Archives for April 2021

Brazil’s Bolsonaro ignores calls for lockdown to slow virus

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday there would be “no national lockdown,” ignoring growing calls from health experts a day after the nation saw its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours since the pandemic began.

Brazil’s Health Ministry registered 4,195 deaths on Tuesday, becoming the third country to go above that threshold as Bolsonaro’s political opponents demanded stricter measures to slow down the spread of the virus.

“We’re not going to accept this politics of stay home and shut everything down,” Bolsonaro said, resisting the pressure in a speech in the city of Chapeco in Santa Catarina state. “There will be no national lockdown.”

Brazil’s conservative president also defended the use of so-called early treatment protocols, which include anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. No scientific studies have found the drug effective to prevent or treat COVID-19.

“There is not enough vaccine today in the world. We need to find alternatives,” he said.

The number of deaths in Chapeco linked to the virus has finally come down after some very difficult weeks. Intensive care units had surpassed capacity, forcing authorities to transfer infected patients to hospitals in other states.

Last month, the city implemented some restrictions on the economy for two weeks, but Bolsonaro attributed Chapeco’s recent success to the use of early treatment protocols, newspaper Estadão reported.

In an open letter published Tuesday in newspaper O Globo, the Brazilian Association of Collective Health, which counts nearly 20,000 members, called for a three-week nationwide lockdown.

“The serious epidemiological situation that is leading to the collapse of the health system in several states requires the immediate adoption, without hesitation, of strict restrictive measures,” the statement said.

Intensive care units in most Brazilian states have an occupation rate above 90%, though figures have been stable since the past week.

The Supreme Court is ruling today on the reopening of religious buildings nationwide. Many local authorities decided to ban large religious gatherings in spite of a federal government decision to label them as part of essential services.

“There is no Christianity without community life,” argued Brazil’s solicitor general André Mendonça, an evangelical pastor, before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. “True Christians are never willing to kill for their faith, but they are always willing to die to guarantee freedom of religion and worship.”

The preliminary results of an ongoing study involving 67,700 healthcare workers in Manaus, where a more contagious variant of COVID-19 was detected this year, seemed to confirm earlier findings that China’s Sinovac vaccine is effective against the virus. The press release published Wednesday mentioned a 50% efficacy rate after the administration of just one of the vaccine’s two doses.

The study has not yet been published or peer reviewed. Several health experts consulted by The Associated Press said it was not possible to properly evaluate the preliminary findings without access to the study’s methodology and full results, but all agreed to say that it was promising.

The study involves researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine, the Yale School of Public Health and Brazil’s state-run Fiocruz Institute, among other insitutions.

In its own preliminary study, Sao Paulo’s Butantan institute had also found in March that the vaccine was effective against the P1 variant.

Facebook removes accounts tied to Iranian exile group

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Tuesday it has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania.

The accounts posted content critical of Iran’s government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident group known as MEK. In many cases, the Facebook and Instagram accounts used fake profile names and photos.

Facebook determined the accounts were being run from a single location in Albania by a group of individuals working on behalf of MEK. Facebook found other telltale clues suggesting a so-called troll farm, in which workers are often paid to post content, including misinformation, to social media. Facebook says it removes such accounts based on how they behave, not on the material they post.

For one, researchers found that the activity seemed to follow the central European workday, with posts picking up after 9 a.m., slowing down at the end of the day, and with a noticeable pause at lunch time. Facebook, however, said it did not find evidence of people being paid.

“Even trolls need to eat,” said Ben Nimmo, who works on Facebook’s global threat intelligence investigations, on a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

The National Council for Resistance in Iran, an umbrella group that includes MEK, said in a statement that that no accounts affiliated with it or MEK have been removed. The group also denied the existence of an Albanian troll farm affiliated with MEK.

MEK is a leading group opposing the Iranian government. It killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was labeled as a terrorist organization by the State Department until 2012. Nevertheless, U.S. politicians from both parties including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich have given paid speeches to MEK in the past.

The network of fake accounts was most active in 2017 and again in late 2020, Facebook said. In all, more than 300 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram were removed as part of the company’s action. Around 112,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.

In some cases, the fake accounts used photos of Iranian celebrities or deceased dissidents. A small number of the more recent Instagram accounts appear to have used profile pictures that were computer generated.

The Latest: NHL’s Canucks say 21 players tested positive

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:

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The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks say 25 members of the organization have tested positive for the coronavirus, including 21 players. The team was shut down last week, and it’s uncertain when it will play its next game.

In a statement attributed to team doctor Jim Bovard and infectious disease doctor Josh Douglas, the Canucks say the COVID-19 cases stem from a variant of the virus that was traced by Vancouver Coastal Health back to one individual contracting it in a public setting.

Four staff members also tested positive for the virus, another player is considered a close contact, and the entire team remains in quarantine.

The Canucks had a league-high 18 players on the COVID protocol list Tuesday, the second most all season behind only the New Jersey Devils’ 19 on Feb. 8 and 9. The team says 18 roster and three taxi squad players tested positive, and those on the taxi squad do not have to be listed publicly.

Vancouver has had additional players added to the protocol list the past six days since Adam Gaudette was its only player on the list on March 30-31.

Gaudette was joined in the protocol by Travis Hamonic on April 1, with the numbers jumping to seven players the following day.

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The Milwaukee Brewers are going to start allowing tailgating again outside American Family Field before home games.

Tailgating wasn’t permitted for the team’s first home series as part of their pandemic-related protocols. The Brewers said tailgating will be permitted again starting with Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

Brewers officials say the move has the support of the Milwaukee Health Department.

Tailgating will be allowed at single vehicles for fans sitting in the same seating pod, but fans will need to remain in the immediate vicinity of their vehicle. Parking gates will open 2½ hours before 6:40 p.m. weeknight games and three hours before all other games.

Tailgating has long been a pregame tradition for Brewers fans who take advantage of the large parking area surrounding the ballpark.

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The LPGA Tour says the final event of its three-tournament Asia swing has been canceled. The Blue Bay LPGA on Hainan Island in China was scheduled for May 13-16, following tournaments in Singapore and Thailand.

The LPGA said the the cancellation was due to current health concerns and travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decision was guided by the China Golf Association, which oversees all golf events in China.

It is expected to return to the schedule in 2022.

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Golf’s European Tour says the French Open has been postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions the government announced last week. The tour says it will work with the French golf federation to try to reschedule it.

The French Open was scheduled for May 6-9 at Le Golf National, which hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.

The tour said given the travel of players, caddie and TV production personnel coming from an average of 25 countries, it was best to postpone.

The tour said it would try to fill what is now a vacant spot on the schedule.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Japan’s Toshiba studies acquisition proposal by global fund

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Toshiba Corp. says it is considering a preliminary acquisition proposal that would take the technology conglomerate private.

Toshiba said Wednesday that it asked for more details on the proposal it received on Tuesday, was giving it “careful consideration” and would make an announcement “in due course.”

Trading in the company’s shares was suspended.

The major Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei reported CVC Capital Partners was looking into acquiring the company for 2 trillion yen ($18 billion).

CVC is an international private equity and credit company, which has committed nearly $162 billion in funds, managing more than 300 investors. It declined to comment. It’s headquartered in Luxembourg, and its main office is in London, according to the company.

Toshiba, founded in 1875, was long revered as one of Japan’s most respected brands, developing the nation’s first radar and microwaves, electric rice cookers and laptop computers. It also invented flash memory, the ubiquitous computer chips that store and retain data for digital cameras, cell phones and other gadgets. Toshiba no longer makes laptops and it has sold its computer chips division.

Toshiba’s sprawling businesses, besides nuclear power, include railways, elevators and storage for digital data.

Last month, Toshiba held a general shareholders’ meeting, and approved a proposal from Effissimo Capital Management, a major shareholder, to appoint independent investigators to look into possible interference last year with shareholders’ voting rights. Company management had opposed the proposal.

The move by CVC to make Toshiba a private company, if realized, would help quiet dissenting voices from shareholders. Toshiba President Nobuaki Kurumatani previously served as the head of CVC in Japan before taking his post at Toshiba in 2018. Japanese media quoted him as saying a board meeting will be held, but he did not say when.

Atul Goyal, analyst with Jefferies, noted the reported offer is at a premium, but launching a tender offer will require regulatory and government approval.

“Privatization could be positive as it may provide Toshiba much needed flexibility and cover from limelight,” Goyal said, adding, “It is not a done deal.”

In recent years, Toshiba has been dogged by ethical questions and has been mired in scandals. In 2015, Toshiba acknowledged it had been systematically falsifying its books since 2008, as managers tried to meet overly ambitious targets. An outside investigation found it had inflated its profits and hidden massive expenses.

Toshiba invested heavily in nuclear power. But after the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, costs of the business ballooned because of growing safety concerns and a souring of sentiment toward nuclear power in countries like Germany.

After Toshiba had acquired Westinghouse in 2006 with much fanfare, the U.S. nuclear unit filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017.

Toshiba is now tasked with decommissioning nuclear plants in Japan, including the one in Fukushima, where critical tsunami damage set off reactor meltdowns.

For the nine months through December, Toshiba returned to a profit of 43.6 billion yen ($396 million), a reversal from the 145.6 billion yen loss racked up the previous year over the same period. It reports results for the fiscal year in May.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Pandemic shifted how donors gave, but will it continue?

When Wendo Aszed, the founder of a health nonprofit in rural Kenya, is asked about her frustrations with donors, it doesn’t take long before she brings up a hot-button issue in philanthropy: restrictions on how to use donations.

The “pain point” for her is when funders won’t allow contributions earmarked for one project to be used on related emerging needs. One donor, she notes, funded family planning services — like birth control — but then objected to the money being used for HIV testing on the same women. And some, the 43-year-old added, didn’t want contributions they made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to help implement virus safety measures at her organization, Dandelion Africa.

“They would prefer the organization closes, even if the funds were for essential services, than use their funds for prevention,” said Aszed, adding that some restricted grants even prohibit buying masks for a project. “We deserve unrestricted grants. We’ve been having these conversations back and forth with some funders who give us restricted funding. Some have gone well, and some have not gone so well.”

Unrestricted funding allows organizations to use donations on what they want. It makes an organization’s infrastructure more durable by funding overhead costs. Proponents say it also corrects donor blindspots in areas like racial equity funding, breeds trust and provides organizations flexibility to respond to shifting needs.

While Aszed’s organization gets a few of these contributions, most of its funding is restricted — earmarked for a specific project by the donor. The debate over these funding models has been around for many years. But nothing has been more galvanizing in this conversation than the pandemic, and to some extent, the racial justice protests following the police killing of George Floyd.

Since last March, about 800 donors — both in the U.S. and abroad — have signed a pledge, spearheaded by the Ford Foundation, that called on them to provide the organizations they fund more flexibility in their pandemic response. Soon, donors committed to a list of new steps, including loosening restrictions on current gifts and making new donations as unrestricted as possible. But, experts say it’s unclear if these practices, popular among grantees, will continue.

For its part, the Ford Foundation, which gives the majority of its contributions as unrestricted support, is trying to get it to stay. It announced Wednesday it will launch a second edition of its BUILD program — a multi-year, $1 billion initiative aiming to provide unrestricted funding to 300 organizations worldwide. So far, the foundation’s six-year program has given more than $950 million to social justice organizations; with new contributions slated to be awarded beginning next January.

“We very much hope other funders who signed the pledge continue in this direction,” said Hilary Pennington, the foundation’s executive vice president for programs, adding, “philanthropy needs all the encouragement and pressure it can possibly get in that regard.”

Though unrestricted donations, especially ones that happen over multiple years, are the holy grail of funding for grassroots organizations, it’s often hard to attain because donors — foundations, corporations or philanthropists — tend to tie their giving to projects.

“A lot of the restrictions were a way to disrupt the business of giving,” said Bradford Smith, the president of the philanthropy research organization Candid. “It was to make organizations much more focused on outcomes and impact.”

Donors also restrict their giving out of concern the funds will be used to pay salaries or other costs and “keep business as usual,” Smith added. “If you talk to most donors about why they’re giving, they’ll say ‘I want to make a difference in the world.’ And I think, especially with some of the newer wealth that started to come into philanthropy from Silicon Valley, billionaires and other people that have made their money in technology, they kind of brought almost a venture capital mindset where you were going to have very clear objectives, very measurable indicators, in order to be able to justify and communicate and measure the impact.”

But choosing between unrestricted donations and the ability to measure the impact of a donation “is a false dichotomy,” Pennington says.

“And the more we can do to move away from it, the better,” she added. “There are always times when giving project support makes sense. But it’s absolutely possible to measure the impact of these kinds of grants. Every organization has outcomes they’re trying to accomplish. And the foundations that invest in them have outcomes they’re trying to accomplish.”

As of now, early indicators show it’s uncertain whether the large shift toward unrestricted philanthropic giving will continue.

A Center for Effective Philanthropy report released in December surveyed nearly 240 foundations, of whom 170 signed the pledge to reduce restrictions on their giving. It found 92% of respondents had loosened or eliminated restrictions on current contributions, 80% were making new donations as unrestricted as possible and 90% were reducing what they ask of grantees, like reporting requirements.

The report said many indicated plans to continue these changes, but to a lesser degree than during their pandemic response. “These shifts in practice helped nonprofits cope with massive demand for their services and a need to adapt to a rapidly changing context,” said Phil Buchanan, the group’s president. “The question now is whether these changes were a blip or will be sustained into the future, and it’s frankly too soon to tell.”

Another phenomenon that could signal a shift are the sizable donations of billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott, the recently remarried ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She gave nearly $6 billion in unrestricted contributions last year to hundreds of groups for COVID-19 relief, racial equity and other areas.

Scott’s donations represented most of the unrestricted contributions from the $20.2 billion that was awarded globally for COVID-19 last year, according to a March study by Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The report found 39% of those donations were unrestricted. Excluding Scott’s contributions, that number plummets to 9% — just a small bump from 3% in the first half of the year.

“She essentially made a bunch of large unrestricted grants to organizations that she and her advisors had deeply researched,” said Smith. “What you may see is a more front-loaded approach by foundations where they do a lot of research on the organization and the grant they make is much less encumbered by restrictions.”

Whether that happens remains to be seen. Proponents, like Nina Blackwell, the executive director of Firelight Foundation, a U.S.-based charity that raises money for organizations in Africa, hope the changes continue.

“Today in philanthropy, we retain all of the power,” Blackwell said. “We decide what the problem is for others, what others should do about that problem, how the activities should take place, and how change should be judged and measured. And we simply cannot continue to think that way if we really wish to be equitable, just and lasting in our philanthropy.”

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The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Archives for April 2021

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