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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021 How to limit A chorus the fallout in of demands Afghanistan for access

Michael McCaul to vaccines Ryan C. Crocker WASHINGTON

OPINION As pandemic brings on Last month, President Biden an- nounced a complete withdrawal of all new crises, pressure rises United States troops from Afghanistan to lift patent protections by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the day terrorists killed almost 3,000 BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, Americans. THOMAS KAPLAN Many in the defense and intelligence AND REBECCA ROBBINS communities oppose the move. A com- plete withdrawal based on an arbitrary President Biden, faced with surging deadline, rather than conditions on the Covid-19 crises in India and South ground, threatens long-term national America, is under intensifying pressure security. After all, it was the decision to from the international community and rapidly pull out of Iraq, creating a his party’s left flank to commit to in- power vacuum that allowed the Islamic creasing the vaccine supply by loos- State to grow, that ultimately forced ening patent and intellectual property America’s return to Iraq, prolonging protections on coronavirus vaccines. the war. Pharmaceutical and biotech compa- The Biden We cannot allow nies, also feeling pressure, are seeking administra- history to repeat to head off such a move, which could cut itself. into future profits and jeopardize their tion must not It’s foolish to think business model. Pfizer and Moderna, allow history the Taliban will two major vaccine makers, have an- to repeat engage in good faith nounced steps to increase the supply of itself. with the Afghan vaccine around the world. government or abide The issue is coming to a head as the by the commitments World Trade Organization’s General made to the previous administration Council, one of its highest decision-mak- after we’ve departed. In response to ing bodies, meets this week. India and the withdrawal announcement, the South Africa are pressing for the body to Taliban tellingly announced they would waive an international agreement on in- not participate in a peace conference PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAMUEL ARANDA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES tellectual property that protects phar- planned to start late last month in The president of the Òmnium Cultural organization, Jordi Cuixart, at the Lledoners prison in Spain. He was sentenced for sedition for leading a rally for Catalan independence. maceutical trade secrets. The United Turkey and refused to commit to a date States, Britain and the European Union in the future, effectively ending the so far have blocked the plan. already fragile peace process. The Inside the White House, health advis- Taliban clearly does not want peace. ers to the president admit that they are In fact, after America withdraws, it’s divided. Some say that Mr. Biden has a very likely the Taliban will try to take moral imperative to act, and that it is control of the country, once again Spain’s separatist headache bad politics for the president to side with giving our enemies a place from which pharmaceutical executives. Others say to conduct external attacks against us BARCELONA, SPAIN Mr. Cuixart and eight other men jailed spilling closely guarded but highly com- and our allies. Without a military pres- for sedition are now martyrs who, ac- plex trade secrets into the open would ence in country, the United States will cording to human rights groups, are be- do nothing to expand the global supply be giving the green light to the Taliban ing held for nothing more than voicing of vaccines. to roam and conquer. Catalan secession leaders, and acting on their political views. Having the recipe for a vaccine does As William J. Burns, the C.I.A. direc- For the Spanish government — and not mean a drugmaker could produce it. tor, told the Senate Intelligence Com- jailed for sedition, seen by for Europe as a whole — they have also Certainly that would not happen quickly, mittee in April, there is “significant many as political prisoners become a diplomatic headache, raising and opponents argue that disclosing the risk” associated with withdrawal. “The accusations of hypocrisy against a re- recipe would harm innovation and en- U.S. government’s ability to collect and BY NICHOLAS CASEY gion known for demanding greater dem- trepreneurship and damage America’s act on threats will diminish,” he said. ocratic freedoms around the world. pharmaceutical industry. A proposed al- “That’s simply a fact.” Off a leafy boulevard in Barcelona sit the Russia cited the Catalonian inmates ternative calls for Mr. Biden to address The decision, however, has been headquarters of Òmnium Cultural, an this year to deflect calls from Europe for global needs in other ways, like pressing made. But before the pullout is com- organization known in Spain as much the release of Aleksei A. Navalny, the companies that hold patents to donate plete, the Biden administration must for its literary prizes as for its dreams of Russian opposition leader. The United vast quantities of vaccine or sell it at mitigate its dangers. As our sources on an independent republic in Catalonia. States lists the prisoners in its human cost. the ground will soon go dark, the gaps But its president, Jordi Cuixart, is no- rights report on Spain and calls their “For the industry, this would be a ter- in our intelligence collection and coun- where to be found: For the last three and jailing a form of political intimidation. rible, terrible precedent,” Geoffrey terterrorism networks must be reme- a half years, he has lived in a prison cell. Even lawmakers in the European Un- Porges, an analyst for the investment died so we retain the ability to identify To the Spanish authorities, Mr. ion, to which Spain belongs, have raised bank SVB Leerink, said of relaxing the and eliminate threats before they Cuixart is a dangerous criminal, con- their plight. When the bloc discussed protections. “It would be intensively reach U.S. shores. To do so, we must victed of sedition for leading a rally at a holding Hungary and Poland account- PATENTS, PAGE 5 urgently set up agreements with time when he and other separatist lead- A protester in March outside Lledoners prison, a penitentiary built for about 1,000 able to E.U. rule-of-law standards, some neighboring countries to provide us ers were seeking to set up a breakaway inmates that is home to drug peddlers, murderers — and Mr. Cuixart. members of the European Parliaments ANOTHER HOSPITAL OUT OF OXYGEN with intelligence, surveillance and state in the region of Catalonia in north- noted a double standard: Spain, they As many as 24 people died when a reconnaissance capabilities. eastern Spain. But to his supporters, said, held political prisoners. hospital in southern India ran out of MCCAUL, PAGE 11 and in the eyes of many foreign coun- section on a recent afternoon. ly dead. The sound of pots banging, The jailings stem from a longstanding medical oxygen. PAGE 3 tries, he is a political prisoner in the More than three years have passed which was a fixture of the movement, is conflict, still unresolved, over identity, The New York Times publishes opinion heart of Europe. since the Catalonian independence rarely heard at night now in Barcelona. language and who has the right to rule in DIMMING HOPE FOR ‘HERD IMMUNITY’ from a wide range of perspectives in “They want us to change our ideals,” movement nearly tore Spain apart, and But Spain’s leaders, now consumed Catalonia, a region of 7.5 million people Coronavirus variants and persistent hopes of promoting constructive debate Mr. Cuixart said, speaking through a the politicians in Madrid have seem- with battling the coronavirus pandemic, on the border with France. hesitancy about vaccines will keep the about consequential questions. thick pane of glass in the prison visitors’ ingly won. Plans for secession are large- still have a political problem. To many, SPAIN, PAGE 4 goal out of reach in the U.S. PAGE 5

He’s admirably childlike;

it shows in his comedy DIOR.COM

FROM THE MAGAZINE bashful about coming off like the kind of guy who owns a dedicated driveway golf cart, “It doesn’t get a ton of use.” Rogen wore a beard, chinos, a cardi- Seth Rogen has mined gan from the Japanese brand Needles and Birkenstocks with marled socks — adolescent personas laid-back Canyon chic. He led me to a for a superstar career switchback trail cut into a hillside, which we climbed to a vista point. Below BY JONAH WEINER us was Rogen’s office; the house he shares with his wife, Lauren, and their Seth Rogen’s home sits on several 11-year-old Cavalier King Charles span- wooded acres in the hills above Los An- iel, Zelda; and the converted garage geles, under a canopy of live oak and eu- where they make pottery. calyptus trees strung with outdoor pen- Coyote paw prints pocked the trail. dants that light up around dusk, when Water burbled somewhere beneath us. the frogs on the grounds start croaking. It was an idyllic scene disturbed only by I pulled up at the front gate on a recent Rogen’s phone, which was vibrating afternoon, and Rogen’s voice rumbled madly with messages. That morning, through the intercom. “Hellooo!” Houseplant, the cannabis company he He met me at the bottom of his drive- co-founded in 2019 in Canada, his native way, which is long and steep enough that country, officially started selling its own CHRIS BUCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES he keeps a golf cart up top “for schlep- weed strains in California. “It’s something I chase — that feeling of, oh, this thing is working. Now this thing is ping big things up the driveway that are Within moments of the start there was working,” said Seth Rogen, comedian, director, writer and cannabis entrepreneur. too heavy to walk,” he said, adding, as if ROGEN, PAGE 2

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