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WHO concerned over rising virus cases in Europe – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The European chapter of the World Health Organization on Friday expressed concern over the resurgence of new coronavirus cases on the continent, saying countries should impose tighter restrictions if necessary.

The number of infections in Europe crossed three million on Thursday, a fifth of the worlds more than 15 million cases. It remains the hardest hit in terms of deaths, with 206,633 out of 627,307 worldwide.

With 335 new cases for 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks, Kyrgyzstan is the worst affected country in the sprawling zone covered by WHOs European chapter.

Others include Montenegro (207), Luxemburg (196), Bosnia (98), Serbia (71), Romania (52) and Bulgaria (46).

However the numbers of new infections have gone down significantly in Armenia (197 cases per 100,000), Kazakhstan (128), Moldavia (82), and Russia (60).

The recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases in some countries following the easing of physical distancing measures is certainly cause for concern, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Where new clusters of cases appear, these need to be controlled through rapid and targeted interventions including rapid case detection and isolation and diligent contact tracing and quarantining, she said.

If the situation demands, reintroduction of stricter, targeted measures with the full engagement of communities may be needed.

However, the number of new cases across Europe has remained stable at around 20,000 daily since May 20 more than two times lower than peak numbers at the start of April.

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WHO concerned over rising virus cases in Europe - Macau Business

Consumption smartcard top-up to start on Monday – Macau News

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Residents can start to top up their consumption smartcards for the second phase of the governments subsidy scheme to boost locals spending from Monday at various service points across the city, the government announced on Thursday.

The top-up amounts to MOP 5,000.

Residents can top up their smartcards at the service points, including public administration premises, community association venues and bank branches, without the need to present their ID cards. They merely need to hold their smartcards over a reader.

Residents will have to spend the MOP 5,000 between 1 August and 31 December. As in the current first phase (MOP 3,000), they can only spend up to MOP 300 per day during the second phase.

Both permanent and non-permanent residents are entitled to the consumption subsidy scheme. Macaos around 190,000 non-resident workers are excluded from the scheme.

Those who did not pick up their smartcards for spending during the current first phase can, however, obtain the second-phase subsidy of MOP 5,000, in which case they can pick up their cards at one of several card collection points by presenting their ID cards.

The government announced details of the second phase of its consumption subsidy scheme during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Thursday.

1st phase ends next Friday

The first phase of the consumption subsidy scheme, a 3,000-pataca smartcard, started on 1 May and ends next Friday. The government has said that the second phase is needed to continue boosting local consumption and stabilising the job market amid the ongoing adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Macaos economy.

Before the first phase started in May, residents needed to register online to pick up their 3,000-pataca consumption smartcards known in Cantonese as siu fai kat.

Those who never registered for a consumption smartcard or failed to pick up their card in the first phase can collect their smartcard for the second phase without having to register in advance, but they have to show their ID card.

If a resident does not spend all the MOP 3,000 in the first phase of the scheme, the remainder will not be carried forward into the second phase but will revert to the public coffers.

During Thursdays press conference, Economic Services Bureau (DSE) Director Tai Kin Ip said that residents can obtain the second-phase subsidy of MOP 5,000 between Monday and 14 December for both topping up their existing card (those who had previously picked it up) and collecting a new card (those who did not pick it up previously).

According to Tai, only those who have already spent the MOP 3,000 in their smartcards can start to top it up from Monday. Those who still have money left in their cards before 1 August can only top it up from 1 August when the money remaining from the first phase will revert to the government.

Tai underlined that those who top up their smartcard or collect a new card before 1 August can only start to use the new MOP 5,000 from 1 August. Tai said the measure allowing residents to have the 5,000-pataca subsidy credited to their consumption smartcards between Monday and next Friday aimed to divert the flow of people so that not all residents start to top-up the cards from 1 August.

As in the first phase, the smartcards cannot be used for paying public utility bills such as water and electricity or telecom services, and they cannot be used to buy ferry or air tickets. Neither can residents use the card to pay for outbound tourism services or health services. In addition, the card cannot be used for spending in casinos, pawnshops, banks, insurance companies or other financial institutions.

The smartcards are operated by MacauPass. Residents can spend the subsidy credited to their contactless stored-value card by placing it over MacauPass terminals installed at local shops or other businesses for goods and services.

Transferable but not for cash

The consumption subsidy cannot be converted into cash, and it can only be used to buy goods and services. The cards are transferable.

Tai said that those who already have a consumption smartcard can hold it over a reader to top it up at 190 top-up points across the city, comprising 29 venues on government premises, 31 community association venues, 127 bank branches and three MacauPass service points. They will not have to register or make an appointment in advance and will not have to present their ID cards at the top-up points.

Tai said that those who did not pick up their 3,000-pataca consumption smartcard previously or have lost their 3,000-pataca smartcard can pick up a new 5,000-pataca smartcard at one of six card collection points where they will only have to present their ID cards without the need to register or make an appointment in advance.

According to Tai, those who have lost their 3,000-pataca smartcard will have to report the loss to the police first before they can pick up the new 5,000-pataca smartcard.

For the consumption subsidy schemes first phase, a minors smartcard needed to be picked up by one of their parents or legal guardian. Tai said that for the second phase, the 5,000-pataca smartcard of a minor can also be picked up by his or her grandparents, adult brother or sister, uncle or aunt, in addition to his or her parents or legal guardians.

As in the first phase, residents may also download an authorisation from the Economic Services Bureau website to designate another person to pick up the smartcard for them. That person needs to present the smartcard holders ID card and his or her own ID card together with the authorisation form signed by the smartcard holder when collecting the consumption smartcard.

According to Tai, the government will penalise businesses that engage in price gouging or provide misleading price information to consumers for the schemes second phase. Tai said that depending on the severity of the offence, the government may disallow all or some outlets of the business concerned to benefit from the scheme for a certain period of time.

According to Tai, 624,000 residents picked up their first-phase 3,000-pataca smartcards before the 17 July deadline, or 95 per cent of the 658,000 who had registered. Some 732,000 residents were eligible for the subsidy in the first phase. So far some MOP 1.82 billion have been spent by holders of the consumption smartcards in the first phase, Tai said.

Tai said that based on the governments population growth estimate during the next few months, 737,000 Macao residents are expected to be eligible for the second-phase 5,000-pataca smartcard. Tai said that therefore the government expected to spend up to MOP 3.68 billion on the schemes second phase.

Tai also said that as the governments ongoing Macao tour scheme is not an outbound tourism service, residents can pay for the local tours with their consumption smartcards.

(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)PHOTO Daryl Chapman Photography

From the Moon to Mars: China’s long march in space – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

China launched a rover to Mars on Thursday, another milestone for its space programme after putting humans into orbit and landing a probe on the Moon.

It is among a trio of nations, along with the United Arab Emirates and the United States, launching missions to the Red Planet this month, taking advantage of a period when Mars and Earth are favourably aligned.

Beijings space programme has made huge strides in recent years as it tries to catch up with the United States and Russia.

Here are five things to know about the programme:

Chinas Mars probe lifted off on July 23 from the southern island of Hainan.

The mission was dubbed Tianwen-1 (Questions to Heaven) in a nod to a classical Chinese poem that has verses about the cosmos.

The probe aims to go into Martian orbit, land on the planet and release a small rover to conduct research on its surface.

The craft will travel at least 55 million kilometres (34 million miles) to reach its destination. It will arrive seven months after launch, in February, according to an official.

It is not Chinas first attempt to go to Mars.

A previous mission with Russia in 2011 failed because the Russian launcher was unable to get the craft into a transfer orbit to slingshot towards the Red Planet.

The hardware partially disintegrated as it later crashed back to Earth.

Following that failure, Beijing decided to try again on its own.

Its purposes are not different from those of other countries: develop the capability, explore the universe and finally, create political influence and national prestige, said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts.com, which specialises in news about Chinas space programme.

The rover, weighing 240 kilogrammes (530 pounds), has six wheels and four solar panels, Chinese state media reported.

The rover will roam Mars for three months, according to Sun Zezhou, chief engineer of the probe.

The machine is supposed to analyse the planets soil and atmosphere, take photos, chart maps and look for signs of past life.

China sent two rovers to the Moon, Jade Rabbit One and Two (Yutu in Chinese), in 2013 and 2019.

The second rover made a historic soft landing on the far side of the Moon, making China the first country to do so.

The lunar Yutu rovers are good practice in many ways for a Martian rover. The terrain is broadly similar, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP.

But the distance from Earth means communication will be slower, McDowell said, adding that the risk of problems increases with such a long trip.

China has poured billions of dollars into its space programme to catch up with the US, Russia and Europe.

In 2003, it became the third nation after the US and Russia to send a human into space.

It has launched a slew of satellites into orbit, completing a constellation in June to set up its own navigation system, Beidou, to rival the US GPS system.

The Asian powerhouse plans to assemble a space station by 2022 in Earth orbit.

And China is aiming even higher, hoping to become only the second nation to send humans to the Moon a decade from now.

UN calls on US to ensure right to peaceful protests – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The UN warned Friday against using excessive force against demonstrators and media in the United States, and said the deployment of unidentified officers increased the risk of human rights violations.

Responding to questions about violent clashes in the US city of Portland between federal forces and demonstrators protesting against racism and police brutality, a UN spokeswoman stressed that the right to peacefully assemble and protest must be protected.

Peaceful demonstrations that have been taking place in cities in the US, such as Portland, really must be able to continue, UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssel told reporters in Geneva.

People must be able to demonstrate, and journalists must be able to cover such protests, without risking arbitrary arrest or detention, being subject to unnecessary disproportionate or discriminatory use of force or suffering other violations of their rights, she said.

Protests raged in the US after the killing of George Floyd, an African American man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25.

Those protests began losing steam earlier this month, before reports emerged of federal officers snatching Portland protestors and taking them away in unmarked vehicles, spurring a fresh wave of demonstrations.

The US Justice Departments independent watchdog announced Thursday it was launching probes into the use of force by federal agents in Portland.

Throssel said that the reports of unidentified officers making arrests were a particular cause for concern.

She noted that such practices could give rise to arbitrary detention and other human rights violations.

We would stress that the authorities should ensure that the federal and local security forces deployed are properly and clearly identified and use force only when necessary, proportionate, and in accordance with international standards, she said.

Globally, she added, authorities must ensure that people deployed for law enforcement do not threaten the use of force to deter peaceful protesters.

UN calls on US to ensure right to peaceful protests - Macau Business

Russia rejects space weapon claim as ‘propaganda’ – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Russia on Friday dismissed accusations from the United States and Britain that it had tested an anti-satellite weapon in space as propaganda.

Moscow responded after the United States Space Command on Thursday accused Russia of test-firing an anti-satellite weapon in space and warned the threat against US systems was real, serious and increasing.

The head of Britains Space Directorate, Air Vice-Marshal Harvey Smyth, also reacted, tweeting that actions of this kind threaten the peaceful use of space.

The Russian foreign ministry insisted on Moscows commitment to obligations on the non-discriminatory use and study of space with peaceful aims.

We call on our US and British colleagues to show professionalism and instead of some propagandistic information attacks, sit down for talks, the ministry said in a statement.

The US said that Russia conducted a non-destructive test of a space-based anti-satellite weapon.

Clearly this is unacceptable, tweeted US nuclear disarmament negotiator Marshall Billingslea, adding that it would be a major issue discussed next week in Vienna, where he is in talks on a successor to the New START treaty.

The treaty caps the nuclear warheads of the US and Russia the two Cold War-era superpowers.

The Russian foreign ministry said tests carried out by the countrys defence ministry on July 15 did not create a threat for other space equipment and most importantly, did not breach any norms or principles of international law.

It in turn accused the US and Britain of moves to develop anti-satellite weaponry.

The US and Britain naturally keep silent about their own efforts, it said, claiming the countries had programmes on the possible use of inspector satellites and repair satellites as counter-satellite weapons.

Commenting earlier Friday on the accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia supports full demilitarisation of space and not basing any type of weapons in space.

The US Space Command said the test consisted of Russias satellite called Cosmos 2543 injecting an object into orbit.

Russian state media reported in December that a satellite called Cosmos-2542, which was launched in November 2019 by the Russian military, ejected another smaller satellite once in space.

The Russian defence ministry said the inspector-satellite was meant to monitor the condition of Russian satellites, but state daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta said it could also get information from somebody elses satellites.

The system is the same one that Space Command raised concerns about earlier this year, when it manoeuvred near a US government satellite, said General Jay Raymond, head of US Space Command.

This is further evidence of Russias continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlins published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold US and allied space assets at risk, Raymond said in a statement.

It is the latest example of Russian satellites behaving in a manner inconsistent with their stated mission, the Space Command statement added.

This event highlights Russias hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control, said Christopher Ford, a US assistant secretary of state for arms control.

The statement also came as China launched a rover to Mars on Thursday, a journey coinciding with a similar US mission as the powers take their rivalry into deep space.

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Russia rejects space weapon claim as 'propaganda' - Macau Business

Russia to resume some international flights in August – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Russia said on Friday it will resume some international flights on August 1 after a four-month pause to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Russia closed its borders and halted international air travel in March, though some cross-border flights have been allowed to repatriate Russians stranded abroad.

We have made a decision to relaunch international air travel, said Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at the start of a cabinet meeting.

Flights will initially resume from Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the southern city of Rostov.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said that for the moment Russia would only resume flights with Britain, Tanzania and Turkey.

Flights to London and Turkish cities Ankara and Istanbul will resume on August 1, with air travel to three Turkish resorts popular among Russians beginning again on August 10, she said.

Russians will only be allowed to travel to the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania, which Golikova said was an exotic route that is popular among a certain category of our citizens.

She said foreigners arriving in Russia will have to show a negative coronavirus test completed within 72 hours before departure.

Transport Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh said Russia was in negotiations with 30 more countries to restart flights.

Russia has the fourth hightest number of coronavirus infections in the world, with 800,849 cases and 13,046 deaths, according to an official tally on Friday.

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Russia to resume some international flights in August - Macau Business

UNU Macau and Caritas Macau partner to advance research & capacity building initiatives – Macau News

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau) and Caritas Macau announced on Wednesday a five-year strategic partnership to strengthen cooperation on projects that promote policy as well as practice-relevant research and capacity building activities in the fields of sustainable community development, social innovation, and civil society cyber resilience.

In order to achieve these shared objectives, both parties signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to coordinate their work and synergise efforts on the implementation of projects and other activities of mutual interest through joint research, workshops, conferences, and other modalities.

We are glad to be signing our first MOU with UNU Macau after our continued collaboration with them on various projects and engagements in the past few years. Through this partnership, we hope to enhance evidence-based practice and scientific support to improve social services and capacity building initiatives in Macao. This also aligns with our objectives of strengthening collaboration with international organisations to establish a platform for networking, information exchange on global issues and ultimately to achieve greater human goals, the statement quoted Paul Pun Chi Meng, secretary-general of Caritas Macau, as saying.

Caritas Macau has been a long-term friend of the institute. We have many shared interests, such as sustainable community development and social innovation in Macao. We have collaborated on research projects in the past, thanks to Dr Mamello Thinyanes initiatives. Currently, Caritas is working with us on the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) where we aim to explore the role of civil society toward cyber resilience and enhance the cyber resilience preparedness in Macao. We are excited about this partnership with Caritas Macau. As the only United Nations presence in Macao, our Institute is working with local partners to connect Macao with the rest of the world through research and innovation, and helping transform the region into a hub of global technology innovation, the statement quoted UNU Macau Director Dr Huang Jingbo as saying.

According to the UNU Macau website, Dr Thinyane, a principal research fellow, works within the UNU Macaus Small Data Lab investigating the role of locally-relevant, citizen-generated data to empower individuals and community-level actors towards the Sustainable Development Goals targets, as well as the role of this data within the larger social indicators data ecosystem.

Dr Thinyane is the chairman of the board of the African Footprints of Hope Organisation, an NGO that facilitates strategic multistakeholder engagements towards socio-economic development of communities in Southern Africa. He is also a visiting researcher at the Australian Centre of Cyber-Security at the University of New South Wales in Canberra.

One of the key initiatives that both organisations will be working on is the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project which aims to enhance the cyber resilience of smart city-zens in Macao and around the world involving civil society actors in local preparations against cybersecurity threats. This project was designed to help accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Macaos development plans.

According to the UNU Macau website, the Smart City-zen Cyber Resilience project aims to enhance the cyber resilience of civil society in Macao and globally through the development of a civil society-centric cyber resilience management model, as well as the operationalisation of the model through tools and applications in partnership with civil society and governmental stakeholders.

(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)PHOTO The Macau Post Daily

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UNU Macau and Caritas Macau partner to advance research & capacity building initiatives - Macau News

NBA pulls out of Xinjiang project – Macau Business

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The National Basketball Association has severed ties to a training centre in Chinas western Xinjiang region, where Beijing faces growing international condemnation over its treatment of minorities.

In a letter published online by Senator Marsha Blackburn, the US league also said it had lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue after Chinese broadcasters dropped its games last year amid a bitter row triggered when a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.

The NBA statements were contained in the letter dated July 21 to Blackburn that was posted on the Tennessee politicians official Senate webpage on Wednesday.

Signed by NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, it was sent in response to questions raised by Blackburn about NBA involvement in Xinjiang, described by the senator as one of the worlds worst humanitarian zones.

China is in the midst of a bitter falling out with the United States on a range of fronts, including human rights, trade and Hong Kong.

The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated, Tatum wrote in the letter, which was confirmed as genuine by an NBA official.

More than one million ethnic Uighurs and other minorities, mostly Muslim Turkic peoples, have been herded into Xinjiang internment camps where they undergo political indoctrination, according to human rights groups and experts.

The existence of the camps had been revealed in recent years and appear aimed at taming long-time opposition by many Uighurs marked a spate of violent incidents over political and religious repression by Beijing.

The NBAs lucrative broadcast and merchandise interests in China the leagues most valuable market outside of the United States went into a tailspin after Rockets general manager Daryl Moreys tweet regarding Hong Kong protesters last October.

The comments infuriated the Chinese government and basketball fans and caused state broadcaster CCTV to stop showing matches.

The financial impact of NBA games not airing on television in China has been significant, Tatum wrote.

We estimate the loss of revenue to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

China is under mounting pressure from the United States and other trading partners over issues including Xinjiang and a new security law that Beijing imposed in Hong Kong, sparking fears that civil liberties in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory will be crushed.

The NBA has been in shutdown since March, when the coronavirus pandemic erupted across North America.

The league is relaunching its season with teams based in Orlando for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs.

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NBA pulls out of Xinjiang project - Macau Business

Microsoft Executive Vice President Jason Zander: Digital Transformation Accelerating Across the Energy Spectrum; Being Carbon Negative by 2030; The…

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft Executive Vice President Jason Zander says the company has never been more busy partnering with the energy industry on cloud technologies and energy transition; the combination of COVID-19 and the oil market shock has condensed years of digital transformation into a two-month period; the companys return to its innovative roots and its goal to have removed all of the companys historic carbon emissions by 2050 in the latest edition of CERAWeek Conversations.

In a conversation with IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, Zanderwho leads the companys cloud services business, Microsoft Azurediscusses Microsofts rapid and massive deployment of cloud-based apps that have powered work and commerce in the COVID-19 economy; how cloud technologies are optimizing business and vaccine research; the next frontiers of quantum computing and its potential to take problems that would take, literally, a thousand years, you might be able to solve in 10 seconds, and more.

The complete video is available at: http://www.ceraweek.com/conversations

Selected excerpts:Interview Recorded Thursday, July 16, 2020

(Edited slightly for brevity only)

Watch the complete video at: http://www.ceraweek.com/conversations

Weve already prepositioned in over 60 regions around the world hundreds of data center, millions and millions of server nodestheyre already there. If you can imagine COVID, if you had to go back and do a procurement exercise and figure out a place to put the equipment, and the supply chains were actually shut down for a while because of COVID. Thats why I say, even three to five years ago we as industries would have been pretty challenged to respond as quickly as we had.

Thats on the more tactical end of the spectrum. On the other end weve also done a lot of things around data sets and advanced data work. How do we find a cure? Weve done things like [protein] folding at home and making sure that those things could be hosted on the cloud. These are thingsthat will be used in the search of a vaccine for the virus. Those are wildly different spectrums from the tactical 'we need to manage and do logistics' to 'we need a search for things that are going to get us all back to basically normal.'

Theres also a whole bunch of stimulus packages and payment systems that are getting created and deployed. Weve had financial services companies that run on top of the cloud. They may have been doing a couple of hundred big transactions a day; weve had them do tens to hundreds of thousands a day when some of this kicked in.

The point is with the cloud I can just go to the cloud, provision it, use it, and eventually when things cool back down, I can just shut it off. I dont have to worry about having bought servers, find a place for them to live, hiring people to take care of them.

There was disruption in supply chain also. Many of us saw this at least in the Statesif you think even the food supply chain, every once in a while, youd see some hiccups. Theres a whole bunch of additional work that weve done around how do we do even better planning around that, making sure we can hit the right levels of scale in the future? God forbid we should have another one of these, but I think we can and should be responsible to make sure that weve got it figured out.

The policy and investment sideit has never been more important for us to collaborate with healthcare, universities, and with others. Weve kicked off a whole bunch of new partnerships and work that will benefit us in the future. This was a good wake up call for all of us in figuring out how to marshal and be able to respond even better in the future.

Weve had a lot of cases where people have been moving out of their own data centers and into ours. Let us basically take care of that part of the system. We can run it cheaply and efficiently. Im seeing a huge amount of data center accelerationfolks that really want to move even faster on getting their workloads removed. Thats true for oil and gas but its also true for the financial sector and retail.

Specifically, for oil and gas, one of the things that were trying to do in particular is bring this kind of cloud efficiency, this kind of AI, and especially help out with places where you are doing exploration. What these have in common is the ability to take software especially from the [independent software vendors] that work in the spacereservoir simulation, explorationand marry that to these cloud resources where I can spin things up and spin things down. I can take advantage of that technology that Ive got, and I am more efficient. I am not spending capex; I can perhaps do even more jobs than I was doing before. That allows me to go do that scale. If youre going to have less resources to do something, you of course want to increase your hit rate; increase your efficiency. Those are some of the core things that were seeing.

A lot of folks, especially in oil and gas, have some of the most sophisticated high-performance computing solutions that are out there today. What we want to be able to do with the cloud is to be able to enable you to do even more of those solutions in a much more efficient way. Weve got cases where people have been able to go from running one reservoir simulation job a day on premises [to] where they can actually go off to the cloud and since we have all of this scale and all of this equipment, you can spin up and do 100 in one day. If that is going to be part of how you drive your efficiency, then being able to subscribe to that and go up and down its helping you do that job much more efficiently than you used to and giving you a lot more flexibility.

Were investing in a $1 billion fund over the next four years for carbon removal technology. We also are announcing a Microsoft sustainability calculator for cloud customers. Basically, you can help get transparency into your Scope 1,2, and 3 carbon emissions to get control. You can think of us as we want to hit this goal, we want to do it ourselves, we want to figure out how we build technology to help us do that and then we want to share that technology with others. And then all along the way we want to partner with energy companies so that we can all be partnering together on this energy transition.

From a corporate perspective weve made pledges around being carbon negative, but then also working with our energy partners. The way that we look at this is youre going to have continued your requirements and improvements in standards of living around the entire planet. One of the core, critical aspects to that is energy. The world needs more energy, not less. There are absolutely the existing systems that we have out there that we need to continue to improve, but they are also a core part of how things operate.

What we want to do is have a very responsible program where were doing things like figuring out how to go carbon negative and figuring out ways that we as a company can go carbon negative. At the same time, taking those same techniques and allowing others to do the same and then partnering with energy companies around energy transformation. We still want the investments in renewables. We want to figure out how to be more efficient at the last mile when we think about the grid. I generally find that when you get that comprehensive answer back to our employees, they understand what we are doing and are generally supportive.

Coming up is a digital feedback loop where you get enough data thats coming through the system that you can actually start to be making smart decisions. Our expectation is well have an entire connected environment. Now we start thinking about smart cities, smart factories, hospitals, campuses, etc. Imagine having all of that level of data thats coming through and the ability to do smart work shedding or shaping of electrical usage, things where I can actually control brownout conditions and other things based on energy usage. Theres also the opportunity to be doing smart sharing of systems where we can do very efficient usage systemsintelligent edge and edge deployments are a core part of that.

How do we keep all the actual equipment that people are using safe? If you think about 5G and additional connectivity, were getting all this cool new technology thats there. You have to figure out a way in which youre leveraging silicon, youre leveraging software and the best in securityand were investing in all three.

The idea of being able to harness particle physics to do computing and be able to figure out things in minutes that would literally take centuries to go pull off otherwise in classical computing is kind of mind-blowing. Were actually working with a lot of the energy companies on figuring out how could quantum inspired algorithms make them more efficient today. As we get to full scale quantum computing then they would run natively in hardware and would be able to do even more amazing things. That one has just the potential to really, really change the world.

The meta point is problems that would take, literally, a thousand years, you might be able to solve in 10 seconds. Weve proven how that kind of technology can work. The quantum-inspired algorithms therefore allow us to take those same kind of techniques, but we can run them on the cloud today using some of the classic cloud computers that are there. Instead of taking 1,000 years, maybe its something that we can get done in 10 days, but in the future 10 seconds.

About CERAWeek Conversations:

CERAWeek Conversations features original interviews and discussion with energy industry leaders, government officials and policymakers, leaders from the technology, financial and industrial communitiesand energy technology innovators.

The series is produced by the team responsible for the worlds preeminent energy conference, CERAWeek by IHS Markit.

New installments will be added weekly at http://www.ceraweek.com/conversations.

Recent segments also include:

A complete video library is available at http://www.ceraweek.com/conversations.

About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com)

IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies worldwide. The company delivers next-generation information, analytics and solutions to customers in business, finance and government, improving their operational efficiency and providing deep insights that lead to well-informed, confident decisions. IHS Markit has more than 50,000 business and government customers, including 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 and the worlds leading financial institutions. Headquartered in London, IHS Markit is committed to sustainable, profitable growth.

IHS Markit is a registered trademark of IHS Markit Ltd. and/or its affiliates. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners 2020 IHS Markit Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Microsoft Executive Vice President Jason Zander: Digital Transformation Accelerating Across the Energy Spectrum; Being Carbon Negative by 2030; The...

Teens are ‘playing "Russian roulette" with their lives by taking 20 hits of hippy crack a day’ – Brinkwire

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

BORED teens are playing Russian roulette with their lives by taking up to 20 hits of hippy crack a day, an MP has warned.

Labours Rosie Duffield is urging ministers to ban the sale of dangerous nitrous oxide to under-25s to tackle the deadly scourge.

She warned that youngsters are flocking to beaches and parks in their droves to get high on the drug leaving silver canisters everywhere.

The Canterbury MP warned: Kids dont know what they are doing, they think it is harmless.

But its like Russian roulette you could be the person who loses their life.

The police say kids are taking up to 20 a day, to keep feeling that high.

But this is more dangerous than most people realise.

Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas or hippy crack, has been used as an anaesthetic for many years.

It was banned as a recreational drug in 2016, but is easily available to buy online as it is used to whip up cream and make 99 ice creams.

As lockdown has eased, parks and beaches across Britain have been strewn with the silver capsules and balloons used to inhale the drug.

Ms Duffield, who will hold a debate on hippy crack in the Commons later urged No10 to toughen up the law.

She said: You can get a little canister pack of 24 because people use it to whip up cream and in catering.

It should be restricted to over 25s with ID, because if you have just come out of school and you are heading to the beach you dont want to whip up cream.

I am worried about more and more unexplained deaths.

It is so readily available and so cheap the danger is we just dismiss it as a socially acceptable legal high.

And it isnt.

A Home Office spokesman said: The Government made it illegal to supply nitrous oxide for its psychoactive effects, with offenders facing a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.

Were giving police forces the resources they need to do their vital work, and we have also introduced public space protection orders so local authorities have tighter control over the consumption of these substances in public spaces.

on on or EMAIL[emailprotected]

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Teens are 'playing "Russian roulette" with their lives by taking 20 hits of hippy crack a day' - Brinkwire

Business Botswana to roll out recovery plan – The Patriot On Sunday

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Jacinta Barrins

Business Botswana (BB), the private sector representative body`, has admitted that the sector has been hit hard by Covid-19 but will bank on their recovery plan to spur it up.

The private sector recovery plan follows shortly after government launched its economic transformation recovery plan worth about P20 billion.

The private sector recovery plan is also supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Botswana led by its Resident Coordinator Jacinta Barrins who has assured BB of strong backup.

CEO of Business Botswana, Norman Moleele, said the private sector has lost a lot due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The losses that the private sector incurred are not yet quantified but it is a devastating without doubt. We anticipate that the recovery plan once put in action would mitigate against the damage caused by Covid-19 to a wide range of businesses within the private sector, he said.

According to Moleele, the recovery plan intends to position the private sector becoming the driving force of economic development by being a key player in sectors such as agriculture.

Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed the vulnerabilities of our economy and society. We do not produce ample food to feed the nation. We do not make enough of what Batswana need in their households, or what firms themselves need to produce goods and services, he added.

He noted that as Business Botswana they are keen on fostering new opportunities that would unlock more commercialisation value singling out the research and tertiary institutions.

Moleele highlighted that institutions of higher learning such as University of Botswana (UB) and Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) are very significant; saying partnerships between them and private sector players are crucial l in transforming the economy.

The relationship between the industry and institutions of learning cannot be underestimated. We recognise the commercial value of the research and development projects that these two universities are pursuing and we will court private sector to adopt them, Moleele highlighted.

UB Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, reiterated his institutions desire to partner with the industry to commercialise their R& D initiatives.

Speaking recently while receiving P100 000 cash donation from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Prof Norris said UB enters an entrepreneurship trajectory linking with private sector.

He maintained that the university is keen to partner with the industry in order to promote economic diversification as their new strategy directs them towards being diversified as well.

Meanwhile, Resident Coordinator of UNDP in Botswana Jacinta Barrins said UNDP is keen on working with the private sector by capacitating its growth in its drive to help diversify the economy.

Covid-19, Barrins said, has highlighted how vulnerable the economy is, and as such, has exposed the gaps in social protection systems for economic actors, workers and employers.

This also opens up for the question as to whether it may be the right time to put in place an unemployment insurance scheme. The plan also advocates for the use of local resource-based methods (LRBMs) and technologies, she said, adding that women businesses will be aided too.

See the rest here:

Business Botswana to roll out recovery plan - The Patriot On Sunday

Jordan’s Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By ‘Helping The Weakest’ – KLCC FM Public Radio

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz sits in the front room of his family home in a middle-class Amman neighborhood of traditional white stone houses with small gardens and low walls. Unusually, in a region where senior officials typically live in gated compounds far from public view, the residential street has been kept open to traffic to minimize disruption to Razzaz's neighbors.

Razzaz, an MIT and Harvard-educated economist, was appointed by Jordan's King Abdullah II to head a new government two years ago, following anti-government protests that were sparked by IMF-mandated tax increases seen as bypassing the rich. Although he'd served previously as education minister, Razzaz was seen as a relative outsider.

The small, resource-poor kingdom is surrounded by dangers from neighboring countries: a war in Syria, conflict between the U.S. and Iran in Iraq, and Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank it occupies something Jordan says poses a danger to the entire region.

But those issues have taken a back seat to controlling the coronavirus a feat Jordan has accomplished with an early and severe lockdown. The country of roughly 10 million has registered 1,131 coronavirus cases, with 11 deaths.

Razzaz sees vulnerable groups in other countries paying a disproportionate price for policies that don't prioritize them, and says Jordan's approach from the start was to protect the most vulnerable.

"From day one, any discussion of herd immunity or survival of the fittest or, you know, 'Say farewell to the elderly,' are the things that just did not sound right for us," Razzaz tells NPR. "So we went for a very different model in Jordan, based on social solidarity, in fact, helping the weakest. We did everything we can to make sure our children, our elderly, our refugees you know, the haves and the have-nots are protected."

In mid-March, Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to shut its airports and borders for all but essential goods. Arriving passengers were sent into compulsory quarantine. All but emergency workers and security forces were confined to their homes, with even grocery stores shut and the army distributing bread to poor neighborhoods.

The government cut public sector salaries and allowed businesses to reduce workers' wages, but banned them from laying off employees.

Razzaz says in the last four months, almost half of Jordan's population received some form of government assistance.

This week, the country announced it would reopen its airport to flights from a dozen countries where coronavirus rates are also low. With no cases of local transmission on most days, Jordan has stopped enforcing mask wearing and reopened restaurants and shopping malls.

Razzaz says industry production is now back to pre-coronavirus standards, and Jordan is exporting pharmaceuticals and food to other countries.

Jordan took a chance with the lockdown, he says, but felt it had little choice, given the prospect of its health care system being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

"When we took the steps that we took, we did that not because we were certain about the outcomes. So there's always hindsight ... But we're very, very glad we did what we did. And a lot of countries that waited longer, including the U.S., ... are having a harder time containing the coronavirus," he says.

Razzaz and health officials note Jordan remains on guard for a possible resurgence of the virus as its airport reopens.

The longer-term challenge is an already fragile economy in which unemployment is rising sharply. Tens of thousands of Jordanians have lost their jobs in the Arab Gulf states, as those economies decline due to the pandemic and a plunge in oil prices.

The official unemployment rate for the first quarter of the year had already topped 19%. Some economists expect the real rate could reach 30% by the end of the year, with many of the unemployed young people.

Razzaz says, though, he is not worried by the prospect of renewed demonstrations that could be sparked by the economic crisis.

"While some countries worry a lot about social unrest, we see it as people expressing views about that hardship," he says. "We're going to be proactive with employment and job creation. And if you get frustrated and want to shout, we have a constitution and set of laws and institutions that allow that to happen in democratic ways."

The other wild card facing the kingdom is Israel's annexation threat. Jordan, along with Egypt, is one of only two Arab countries in the region to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan's king says he might suspend the 26-year-old treaty if Israel takes unilateral steps to claim sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

Israel cites Jewish ties and a strategic need for it, but most of the international community opposes such a move, which could doom Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

Jordan, where a majority of citizens are of Palestinian origin, would be the country most affected by Israel's move, and instability could ripple across the region.

Razzaz says Jordan has not changed its insistence on the need for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"If you don't provide a just solution for the Palestinian people and sovereignty, you are pushing them and the region towards despair and extremism. So will there be conflict under such conditions? Yes, there will be, definitely," he says. "I think what His Majesty and Jordan have been doing is sounding the alarm bells."

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Jordan's Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By 'Helping The Weakest' - KLCC FM Public Radio

Coronavirus update: Global case tally climbs to 15.6 million and U.S. hits 4.07 million as virus spreads fast in Florida, California and Texas -…

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 climbed to 15.6 million on Friday, and the U.S. case tally hit 4.07 million as the virus continued to spread in the South and West and more states reported that health care systems are steadily being overwhelmed.

President Donald Trump canceled the planned Republican National Convention events that were due to take place in hot spot Florida next month, after that state saw a record number of fatalities in a single day on Thursday at 173. The U.S. counted more than 1,000 deaths on Thursday, with more than 500 of them taking place in Florida, California and Texas. The U.S. death toll is now 144,780, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University,

The U.S. added more than 69,900 cases on Thursday to push the total above 4 million, according to a New York Times tracker. The spread has accelerated through the summer, climbing to 4 million from 3 million in just 15 days, as the Washington Post reported. In the early days of the outbreak it took 45 days to increase from 1 million to 2 million cases, and then took 27 days to rise to 3 million.

Forty states have seen rising cases in the last 14 days, according to the Times tracker, led by Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters at a briefing that his state is nearing breaking point after its case tally rose above 100,000.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Task Force created to manage the pandemic, took a more somber tone than usual on Friday on NBCs Today Show.

I just want to make it clear to the American public: What we have now are essentially three New Yorks, with these three major states, she said. And so were really having to respond as an American people, and thats why you hear us calling for masks and increased social distancing to really stop the spread of this epidemic.

The face mask issue continued to be a thorny issue with the American public with legal challenges against mandates extending to Oregon on Thursday, when conservative group Freedom Foundation filed a suit against Gov. Kate Brown.

Governors in left-leaning states all over the country are making up the rules as they go and ignoring the procedural rules their own state laws set up, Jason Dudash, the Freedom Foundations Oregon director, said in a statement on the groups website.

Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over her face mask mandate. Several Georgia cities have also filed suits, while counties and districts in other states, including California, have also launched suits.

Public health experts have stressed that wearing face masks is key to containing the virus, along with frequent hand washing and social distancing. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, said at a recent news conference that if every American agreed to wear a mask, over the next six weeks we could drive (the virus) into the ground.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania, an oncologist, bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, reiterated his concern that the U.S. has squandered the last four months, and it really is very, very depressing, he said in an interview on MSNBC.

Were really right back in March, he said.

The global death tally from COVID-19 stands at 634,954, the Johns Hopkins data shows, and at least 8.9 million people have recovered.

Brazil is second to the U.S. with 2.3 million cases and 84,082 deaths.

India is third measured by cases at 1.3 million, followed by Russia with 799,499 and South Africa with 408,052.

The U.K. has 299,500 cases and 45,762 fatalities, the highest in Europe and third highest in the world.

China, where the illness was first reported late last year, has 86,177 cases and 4,650 fatalities.

There was good news on the housing front Friday, when data showed sales of new single-family homes rose sharply in June for the second straight month, pushing the sales rate to its highest level in 13 years, as MarketWatchs Greg Robb reported.

The annual sales pace for U.S. new-home sales rose 13.8% last month to 776,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. Thats above the prior cycle high of 774,000 hit in January and is the strongest since July 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a June sales rate of 710,000, compared with an original May estimate of 676,000. On Friday, the government revised Mays rate to 682,000. That pushed the May rise in new home sales to 19.4%

The impact of falling mortgage rates down 80 basis points this year is more than offsetting the wave of Covid-induced job losses, which seem to be hitting younger renters rather than would-be homebuyers; the median buyer is 47 years of age, while the median restaurant employee is 29, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

See: America is facing an eviction crisis as moratoriums expire: This is a potential catastrophe

A separate report found the service sector lagging behind manufacturing, as some areas of the country have reimposed lockdown measures.

IHS Markit said its U.S. flash manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 51.3 in July from 49.8 in the previous month. The flash services purchasing managers index rose only to 49.6 from 47.9 in June.

Any reading above 50.0 indicates improving conditions, while readings below that measure indicate contraction. The flash estimate is typically based on approximately 85%90% of total survey responses each month.

See:Baseball is back heres how U.S. sports leagues are returning during the pandemic

The U.S. economy is experiencing the first-ever recession driven by the services sector. And economists are concerned because some key service sectors like travel, restaurants, and entertainment are not expected to recover soon given the pandemic. Manufacturing is slowly getting on its feet but is still experiencing headwinds.

The lack of growth is a disappointment, said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

Three Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.68% components reported earnings, starting late Thursday with chip giant Intel Corp., which disappointed with news of a delay in its next generation of semiconductor technology, MarketWatchs Jon Swartz reported. Intel said it may actually use a third party to manufacture it as a contingency plan.

Intel INTC, -16.24% stock was slammed after it reported along with second-quarter earnings that the introduction of its 7-nanometer chips would be delayed by at least six months. AMD AMD, +16.50% is already selling 7-nm semiconductors for servers and PCs; in chip parlance, nanometers, or nm, is the size of the transistors that go on a computer chip, with the general rule being that smaller transistors are faster and more efficient in using power.

We have identified a defect mode in our 7-nanometer process that resulted in yield degradation, said Bob Swan, Intels chief executive, on a conference call late Thursday. Weve root-caused the issue and believe there are no fundamental roadblocks, but we have also invested in contingency plans to hedge against further schedule uncertainty.

See now: Intel admits another defeat with unprecedented manufacturing issues

There was better news from American Express Co. AXP, -1.38%, which posted a surprise profit for the second quarter, but revenue that lagged estimates amid a fall in card member spending during the pandemic.

Verizon Communications VZ, +1.79% beat on profit and revenue but its report showed negative impacts from the pandemic. The wireless operator estimates that both GAAP and adjusted EPS saw negative impacts of about 14 cents stemming from impacts to wireless service revenue and lower advertising and search revenue for Verizons media unit.

Elsewhere, there was a setback for Moderna Inc. MRNA, -2.81%, one of the many companies working on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Arbutus Biopharma Corp. ABUS, -20.00% in a patent dispute between the companies, MarketWatchs Jaimy Lee reported.

The decision may mean that Arbutus will attempt to make a royalty claim to products developed by Modernas lipid nanoparticle delivery technology, which is currently being used to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

SVB Leerinks Mani Foroohar said the ruling is a disappointing turn for Moderna, and any meaningful royalty burden could hamper MRNAs pricing flexibility and margin profile vs. other players in the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine market.

Heres the latest news on companies and COVID-19:

Fans of the iPhone will probably have to wait at least another month before shiny new models are unveiled. Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.24% is delaying its annual fall event until the latter half of October instead of early September, according to a tech blog. The company was forced to push back the event for the 5G-compatible iPhone 12 line because of production delays caused by the pandemic, the Japanese Apple blog Mac Otakara reported. Apple is expected to announce four new iPhones, with the 5G models available in November.

Boston Beer Co. SAM, +25.65%, maker of Sam Adams and other alcoholic beverages, reported an unexpected doubling of profit from the year before amid the pandemic. Chief Executive Dave Burwick credited increases in our Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea brands and the addition of the Dogfish Head brands for some of the demand gains. Boston Beer now expects full-year earnings of $11.70 to $12.70 a share, while analysts on average had forecast 2020 earnings of $9.84 a share.

eHealth Inc. EHTH, -30.55%, an online health insurance marketplace, reported an adjusted quarterly profit and sales that came in above expectations. Revenue rose 35% to $88.8 million. The company said the number of new paying members for all its Medicare products rose 40% to 72,651 people.

ETrade Financial Corp. ETFC, -0.90% reported fiscal second-quarter results that slightly exceeded Wall Street estimates. The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 14 cents a share.

Honeywell International Inc. HON, -2.79% reported second-quarter profit and sales that fell, but beat expectations. The company said it expects sales challenges resulting from the pandemic will continue, particularly in the aerospace and oil and gas businesses. Aerospace sales declined 28% to $2.54 billion, but topped the FactSet consensus of $2.41 billion; performance materials and technologies sales declined 19% to $2.22 billion but topped expectations of $2.19 billion; safety and productivity sales slipped 1% to $1.54 billion to beat expectations of $1.43 billion; and building technologies sales shed 19% to $1.18 billion, missing expectations of $1.24 billion.

Toy maker Mattel Inc. MAT, -2.49% reported a narrower-than-expected second-quarter loss and sales that were higher than Wall Street expected, thanks to sales in North America and total sales of Barbie and other dolls and games. Online sales continued to grow strongly in all regions. Gross sales in North America increased 3%, primarily on sales of Barbies as well as action figures, building sets, and games, the company said. Sales of its toy vehicles, including Hot Wheels, fell, the company said. Mattel said its supply chain continued to perform well despite temporary closures connected to the coronavirus pandemic. Currently all of our factories are open with minimal disruption to operations, as we enter the peak production season, it said. Liquidity is expected to be enough to effectively manage through the COVID-19 disruption and to continue to execute our strategy, the company said.

Paramount Pictures will delay the release of two of its most anticipated movies, Top Gun: Maverick, and A Quiet Place Part II, to 2021 due to the pandemic. The Quiet Place sequel is now scheduled for April 23, 2021, and the Top Gun sequel is on tap for July 2, 2021. Paramount is a unit of ViacomCBS Inc. VIAC, -1.51%

ScanSource Inc. SCSC, -8.90%, a provider of barcode, networking, security and business communications services, provided an upbeat sales outlook, while also saying it will cut jobs as part of a expense-reduction plan. The company expects fiscal fourth-quarter net sales of $758 million, compared with the FactSet consensus for total revenue of $718 million. ScanSource announced a $30 million cost cutting plan, which will include a reduction of its North America workforce, salary reductions of 10% to 25% for its executive team, elimination of cash retainers for the board of directors for the rest of the year and cutting discretionary spending. The company is closing its Canpango professional services business, which it acquired in August 2018, which is expected to result in a $2 million charge.

Schlumberger Ltd. SLB, +0.93% swung to a multibillion-dollar loss in the second quarter and revenue fell short of estimates, as the twin effects of the pandemic and falling oil price weighed. This has probably been the most challenging quarter in past decades, Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said, as he announced 21,000 job cuts. Revenue fell 28% from the first quarter, caused by the unprecedented fall in North America activity, and international activity drop due to downward revisions to customer budgets accentuated by COVID-19 disruptions. This speaks volumes about an industry confronted with historic oil demand and supply imbalances caused by demand destruction from the global COVID-19 containment effort. The company is reorganizing and combining its 17 product lines into four divisions, restructuring geographically around five key basins of activity and streamlining management, he said. Schlumberger expects to remove $1.5 billion of costs permanently. Looking at the macro view in the near-term, oil demand is slowly starting to normalize and is expected to improve as government measures support consumption, said the CEO. However, subsequent waves of potential COVID-19 resurgence pose a negative risk to this outlook.

Skechers USA Inc. SKX, -2.67% reported a narrower-than-expected adjusted second-quarter loss and sales that were above expectations. Skechers, like most businesses around the world, has never faced a more challenging time than during the pandemic, which caused the closing of nearly every market worldwide, Chief Executive Robert Greenberg said. The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents around $1.6 billion, thanks in part to drawing down $490 million from its credit facility in the first quarter. The company did not provide an outlook.

Office supply equipment retailer Staples became the latest to require face coverings in all its stores starting Monday. Staples is an essential retailer, selling hand sanitizer and other personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as equipment for working and schooling from home. Staples joins retailers like Walmart Inc. WMT, -0.30% and Target Corp. TGT, +1.11% that will require customers to wear face coverings in stores.

See also: Christopher Nolan blockbuster Tenet now delayed indefinitely due to coronavirus

Walt Disney Co.s DIS, -0.43% Mulan scheduled for release Aug. 21, and expected to be a summer blockbuster has been delayed indefinitely because of theater closures and production shutdowns caused by the pandemic. The live-action movie has been repeatedly delayed. Additionally, Disney delayed releases of Star Wars and Avatar movies by a year. Over the last few months, its become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world, a Walt Disney Studios spokesperson said in a statement.

Link:

Coronavirus update: Global case tally climbs to 15.6 million and U.S. hits 4.07 million as virus spreads fast in Florida, California and Texas -...

Long live the Dead – Hudson Valley One

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

We will probably look back on 2016 to 2017 as the years in which the cultic quarantine of the Grateful Dead finally ended for good, and for the good. The bands legacy shed its love-hate binary and joined the grand buffet as just another long-running classic rock band that you are free to like a little or a lot, if you please, without giving your goddamned soul to it, or to loathing it.

The Deads reputation and cultural associations were so polarizing for so long,that it had kept many ordinary people from even liking songs like Brokedown Palace. Who in their right mind wouldnt like Brokedown Palace? Thats how bad it had gotten.

For decades, the Deads bottomless catalogue of good songs in multiple streams Bakersfield, electric ragtime, world fusion, psych-punk and, that rarest bird, a truly American take on prog-rock had been a no-fly zone for all but the most thick-skinned of hipsters. Those selfsame hipsters could revere Dylan, Neil or the Band without smudge, but for reasons not entirely musical, the Dead were denied their obvious place in that hip tradition and were instead stamped as the apotheosis of stoned hippie indulgence and fatuous West-Coast cultism.

Were the Dead a monomaniacal cult of zealots feverishly cataloguing live shows and taking over cities with a druggy and privileged trustafarian hedonism, dancing in certain very specific ways to music that, for all of its purported out-on-a-limb extemporaneity, could sound pretty lethargic from a distance, especially in those fatigued years the Eighties when their live popularity peaked? Imagine, as Jerry Garcia had to, waking up with very serious health issues at 45 to find that you were functionally Elvis. Scorceses recent six-part documentary does a fine job of documenting this tragic dimension of Jerrys story.

Certain sanguine hipsters (Elvis Costello comes to mind) were always unashamed and vocal in their affection for the Dead, but they were so rare in that sphere that I can hardly name another.

So what precipitated the change? Scorseses attention signaled that the culture at large was ready to drop its contempt for the Deads cultic singularity and to regard them as what they were: a great band in their way, a far-out narrative in a straight line of descent from the Beats, and a treasure chest of cool songs that share in the roots modernism of Dylan and Robbie Robertson.

For me, a more telling and much-less-publicized sea change arrived the year before: 2016sDay of the Dead, a massive 59-track tribute record released as the 25th compilation benefiting the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS.

The Dead have hundreds of songs that can be easily extracted from their distinctive way of playing them. Theirs is an oeuvre ideal for looting and style play. What was shocking and what would have been all-but-impossible in the decades before was who was paying the tribute.

Day of the Deadwas forged (locally, in fact) under the artistic direction of Brooklyn producer (and former New Paltz resident) Josh Kaufman and brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio band the National, one of the few arena-grade bands that the Indie Decade produced. The tracks came, by and large, from their people: the hip people of the borough and its satellite scenes, from the War on Drugs and from Kurt Vile, from Jenny Lewis, Cass McCombs, the Walkmen, Real Estate. The record featured no fewer than three scintillating contributions from the who-knew Deadhead Will Oldham, also known as Bonnie Prince Billy. His daring choice of the Garcia solo epic Ruben and Cherise is one of the records highest highs.

It is certainly cool that so many of the hip artists of the Aughts were enthused by the project and undeterred by jam contamination (which is real), but therein also lies the friction. The Dead already had a vital, commercially humming downstream legacy. It is all the bands you hate, from Phish to String Cheese Incident, who did huge numbers at the gate and operated squarely in the Deads tradition of unscripted improvisation and fancentric bootleg values. These Balkanized jam states inherited the Dead scene seamlessly after Jerry died, and the party only got bigger in the Nineties.

And in the post-Jerry years, Bob and Phils touring projects raided that scene for replacement players, such as keyboardist Rob Barraco from the Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra and bassist Oteil Burbage and guitarist Jimmy Herring from jam-scene stalwarts Aquarium Rescue Unit.

Day of the Deadwas not completely free of association with the jam scene. Weir himself, of course, appears on the record, performing a savage and spot-on live rendition of the psych-rock masterpiece St. Stephen with Wilco, Tweedy as delightfully unsteady of voice as vintage Jerry and clearly loving it. Eighties era Dead celebrity keyboardist Bruce Hornsby delivers a stunning Modernist take on the late Garcia/Hunter heartbreaker Black Muddy River, and there are a few other artists represented with jam-world cred: My Morning Jackets Jim James, for example, and drummer Joe Russo.

The record and the current Dead reappraisal now under way expose an interesting and difficult dimension of the rescue and repair of reputations. It is a story in which the Grateful Dead are essentially airlifted like the Chili Peppers off the tarmac at Woodstock 99 out of the sprawling mess they made with their own hands.

Do the Dead even make sense plucked from the culture they birthed? Who owns what? Can we agree to share the Grateful Dead? Can this reappreciation and revisionism broaden everyones purview and perhaps temper the cruel belittlement and critical vitriol reserved, seemingly, for jam rock alone?

Probably not.

Read more installments of Village Voices by John Burdick.

See the original post:

Long live the Dead - Hudson Valley One

Fact check: Trump falsely suggests kids don’t transmit coronavirus and that US case surge is due in part to protests and Mexican migration – CNN

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Despite the sharp uptick in cases he acknowledged and a US death toll that now exceeds 142,000, Trump declared that "it's all going to work out. And it is working out."

He suggested children do not transmit the coronavirus, though early evidence suggests children can and do. He attributed the recent rise in cases in part to racial justice protests, though early evidence suggests the protests did not cause a spike, and in part to migration from Mexico, though there is no evidence for this either.

Trump also claimed that he has done more for Black Americans than anyone else with the "possible exception" of President Abraham Lincoln. That is transparently ridiculous.

Here is a look at some of Trump's claims and the facts behind them.

Trump suggests Mexico to blame

In assigning blame for the uptick in coronavirus cases, Trump also suggested that Mexico was responsible, even though public health officials haven't publicly made this same accusation.

"Likely also contributing were also sharing a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, as we know very well, and cases are surging in Mexico, unfortunately," Trump said on Wednesday.

Referring to his proposed US-Mexico border wall, Trump added, "It was really meant for a different purpose, but it worked out very well for what we're doing right now and the pandemic."

Facts First: Trump didn't provide any evidence to back up his claims, and the nation's top public health officials aren't blaming Mexico for the US pandemic. Also, cases are spiking in states that don't share a border with Mexico -- like Florida, Louisiana and Idaho -- undercutting Trump's implication that border-crossers are bringing the disease into the US en masse. It's worth noting that the virus first flared in places such as Washington State, New York and New Jersey, thousands of miles away from the Mexican border.

After the briefing, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said there isn't medical evidence supporting Trump's assertions. "I don't think there's any data specifically on Mexico," Gupta said. "We actually looked up to see if there was any data on that, and I didn't find any."

There is also a logic problem with Trump's comments. On one hand, he's blaming Mexico for the US spike. But he's also saying that the border barriers have successfully kept out the virus.

Kids transmitting the virus

During Wednesday's briefing, Trump continued to advocate for schools opening in the fall. In support of this he claimed that "a lot of people" say children "don't transmit" coronavirus.

"They don't catch it easily, they don't bring it home easily," Trump added. "And if they do catch it, they get better fast."

According to one recent study from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children between 10 and 19 years old may transmit coronavirus just as much as adults.

"Although the detection rate for contacts of preschool-aged children was lower, young children may show higher attack rates when the school closure ends, contributing to community transmission of Covid-19," the study said.

As a result, even though children appear to be affected less commonly or severely than adults, returning to school still poses certain risks.

Protests and the rise in cases

Trump said there were a "number" of causes for the recent spike in coronavirus cases. He cited some uncontroversial possible contributors, such as Americans returning to bars and increasing their travel.

The first cause he listed, though, was the racial justice protests that swept the country following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.

"Cases started to rise among young Americans shortly after demonstrations...which presumably triggered a broader relaxation of mitigation nationwide," Trump said.

Obama and Chicago

CNN's Kaitlan Collins noted that in 2016 Trump said that it was President Barack Obama's fault that homicides were up in Chicago. She questioned Trump, "Why was it the President's fault then and not your fault now?"

Trump claimed that Obama "was invited in and he did a poor job. President Obama could've gone into Chicago. He couldn't have solved the problem and he didn't."

Since his early days in office, Trump has suggested sending the National Guard to curb gun violence in Chicago. Chicago's history with the National Guard is tumultuous, most notably during the 1968 Chicago riots and later at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Chicago wants a federal presence in the city

After Trump announced plans to send a "surge of federal law enforcement" to Chicago this week after the city experienced more gun violence, he claimed that Chicago will "want us to go in, full blast."

"I think in their own way they want us to go in, full blast. There will be a time when they're going to want us to go in full blast, but right now we are sending extra people to help. We are arresting a lot of people that have been very bad," the President said.

Facts First: This is an overstatement and needs context. The mayor of Chicago, who has a testy relationship with Trump, has cautiously welcomed federal law enforcement into the city to help combat its gun violence, but noted that federal agents were not welcome to "terrorize our residents."

But by Tuesday, Lightfoot cautiously embraced Trump's federal law enforcement to help combat Chicago's gun violence so long as the agents remain focused on gun violence.

Trump and Black Americans

But Trump's response to Biden's assertion was also wrong.

Facts First: While we give Trump lots of latitude to express opinions, this one is simply ridiculous even if he is only comparing himself to previous presidents and excluding other Black heroes. It's absurd to say Lincoln is a "possible" exception; emancipating the slaves was obviously more important for Black Americans than anything Trump has done. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, monumental bills whose impact dwarfed the impact of any legislation Trump has signed.

CNN's Andrea Kane contributed to this fact check.

Coronavirus: We could have done things differently, says PM – BBC News

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Boris Johnson has admitted the government did not understand coronavirus during the "first few weeks and months" of the UK outbreak.

The PM told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg there were "very open questions" about whether the lockdown had started too late.

Mr Johnson also spoke of "lessons to be learned" and said ministers could have done some things "differently".

Labour accused the government of "mishandling" the crisis.

More than 45,000 people in the UK have died after testing positive for coronavirus, government figures show, with almost 300,000 cases confirmed.

Last week, Mr Johnson promised an "independent" inquiry into the pandemic, but no details have been given of its scope or timing.

Previously, the prime minister has said he took the "right decisions at the right time", based on the advice of scientists.

But, in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg to mark the first anniversary of his entering Downing Street, he said: "We didn't understand [the virus] in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months.

"And I think, probably, the single thing that we didn't see at the beginning was the extent to which it was being transmitted asymptomatically from person to person."

Mr Johnson wants to use the government's experience of what happened during the pandemic to speed up his agenda, to "double down on levelling up", as he puts it in his peculiar political jargon.

In other words, to push ahead with more determination, and less fudge in Whitehall, with the changes that he says will actually improve the lives of voters, particularly those who voted Tory for the first time in 2019.

While preparing the NHS for a potential second surge, he clearly wants to concentrate on what's next, not what's gone before.

But perhaps until the government is really ready to acknowledge what has happened, the questions will continue - and the public may still feel anxious about whether they can really trust ministers to handle a second surge next time round.

Just as 366 days ago, optimism is Boris Johnson's trademark.

But if the last few months have shown anything, it is that the real challenge of life in power, is that events that can surprise.

The prime minister added: "I think it's fair to say that there are things that we need to learn about how we handled it in the early stages...There will be plenty of opportunities to learn the lessons of what happened."

The UK went into full lockdown in late March, which critics say was too late and cost lives.

Mr Johnson said: "Maybe there were things we could have done differently, and of course there will be time to understand what exactly we could have done, or done differently."

He added that these were still "very open questions as far as [scientists] are concerned, and there will be a time, obviously, to consider all those issues".

On Friday, the government announced that 30 million people in England would be offered a flu vaccine this year, to reduce pressure on the NHS in case of a surge in coronavirus infections during the autumn and winter.

Mr Johnson said this was in addition to increased testing and tracing and more procurement of personal protective equipment, adding: "What people really want to focus on now is what are we doing to prepare for the next phase."

He said: "We mourn every one of the of those who lost their lives and our thoughts are very much with their with their families. And I take full responsibility for everything that government did."

The prime minister, who was himself placed in intensive care in April after contracting coronavirus, said he would "very soon" set out an new measures to deal with obesity, seen as an added risk factor for patients.

In December, Mr Johnson's Conservative Party pulled off a convincing general election win over Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, after promising to "level up" all parts of the UK.

And, despite the economic damage caused by coronavirus in the past four months or so, the prime minister promised to create more nurses, doctors, hospitals and police, saying his government's priorities were "exactly what they always have been except more so. We're doubling down."

"The agenda is what it was when I stood on the steps of Downing Street a year ago, but we want to go further and we want to go faster."

Mr Johnson reminisced about first entering No 10 as prime minister on 24 July 2019, saying it "was very exciting, and everybody seemed to be in a very good mood" and "happy, upbeat". He added that coronavirus had caused many "difficulties" since then.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

"Psychologically it's been an extraordinary time for the country," Mr Johnson said,

"But I also know that this is a nation with incredible natural resilience, and fortitude and imagination. And I think we will bounce back really much stronger than ever before."

For Labour, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: "Boris Johnson has finally admitted the government has mishandled its response to the coronavirus.

"It was too slow to acknowledge the threat of the virus, too slow to enter lockdown and too slow to take this crisis seriously."

The threat of a second wave of infections was "still very real", he added, while it was "imperative the government learns the lessons of its mistakes so we can help to save lives".

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said an "immediate" coronavirus inquiry was "essential", and that the prime minister had shown "no remorse" for his "catastrophic mistakes".

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Coronavirus: We could have done things differently, says PM - BBC News

Coronavirus cases grew the most in these 10 Oregon ZIP codes this past week – OregonLive

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

In June, public health officials in Oregon said they could pinpoint many of the states new COVID-19 infections to outbreaks at nursing homes, food processing plants and a northeastern Oregon church.

But in the past few weeks that has dramatically changed: Large outbreaks have been surfacing less frequently and public health officials say theyre increasingly struggling to identify the circumstances under which Oregonians are becoming exposed to the coronavirus.

The states latest weekly report of new infections reflects just that. It outlines the number of new infections across the state by ZIP code from July 13-19, the latest week for which data is available. For many parts of Oregon, the report offers no clues for why new infections are on the rise.

Last week, contact tracers couldnt identify the source of a record 48% of new infections. The Oregon Health Authority has said it needs to keep that figure below 30 percent to keep the virus at bay.

Heres a ZIP code breakdown of where the virus spread in the highest numbers in the week July 13-19:

#1: 97838 -- Hermiston

This is the states viral epicenter, and the situation continues to worsen at an accelerating rate. This ZIP code recorded 212 new infections from July 13-19 -- jumping from 629 known cases to 841 cases since the start of the pandemic. Thats a 33% increase in just a week.

This ZIP code, which encompasses the northeastern Oregon city of Hermiston, now has surpassed the Newport ZIP code of 97365 as the Oregon ZIP code with the most cases per capita -- about 322 cases per every 10,000 people. Thats about nine times higher than the average per capita rate statewide, which stands at about 37 cases per 10,000 residents.

The biggest single contributor to the weeks explosive growth in 97838 appears to be 37 cases reported from a new outbreak at the nursing home Regency Hermiston Nursing and Rehab Center. One person has died.

Workplace outbreaks have been contributing to the numbers slightly. Fifteen people have fallen ill from a new outbreak at Good Shepherd Hospital.

Ten new cases also were traced to a new outbreak at the Walmart Supercenter store in Hermiston. An existing outbreak at the Walmart Distribution Center more than three miles away grew by eight cases, to a total of 23.

But much of the spread appeared to be out through what public health officials have deemed sporadic spread.

The rising number of cases in Hermiston is so concerning that Oregon State University announced Wednesday that it will test an estimated 400 to 500 randomly selected people in the community this weekend to better understand the prevalence of the disease there. The researchers also plan to test the citys sewage system for the prevalence of the virus.

#2: 97071 -- Woodburn

This ZIP code encompasses Woodburn and some rural lands around it. Cases here climbed by 69, to a total of 435.

This area is home to a number of agricultural facilities and workers, who are known to be disproportionately affected by the virus reach. But whats fueling the increase isnt clear.

The Oregon Health Authority only reported two small active outbreaks at workplaces during the week ending July 19. An outbreak at the meat processing company BrucePac at 380 S. Pacific Highway has amounted to five cases so far. An existing outbreak at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility grew by one case, from six cases to seven.

This ZIP code has 144 cases per 10,000 residents, about four times higher than the per capita rate across the state.

#3: 97914 -- Ontario

This ZIP code sits just west of the Oregon-Idaho border. Infections here rose by 67 cases, to a total of 374.

Long-term adult care facilities appear to be driving some of the increase. An outbreak at Brookdale Assisted Living grew by seven, to 39 total cases. Three people have died in relation to that outbreak so far -- two of them during the week July 13-19.

A new outbreak of five cases was reported at Dorian Place Assisted Living.

On top of that, an outbreak at the Snake River Correctional Institution grew by two cases, from 117 to 119. The Oregon Health Authority also reported a new outbreak of five cases at the Walmart Supercenter store in Ontario.

This ZIP code has 195 cases per 10,000 residents, about five times higher than statewide average.

#4: 97233 -- Southeast Portland and Gresham

This area is making yet another appearance on this weekly list of ZIP codes with the most new infections in Oregon.

It encompasses a chunk of Southeast Portland that stretches east into Greshams Rockwood neighborhood -- and David Douglas High School and the blocks between Southeast 122nd and 202nd avenues.

Cases in 97233 grew by 66, to a total of 424. No recent workplace, nursing home, church or daycare outbreaks appear to have contributed to the numbers here. In the past, the Multnomah County health officials have said a high percentage of residents in this area are essential workers who are at greater risk of being exposed to the virus and the disease is spreading in clusters in these residents families and as these residents socialize with each other.

The per capita rate of infections here, at 103 per 10,000 residents, is close to three times the state average.

#5: 97080 -- Gresham

This area includes the southern parts of Gresham and some outlying areas, from Jenne Butte Park in the west to Oxbow Regional Park in the east. Its a mix of businesses, homes and rural lands.

Cases here grew by 64 from one week to the next, bringing the total cases to 244. Thats an increase of about 36%.

Its unclear whats driving the growth in cases here. The Oregon Health Authority reported no outbreaks in workplaces or elsewhere. But 97080 is next to a contiguous cluster of east Portland and Gresham ZIP codes -- 97230, 97233 and 97236 -- where the virus has been spreading persistently.

The per capita rate of infections in 97080 isnt much higher than the statewide average, though -- with about 55 infections per 10,000 residents here, compared to about 37 per 10,000 residents statewide.

#6: 97236 -- Southeast Portland

This ZIP code has made frequent appearances on the weekly list of most new infections in the state.

Infections in 97236 grew by 50 over the week, reaching a total of 439.

Its unclear whats driving the increase, because the Oregon Health Authority has reported no outbreaks in workplaces or elsewhere in this ZIP code recently.

Public health officials have said in the past that the virus is spreading at a steady clip in 97236 because of the high number of essential workers living here who are at greater risk of being exposed to the virus. They have been unknowingly transmitting it within their own families and as they socialize with others outside their households, officials said.

The per capita rate of new cases in 97236 is 107 per 10,000 residents, close to triple the statewide average.

#7: 97801 -- Pendleton

New infections here grew by 47, to a total of 192 since the pandemic began.

The northwestern edge of the Pendleton areas 97801 borders the northeastern edge of the Hermiston areas 97838, which is the states hottest coronavirus spot per capita. So given its close proximity, its no surprise that the Pendleton ZIP code is experiencing a surge in cases.

An ongoing outbreak at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution doubled from 14 to 28 from July 13-19.

Cases at the Hill Meat Company grew by one, to 10 cases.

The prevalence of the disease in the Pendleton area is still relatively low compared to neighboring Hermiston. In the Pendleton ZIP code, infections stood at about 91 per 10,000 residents -- about 2.5 times more prevalent than the average statewide.

#8: 97701 -- Bend

This ZIP code covers a large swath of northern Bend and areas to the east and west.

Cases here more than doubled -- growing by 42, to a total of 112.

Its unclear whats driving the outbreak in 97701, but the neighboring ZIP code of 97702 saw a new outbreak at Mt. Bachelor Memory Care of 31 cases.

Overall, the per capita rate of cases in 97701 is still relatively low, given the small number of new infections in previous weeks and months. About 28 per 10,000 residents have been infected -- below the statewide average of about 37.

#9: 97230 -- Northeast Portland

This area covers residential and industrial districts just south of the Columbia River, from Northeast 122nd Avenue to 201st Avenue.

Cases here rose by 41, to 254 total cases.

The Oregon Health Authority reported no outbreaks at workplaces, nursing homes, churches or elsewhere in 97230.

The per capita rate of cases was 63 per 10,000 residents, about 1.7 times the statewide rate.

#10: 97882 -- Umatilla

This northeastern ZIP code, just south of the Oregon-Washington border, saw 40 new cases -- with cases climbing from 163 to 203. Thats a 25% jump.

The Oregon Health Authority reported a new outbreak this month at the plastic pipe manufacturer, JM Eagle in Umatilla, with 10 cases.

Besides that, its unclear whats driving the outbreak, but the ZIP code borders the states hottest coronavirus spot, Hermiston.

The per capita rate of infections in 97882 is 250 per 10,000 residents -- thats more than six times the statewide average.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

Oregonian staffer Mark Friesen contributed to this story.

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.

LAPD officer who died after battling coronavirus was father-to-be – KTLA Los Angeles

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

A Los Angeles police officer who was an expectant father of twins died Friday after battling coronavirus since late May, officials said.

Valentin Val Martinez, who worked as a patrol officer in the Mission division area of the San Fernando Valley, is the LAPDs first sworn officer to die after contracting the virus, but the second employee to succumb to the deadly respiratory illness.

Officer Martinez passed away after a long, courageous battle with COVID-19, Chief Michel Moore said in an email to employees obtained by KTLA.

The 45-year-old is survived by his partner Megan Flynn, who is 20 weeks pregnant with twins, as well as by his mother and siblings, officials said.

Our hearts and prayers go out to his loved ones, friends, and his Mission Area family as they grieve the loss of a fallen hero, Moores email read. I am authorizing the wearing of the mourning band in honor of Officer Martinez.

In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Protective League also sent love and unwavering support to Martinezs family.

He was a hero lost way too early in life, the statement read.

In a tweet, the Mission station thanked Martinez for 13 years of service.

We are deeply sadden by this horrible news, the tweet read.

A GoFundMe page created to help with funeral expenses described Martinez as a loving partner and valued colleague.

According to the fundraising page, Martinez tested positive for coronavirus in late May and it is believed he contracted it while working.

He fought COVID at home for one week before being rushed to Henry Mayo Hospital in Santa Clarita with worsening symptoms, the page reads.

Martinez was then transferred to a hospital in Santa Monica, where he was on a life support machine and his condition worsened, according to the page.

Val fought for his life every hour, but unfortunately Val passed away, the page reads. All of the doctors who cared for Val did an amazing job and we are very, very grateful.

Another fundraising page said Martinez and Flynn were expecting boys.

A trust fund has also been set up for the Martinez family and anyone interested in donating can mail checks to the Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union: P.O. Box 10188, Van Nuys, 91410. Checks should be payable to Blue Ribbon Trust for Valentin Martinez, and the account number is 2080491 S4.50.

As of Wednesday, the LAPD had a total of 437 employees who had tested positive for coronavirus, officials said. In addition, 254 employees were self-isolating and recovering after being expose, and 237 had returned to work.

Erica McAdoo, who worked as a senior detention officer at LAPDs Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, died July 3 after a weekslong battle with COVID-19.

Today we lost Officer Valentin Martinez, who tragically fell to COVID-19. He worked as a patrol officer within @LAPDMission, dedicating his life to the people of LA. To his partner Megan, his mother, and siblingsour deepest condolences.

Ofcr Martinez, May God welcome you home. pic.twitter.com/rHObUO2lkz

Today we lost one of our own, Officer Valentin "Val" Martinez #38701 to COVID-19. We are deeply sadden by this horrible news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and all his loved ones. Thank you for your 13 years of service. Rest Easy Brother EOW 07/24/20 pic.twitter.com/LRF4ZuXIKY

Today we mourn with our LAPD family @LAPDMission after the passing of Police Officer Valentin "Val" Martinez #38701. A 13 year veteran of the Department, Val lost his battle with COVID-19 today. Our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Rest In Peace, sir. pic.twitter.com/VHBmlpkfQ6

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LAPD officer who died after battling coronavirus was father-to-be - KTLA Los Angeles

$9.4B For ‘Innovative’ Health Care Construction Forecast in New York City – Engineering News-Record

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Modular components, flexible space and broader use of advanced filtration are some of the major trends in health care facilitiesconstruction in New York City, where the COVID-19 emergency offered asignificant proof of concept.

That could mean a large volume of work aheadusing innovative practices.From 2020 through2023, total construction spending will increase by 38% over the prior 4-year period to $9.4 billion,according to aNew York Building Congress forecast in a July 20 report. The assessment, called NYC Checkup: An Examination of Healthcare & Life Sciences Construction, notes the rapid renovations of existing facilities in the first half of this year to handle an influx of infected patients. The authorsNew York Building Congress Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee, Nancy J Kelley & Associates, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Partnership Fund for New York City, Urbanomics andDodge Data & Analyticsanticipatespending will increase as hospitals and healthcare providers adapt to the next normal and prepare for a potential resurgence of COVID-19.

Two important parts of that readinessalong with readiness for other healthcare needsare upgrading air filtration systems and creating patient rooms that can be adjusted for pandemics, increased acute care needs and more.

Improved air supply

Paul Schwabacher, senior vice president of facilities management for NYU Langone, says one of the biggest trends will be"buildings that are adaptable and flexible. For example, he notes that at the $1.4 billion, 830,000-square-foot Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Pavilionrecipient of this years ENR Best Project award for health carepatient rooms had flexibility to operate at ICU level of care, so we could rapidly flex up, which is what we ended up doing for COVID-19. At peak, the hospital was at 105% capacity, Schwabacher says.

Every infection-isolation room at Kimmel has vestibules that protect hallways from contagious patients.E-glass turns opaque on demand for privacy, or can remain clear so that nurses and doctors can constantly view a patient without having to enter the room and expose themselves to contagion.

These kinds of rooms may become the norm, says Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the Building Congress. Moving forward, the primary considerations for healthcare facilities will be resiliency, scalability and flexibility, he says. COVID-19 will likely lead to the construction of more [rooms] with ICU capabilities and flexible patient capacity, such as larger medical gas connections, additional power and emergency power.

The rooms at Kimmel are also equipped with negative-air-pressure controls to reroute infected air away from other patients and staff. Hospital-wide, HEPA systems filter air at the same high rate most hospitals only require for operating roomsup to 12 air changes per hour in patient care areas. Older buildings have much lower change rates of less than half, Schwabacher says, except in their critical care areas.

NYC Health + Hospitals, the municipal health care system with more than 70 facilities including 11 hospitals and five long-term care facilities, is planning to upgrade filtration and other sanitizing systems. The Building Congress report says the city allocated $931.6 million for NYC Health + Hospitals fiscal year 2021 capital budget. Over the next four years, the system has committed $3.2 billion in capital spending, with $1.1 billion expected in 2020.

As we look to the future, we need to enhance our air quality systems, Christine Flaherty, senior vice president in the office of facilities development, said in a July 7 online lecture for Columbia Universitys Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space. There is a definite need for long-term investment in increasing our air exchanges, further enhancing our systems with filtration, UV lighting, [and] having more controls on negative and positive air pressure capabilities in many of our areas.

All this, Flaherty said, represents approximately half a billion of dollars of need.

Upgrading air filtration systems in existing buildings costs much more than building top level systems into the structures from the start, Schwabacher explains. To retrofit would be incredibly expensive, he says, because HEPA systems require more space for components like bigger fan motors, and air handlers.

Building in such systems up front costs more, he concedes, but it is by no means 50% [higher]its much less than that. Thepricier systems and features are demonstrating their payoff. As the crisis in New York City has stabilized, healthcare institutions see the value in investing in preventative infrastructure, pandemic preparedness and new technologies, Scissura says.

Modular saves money, increases quality

Another trend in health care construction in the city will help teams lower costs. Modular construction is being used to shorten build time, reduce construction costs and minimize disruption to active hospital operations, according to the Building Congressreport.

While a projects superstructure is being erected, the mechanical space, building envelope and standardized elements, such as patient rooms, operating suites and bathrooms, can be simultaneously built offsite, Craig Miller, healthcare practice leader at Jacobs is quoted in the report. Significant cost saving advantages are realized due to the increased productivity, reduced material waste and lower safety risks.

Group PMX LLC successfully used modular construction on several projects, including a 2,800-gross-sq-ft trauma center and a 2,500 gross-sq-ft mechanical equipment room, the report said.

To be sure, the citys licensing and jurisdictional issues can limit modular construction methods. Multiple municipal agencies must approve the movement of prefabricated units on city streets, and construction sites must also have enough space to stage the modules before placing them on the superstructure.

But the benefits are clear when looking at the Kimmel Pavilions construction. Patient rooms bathroom pods with a toilet, sink, shower and bedpan washerso pans dont need be carried awaywere prefabricated in New Jersey and installed before the fit out. It was an economical option that also made it easier to go quickly, Schwabacher says. Also, the prefabbed loos provide better quality control and better consistency so for long term maintenance its easier because theyre all the same.

Flaherty said that during initial surge work in the midst of the pandemic, which ate up millions of trades-workers'hours, NYC Health + Hospitals didnt find as many opportunities as we wouldve liked for prefab because it was just sourcing [materials] in the moment. But she emphasized, its definitely an area we do want to look at as opportunities to be more innovative.

So, it seems, do all health facilities developers in the city. Scissura says, Future-focused healthcare facilities are being reimagined around patient experience, operational efficiency and seamless integration of technology.

Excerpt from:

$9.4B For 'Innovative' Health Care Construction Forecast in New York City - Engineering News-Record

Could 750000 Pennsylvania Health Care Workers Turn the Election? – Capital and Main

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

During the Democratic presidential primary, some health care unions like National Nurses United came out strong for Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All. In Pennsylvania, the nurses in PASNAP have voted to support Medicare for All as well. And the union still supports that policy with Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee, says Maureen May, PASNAPs president and a full-time registered nurse. Despite the association of Medicare for All with the progressive left, May says its an uncontroversial position within her union, even among politically conservative members in rural areas.

Theres plenty of profit in the health care system which can be changed into care, May says.

PASNAPs political action committee hasnt gotten very far with its plans for the general election, May says. Anyway, she notes that nurses have consistently ranked among the most trusted professionals in the United States, and it doesnt make sense to get too tied in with any individual politician (whose profession ranks among the least trusted). In Philadelphia, Chris Woods, the president of District 1199C, which represents thousands of nursing-home workers, says his phone was lighting up with messages from friends and relatives with questions about COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. The union has lost members to the disease.

This pandemic put us right in the center of everything, Woods says.

In the last few months, the union has fought for employers to provide PPE and hazard pay. District 1199C has also organized 120 behavioral-health employees at Delaware Valley Residential Care into the union, and applied to represent nonprofessional employees at Einstein Medical Center. And the group is going to work to make sure all of its members know where and how to vote in November.

No one is taking anything for granted, even as polls show Biden with a solid lead in Pennsylvania at the moment. And even if Pennsylvania flips blue again, theres still a long road to recover from the damage the pandemic has done.

I believe that we can make a difference after this COVID crisis, says May. And I hope the public remembers.

Could 750000 Pennsylvania Health Care Workers Turn the Election? - Capital and Main

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Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Monthly Archives: July 2020

WHO concerned over rising virus cases in Europe – Macau Business

Consumption smartcard top-up to start on Monday – Macau News

From the Moon to Mars: China’s long march in space – Macau Business

UN calls on US to ensure right to peaceful protests – Macau Business

Russia rejects space weapon claim as ‘propaganda’ – Macau Business

Russia to resume some international flights in August – Macau Business

UNU Macau and Caritas Macau partner to advance research & capacity building initiatives – Macau News

NBA pulls out of Xinjiang project – Macau Business

Microsoft Executive Vice President Jason Zander: Digital Transformation Accelerating Across the Energy Spectrum; Being Carbon Negative by 2030; The…

Teens are ‘playing "Russian roulette" with their lives by taking 20 hits of hippy crack a day’ – Brinkwire

Business Botswana to roll out recovery plan – The Patriot On Sunday

Jordan’s Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By ‘Helping The Weakest’ – KLCC FM Public Radio

Coronavirus update: Global case tally climbs to 15.6 million and U.S. hits 4.07 million as virus spreads fast in Florida, California and Texas -…

Long live the Dead – Hudson Valley One

Fact check: Trump falsely suggests kids don’t transmit coronavirus and that US case surge is due in part to protests and Mexican migration – CNN

Coronavirus: We could have done things differently, says PM – BBC News

Coronavirus cases grew the most in these 10 Oregon ZIP codes this past week – OregonLive

LAPD officer who died after battling coronavirus was father-to-be – KTLA Los Angeles

$9.4B For ‘Innovative’ Health Care Construction Forecast in New York City – Engineering News-Record

Could 750000 Pennsylvania Health Care Workers Turn the Election? – Capital and Main