americana-3020104
6/11/20
USA: Is Trump Ending the American Era? - by Eliot A.Cohen
An American leadership that had partly discredited itself over the past
generation compounded these problems. The Bush administration’s war
against jihadist Islam had been undermined by reports of mistreatment
and torture; its Afghan campaign had been inconclusive; its invasion of
Iraq had been deeply compromised by what turned out to be a false
premise and three years of initial mismanagement.
Read more
Is Trump Ending the American Era? - The Atlanticķ,xx lin n
Read more
Is Trump Ending the American Era? - The Atlanticķ,xx lin n
3/15/20
Globalization: Will The Coronavirus End Globalization? - by Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp
Narratives provide the storylines through which people make sense of the
world. Actors strategically deploy narratives to advance agendas,
telling stories about what or who is to blame and what should be done.
When it comes to the coronavirus, multiple narratives
are emerging. Instead of adopting a common frame to understand this
threat, actors are doubling down on their existing critiques of
globalization and neoliberalism, using the coronavirus to show how right
they were all along.
Instead of trying to advance a dominant narrative about what the pandemic means for globalization, we think it is time to start developing mental models to understand what the different perspectives are, how they can be integrated and what trade-offs this might involve. This approach permits us to provide a more three-dimensional understanding of the problem. We’ve identified at least seven major storylines that are competing for attention in explaining what the virus means for economic globalization.
For right-wing populists like President Donald Trump, the coronavirus vindicates concerns about the need to protect the country’s borders and to keep foreigners—and their diseases—out. The threat is portrayed as foreign, and the response is to build walls and stop flights. According to this narrative, globalization accelerates the threat. As Aurélia Beigneux, a politician from France’s right-wing National Rally, warns: “The free circulation of goods and people, immigration policies and weak controls at the borders obviously allow the exponential spread of this type of virus.” Hyperconnected global cities might be towering forces economically, but they are also entry ports for infection. Living in a “flyover states” is, for once, an enviable position.
For left-wing populists like U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the crisis has made it abundantly clear that the country needs free health care and paid sick leave for everyone, right now. They focus less on the foreign threat—how the virus arrived in the country—and more on domestic problems—how inequality in shared social and economic structures means that people are not properly treated, permitting the disease to spread. Lack of health care, high insurance premiums, and minimal sick-leave entitlements mean that it is harder to get people to self-isolate and get tested, which will hamper containment and increase fatalities. Perhaps universal healthcare is a national security issue.
o security actors who have long been worried about America’s overreliance on Chinese imports, the coronavirus reinforces concerns about the fact that over 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in U.S. medicines are produced abroad, mainly in China and India, including over 97% of antibiotics. According to this geoeconomic perspective, the pandemic demonstrates why America needs to be more self-reliant when it comes to making essential products like penicillin. The hit Australia has taken with respect to its top services exports—education and tourism—also raises concerns about concentrated dependence. When Chinese students comprise 70–80% of the international student body of some universities, making up over 20% of some university budgets, grounding planes from China has significant economic effects.
Capitalist reformers criticize the myopic focus of multinational corporations on bolstering shareholder value in a way that has led many to focus on short-term efficiencies over long-term economic resilience. The “just-in-time” approach to manufacturing, in which manufacturers do not keep a large inventories of materials but instead order them to arrive shortly in advance of assembly, is highly vulnerable to supply chain shocks. Automakers globally have had to stall production after supplies of components from China were disrupted. This crisis therefore proves the need to shorten supply chains and build in more redundancy into manufacturing processes to ensure greater resilience.
Political observers view the coronavirus as a perfect illustration of the advantages or flaws of authoritarianism or democracy—pick your poison. Those inclined to criticize Chinese authoritarianism point to that government’s early attempt to silence doctors who were raising the alarm about the virus. Others point to the advantage that the Communist Party enjoyed in dealing with the virus, when the government used lockdown orders and technological surveillance to rapidly contain the virus’s spread. Conversely, while some celebrate the West’s freedom of speech, others point to the dillydallying of Western democracies in effectively curtailing these risks—with Italy and now the United States being cases in point. The coronavirus will have longer term implications for debates about liberal versus authoritarian capitalism.
Globalists view the coronavirus as a global threat that shows the common plight of humanity and the need to work together. Viruses don’t discriminate; nor should we. Instead of hoarding medical masks through export controls, countries should work together to ensure that all states have sufficient medical supplies. This is a time for global action and for all people and countries to come together. Countries should encourage scientists from around the world to work together to find a vaccine, rather than resorting to “sicken-thy-neighbor” export bans on medical supplies. Here, the goal is global cooperation to enable the continued flow of people, goods and ideas.
Read more at: Will The Coronavirus End Globalization? - Barron's
Instead of trying to advance a dominant narrative about what the pandemic means for globalization, we think it is time to start developing mental models to understand what the different perspectives are, how they can be integrated and what trade-offs this might involve. This approach permits us to provide a more three-dimensional understanding of the problem. We’ve identified at least seven major storylines that are competing for attention in explaining what the virus means for economic globalization.
For right-wing populists like President Donald Trump, the coronavirus vindicates concerns about the need to protect the country’s borders and to keep foreigners—and their diseases—out. The threat is portrayed as foreign, and the response is to build walls and stop flights. According to this narrative, globalization accelerates the threat. As Aurélia Beigneux, a politician from France’s right-wing National Rally, warns: “The free circulation of goods and people, immigration policies and weak controls at the borders obviously allow the exponential spread of this type of virus.” Hyperconnected global cities might be towering forces economically, but they are also entry ports for infection. Living in a “flyover states” is, for once, an enviable position.
For left-wing populists like U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the crisis has made it abundantly clear that the country needs free health care and paid sick leave for everyone, right now. They focus less on the foreign threat—how the virus arrived in the country—and more on domestic problems—how inequality in shared social and economic structures means that people are not properly treated, permitting the disease to spread. Lack of health care, high insurance premiums, and minimal sick-leave entitlements mean that it is harder to get people to self-isolate and get tested, which will hamper containment and increase fatalities. Perhaps universal healthcare is a national security issue.
o security actors who have long been worried about America’s overreliance on Chinese imports, the coronavirus reinforces concerns about the fact that over 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in U.S. medicines are produced abroad, mainly in China and India, including over 97% of antibiotics. According to this geoeconomic perspective, the pandemic demonstrates why America needs to be more self-reliant when it comes to making essential products like penicillin. The hit Australia has taken with respect to its top services exports—education and tourism—also raises concerns about concentrated dependence. When Chinese students comprise 70–80% of the international student body of some universities, making up over 20% of some university budgets, grounding planes from China has significant economic effects.
Capitalist reformers criticize the myopic focus of multinational corporations on bolstering shareholder value in a way that has led many to focus on short-term efficiencies over long-term economic resilience. The “just-in-time” approach to manufacturing, in which manufacturers do not keep a large inventories of materials but instead order them to arrive shortly in advance of assembly, is highly vulnerable to supply chain shocks. Automakers globally have had to stall production after supplies of components from China were disrupted. This crisis therefore proves the need to shorten supply chains and build in more redundancy into manufacturing processes to ensure greater resilience.
Political observers view the coronavirus as a perfect illustration of the advantages or flaws of authoritarianism or democracy—pick your poison. Those inclined to criticize Chinese authoritarianism point to that government’s early attempt to silence doctors who were raising the alarm about the virus. Others point to the advantage that the Communist Party enjoyed in dealing with the virus, when the government used lockdown orders and technological surveillance to rapidly contain the virus’s spread. Conversely, while some celebrate the West’s freedom of speech, others point to the dillydallying of Western democracies in effectively curtailing these risks—with Italy and now the United States being cases in point. The coronavirus will have longer term implications for debates about liberal versus authoritarian capitalism.
Globalists view the coronavirus as a global threat that shows the common plight of humanity and the need to work together. Viruses don’t discriminate; nor should we. Instead of hoarding medical masks through export controls, countries should work together to ensure that all states have sufficient medical supplies. This is a time for global action and for all people and countries to come together. Countries should encourage scientists from around the world to work together to find a vaccine, rather than resorting to “sicken-thy-neighbor” export bans on medical supplies. Here, the goal is global cooperation to enable the continued flow of people, goods and ideas.
Read more at: Will The Coronavirus End Globalization? - Barron's
3/12/20
US Economy getting worse and worse: Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 11-Year Bull Run Ends
The longest-ever bull market for U.S. stocks ended Wednesday 11 March.
The downturn, marked by a 20% decline from the most recent high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, heightens fears that the economic expansion that began following the financial crises.will get wose and worse.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,464 points, or 5.86%, on Wednesday, as investor anxiety over the coronavirus outbreak pushed the index into a bear market for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also slipped by 4.89% and 4.7%, respectively.
Among the worst stock performers Wednesday was Boeing, which saw shares plummeted more than 13%. The company, already struggling due to 737 Max controversies, announced Wednesday it was implementing a hiring freeze, citing the "global disruption generated by the COVID-19 coronavirus."
EU-Digest
11/20/19
Democracy: The Shocking Paper Predicting the End of Democracy - by Rick Shenkman
Everything was unfolding as it usually does. The academics who gathered in Lisbon this summer for the International Society of Political Psychologists’ annual meeting had been politely listening for four days, nodding along as their peers took to the podium and delivered papers on everything from the explosion in conspiracy theories to the rise of authoritarianism.
Then, the mood changed. As one of the lions of the profession, 68-year-old Shawn Rosenberg, began delivering his paper, people in the crowd of about a hundred started shifting in their seats. They loudly whispered objections to their friends. Three women seated next to me near the back row grew so loud and heated I had difficulty hearing for a moment what Rosenberg was saying.
What caused the stir? Rosenberg, a professor at UC Irvine, was challenging a core assumption about America and the West. His theory? Democracy is devouring itself—his phrase — and it won’t last.
As much as President Donald Trump’s liberal critics might want to lay America’s ills at his door, Rosenberg says the president is not the cause of democracy’s fall—even if Trump’s successful anti-immigrant populist campaign may have been a symptom of democracy’s decline.
We’re to blame, said Rosenberg. As in “we the people.”
Democracy is hard work. And as society’s “elites”—experts and public figures who help those around them navigate the heavy responsibilities that come with self-rule—have increasingly been sidelined, citizens have proved ill equipped cognitively and emotionally to run a well-functioning democracy. As a consequence, the center has collapsed and millions of frustrated and angst-filled voters have turned in desperation to right-wing populists.
His prediction? “In well-established democracies like the United States, democratic governance will continue its inexorable decline and will eventually fail.”
Read more: The Shocking Paper Predicting the End of Democracy - POLITICO Magazine
Then, the mood changed. As one of the lions of the profession, 68-year-old Shawn Rosenberg, began delivering his paper, people in the crowd of about a hundred started shifting in their seats. They loudly whispered objections to their friends. Three women seated next to me near the back row grew so loud and heated I had difficulty hearing for a moment what Rosenberg was saying.
As much as President Donald Trump’s liberal critics might want to lay America’s ills at his door, Rosenberg says the president is not the cause of democracy’s fall—even if Trump’s successful anti-immigrant populist campaign may have been a symptom of democracy’s decline.
We’re to blame, said Rosenberg. As in “we the people.”
Democracy is hard work. And as society’s “elites”—experts and public figures who help those around them navigate the heavy responsibilities that come with self-rule—have increasingly been sidelined, citizens have proved ill equipped cognitively and emotionally to run a well-functioning democracy. As a consequence, the center has collapsed and millions of frustrated and angst-filled voters have turned in desperation to right-wing populists.
His prediction? “In well-established democracies like the United States, democratic governance will continue its inexorable decline and will eventually fail.”
Read more: The Shocking Paper Predicting the End of Democracy - POLITICO Magazine
3/26/19
EU: European MPs vote to end summer time clock change
European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
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