A blizzard described by meteorologists as a “bomb cyclone” has killed more than two dozen people and left thousands without power in western New York state. States across the US have been struck by the storm, with the hardest-hit area being New York’s Erie County, which includes the city of Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city.
New York governor Kathy Hochul, who was born in Buffalo, said yesterday that visiting the area was like “going to a war zone”, while US president Joe Biden has declared an emergency in New York, authorising the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security to co-ordinate relief efforts.
Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said the death count had risen overnight from 13 to 25 people, adding that the storm was potentially more deadly than New York’s blizzard of 1977 — and more ferocious.
Three more stories in the news
1. China’s decisive break with zero-Covid regime China is to remove quarantine requirements for inbound travellers from January 8 as the country dismantles the remnants of a zero-Covid regime that closed it off from the rest of the world for almost three years. The National Health Commission yesterday unveiled the move as part of a wider announcement that downgraded the country’s management of Covid-19 and definitively abandoned a host of other preventive measures.
‘Made of flesh, not iron’: China’s medical staff are being asked to work while sick and retired workers are being recalled to duty, as frontline health professionals bear the brunt of Beijing’s about-face on its tough zero-Covid policy.
2. Apple to start making MacBooks in Vietnam by mid-2023 The US tech group is continuing to diversify its production base away from China, tapping its top supplier, Taiwan’s Foxconn, to start making MacBooks in the south-east Asian nation as early as around May, sources briefed on the matter told Nikkei Asia. The shift to Vietnam comes amid not only rising geopolitical tensions but also production disruptions caused by China’s zero-Covid policies and uncertainty from their sudden loosening in recent weeks.
3. Lee Myung-bak to be pardoned South Korea’s former president is to be pardoned tomorrow, after serving almost four years of a 17-year sentence for corruption, embezzlement and bribery, the country’s justice ministry has said. President Yoon Suk-yeol said the special pardon had been issued in the name of promoting national unity, though many South Koreans remain opposed to the move.
Dig Deeper: Lee led the country from 2008 to 2013 after serving as mayor of Seoul, but why was he jailed?
What else we’re reading
Biden confounds critics The US president has ended the year more positively than he might have hoped, including a better than expected performance for Democrats in the midterm elections, the release of Brittney Griner, the US basketball star detained in Russia, and the announcement of a multibillion-dollar investment in semiconductor manufacturing in the swing state of Arizona. James Politi explains why what might have been a devastating year for Biden’s presidency — including grappling with Russia’s war in Ukraine — is instead ending on a high note.
Carmakers quietly cut ties with China in supply chain shake-up European and US carmakers have launched a quiet yet concerted effort to cut their reliance on China’s sprawling network of components makers. “There is a large-scale rethinking of logistics operations [across the industry],” said Ted Cannis, a senior executive at Ford. “The supply chain is going to be the focus of this decade.”
Uruguay’s global ambitions shake up Latin America’s Mercosur trade bloc Uruguay’s pro-business leader, Luis Lacalle Pou, is creating tensions in the South American Mercosur customs union alliance, explains Lucinda Elliot in Montevideo. Lacalle Pou is keen to negotiate new trade deals outside the regional bloc but that has led to accusations of foul play and unsportsmanlike tactics. “Uruguay needs to choose if it is with Mercosur,” Argentina’s foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, told the Financial Times.
Most read FT story of the year: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in maps
As the year reaches its end, we are sharing some of our most read stories across different sections of the FT. Today’s is the most read story overall.
Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the Financial Times has been tracking movements of Ukrainian and Russian forces. Millions of readers have followed our visual guide to the war, which continues to show updates.
The war in review: In March, Demetri Sevastopulo reported that Russia had asked China for military help in Ukraine, according to US officials. This was our second-most read story of the year.
The latest: Five lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
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Time to go away
We should stop worrying about those infuriated by the greeting “happy holidays”, writes Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, in this must-read column. Instead, what Americans should be complaining about is their lack of actual vacations. The US stands alone among OECD nations in having no minimum statutory amount of annual paid leave. And now, with the increases in work-related stress, depression and anxiety since the pandemic, isn’t it time to ask for more happy holidays . . .?
Source: Economy - ft.com
