Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

At least 25 dead in Chinese province’s heaviest rains in 1,000 years

By Ryan Woo and Stella Qiu

BEIJING (Reuters) – At least 25 people have died in China’s flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital that was drenched by what weather officials called the heaviest rains for 1,000 years.

About 100,000 people have been evacuated in Zhengzhou, the capital, where rail and road transport have been disrupted, while dams and reservoirs have swelled to warning levels while thousands of troops launched a rescue effort in the province.

City authorities said more than 500 people were pulled to safety from the flooded subway, as social media images showed train commuters immersed in chest-deep waters in the dark and one station reduced to a large brown pool.

“The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.”

The rain halted bus services in the city of 12 million people about 650 km (400 miles) southwest of Beijing, said a resident surnamed Guo, who had to spend the night at his office.

“That’s why many people took the subway, and the tragedy happened,” Guo told Reuters.

At least 25 people have died in the torrential rains that have lashed the province since last weekend, with seven missing, officials told a news conference on Wednesday.

Media said the dead included four residents of the city of Gongyi, located on the banks of the Yellow River like Zhengzhou, following the widespread collapse of homes and structures because of the rains.

More rain is forecast across Henan for the next three days, and the People’s Liberation Army has sent more than 5,700 soldiers and personnel to help with search and rescue.

From Saturday to Tuesday, 617.1 mm (24.3 inches) of rain fell in Zhengzhou, almost the equivalent of its annual average of 640.8 mm (25.2 inches).

The three days of rain matched a level seen only “once in a thousand years”, meteorologists said.

“Such extreme weather events will likely become more frequent in the future,” said Johnny Chan, a professor of atmospheric science at City University of Hong Kong.

“What is needed is for governments to develop strategies to adapt to such changes,” he added, referring to authorities at city, province and national levels.

‘FLOOD PREVENTION DIFFICULT’

Many train services have been suspended across Henan, a major logistics hub with a population of about 100 million. Highways have also been closed and flights delayed or cancelled.

By Wednesday, media said food and water supplies had run out for hundreds of passengers stranded on a train that had stopped just beyond the city limits of Zhengzhou two days earlier.

Roads were severely flooded in a dozen cities of the province.

“Flood prevention efforts have become very difficult,” President Xi Jinping said in a statement broadcast by state television.

Dozens of reservoirs and dams breached danger levels.

Local authorities said the rainfall had caused a 20-metre breach in the Yihetan dam in the city of Luoyang west of Zhengzhou, and that the dam “could collapse at any time”.

In Zhengzhou itself, where about 100,000 people have been evacuated, the Guojiazui reservoir had been breached but there was no dam failure yet.

A raft of Chinese companies, insurers and a state-backed bank said they had offered donations and emergency aid to local governments in Henan amounting to 1.935 billion yuan ($299 million).

SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS CUT OFF

Taiwan’s Foxconn, which operates a plant in Zhengzhou assembling iPhones for Apple, said there was no direct impact on the facility.

China’s largest automaker, SAIC Motor, warned of short-term impact on logistics at its plant in the city, while Japan’s Nissan said production at its factory had been suspended.

Schools and hospitals were marooned, and people caught in the floods flocked to shelter in libraries, cinemas and even museums.

“We’ve up to 200 people of all ages seeking temporary shelter,” said a staffer surnamed Wang at the Zhengzhou Science and Technology Museum.

“We’ve provided them with instant noodles and hot water. They spent the night in a huge meeting room.”

After the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou, the city’s largest with more than 7,000 beds, lost all power, officials raced to find transport for about 600 critically ill patients.

The neighboring province of Hebei issued a storm alert for some cities, including Shijiazhuang, its capital, warning of moderate to heavy rain from Wednesday.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru, Josh Horwitz and Jing Wang in Shanghai, and Stella Qiu, Roxanne Liu, Cheng Leng, Yilei Sun, Judy Hua and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Beijing Newsroom and Kanupriya Kapoor in Singapore; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Clarence Fernandez)

Former FDA adviser calls for wider probe into Biogen Alzheimer’s drug approval

By Julie Steenhuysen and Deena Beasley

(Reuters) – A federal probe of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a controversial new Alzheimer’s disease drug should look into why that decision was made without clear evidence of patient benefit, a former adviser to the agency said on Tuesday.

Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock earlier this month asked the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate whether FDA representatives’ interactions with drugmaker Biogen Inc were inconsistent with agency policies.

“I happen to think that there’s a lot more to investigate than just that,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who resigned as a member of the FDA advisory panel that reviewed and voted against approval of Biogen’s drug prior to the FDA green light.

Speaking at a live event sponsored by The Forum at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, he said more information is needed on FDA’s role in Biogen’s evaluation of clinical trial data, as well as why the agency decided to base its approval on a “surrogate” biomarker rather than the drug’s impact on cognitive function.

The FDA in early June approved Biogen’s Aduhelm, citing evidence that it can reduce brain plaques, a likely contributor to Alzheimer’s disease, rather than proof that it slows progression of the lethal mind-wasting condition.

“If the FDA knows about some really clear scientific evidence … they should share that because I don’t think there is a lot of clarity around that in the field right now,” Kesselheim said.

He was one of three experts who resigned from the FDA advisory panel that recommended late last year that the agency turn down Biogen’s application to market Aduhelm, which the company has priced at about $56,000 a year.

“I think that by all objective measures it is an excessive cost,” Kesselheim said.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Writing by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Smoke from U.S. West wildfires leaves Easterners gasping

By Peter Szekely

(Reuters) – Dozens of wildfires in the western United States and Canada, led by a massive blaze in Oregon, are sending smoke eastward, worsening air quality and causing colorful sunsets in some places.

More than 80 large wildfires in 13 western states charred nearly 1.3 million acres (526,090 hectares), an area larger than the state of Delaware, by Tuesday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho.

But due to the jet stream and other cross-continental air currents, the regional disasters were being felt nationally.

Wildfire smoke prompted an advisory from New York health and environmental authorities on Tuesday for fine particulate matter as the region’s Air Quality Index hit 118, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups such as people with breathing problems.

AQI readings well above 100 were also recorded in other Northeast cities, including Boston, Hartford and Philadelphia.

In Cleveland and Detroit, AQI topped 125, which NIFC meteorologist Nick Nauslar said was likely caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires in southeast Manitoba and southwest Ontario.

“Sunsets look prettier, redder, more colorful” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Orevec of the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

While some smoke diffuses into the upper atmosphere after traveling thousands of miles, it still can lower air quality, Nauslar said.

Unhealthy AQI readings were recorded on Monday in parts of Idaho and Montana, which, along with Washington state, are in the wind-driven path of smoke from southern Oregon’s Bootleg fire, according to air resource adviser Margaret Key.

“Wildfire smoke exposure also increases susceptibility to respiratory infections including COVID, increases severity of such infections, and makes recovery more difficult,” Key said by email.

The Bootleg fire, already the country’s largest wildfire, grew by 24,200 acres overnight to nearly 388,600 acres (157,260 hectares), about half the size of Rhode Island. Some 2,200 personnel managed to contain 30% of it, officials said.

As of Tuesday, the fire had destroyed 67 homes and was threatening 3,400 more. An estimated 2,100 people were under evacuation orders or on standby alert to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

Rising smoke from the fire raging in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland has already produced at least two pyrocumulonimbus clouds, an unusual phenomenon often called fire clouds, the NIFC’s Nauslar said.

“It can start to produce its own lightning, and essentially become a fire generated thunderstorm,” he said by phone. “This can cause rapid and erratic fire spread.”

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Haiti to swear in new prime minister in wake of president’s assassination

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti will usher in a new prime minister on Tuesday as Ariel Henry takes the reins of the Caribbean country nearly two weeks after President Jovenel Moise’s was gunned down in a murder plot that likely extends far beyond its borders.

Official memorial services for the slain Moise were to begin on Tuesday as the impoverished nation struggling with lawlessness fueled by violent gangs eagerly awaits findings of the investigation into the assassination.

Moise was killed on July 7 in the middle of the night at his private residence in Port-au-Prince by a group of more than 20 mostly Colombian mercenaries. The leader’s own security chief, some Haitian police officers and a couple of Haitian-Americans have been taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the conspiracy to murder the president.

Moise’s killing has rocked an already fragile political system while focusing attention on weak security institutions beset by powerful gangs that control swathes of Haiti like feudal lords.

Elections have not been held in Haiti since 2016, but are currently set for September.

Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, was tapped by Moise to be the new prime minister just days before he was assassinated. But he was not then formally sworn in to the position.

Claude Joseph, the former prime minister, clung to the job in the immediate aftermath of the assassination despite sharp criticism from domestic political opponents who accused him of pursuing a reckless power grab.

Joseph has returned to his previous job as foreign minister, just as several other ministers are expected to keep their old portfolios for now.

Moise’s wife Marine Moise, who was also shot during the assassination, arrived back in Haiti over the weekend after being treated for her wounds at a hospital in Miami.

(Reporting by Andre Paultre and Dave Graham; Writing by David Alire Garcia; editing by Grant McCool)

U.S. infrastructure deal teeters after Republicans reject IRS funds

By Jarrett Renshaw and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House and U.S. congressional negotiators are scrambling to salvage a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal after Republicans balked at funding to enforce existing tax laws – a key way to pay for the plan – leaving both sides searching for a way forward.

Senators and Biden administration officials still hope to hammer out the deal, including a plan to finance it, for a Senate vote on Wednesday, but both parties were growing increasingly skeptical Tuesday.

“(It’s) hard to think there will be a bill by the time we vote tomorrow,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the bipartisan infrastructure negotiators, told Reuters. “There’s still more issues,” he said, including how the Congressional Budget Office scores the bill’s impact on U.S. federal finances.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the president supports Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s plan to take a procedural vote to move to a debate on the bill on Wednesday, despite the lack of text and agreement on how to pay for it.

“There are no secrets in this legislation” Psaki told reporters.

The next step, Democrats say, could be jettisoning the bipartisan agreement entirely, which needs 10 Republican votes to pass the Senate, and putting all of U.S. President Joe Biden’s spending priorities into a “budget reconciliation bill” that can pass along party lines.

“Patience is wearing thin for Democrats and I am fully expecting the party’s leadership to pivot towards the go-alone approach shortly. Then, the blame game will begin,” said one Democratic aide involved in the negotiations.

Last month, Biden and a bipartisan group of senators agreed on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package with roughly $600 billion in new spending financed in part by increased enforcement of tax laws.

Both sides agreed to add $40 billion to the Internal Revenue Service budget, a move that Biden said would focus on enforcing tax laws for large corporations and people who earn more than $400,000.

The funding would yield about $100 billion in tax revenue, negotiators said, or a sixth of the package’s new spending cost.

Republicans, under pressure from anti-tax groups who claimed it would empower auditors to harass business owners and political opposition, rejected that plan over the weekend.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman said Sunday that Republicans believed Biden had agreed the full extent of IRS enforcement funding would be in the bipartisan bill; instead Democrats are planning to add billions more to IRS enforcement to the later reconciliation bill.

The IRS budget fell to about $11.95 billion in 2020 from an inflation-adjusted $14.6 billion in 2010, largely as a result of Republican-driven budget cuts that Democrats want to reverse.

On Monday Biden took a dig at Republicans who have backed away from the deal, saying “we shook hands on it.”

Asked if it will be time to forge ahead with reconciliation if Wednesday’s Senate vote fails, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading Democratic progressive, told reporters: “Yes … they’ve been killing time for months and at this point, I believe that it’s starting to get to a point where this bipartisan effort is seeming to serve less on investing in our infrastructure and serving more the end of just delaying action on infrastructure.”

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and David Morgan; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

U.S. housing starts rise, building permits fall to eight-month low

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. homebuilding increased more than expected in June, but permits for future home construction fell to an eight-month low, likely reflecting uncertainty caused by expensive building materials as well as shortages of labor and land.

The report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday suggested that a severe shortage of houses, which has boosted prices and sparked bidding wars across the country, could persist for a while. Demand for houses is being driven by low mortgage rates and a desire for more spacious accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though lumber prices are coming down from record highs, builders are paying more for steel, concrete and lighting, and are grappling with shortages of appliances like refrigerators.

“Reports of multi-month delays in the delivery of windows, heating units, refrigerators and other items have popped up across the country, delaying delivery of homes and forcing builders to cap activity, and many builders continue to point to a shortage of available workers as a separate challenge,” said Matthew Speakman, an economist at Zillow.

Housing starts rose 6.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.643 million units last month. Data for May was revised down to a rate of 1.546 million units from the previously reported 1.572 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast starts would rise to a rate of 1.590 million units.

Despite last month’s increase, starts remained below March’s rate of 1.737 million units, which was the highest level since July 2006. Homebuilding increased in the West and the populous South, but fell in the Northeast and Midwest.

Single-family starts rose 6.3% to a rate of 1.160 million units. The volatile multi-family homebuilding category advanced 6.2% to a pace of 483,000 units.

Starts increased 29.1% on a year-on-year basis in June.

Permits for future homebuilding fell 5.1% to a rate of 1.598 million units in June, the lowest level since October 2020. Permits are now lagging starts, suggesting that homebuilding will slow in the coming months.

U.S. stocks opened higher after Monday’s sharp selloff. The dollar gained versus a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields fell.

BUILDERS CAUTIOUS

While lumber futures have dropped nearly 70% from a record high in early May, softwood lumber prices increased 125.3% on a year-on-year basis in June, according to the latest producer price data.

There are also signs that the exodus to suburbs and other low-density areas in search of larger homes for home offices and schooling is gradually fading as vaccinations allow companies to recall workers back to offices in city centers. Rising COVID-19 infections among unvaccinated Americans also pose a risk to the housing market outlook.

“Builders are more cautious and taking out fewer permits for new construction as the earlier confidence during the economy’s reopening has started to falter,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York.

The supply of previously-owned homes is near record lows, leading to double-digit growth in the median house price.

A survey from the National Association of Home Builders on Monday showed confidence among single-family homebuilders fell to an 11-month low in July. The NAHB noted that “builders continue to grapple with elevated building material prices and supply shortages, particularly the price of oriented strand board, which has skyrocketed more than 500 percent above its January 2020 level.”

Homebuilders and a group of other stakeholders met last Friday with White House officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, to discuss strategies to address the short-term supply chain disruptions in the homebuilding sector.

Building permits fell in all four regions in June. Single-family permits dropped 6.3% to a rate of 1.063 million units. Permits for multifamily housing slipped 2.6% to a rate of 535,000 units.

Housing completions fell 1.4% to a rate of 1.324 million units last month. Single-family home completions declined 6.1% to a rate of 902,000 units, the lowest level since October.

Realtors estimate that single-family housing starts and completion rates need to be in a range of 1.5 million to 1.6 million units per month to close the inventory gap.

The stock of housing under construction rose 1.8% to a rate of 1.359 million units last month.

(Reporting by Lucia MutikaniEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

New York, drug distributors reach $1.18 billion opioid settlement as national deal looms

By Brendan Pierson and Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The three largest U.S. drug distributors agreed mid-trial to pay up to $1.18 billion to settle claims by New York state and two of its biggest counties over their role in the nationwide opioid epidemic, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday.

McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp settled as state attorneys general prepare to announce as soon as this week a landmark $26 billion deal with the distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson resolving cases nationwide.

The deal with New York Attorney General Letitia James and the populous Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk came three weeks into the first jury trial accusing companies of profiting from a flood of addictive painkillers that devastated communities.

“While no amount of money will ever compensate for the millions of addictions, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, or the countless communities decimated by opioids, this money will be vital in preventing any future devastation,” James said.

Hunter Shkolnik, a lawyer for Nassau County at the law firm Napoli Shkolnik, in a statement said that unlike the proposed national settlement, the New York deal “is not contingent on the rest of the country or other states joining.”

In a joint statement, the distributors called the settlement “an important step toward finalizing a broad settlement with states, counties, and political subdivisions.”

‘GETTING CLOSE’ ON NATIONAL SETTLEMENT

The national settlement is expected to be announced later this week, people familiar with the matter said. Joe Rice, a lead negotiator for lawyers for the cities and counties at Motley Rice, told reporters the parties are “getting close” to finalizing a deal.

After the framework is announced, states and their subdivisions will need to decide whether to join the global accord, the sources have said. The ultimate settlement price-tag could fluctuate depending on how many agree to the deal or reject it to pursue litigation on their own.

The settlement also calls the creation of a national clearinghouse of data on opioid shipments operated under the oversight of an independent third-party monitor.

Paul Geller, a lead negotiator for the plaintiffs at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd Geller, said that provision would be “transformative” in battling drug oversupply.

Nearly 500,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States from 1999 to 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC last week said provisional data showed that 2020 was a record year for overall drug overdose deaths with 93,331, up 29% from a year earlier.

REMAINING DEFENDANTS

More than 3,300 cases have been filed largely by states and local governments alleging drugmakers falsely marketed opioid painkillers as safe, and distributors and pharmacies of ignoring red flags that they were being diverted to illegal channels.

The New York trial will continue against three drugmakers accused of deceptively marketing their painkillers – Endo International Plc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and AbbVie Inc’s Allergan unit.

Ahead of the trial, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $263 million to resolve the claims by the state and counties. Pharmacy operators Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, CVS Health Corp, Rite Aid Corp and Walmart Inc agreed to settle with the counties for a combined $26 million.

Two other opioid cases are also on trial in West Virginia and California. The companies have denied wrongdoing.

James’ office said that of the nearly $1.18 billion the distributors agreed to pay, more than $1 billion will go toward addressing the epidemic. The counties have said the money will be used for mental health and addiction programs.

Payments will start in two months and will continue over the next 17 years, James said.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Hals, Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot and Nick Zieminski)

India’s excess deaths during pandemic up to 4.9 million, study shows

By Ankur Banerjee and Neha Arora

(Reuters) -India’s excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic could be as high as 4.9 million, a new study shows, providing further evidence that millions more may have died from coronavirus than the official tally.

The report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development, co-authored by India’s former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, included deaths from all causes since the start of the pandemic through June this year.

India’s official tally of more than 414,000 deaths is the world’s third highest after the United States and Brazil, but the study adds to growing calls from experts for a rigorous nationwide audit of fatalities.

A devastating rise in infections in April and May, driven largely by the more infectious and dangerous Delta variant, overwhelmed the healthcare system and killed at least 170,000 people in May alone, official data show.

“What is tragically clear is that too many people, in the millions rather than hundreds of thousands, may have died,” the report said, estimating between 3.4 million and 4.9 million excess deaths during the pandemic.

But it did not ascribe all excess deaths to the pandemic.

“We focus on all-cause mortality, and estimate excess mortality relative to a pre-pandemic baseline, adjusting for seasonality,” the authors said.

The health ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

Some experts have said excess deaths are the best way to measure the real toll from COVID-19.

“For every country, it’s important to capture excess mortality – the only way to prepare the health system for future shocks and to prevent further deaths,” Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist of the World Health Organization, said on Twitter.

The New York Times said the most conservative estimate of deaths in India was 600,000 and the worst-case scenario several times that. The government has dismissed those figures.

Health experts blame the undercounting largely on scarce resources in the vast hinterland home to two-thirds of India’s population of nearly 1.4 billion, and also many deaths at home without being tested.

India has reported a decline in daily infections from a May peak, with Tuesday’s 30,093 new cases making up its lowest daily count in four months.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also been criticized for a messy vaccination campaign that many say helped worsen the second wave of infections.

Just over 8% of eligible adult Indians have received both vaccine doses.

In July, the government administered fewer than 4 million daily doses on average, down from a record 9.2 million on June 21, when Modi flagged off a free campaign to inoculate all 950 million adults.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru and Neha Arora in New Delhi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Giles Elgood)

Britain’s COVID-19 cases up by nearly 41% over past week

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has reported 46,558 new cases of COVID-19, government data showed on Tuesday, meaning the rise in cases between July 14 and July 20 stood at 40.7% compared with the previous seven days.

A further 96 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19.

A total of 46.35 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by July 19 and 36.24 million people had received a second dose.

(Writing by William Schomberg)

Argentina urges people to ‘save water’ with Parana river at 77-year low

By Maximilian Heath

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s government has urged citizens to limit water use in a bid to alleviate pressure on the Parana River, a key grains thoroughfare that is at a 77-year low, a situation which is hampering shipments of cereals including soy and wheat.

A government advisory group called on people to “save water,” store rainwater for irrigation and avoid burning waste to prevent wildfires on the wetlands around the river delta.

“Water levels in the Parana are at the lowest level since 1944, which requires a commitment from everyone to attend and act preventively and responsibly against this situation,” the group said in a statement late on Monday.

The Parana, which has its source in southern Brazil, flows through Argentina to the coast near Buenos Aires. It is the transportation route for 80% of country’s farm exports and a source of drinking water, irrigation and energy.

However, due to a prolonged shortage of rainfall in Brazil, the Parana’s water levels have dropped dramatically, hitting the amount of cargo that can be carried by ships at the peak of the Argentine corn and soy export season.

On Saturday, the government announced a $10.4 million relief fund to mitigate the impact of low water levels.

On the banks of the Parana are important cities such as Rosario, Parana and Santa Fe. Rosario is the main agro-industrial hub and river port of Argentina, a leading global supplier of soy, corn and wheat to global markets.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Adam Jourdan and David Evans)