White House To Host July 4 ‘Independence From Virus’ Bash

President Joe Biden wants to imbue Independence Day with new meaning this year by encouraging nationwide celebrations to mark the country’s effective return to normalcy after 16 months of coronavirus pandemic disruption.

Even as the U.S. is set to cross the grim milestone of 600,000 deaths from the virus on Tuesday, the White House is expressing growing certainty that July Fourth will serve as a breakthrough moment in the nation’s recovery. That’s even though the U.S. is not expected to quite reach its goal of having 70% of adults vaccinated by the holiday.

As COVID-19 case rates and deaths drop to levels not seen since the first days of the outbreak, travel picks up and schools and businesses reopen, Biden is proclaiming “a summer of freedom” to celebrate Americans resuming their pre-pandemic lives.

The holiday will see the largest event yet of Biden’s presidency: He plans to host first responders, essential workers and military service members and their families on the South Lawn for a cookout and to watch the fireworks over the National Mall. Well more than 1,000 guests are expected, officials said, with final arrangements still to be sorted out.

The plan shows the dramatic shift in thinking since Biden just three months ago cautiously held out hope that people might be able to hold small cookouts by the Fourth, an idea that seems quaint now given the swift pace of reopening.

“By July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbeque and celebrate Independence Day,” Biden had said as he marked the one-year anniversary of the pandemic on March 11. “That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.”

For most Americans, that reopening target was hit last month, by Memorial Day weekend, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people and the accompanying relaxation in state and local virus restrictions.

Now, officials say July Fourth will serve as an unofficial kickoff to a new phase in the U.S. pandemic response. The federal government is looking to turn the page on the domestic public health crisis and focus on an economic and civic revival at home and marshaling support for vaccinations around the globe.

Across the country, the White House is hoping to see the similar Independence Day activities, after last year saw the mass cancellation of July Fourth festivities, according to two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to outline the administration’s thinking.

“We welcome you to join us by hosting your own events to honor our freedom, salute those who have been serving on the frontlines, and celebrate our progress in fighting this pandemic,” the White House wrote in an email to state and local officials Tuesday. It asked them to share their plans to be highlighted later by the administration.

In Washington, the National Mall will host the traditional fireworks ceremony, the White house said.

“America is headed into a summer dramatically different from last year,” the administration wrote to officials. “A summer of freedom. A summer of joy. A summer of reunions and celebrations.”

The upbeat announcement contrasts with the drearier reality in Europe, where Biden is on an eight-day, three-country tour — not to mention much of the rest of the world where vaccines remain scarce.

Instead of having a mission accomplished moment, in Britain, one of the few countries that has a vaccination rate similar to the U.S., the government announced Monday it plans to further delay reopening for at least another month to try to get more people vaccinated. But cases there, unlike the U.S., are rising, and not all adults have been offered a vaccine yet, nor have children.

While in Europe, Biden and Group of Seven allies announced plans to provide 1 billion shots for poorer nations, half of them from the U.S., but aid groups said a far greater commitment is needed to defeat the virus around the globe.

Still, the U.S. vaccination campaign is far from over as rates slip. Fewer than 370,000 Americans are now getting their first dose on average each day, down from a high of nearly 2 million per day two months ago.

White House officials acknowledged that there are still deep geographic disparities in vaccination and that the administration will continue to remind Americans that if they are not vaccinated they remain at risk of serious illness and death from the virus.

All American adults have been eligible for shots for two months, and the administration has mounted an aggressive “month of action” to try to drive up demand for doses, though that has done little to change the trend lines: Fewer Americans are interested in getting vaccinated.

Officials say the effects of the July 4 vaccination goal of 70% of Americans on driving down COVID-19 cases are already being felt even if the benchmark won’t be attained. Some 166.5 million adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data. To reach his goal, Biden would need to vaccinate about 14 million more in less than three weeks.

“Regardless of where we are on July Fourth, we’re not shutting down shop,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week. “On July 5th, we’re going to continue to press to vaccinate more people across the country.”

The Democratic president intends to use his remarks on July Fourth to highlight the administration’s “wartime response,” with a vaccination campaign that helped bring cases and deaths down by about 90% from where they were before he took office on Jan. 20.

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Boris Johnson hails ‘new dawn’ as UK and Australia agree free trade deal

The prime minister says the agreement "opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers".

The UK and Australia have agreed a free trade deal, the first agreement negotiated from scratch after Brexit.

Boris Johnson said the tariff-free deal, which Downing Street said will see British cars, Scotch whisky and biscuits and ceramics become cheaper to sell, marked a “new dawn” in the UK’s relationship with Australia.

The prime minister added: “Our new free-trade agreement opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers, as well as young people wanting the chance to work and live on the other side of the world.

“This is global Britain at its best – looking outwards and striking deals that deepen our alliances and help ensure every part of the country builds back better from the pandemic.”

Key points of the deal revealed so far include:

• Britons under the age of 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia more freely

• Tariffs will be eliminated on Australian favourites like Jacob’s Creek and Hardys wines, swimwear and confectionery, as well as increasing choice for British consumers and saving households up to £34m annually.

• Downing Street said the deal will help distillers by scrapping tariffs of up to 5% on Scotch whisky, while car manufacturers in the Midlands and the North of England will see tariffs of up to 5% cut

• Number 10 said more than 450 businesses in Wales exported to Australia last year and stand to benefit, while “life science companies and chemicals manufacturers are set to benefit in particular”

• It said that in Northern Ireland, 90% of all exports to Australia are “machinery and manufacturing goods used extensively in Australia’s mining, quarrying and recycling sectors”, and under the deal tariffs will be removed and customs procedures “simplified”

Trade between the UK and Australia was worth £13.9bn in 2020, with the UK ranking as Australia’s fifth largest trading partner.

The UK government estimates that the deal will boost Australia’s gross domestic product, the total value of goods produced and services provided, by between 0.01% and 0.06%.

Mr Johnson is understood to have agreed the deal over dinner with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Downing Street on Monday, with a final agreement in principle due to be published this week.

There was understood to be division among ministers over the terms of the deal last month, with some concerned a tariff and quota free agreement could leave British farmers struggling to compete.

Farming groups had warned that a proposed free trade deal with Australia could imperil livelihoods.

Reacting to the news, the National Farmers Union called for more details on the provisions for animal welfare.

“While the government has previously been keen to highlight how our Free Trade Agreements will uphold our high standards of food production, there has always been a question mark over how this can be achieved while opening up our markets to food produced to different standards,” NFU president Minette Batters said.

“We will need to know more about any provisions on animal welfare and the environment to ensure our high standards of production are not undermined by the terms of this deal.”

In a bid to allay those fears, Downing Street said that under the deal British farmers will be protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, with other “safeguards” to protect them.

Speaking at Downing Street alongside Mr Morrison on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said he thought the agreement would lead to “even more trade” between the two nations.

The PM said he was “not going to exaggerate the overall increase of respected GDPs from this”, but added: “But it’s more important politically and symbolically, we’re opening up to each other and this is the prelude to a general campaign of opening up to the world.”

Mr Johnson said the deal would be “good news for British car manufacturers, it will be good news for British services, for British financial services and it will be good news for the agricultural sector on both sides”.

Asked what it will mean for farmers, the PM said: “We’re opening up to Australia, but we’re doing it in a staggered way and we’re doing it over 15 years.

“We’re retaining safeguards, making sure we have protections against sudden influxes of goods and also making sure we adhere to the strongest possible standards for animal welfare.

“As you can imagine, that is what the British consumer is going to want.”

Mr Morrison, who met the Queen at Windsor Castle during his trip, said: “Our economies are stronger by these agreements, this is the most comprehensive and ambitious agreement that Australia has concluded.”

The deal will also bolster the UK’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Downing Street said.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the £9trn free trade area is “home to some of the biggest consumer markets of the present and future” and joining it will “create unheralded opportunities for our farmers, makers, innovators and investors to do business in the future of engine room of the global economy”.

Sarah Olney, the Lib Dem spokesperson for trade, said the government had “serious questions to answer about how this agreement will prevent cheaper and lower quality food products flooding the UK market, threatening our agriculture and food safety”.

And a cross-party group of MPs from across the four nations of the UK has written to Ms Truss, calling for parliamentary scrutiny of the deal.

“No one wants to see our farming communities in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland undermined for the sake of a politically expedient trade deal,” they said.

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Ghana to produce COVID-19 vaccines

Accra, June 15, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the Government is mobilizing resources for the local production of the coronavirus vaccines.

To that end, he said his administration was keen, in the light of the geopolitics of vaccines, to provide state health institutions all the assistance to achieve that objective as soon as practicable.

The President said this in relation to a question on the country’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, during the launch of the Ghana Financing Roadmap for the realization of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S) at the Jubilee House, Accra on Tuesday.

He noted, Ghana, like many other developing counties, had had the fragility of their economies and the vulnerability of the various demographics exposed as a result of the pandemic.

However, procuring vaccines to inoculate the mass of the people in order to get their economies running, President Akufo-Addo indicated, had become a challenge because of the global shortage of vaccines.

“Unfortunately, we are the victims of these world-wide shortage of vaccines. Humanity, especially the poorer less-advantaged nations are experiencing hardship in having access to vaccines,” he said.

The President said the situation and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic had provided very important lessons on the need for self-reliance in the areas of vaccines in the future.

Ghana and other developing nations, he noted, cannot continue to rely on foreign tax payers for support in the event of a pandemic of that nature.

“We cannot continue to be reliant or dependent on alms and charity of foreigners and foreign tax payers for our basic sustenance…we need to be able to put in place the structures that would enable us in future not to be caught with our pants down, and that is why we have to learn and find the avenues to produce our own vaccines.”

Ghana has so far, through the UN-facilitated COVAX facility, received some 1.2 million doses of the Astrazeneca vaccines to carry out its vaccination programme. So far, 350,000 people have had their required double doses, whilst a further 800,000 persons have taken first shots.

Government is looking at inoculating 20 million Ghanaians by the end of the year.

President Akufo-Addo said he was determined to ensure that Ghana became self-reliant in the production of vaccines.

“I am particularly keen on providing the assistance for the institutions of our country to do so, adding that his government was doing its best to mobilize all resources available to ensure that a roadmap being worked by the National Committee established to formulate a concrete plan for vaccine development and manufacturing in Ghana comes to fruition.

He was hopeful that the Committee would soon define that roadmap and get the private sector involved at the manufacturing stage.
GNA

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Mozambique’s national airline to sell aircraft to cut cost: report

MOZAMBIQUE’S national flag carrier, LAM, will sell its Embraer-branded aircraft to standardise its fleet and minimise operation costs, daily newspaper Jornal Noticias reported on Monday.

‘It doesn’t make sense that a small company like LAM is flying planes with three to four different brands,’ Raimundo Matule, administrator of the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE), told the paper, admitting that the company is facing structural problems.

LAM’s current fleet has six aircraft of three different brands, two of which are of the Embraer-190 model.

The IGEPE administrator did not give the exact number of aircraft that would be involved in the sale, but said the reduction brings great cost rationalization, and will enable the company to operate with two types of aircraft at most.

The IGEPE injected about 700 million meticais (more than $11 million) in 2020 into the national airline, whose revenues plummeted due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the report said.

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