By KK Pandey

The municipal governance for ambient air quality (AAQ) has assumed special significance with the first-ever allocation of Rs 4,400 crore for FY21 by the Fifteenth National Finance Commission (NFC) to 50 urban agglomerations (UAs) as part of Rs 29,250 crore share of urban local bodies (ULBs). Water supply (WS), solid waste management (SWM) and roads that determine AAQ got further allocation for UAs and other ULBs for the same period.

Three important points deserve special attention of NFC, which is working out further details for the remaining period of its mandate: (i) the role and significance of municipal services in pollution caused by PM2.5 and PM10, (ii) institutional arrangements/governance, and (iii) mobilisation of funds at the city level.

First, adequacy of municipal services in terms of treatment of water, solid waste (household/municipal/electronic/end-of-use vehicles/hazardous /green leaves/construction and demolition waste, etc), roads, footpath, dividers/roundabout, greenery/plantation, maintenance of parks/lakes, etc, determine the levels of AAQ. It is estimated that 6.4% of GDP (largely in urban centres) is lost due to inadequacies in WS and SWM. The two are also important from the angle of resource efficiency/circular economy, where the output from one sector is used as input for another product. It is argued that 90-95% of solid waste can be processed for another input.

Second, the institutional arrangements and governance among UAs to protect air quality go beyond the administrative jurisdiction of cities. The 50 UAs have 264 ULBs and other census towns, villages, special townships (railways, industries, etc, with multiple institutional arrangements for municipal services). The National Capital Region (NCR), for example, involves administrative city (MCDs, NDMC, and Cantonment Board), physical city (Gurugram, Noida, etc) and the city region.

Third, the budgetary allocation to ULBs is not enough to meet the requisite actions. Requirements of funds (also indicating physical gap) are fairly high than NFC grant and kitty of municipal finance. HPEC report estimates investment requirements of Rs 31 lakh crore at 2010 prices in a 20 years perspective with 75%-plus share for WS, SWM and municipal roads.

Therefore, the urban intergovernmental institutions (centre, states and ULBs) appear to be the logical choice for the management of AAQ. The role of ministry of environment and forest/Central Pollution Control Board and their counterparts in the states is to supplement urban institutions with AQI and enable them to link NFC grants in the overall framework of NCAP (National Clean Air Programme) with a nodal agency role to largest ULB to manage AAQ in UA. The census towns should also be immediately upgraded as ULB status by their respective states.

At the same time, a five-year plan (physical/fiscal gap) should be worked out for entire UA. It should be based on environmental and energy audit as per the Model Municipal Law of 2003, which are yet to be applied. AAQ-related innovations such as C&D waste, participatory maintenance of parks, footpaths, etc, as applied in Ahmedabad, Indore, Delhi, Pune, and Namami Gange, etc, should be included. Certain cases, like the NCR, need specific arrangements.

Using NFC funds as seed capital, extra-budgetary resources from the community, corporate social responsibility funds and public-private partnerships need to be mobilised. The NFC grant also needs upward revision in proportion to the size of UA.

The author isProfessor, Urban Management, Indian Institute of Public Administration. Views are personal

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Managing air quality: Urban intergovernmental institutions appear to be logical choice - The Financial Express

Next Round Launches Today

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)Lt. Governor Jon Husted, who serves as Director of the Governors Office of Workforce Transformation, announced today that 302 Ohio companies have been approved for TechCred funding, allowing them another opportunity to upskill their current and future employees with technology-focused skills.

The results of the June application period is evidence of the demand employers have for people with tech-focused credentials, said Lt. Governor Husted. These skills help create job security and higher wages for the employee and helps make sure Ohio employers have the talent they need to compete.

In May, updates were made to TechCred to support the changing needs of Ohio businesses and workers during the economic recovery amid the COVID-19 health crisis in anticipation of the June application period.

Following the June application period, applications were approved for 302 Ohio employers, funding 3,241 credentials that will help upskill Ohio workers. The increase in applications from employers proves that technology skills are more important for Ohio workers than ever. The June round was record setting, with a 101 percent increase in the number of credentials that will be funded compared to the January round, which was previously the most successful application period in the programs history.

TechCred is helping create a stronger workforce in Ohio, said Lydia Mihalik, Director of the Ohio Development Services Agency. Employees are expanding their skills, and employers are getting the talent they need to grow their business.

In addition to the June awards, Lt. Governor Husted announced that the list of eligible TechCred credentials now includes examples of education and training providers that offer each certificate or certification as a resource to employers.

The examples listed under each credential are based on training provider submissions and are not meant to be an exhaustive list of providers offering each credential within the state or online. Employers are welcome to work with a training provider that is not listed.

The importance of upskilling as we continue through and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overstated, said Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner. Education plays a vital role in keeping Ohios economy strong, and increased participation in the TechCred program bolsters Ohios workforce for the future.

To date, 695 Ohio employers have been allocated funding through four rounds, supporting 7,473 technology-focused credentials to be earned by Ohio employees.

The next application period of the TechCred program opens today, August 4th and closes on August 31st, allowing for another opportunity for current and incoming employees to earn tech-focused skills.

You can learn more about the program athttp://TechCred.Ohio.gov

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June TechCred to Fund Record-Setting Number of In-Demand Credentials WKTN- A division of Home Town Media - WKTN Radio

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Given what you know of the Trump Administration, you may not be shocked to learn thathidden away behind a wall of acronyms, and obscured in the recesses of the federal rule-making processit is doing its best to stall the trend toward ethical investing. The Department of Labor, in June, proposed changes to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that would make it hard for pension funds to steer money toward so-called E.S.G. fundsthose that put a priority on environmental, social, and governance factors, such as whether a company is switching to renewable energy or putting women on its board or treating its workers fairly.

A couple of caveats first: E.S.G. investing is no panacea. (A Blackrock E.S.G. fund, for instance, had ExxonMobil as its twentieth-largest holding at one point, which is roughly akin to the Vatican setting aside a corner of the Sistine Chapel for satanic rituals.) And, at this late date, the idea that green capitalism is going to single-handedly save the day seems absurd. Still, people have pensions, and theyre going to be invested somewhere. E.S.G. funds saw record growth in 2019, and that rise steepened as the pandemic hit. The rebound in civil society has been impressive, with an increase in volunteering, social cohesion, community support and focus on public good vs. private freedoms, JPMorgan said in a recent note to clients. We see the Covid-19 crisis accelerating the trend to ESG investment. Oh, and theres another reason: a Financial Times analysis in June found that, in the past decade, you made more money investing responsibly.

Who wouldnt like all this? Well, diehard libertarians clinging to the Milton Friedman theory that a corporation has no social responsibility beyond making money, and people who run unethical enterprises. This (often overlapping) set of players orbits in a loose constellation around the businessman in the Oval Office, who himself has never been accused of behaving ethically. Now Trumps Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia (the son of the late Supreme Court Justice), has proposed the rule changes, which would force pension funds seeking to invest ethically to jump through any number of hoops proving that theres no pecuniary difference with more cavalier holdings.

Happily, New York Statewhich is home to, among other things, a great many fundshas decided to fight back. Linda Lacewell, the states superintendent of financial services, wrote Scalia last week to say, In our view, the rise of ESG investing in recent years is a welcome development that reflects both a more sophisticated approach to investment and risk analysis and one more in line with the challenges facing investors today. As Ali Zaidi, who handles climate policy for Governor Andrew Cuomo, explained to me in an interview, the proposed rule is essentially an effort to take information away from the market. Whats really stunning, Zaidi added, is that it comes as the economic feedback to this incredible challenge we face in the form of the COVID crisis has actually reminded us how important E.S.G. and climate-risk analysis really are. In financial regulatory parlance, we talk about stress testing. In some ways, the stress testing is happening right now, and showing that a lot of these industries sit on a house of sand, not a firm foundation. That is to say, you better hope that you werent long on oil going into the pandemic, because you not only helped to wreck the planetyou also lost your shirt.

As Zaidi pointed out, like all else in our public life, the result of the Administrations efforts rests on the outcome of the November elections. The Department of Labors rule changes will probably come late enough in the Trump term that, if hes defeated, it will be relatively easy for Congress to overturn them. And Elizabeth Warren, who seems likely to wield some power on financial questions in a Biden Administration, has made it clear that shell have no patience for this kind of irresponsibility. As she wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal last month, Mr. Scalia seems to think that burying our heads in the sand and pretending that there is no risk to manage is risk management itself. If Mr. Scalia truly wanted to protect retirees, hed remove roadblocks to ESG investing, call on his colleagues to create strong ESG standards and support my Climate Risk Disclosure Act. The bottom line, as she points out, is that climate change threatens the stability of our economy. Indeed, as a new study published last Thursday makes clear, by 2100, as much as twenty per cent of global G.D.P. could be threatened by coastal flooding, in a worst-case scenario. Add in desertification, heat waves, agricultural collapsepretty soon, there isnt much of an economy left to worry about.

The situation seems obvious by this pointbut clearly not, at least in the Azkaban where American policy is currently formulated. Others, however, are catching on. Mark Fawcett, the chief investment officer for the National Employment Savings Trust, the United Kingdoms largest public pension fund by number of members, announced last week that it will begin to divest its massive portfolio from fossil fuels. Why? Just like coronavirus, climate change poses serious risks to both our savers and their investments, Fawcett said. It has the potential to cause catastrophic damage and completely disrupt our way of life. No one wants to save throughout their life to retire into a world devastated by climate change.

According to the World Bank, fashion is responsible for ten per cent of the planets greenhouse-gas emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Which is why its good that the fashion writer Shonagh Marshall has launched Denier, a Web site that features her conversations about the industrys relation to people, the planet, and profit. (And also a pretty good pun.) The sites early content includes a particularly fine colloquy with Liz Ricketts, of the Or Foundation, about what happens to the clothes that Americans give away to charities. I interviewed Marshall, whos based in New York, last week; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Fashion, broadly defined, seems to be a large part of the climate equation. Is it possible to reimagine it as an industry? If so, is that reimagining under way, or is it mostly greenwashing so far?

It is possible to reimagine it, and I think the regenerative nature at the very core of the fashion industry makes it ripe for dreaming up new systems. There are a number of fashion designers that have built their businesses with concerns for the climate crisis at the center. They act as interesting case studies in that all the decisions they make have the well-being of people and the planet as a focus, even if this means forgoing profit. But there is a lot of greenwashing, and fast fashion and luxury design houses have done little to change all elements of their business. Often, they focus on one thing, such as carbon emissions, which is fantastichowever, as we know, this is just not enough! A brilliant resource to find out how well a fashion brand is doing across people, planet, and animals is Good on You. Fashion companies are rated from 1 (We Avoid) to 5 (Great), and it includes lengthy descriptions about why they are rated this way.

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Trump Tries to Make It Hard for Anyone Else to Behave Ethically, Either - The New Yorker

TEL AVIV, Israel & REYKJAVIK, Iceland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: and TASE: TEVA) and biopharmaceutical company Alvotech today announced that they have entered into an exclusive strategic partnership for the commercialization in the U.S. of five biosimilar product candidates. This strategic partnership combines Tevas long-standing commercial presence and extensive infrastructure in the U.S. market with Alvotechs scientific experience and state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing. The initial pipeline contains biosimilar candidates addressing multiple therapeutic areas.

Robert Wessman, Alvotechs founder and Chairman said, We are very proud to announce our strategic alliance with Teva a leading global pharmaceutical company, to accelerate the introduction and adoption of new biosimilar medicines for patients in the U.S. market. This is not only a big moment for the biosimilar industry but also a very special moment for Alvotech, as we continue to join forces with leading global and regional partners around the world.

This commercial partnership with Alvotech will enable Teva to lend its technical expertise in working with the FDA to bring products to the U.S. market while broadening its growing biosimilar portfolio and continuing to leverage its unique cross-functional expertise across both specialty and generic medicines, said Brendan OGrady, Executive Vice President and Head of North America Commercial at Teva. This collaboration is another step in our unwavering commitment to develop and enable access to quality medications to help improve the lives of patients."

Under this partnership agreement, Alvotech will be responsible for the development, registration and supply of the biosimilars, while Teva will be exclusively commercializing the products in the U.S. The originator products of these five candidates currently generate around $35 billion in U.S. sales. The agreement includes an upfront payment, with subsequent milestone payments over the next several years. Teva and Alvotech will share profit from the commercialization of the biosimilars. All other financial terms and product details remain confidential.

About Alvotech

Alvotech is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and manufacture of high quality biosimilars for global markets. We are specialists in biotechnology, seeking to be a global leader in the biosimilar space by delivering high quality, cost-competitive products and services to our partners and to patients worldwide. Our fully integrated approach, with high-quality in-house competencies throughout the value chain, enables the accelerated development of biosimilar medicines.

Alvotechs initial pipeline contains several monoclonal-antibody and fusion-protein biosimilar candidates aimed at treating autoimmunity, oncology, ophthalmology and inflammatory conditions to improve quality of life for patients around the world. For more information, please visit our website, http://www.alvotech.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

About Teva

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE and TASE: TEVA) has been developing and producing medicines to improve peoples lives for more than a century. We are a global leader in generic and specialty medicines with a portfolio consisting of over 3,500 products in nearly every therapeutic area. Around 200 million people around the world take a Teva medicine every day, and are served by one of the largest and most complex supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry. Along with our established presence in generics, we have significant innovative research and operations supporting our growing portfolio of specialty and biopharmaceutical products. Learn more at http://www.tevapharm.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the strategic partnership with Alvotech for the commercialization in the U.S. of biosimilar product candidates, which are based on managements current beliefs and expectations and are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that could cause our future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from that expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks relating to:

the potential that the expected benefits and opportunities related to our collaboration with Alvotech may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected;

challenges inherent in product research and development, including uncertainty of clinical success and obtaining regulatory approvals for the biosimilar product candidates;

the commercial success of the biosimilar product candidates, if approved;

our ability to successfully compete in the marketplace, including: that we are substantially dependent on our generic products; consolidation of our customer base and commercial alliances among our customers; the increase in the number of competitors targeting generic opportunities and seeking U.S. market exclusivity for generic versions of significant products; competition for our specialty products, especially COPAXONE, our leading medicine, which faces competition from existing and potential additional generic versions, competing glatiramer acetate products and orally-administered alternatives; the uncertainty of commercial success of AJOVY or AUSTEDO; competition from companies with greater resources and capabilities; delays in launches of new products and our ability to achieve expected results from investments in our product pipeline; ability to develop and commercialize biopharmaceutical products; efforts of pharmaceutical companies to limit the use of generics, including through legislation and regulations and the effectiveness of our patents and other measures to protect our intellectual property rights;

our substantial indebtedness, which may limit our ability to incur additional indebtedness, engage in additional transactions or make new investments, may result in a further downgrade of our credit ratings; and our inability to raise debt or borrow funds in amounts or on terms that are favorable to us;

our business and operations in general, including: duration, and geographic reach of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business, financial condition, operations, cash flows, and liquidity and on the economy in general; interruptions in our supply chain, including due to potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations and business in geographic locations impacted by the pandemic and on the business operations of our customers and suppliers; adequacy of and our ability to successfully execute and maintain the activities and efforts related to the measures we have taken or may take in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated costs therewith; implementation of our restructuring plan announced in December 2017; challenges associated with conducting business globally, including adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, political or economic instability, major hostilities or terrorism; our ability to attract, hire and retain highly skilled personnel; our ability to develop and commercialize additional pharmaceutical products; compliance with anti-corruption sanctions and trade control laws; manufacturing or quality control problems; disruptions of information technology systems; breaches of our data security; variations in intellectual property laws; significant sales to a limited number of customers; our ability to successfully bid for suitable acquisition targets or licensing opportunities, or to consummate and integrate acquisitions; our prospects and opportunities for growth if we sell assets and potential difficulties related to the operation of our new global enterprise resource planning (ERP) system;

compliance, regulatory and litigation matters, including: increased legal and regulatory action in connection with public concern over the abuse of opioid medications in the U.S. and our ability to reach a final resolution of the remaining opioid-related litigation; costs and delays resulting from the extensive governmental regulation to which we are subject or delays in governmental processing time including due to modified government operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and effects on product and patent approvals; the effects of reforms in healthcare regulation and reductions in pharmaceutical pricing, reimbursement and coverage; governmental investigations into S&M practices; potential liability for patent infringement; product liability claims; increased government scrutiny of our patent settlement agreements; failure to comply with complex Medicare and Medicaid reporting and payment obligations; and environmental risks;

other financial and economic risks, including: our exposure to currency fluctuations and restrictions as well as credit risks; potential impairments of our intangible assets; potential significant increases in tax liabilities; and the effect on our overall effective tax rate of the termination or expiration of governmental programs or tax benefits, or of a change in our business;

and other factors discussed in Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections captioned "Risk Factors and Forward Looking Statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or other information contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Original post:

Teva and Alvotech Announce Strategic Partnership to Collaborate in the U.S. Biosimilar Market - Business Wire

There is a clear correlation between household income and happiness with one's standard of living.

According to YouGov data, satisfaction with living standards does get more likely as household income rises, but it appears to level off after the $200,000 mark, suggesting diminishing returns the more money one makes.

However, money doesnt always seem to equal happiness: nearly all states whose residents are most likely to say they are happy with their standard of living have median household incomes below the national average, according to the United States Census. Residents of these states are also either less likely to be worried or as worried as the rest of the country about serious personal financial issues because of the pandemic.

Residents of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona are most likely to be happy with their standard of living, according to a survey of 60,886 Americans between July 2019 and July 2020.

According to YouGov state-level data, three-quarters (75%) of North Dakota residents agree with the statement I am happy with my standard of living. The midwestern state, whose resource-based economy has hinged on volatile oil prices, has seen a lower-than-national-average unemployment rate. While that number has increased during the COVID-19 crisis, it still is lower than the rest of the country. North Dakota also has a higher median household income than the rest of the United States. Ongoing data collected by YouGov regarding COVID-19 concerns shows a little more than half (56%) of North Dakotans are worried their finances will be severely impacted by the virus, which is in line with the rest of the country in general (54%).

South Dakota has lower-than-average median household incomes, but lower unemployment than the rest of the country. Most (74%) of residents of the agricultural state say theyre happy with their standard of living. South Dakotas financial worry around COVID-19 is roughly in line with the US in general, YouGov data shows.

Most residents of Montana, also heavily dependent on oil, say theyre happy with their standard of living (74%). While median income falls below the national average, YouGov data shows Montana residents (46%) are less likely than the general US population to be worried about their finances or personal health because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moving further southwest, 72 percent of residents of New Mexico say theyre happy with their standard of living. Trading higher incomes for warmer weather, New Mexico has a median household income below the national average, though its unemployment rate has generally been under the national figure. As the coronavirus-fueled recession takes hold, financial worry in New Mexico is line with the rest of the country.

Next door, most residents of Arizona also seem pleased with their lot in life, with 71 percent saying theyre happy with their standard of living. The Grand Canyon States unemployment rate is slightly below that of the United States but has a median income below the national average. Despite that, Arizona residents (52%) are less likely than the country to be worried about their finances because of COVID-19.

At the bottom end, residents of Kentucky (60%), Nevada (60%), Arkansas (59%), Rhode Island (58%), and Oklahoma (56%) are less likely to be happy with their living standards.

Tell your own story with data from YouGov. Contact uspress@yougov.com for more about our datasets.

Methodology: Standard of living data is based on a sample size of 60,886 US Adults aged 18+ who were asked their agreement level with the statement: I am happy with my standard of living. Response options: Definitely agree, tend to agree, neither agree nor disagree, definitely disagree. Responses were collected between July 2019 July 2020. The responding sample is weighted to provide a representative sample of the United States. Financial worry is based on a sample size of 94,683 US Adults aged 18+ who were asked: How much are you worried that each of the following might occur as a result of COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak? (That my finances will be severely affected) Response options: Very worried, fairly worried, not very worried, not at all worried, N/A - this does not apply to me, dont know. Responses were collected between May July 2020. The responding sample is weighted to provide a representative sample of the United States.

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These states are happiest with their standard of living - YouGov US

Our obsession with GDP, globalisation and economic growth has failed to take into account the impact on health and the environment.

We need to recover from this collapse in a way which is good for people, planet and the economy. We need a Great Reset. Could "currencies" based on health and well-being be the answer to creating the thriving cities of tomorrow?

GDP has come to dominate economics at the expense of many other things that make life worth living. GDP is powerful because money serves both as a day-to-day means of exchange understood by everyone and a unit of account at national and international levels. Money, therefore, links the worlds of micro-economics and macro-economics of money in our wallet and national policies and politics.

However, GDP is not a good measure of progress. We propose now that health be the currency for the Great Reset. We are working to adapt the concept of "quality adjusted life year", or Qaly, to give us a measure of well-being that links individual health to global health the new worlds of micro-health-economics and macro-health-economics.

There is nothing more important to us as individuals than our health, happiness and wellbeing. Happiness and wellbeing may be more elusive to define, but health has been defined by the World Health Organisation as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The word health itself comes from the Old English for a state of wholeness.

Every action we take and every transaction we make can improve or reduce our own health or the health of others, either directly or indirectly. Some effects are obvious; eat more green vegetables and your chances of cancer are reduced. Smoke a cigarette and you can harm both your health and the health of those in your immediate vicinity. Some are less obvious; invest in education and you invest in better health outcomes. Buy local food and you reduce the risk of diseases spreading through a globalized economy. Things are more complex than this, of course, but you get the idea.

We have long recognised that social and economic factors affect our health. If you are well-educated and wealthy, generally your health is better. But the importance of environmental factors is becoming increasingly recognised. At a local level, air pollution affects respiratory health. At a global level, climate disruption is now considered by many public health professionals as the single biggest threat to health far bigger than even the coronavirus. It will increase mortality and morbidity more than any other single factor. Likewise, we are recognising that loss of biodiversity (and other planetary boundaries) can have thresholds that, when exceeded, destabilize the biosphere, affect everything from water availability to crop yields and thus, in turn, impact on our health. Leading health institutions such as the Wellcome Trust now talk about Planetary Health.

We now have huge amounts of data on every conceivable part of our social, economic and environmental systems. Conceptually at least, we can track every transaction in our economy and link it to likely health outcomes. We know what is likely to increase health for the individual, the community and the planet. We can also see the possibility to steering our transactions in the direction of that elusive sweet spot where individual, community and planetary health are all maximised.

To implement our emerging knowledge of planetary health, we have two types of options: using information for down-top direction of our economies to generate health (eg through taxation or regulation), or bottom-up based on the information in transactions in a free-market type operation. The former might be considered easier and is in line with conventional socialist doctrine where the state corrects for externalities. The latter is a new form of market economy based on information embedded in each transaction. In practice, we should deploy both mechanisms for maximum benefit.

For a health-generating free market to work, we need to able to account for the health generated or destroyed by any transaction, so we can value transactions on their health-generating potential. Where for instance that organic fairtrade cup of coffee can be valued properly. This needs a new unit of account to go alongside money, implemented perhaps as a loyalty points system rewarding transactions which boost health by building social and natural capital. But what unit of account could possibly account for impacts as diverse as climate change and cancer caused by smoking a cigarette? And could any such unit of account remain sufficiently robust in the face of scientific scrutiny for it to useful for international governance?

We are working to adapt the Quality Adjusted Life Year or Qaly to serve this function. One Qaly is one year in perfect health. It has been developed by the health profession to help decide, in a resource-constrained world, which medical treatments it can afford and which it cant afford. Of course, it is not the only decision-making mechanism, but it is a useful tool it gives us an indication of what will probably bring more health and what will bring less.

Conceptually, we can imagine calculating the impact on an individuals Qalys from smoking a cigarette, or the impact on the health of the global population of carbon emissions resulting in climate disruption. Every transaction from buying a cigarette to buying a litre of gasoline or that fairtrade organic cup of coffee can be valued in terms of Qalys. In this way, health becomes the currency of the new economy. As data grows and knowledge improves, our estimates of Qalys improves too. Our economy gets better and better at generating health. Individual, national and global Qaly accounts link micro-economics to macro-economics, individual choice to government policy.

We live in the strangest of times. We have increasing data and knowledge, yet the future has never looked less secure. We have been tied to an economy which drove inequality, exposure to fast-spreading disease and environmental destruction to the extent of existential crisis. We have an unprecedented opportunity. We need the Great Reset. Imagine an economy where, alongside financial information, health information is carried too. Just as free operation of markets create financial efficiency, so being able to value and trade in health can create health efficiency.

Imagine then, a world where health is the currency.

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Here's how we can make health a core part of the global economy - World Economic Forum

ABU DHABI, 5th August, 2020 (WAM) -- Tawazun Economic Council has formed a collaboration with Airbus and the National Space Science and Technology Centre, NSSTC, from UAE University, to build and develop a Satellite Assembly, Integration and Testing, AIT, Centre with the aim of manufacturing components and assembling, integrating and testing small to medium satellites.

The AIT Satellite Centre will develop and build communication, navigation and hyperspectral satellites ranging in size between 50 and 250 kilogrammes and it is planned to commence operations at the beginning of 2021.

The Centre will be based at the NSSTC facilities in Al Ain, with Airbus supporting NSSTC during the design, outfitting and commissioning of the facility. Airbus will also manage the procurement, installation and operational qualification required for the equipment.

The collaboration was established and facilitated by Tawazun as part of its important role as an industry enabler dedicated to driving a collaborative defence and security ecosystem, securing and progressing technology development, and building national competencies and skills within the UAE.

"This is our second project after Yahsat, and there are many more projects to come, as Tawazun works to further develop the UAE space sector," said Matar Ali Al Romaithi, Chief Economic Development Officer of Tawazun. "The UAE is building and acquiring the knowledge required to become a regional hub for space activities and advanced research and development. This Centre is an integral part of those plans and consequently Tawazun has worked to make sure that it operates as a sustainable resource for the next five to seven years with a view to becoming permanent."

"We also value the significant contribution that Airbus is making to the Centres sustainability, as well as to the increase and development of our Emirati resource and expertise. NSSTC will accumulate critical knowledge from Airbus through this project, and our national competencies and skills will increase significantly," added Al Romaithi.

"The space industry is an important and strategic sector for the UAE, as it enables the development of high-level skills and drives innovation," said Mikail Houari, President Africa and Middle East, Airbus.

"Airbus remains committed to supporting the advancement of all key elements of the UAEs aerospace industry. For many years, we have worked closely in partnership with the nations leading industrial entities to help create new technological solutions and provide global expertise and experience to local talent. This new collaboration will support the future growth of the UAEs space and satellite sector, contributing to the countrys economic diversification strategy. It will also support the continued efforts around Emiratisation, which will be vital for ensuring long-term sustainable development of the sector," added Houari.

Currently the UAE space sector has provided 3,000 jobs at 50 space related entities, five space research and development centres and three universities offering space degrees. This new project will create 32 new jobs (at least 22 of whom will be UAE nationals) with significant know-how transfer and training being conducted at Airbus facilities in France as well as locally.

Saeed Ahmed Ghobash - Chancellor of the United Arab Emirates University - emphasised the importance of the scientific research collaboration with Tawazun, which he says is aligned to the vision and strategic direction of the University. The NSSTC is an entity created by the UAE University alongside the UAE Space Agency, and Chancellor Ghobash said that UAEU has established a credible standing and reputation amongst national, regional and international institutes because of its continued strive for excellence.

"This is in line with the vision of the UAE government, achieving the goals of the national agenda through the implementation of contemporary, sustainable developmental projects," said Ghobash, "UAEU possesses distinctive scientific and technical capabilities that enable it to keep abreast of global trends in applied scientific research, the fourth industrial revolution, the requirements of artificial intelligence, and space science and technology. The universitys work contributes to the development of a knowledge and digital based economy."

"Part of the mandate for NSSTC was to develop satellite AIT capability, and it is a pleasure to form this partnership with Tawazun and Airbus to achieve that very objective," said Dr Khaled Al Hashmi, Director of NSSTC. "The UAE will soon have a fully autonomous AIT satellite capability, and this will benefit the countrys satellite programmes as well as further enhancing space-related skills within the country. The NSSTC will become the centre where the knowledge that Airbus has imparted will come together to support the UAE space sector."

The UAE Space Agency is funding the first two projects that will be completed under the management and operation of NSSTC. The first project will be a satellite that will augment navigational capabilities for the UAE and the second will be the Arab 813 Satellite; a project announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Both projects are currently underway with the support of Airbus and will be completed at the new facilities.

Read more here:

Tawazun to build, develop Satellite Assembly, Integration and Testing Centre - Emirates News Agency

Eight trillion dollars.

This almost unfathomable sum of money could be added to the U.S. economy in the next 30 years if not for racial disparities baked into social and economic structures, according to The Business Case for Racial Equity a Strategy for Growth, a paper Ani Turner wrote for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The number left an indelible mark on the minds of Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter, co-founders of Inglewood, California-based Crowns & Hops Brewing, one of only about 60 Black-owned breweries in the U.S. (According to the Brewers Association (BA), the total U.S. brewery count stood at 8,341 through June.)

We found it to be such an incredible stat, Hunter said. Looking at our own industry and seeing how there was a lack of diversity, it just seemed like a really good opportunity for us to build the strategy around.

Ashburn and Hunter today announced the launch of the 8 Trill Pils Initiative, a fund that will support Black entrepreneurs in the craft brewing industry. Craft brewery owners and employees are notoriously homogeneous, a fact that has been further underscored by the reckoning taking place across the country this summer following protests against systemic racism.

In her paper, Turner defined the categories in which racial inequity needed to be achieved to unlock economic growth: healthcare, education, criminal justice, housing and employment/entrepreneurship. As craft beer entrepreneurs themselves, Ashburn and Hunter knew they could make an impact under that tentpole.

We know first hand some of the struggles, pitfalls that come with building a craft beer brand, and we know how hard it was to identify some of those resources, be it financially or just simple educational opportunities, Ashburn said. With 8 Trill Pils Initiative, we want to create and support that resource for other breweries, specifically Black-owned breweries.

The fund kicked off today with a $100,000 grant from Scotland-based BrewDogs development fund, which also provided funding to Crowns & Hops last year.

As a global craft brewer, it is our responsibility to use our voice as a force for good, BrewDog co-founder James Watts said in a press release. In the case of racial equity, that means literally opening and supporting more Black-owned breweries like Crowns & Hops so that Black people are not only represented in the business of beer, but are also successful.

Since June, several initiatives have been launched to diversify both owners and employees in the beer industry. Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver announced the Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling, which will provide educational grants and scholarships for Black, Indigenous and people of color. Constellation Brands announced its venture capital arm would invest $100 million in Black-owned beverage alcohol startups over the next decade.

Last month, craft beer lifestyle brand Beer Kulture reorganized itself as a nonprofit organization to introduce craft beer to communities of color, which would bring about a necessary change to the drinker base. Crafted for All, a platform founded by Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, works to promote inclusion and equity in craft beer workplaces.

National trade group the BA announced it would draft a new code of conduct for members after being criticized on social media for its inaction in the wake of racist incidents at member breweries.

Ashburn and Hunter see 8 Trill Pils as a complement to these projects, one arrow in a quiver aimed at a more inclusive industry. Using their experience as entrepreneurs, they want to ensure that more business owners in beer who look like them can find similar success.

There is a lot of attention and energy spent around diversity and inclusion in a model that is already there, Hunter said. Im not sure theres been as strong a conversation around racial equity, which is ensuring that Black-owned breweries are successful.

When you look at this country, Black people do make up more than 1% of the country, so in not just our industry, but in industries all over the United States, we need to be looking at how we achieve racial equity as a way of the strategy for economic growth, industry growth, he continued. By doing that we ensure that Black patrons are able to immediately recognize themselves in a brand, in a product and in ownership.

Even a single-digit percentage increase in Black-owned breweries would be significant, Ashburn said.

Its really crazy when you think about 8,000 [craft breweries], and then you think about 63, which is the number of Black-owned breweries, she said. Even if we were to go up by 4%, 5%, it still makes a marginal difference in comparison to where were at right now, so we definitely want to see more Black-owned breweries successful Black-owned breweries and business models and the various points of entry to craft beer.

Crowns and Hops won the 2019 Brewbound Pitch Slam competition at Brewbound Live in December.

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Crowns and Hops Brewing Launches 8 Trill Pils Initiative to Support Black-Owned Craft Breweries - Brewbound.com

The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected almost every aspect of life. In South Africa, alone, the economic effects are devastating with the GDP expected to decline by between eight and 10 percent in 2020. Job losses are estimated at over a million and more than 160, 000 businesses are expected to close their doors.

Under lockdown level three, many sectors have been allowed to trade or operate to some degree, which may have salvaged some businesses and prevented the further loss of jobs.

However, the tourism and leisure sectors have remained closed for months, impacting on thousands of jobs and with concomitant impacts on the fiscus and the wellbeing of millions of South Africans.

Despite concerns over job losses in major South African industries in recent years, the tourism sector has demonstrated resilience and, in 2017, the sector created 31, 752 new jobs which was the most number of net new jobs generated by tourism within a year in at least the previous eight years.

Nature-based tourism refers to all forms of tourism where relatively undisturbed natural environments form the primary attraction or setting.

The wildlife and nature-based tourism sectors specifically support a wide number of associated industries and sectors, such as the conservation sector, through income generation for park management, wildlife protection, anti-poaching and to some degree border control through the management of human movement in transfrontier parks.

For years, national and provincial conservation agencies have been generating significant revenue through nature-based tourism that contributes substantially to conservation management.

Game reserves in South Africa also generate significant benefits to the surrounding communities who contribute to goods and services consumed by visitors. In the absence of economic activity in these parks, there is increased risk of poaching, illegal resource extraction and park invasion.

Years of engaging communities to share in the benefits arising from conservation and nature-based tourism equitably will be undone if protected areas lose their economic value to the communities who depend on them, and should illegal resource use become their only means of survival.

It must be noted that many people employed in the nature-based tourism sector are unskilled/ semi-skilled and are usually breadwinners in their families. Reopening local tourism may not contribute to securing employment for many, and to securing livelihoods in the most vulnerable households and regions.

SANParks, as the custodian of about 70 percent of South Africas state-owned protected area network, derives 80 percent of its income from nature-based tourism activities.

A significant component of this revenue funds park management, anti-poaching, management of marine protected areas, ranger patrol and protection services including the aircraft and associated rhino security technologies as well as management of wildlife.

There are many community-owned reserves that generate income for clinics, schools, community recreation facilities as well many jobs linked to goods and services associated with these reserves, including catering and accommodation.

Several of these community-owned reserves are linked to national and provincial parks and benefit from visitors to parks or their own concessionaire managed lodges.

ALSO READ: A virtual expo of KZN tourism products for global buyers

Nature-based tourism is also a major outlet for people,who have been confined in urban areas. About 70 percent of visitors to national parks are local tourists and thus, the tourism sector can continue to support thousands of livelihoods even before our borders reopen.

The consequences of any extended lockdown for the wildlife and nature-based tourism sector, and by extension to the entire tourism industry, will be dire and potentially devastating as a result of:

Reduced income for conservation NGOs, who play a significant role in biodiversity conservation and community conservation in South Africa and are major employers in the sector.

The conservation NGOs listed below, therefore welcome the announcement by the minister for tourism that intra-provincial leisure travel may soon open up, under strict conditions, to ease the economic impact of COVID-19.

The NGOs fully support the introduction of intra-provincial nature-based tourism into the economic recovery under strong conditions and SOPs.

This is based on their belief that:

The NGOs signed believe that nature-based tourism not only offers guests the opportunities to have enjoyable, safe and healthy leisure time, but is one of the few sectors that stands to revitalise the economy and bring much-needed income back into South African households in the short term.

Allowing an early, phased and safe reopening of the local nature-based tourism sector offers the opportunity to increase the economic, mental and physical well-being of millions of people and sustain the conservation of South Africas natural resources for future generations.

The NGOs welcome the phased reopening of the local nature-based tourism sector and encourage South Africans to support their local nature-based tourism enterprises in the new no touch economy. The signed NGOs are the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), BirdLife South Africa (BLSA), Wildlife and Environment Society South Africa (WESSA) and Wilderness Foundation Africa (WFA).

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Conservation NGOs welcome the reopening of intra-provincial nature-based tourism in no touch economy - Phoenix Sun

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRO), a provider of AI-powered solutions that optimize selling in the digital economy, today announced the appointment of Catherine A. Lesjak to its board of directors effective August 3, 2020. Lesjak joins the board as an independent director.

Lesjak is a seasoned finance veteran in the tech industry, having built a 32-year career at HP, Inc. (NYSE: HPQ). Lesjak served in several executive leadership roles during her tenure, including EVP and CFO a role she held for 11 years before serving as interim COO for the company.

She currently serves as a director for technology pioneer and multinational conglomerate GE (NYSE: GE) and SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR), a vertically integrated solar company. Lesjak also serves on the board of the Berkeley Haas Business School. She holds a B.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

Cathie is an industry veteran who brings substantial financial and operational expertise to the board, said PROS Non-Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Russell. As PROS increases in scale, her experience and knowledge will be a great resource for us as we continue to build even greater long-term value for our shareholders.

I am excited to welcome Cathie to the PROS board, said PROS President and CEO Andres Reiner. Cathie brings a point of view anchored in global scale, execution, repeatability, and commercial success all elements that impact how we drive our SaaS portfolio and scale our global footprint rapidly.

I am truly honored to join the PROS Board of Directors during this inflection point in digital commerce and tremendous need for digital selling solutions, said Lesjak. I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with PROS to best capitalize on this tremendous market opportunity at hand.

About PROSPROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRO) provides AI-powered solutions that optimize selling in the digital economy. PROS solutions make it possible for companies to price, configure and sell their products and services in an omnichannel environment with speed, precision and consistency. Our customers, who are leaders in their markets, benefit from decades of data science expertise infused into our industry solutions.

Forward-looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about PROS market opportunity, PROS growth and scalability, the functionality and benefits of AI-powered solutions to organizations generally as well as the functionality and benefits of PROS software products. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon PROS historical experience and current expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described herein include, among others, the risks related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the scope and duration of the outbreak and timeframe for economic recovery, the addressability of an organizations AI-powered solution needs, the risks associated with PROS developing and enhancing products with the functionality necessary to deliver the stated results and the risks associated with the complex implementation and maintenance of AI-powered solutions such as PROS software products. Additional information relating to the uncertainty affecting PROS business is contained in PROS filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent PROS expectations as of the date of this press release. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and PROS disclaims any obligations to update or alter these forward-looking statements in the future whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PROS Holdings, Inc. Announces Appointment of Catherine A. Lesjak to Board of Directors - Business Wire

The Governing Body of the University of South Wales (USW) and the Council of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) have agreed to a strategic alliance which will see both universities working closer together.

The move signals a significant strategic development for the higher education sector landscape in Wales and enables the two largest Post-92 universities to collaborate in order to respond to the economic and societal challenges facing Wales, particularly within a post-Covid context.

In agreeing a Deed of Association, both institutions commit to working together on a national mission to strengthen Wales innovation capacity, supporting economic regeneration and the renewal of its communities.

The Deed of Association acknowledges each institutions autonomy and distinctiveness as strong historic brands which will remain independent, but also marks the collective values of both institutions and their potential to deliver tangible benefits and impact for Wales though collaboration. In particular, working together to drive digital innovation, knowledge transfer, research innovation, workforce development and to provide a ready pipeline of skilled students and graduates, in partnership with employers within priority sectors.

Louise Evans, Chair of the Board of Governors at USW said:

Our aim is to generate innovative solutions to tackle grand challenges. We have a key role to work with the Welsh Government to build capacity and resilience within our communities. Exploiting our joint innovation, applied research and supporting the development of higher-level skills across a range of priority sector areas and linked to employers is key to our collaboration.

The recent Covid-19 engagement has reinforced the need to critically reflect upon the need for all institutions to consider flexible arrangements of association so that universities can make a significant contribution to the national recovery engagement. The need for strong and effective universities that are able to address economic, social and enterprise needs is imperative.

The Venerable Randolph Thomas, UWTSDs Chair of Council added:

This alliance will enable us to make a real difference, particularly in Wales recovery post-Covid, and to assist in developing a sustainable future for the communities we serve, to renew our learning communities and to develop their wellbeing and resilience.

The Deed of Association will build capacity and subject excellence, creating a strong resource base for development and inward investment. It will enable the universities to develop a more diverse entrepreneurial knowledge-based economy; building further on their track record for graduate start-ups.

It will also facilitate the development of a strong base for applied innovation and enterprise as well as a range of educational programmes and lifelong learning opportunities to further social capital and new innovative economic, environmental, cultural and social activity. Working with a range of stakeholders within key sectors across Wales it will address inequalities through widening access and promoting social inclusion and justice.

Professor Julie Lydon, OBE, Vice-Chancellor of USW said:

Both USW and UWTSD are significant players within higher education provision in Wales. Both represent a strong voice for the Post-92 sector and define a very clear agenda for economic and social change in Wales. The opportunity of crafting a new direction of travel which addresses the planning and delivery of education and skills development across further, higher and employment-based education through Wales will have a significant impact and will deliver key outcomes which will support economic and civic regeneration.

Professor Medwin Hughes, DL, Vice-Chancellor of UWTSD added:

Wales needs to be innovative in its educational system and delivery frameworks in order to establish inter and intra-regional groupings which will enhance economic delivery, support social capital and drive forward greater regional Post-16 educational pathways. In doing so, we will secure greater synergy in our skills delivery and establish far stronger strategic partnerships with government and employers.

Read more:

University Alliance to Deliver Economic and Social Benefits to Wales - Business News Wales

Joseph Quesnel is an adviser on the National Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery. He is an Indigenous policy and governance researcher.

Its easy to forget that at the beginning of the year, Canada was right in the middle of another crisis triggered by a series of protests over a natural gas pipeline being built through northern B.C. The issue of Indigenous reconciliation was front and centre in our national consciousness.

Then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, damaging our national economy in a way that we had never experienced before. For a natural-resource powerhouse like Canada, this had a measurable impact on our economic performance in the early part of the year. In 2019, natural-resource industries contributed $236-billion, representing 11.3 per cent of the Canadian economy, according to Natural Resources Canada. About 1.7 million Canadians were employed by the sector.

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Now, in this downturn, the manufacturing sector and natural resource extraction have become connected. A significant part of manufacturing is derived from natural resources.

For most Indigenous communities, reserve lands and traditional territories are located on or near resource projects. For example, the energy and mining sectors are some of the main private-sector employers of Indigenous peoples. Many of these resource-based jobs are high-paying jobs that make a big difference in Indigenous communities and provide meaningful steps toward tangible independence. In most cases, resource projects are a direct pathway to First Nation prosperity and wealth. And the vitality of the natural resource sector is intimately connected to the Indigenous communities that service it.

As Canada moves from pandemic crisis response toward recovery, the innovative natural-resource economy must play a central role. And as a result, Canada will need First Nations as full participants and partners in the natural resource-based recovery.

Recently, the national Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery launched to draw up a blueprint for Canadas economic recovery as the country emerges from the COVID-19 crisis. The task force is being convened by Resource Works, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization committed to the development of Canadas resources in a manner that is inclusive of Indigenous peoples and maintains a clean and healthy environment. Indigenous economic development is central to the work of the task force.

For most Indigenous communities, the sense of frustration comes from economic exclusion. The biggest challenge for Canada is to ensure that First Nations are full partners in the economic recovery, and that we do not simply return to the previous mode of conflict over resource development. As Indigenous business leader Blaine Favel once said: Reconciliation means that Indigenous people should not be the poorest people in lands that belong to us.

The answer to exclusion and resentment is becoming included and empowered. At present, the problem is Indigenous communities and governments lack financial tools that other Canadians take for granted. As Ottawa considers the mechanics of its economic recovery, it must remove barriers to the economic participation of Indigenous communities in the resource economy by providing support for Indigenous communities to become active beneficiaries and partners in the development of large-scale infrastructure.

At present, Indigenous communities under the Indian Act cannot use their greatest asset reserve lands to secure capital or build equity; you cannot place a lien on something that, under law, you do not own. Barring significant movement on the land question, Ottawa and Indigenous communities must work around this obstacle by providing financial tools to enable First Nations communities to lift themselves out of poverty.

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To start, Ottawa can lend Indigenous governments its sovereign government guarantee to secure lending, just as the federal government currently backs Indigenous housing through ministerial guarantees that protect on-reserve mortgages. With such secure loans, Indigenous communities can better invest in major infrastructure projects, including pipelines, and these communities can become equity partners, as well as significant decision makers on environmental protection. And while Canadas credit rating recently suffered a downgrade, it remains infinitely better than that of any current Indigenous government.

New Zealands Indigenous Maori communities despite a history of colonial land dispossession chose to invest money from treaty settlements and placed tribal lands back under Maori ownership and raised billions of dollars in assets. Likewise, Canada must open trusts that are held on behalf of First Nations and use those trusts as well as land claims and specific claims settlement monies toward investing and becoming equity partners in major infrastructure projects.

In the end, if Indigenous communities are equity partners in these projects, they will be invested in project successes, ensuring a pathway toward shared prosperity. Rather than being passive observers, First Nations should be engaged as full partners in the post-pandemic recovery. That would be good news for all involved.

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Original post:

Indigenous communities need to be partners in Canadas COVID-19 recovery plan - The Globe and Mail

Many of the hardest-hit sectors, including oil & gas, cars and aviation, have business models that were already under pressure before the crisis from rapidly changing market dynamics and ever-tighter climate regulations. The generous recovery packages on offer, together with the particular circumstances of the crisis, provide them with the opportunity to make bold and ambitious changes that might otherwise have been challenging to implement.

How companies respond to the stimulus, and how they adjust their strategies, will determine their future profitability and long-term competitiveness.

In the EU, the conditions attached to the stimulus will be a defining factor. Policymakers can implement recovery packages that may either act as a catalyst for change, setting these companies on the right transition pathway, or lock in their unsustainable business models and waste taxpayers money.

The European Commission has proposed that the sustainable taxonomy the official EU classification of economic activities and the conditions under which economic activities can be considered sustainable guides investment in Europes recovery to ensure alignment with the EUs long-term ambitions.[1]

We believe governments need to emphasise support that helps companies become sustainable from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. Priority should be given to setting companies on the right transition path.

Any firm in a carbon-intensive sector that receives a bespoke or large taxpayer bailout should develop a detailed strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Transition plans should include short, medium, and long-term targets, and a social impact programme that addresses potential socially adverse impacts on employees, for example, by retraining employees.

The taxonomy could and should guide companies, investors, project promoters and other stakeholders, including policymakers, in the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is consistent with EU environmental goals[2], including intermediate targets and a procurement plan for Europe to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

It is important to differentiate between improving the environmental performance of existing assets and ensuring that all future facilities make the maximum effort to be aligned with the low-carbon transition.

The taxonomy is well suited to guiding new investments, so it should inform companies decisions on future investments. These should be directed towards contributing substantially to climate change mitigation (compatible with achieving carbon neutrality by 2050), while avoiding significant harm to other objectives such as biodiversity or clean water. Oil & gas companies, for example, should prioritise investment in renewables or green hydrogen and reduce exposure to assets that risk being stranded.

Recovery investment, grants and spending should not create greater hurdles to the achievement of EU environmental goals or violate social standards. The taxonomy provides the EU with criteria to ensure all investments cause no significant harm (Do No Significant Harm criteria within the taxonomy) in the environment and society (social standards embedded in the taxonomy).

To claim alignment with the taxonomy, economic activities need to substantially contribute to one of the six environmental objectives and not significantly harm any other

In parallel, there is growing pressure to strengthen the governance of companies in the area of sustainability (included in the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance). The recently agreed recovery stimulus plan should reinforce this trend: this time around, public support from the EU and in many (but not all) other regions will and should come with green strings attached.

In return for support, companies should also strengthen their governance structures in these ways:

Towards a sustainable recovery

Since recovery packages can serve as a catalyst for change, we believe companies should present and commit to transition paths in line with the EU taxonomy as well as strengthen their governance structures in return for support.

In Europe, the taxonomy could form the basis of green transition plans, in combination with the governance and strategy principles of the TCFD[3], as expressed in the disclosure recommendations of the European Commissions Technical Expert Group on sustainable finance.

This is a great opportunity to enshrine long-termism in companies modus operandi and to emphasise the importance of ensuring returns to long-term shareholders, while at the very least causing no adverse impacts to other stakeholders.

Also read Crisis and resilience Navigating a sustainable recovery

Any views expressed here are those of the author as of the date of publication, are based on available information, and are subject to change without notice. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and may take different investment decisions for different clients. This document does not constitute investment advice.

The value of investments and the income they generate may go down as well as up and it is possible that investors will not recover their initial outlay. Past performance is no guarantee for future returns.

Investing in emerging markets, or specialised or restricted sectors is likely to be subject to a higher-than-average volatility due to a high degree of concentration, greater uncertainty because less information is available, there is less liquidity or due to greater sensitivity to changes in market conditions (social, political and economic conditions).

Some emerging markets offer less security than the majority of international developed markets. For this reason, services for portfolio transactions, liquidation and conservation on behalf of funds invested in emerging markets may carry greater risk.

[1] The EU taxonomy is a tool to help investors, companies, issuers and project promoters navigate the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy, for further information see https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/business_economy_euro/banking_and_finance/documents/200309-sustainable-finance-teg-final-report-taxonomy_en.pdf

[2] The EU has developed a strategy, with specific targets, for each of the six EU environmental objectives - the attenuation of climate change, adaptation to climate change, the sustainable utilisation and protection of water and marine resources, the prevention and reduction of pollution, and the transition towards a circular economy, biodiversity and recycling.

[3] More on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

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Using the EU taxonomy as a guide to sustainable recovery - Investors' Corner BNP Paribas

Financial institutions have long suffered from the twin problems of high transaction-monitoring alert volumes and incomplete or low-quality data. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges posed a constant risk to institutions by threatening to overwhelm compliance staff and making it difficult to implement an enterprise-wide risk-based approach. The challenges brought on by the pandemic have only further exacerbated these problems by changing workplace dynamics, customer behavior, and the threat situation. Now is the time for financial institutions to make the enterprise-wide risk assessment process more dynamic so that it can match the rapidly evolving risk environment.

Financial Institutions and COVID-19: The New Normal

Changes to the global economy brought on by the pandemic have caused many companies around the globeincluding financial institutionsto alter the ways they work as well as the way they interface with customers and others. Further complicating these changes for financial institutions is their regulatory compliance burden, which has not changed. Financial compliance departments are thus facing a multitude of new challenges:

What do these challenges demonstrate to financial entities? It is no longer sufficient to examine enterprise-level risks once a year during the annual anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions risk assessment processfinancial institutions need more than a static snapshot of their exposure at a single moment in time. Current risk assessment processes are too often onerous and resource intensive while failing to equip financial institutions with the information they need to employ a risk-based approach that adapts to the evolving nature of these risks.

Shifts in customer behaviors and emerging COVID-19-related threats are triggering a high volume of false-positive transaction-monitoring alerts based on rules meant to identify deviations from expected behavior that may be suspicious. This further strains already stretched compliance teams and amplifies challenges related to the lack of complete and reliable data needed to fully understand expected customer behaviors and risk factors. As a result, pressure continues to build on the compliance controls in place to mitigate risk as traditional, static, rules-based transaction-monitoring systems are unable to adapt to the dynamic risk environment.

It is very easy for financial institutions to go into crisis management mode as they attempt to triage the increasing risks and alerts. However, even during a crisis like the current pandemic, its important not lose sight of how vital it is to take a holistic approach to enterprise-wide risk management to achieve a sustainable and efficient compliance program in the long term. If the current situation has vividly illustrated anything, it is that risks facing financial institutions are not static. Like the weather, risks change constantly in response to external elements such as customer behavior, geopolitical instability, technology, and pandemics, and internal factors such as resources and systems.

Changing How Risk Is Understood and Managed

Financial institutions should seek flexible and innovative approaches to understanding and managing risk. For entities that want to reexamine their approach, a good first step is to review the current risk assessment, as well as the data behind the assessment, and ask:

Ultimately, the long-term goal of any global financial institution should be to have a dynamic and sustainable risk assessment process that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of its changing risk and control environment. Such a system helps an institution identify and rapidly adapt to emerging risks and determine if controls are weakening under strain while creating a continuous feedback loop that strengthens processes and controls.

The Rewards of Change: A Dynamic Risk Assessment Process

Ensuring that financial institutions can confidently and efficiently harness the data already within their systems and map them to identified risk indicators is critical to achieving this more dynamic view of risk in a sustainable way because it presents opportunities for automation and efficiency. Transaction-monitoring systems and controls are one important piece of the data puzzle because they are a key source of data for assessing both risk exposure and the efficacy of controls. To clearly see the full picture, however, financial institutions must also ensure the completeness, accuracy, and accessibility of data in other areas such as customer due diligence files and core banking and payment platforms.

Even in this time of crisis during which financial institutions are facing economic headwinds and struggling to keep up with a rising tide of false-positive alerts, it remains critical for financial institutions to invest in this long-term vision. An integrated approach to risk assessment and data management is critical to moving toward a more sustainable and effective enterprise-wide risk management program. Financial institutions should seize this moment, leverage the existing momentum of changes to processes and procedures, and take the opportunity to enhance the risk and control assessment process and address data challenges. An investment now will pay dividends in risk management and quality data in the future.

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Post-COVID Banking: Now is the Time to Make the Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment Process Match the Rapidly Evolving Risk Environment - JD Supra

Provident Fund (PF) is a retirement-cum-savings scheme introduced by the Central Government considering the long term/retirement needs of the population. India is designed as a welfare state. However, owing to resource constraints, schemes like PF, ESI, CGHS, etc. have been designed to make the working population contribute consistently for their needs and contingencies both during and post employment. Contributions to provident funds are made on a monthly / periodic based on the nature of these funds.

These contributions form part of the Public Account of India (NSSF) and are deployed through acquisition of Central and State Government securities. Till date, PF contributions are considered to be the highest tax-free investments which also have a deduction in the year of investment.

To give a perspective:

The contributions to these provident fund accounts are eligible for accretions or interest and are available for withdrawal after a minimum lock-in period. Tax exemptions and deductions are available on both the interest and contributions subject to limits specific therein. For the purposes of Income Tax, provident funds are categorized into:

a. Recognised Provident Fund (RPF) recognized by the Commissioner of Income Taxb. Unrecognised Provident Fund (URPF) not recognized by the Commissioner of Income Taxc. Statutory Provident Fund (SPF) established under the Provident Fund Act, 1925. This is mainly for government employees, universities, educational institutions, etc.d. Public Provident Fund (PPF) established under Public Provident Fund Act, 1968

Tax benefits applicable to each of the above funds are as follows:

COVID Package: As part of the Economic Stimulus Package by the Ministry of Finance amid COVID-19, the following measures impacting the employees were announced:

# Workers registered with EPFO were given an option to take non-refundable advance of their own money in PF Account for any contingency expenditure. The limit for such withdrawal would be 75% of amount standing to their credit in the account or 3 months of wages. [As per April, 2020 report of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, EPFO offices across the country have settled 8,44,947 COVID-19 claims till 30.04.20 disbursing an amount of Rs.2662.41 crores to claimants]

# Further, SPF contribution of both employer and employee was reduced to 10% each from existing 12%, for all establishments covered by EPFO, for the months of June, July and August, 2020

Apart from unrecognized provident funds, all other funds are eligible for significant tax benefits, which is why provident fund contributions are one of the most popular forms of retirement savings.

Mr Mohan Prasad, a retired employee of Doordarshan, claims, Even though we did not have our employer contributing, the fact that I personally contributed year on year to avail maximum tax benefit ensured that I retired with a handsome corpus. India has always been a savings economy. However, the Gross Domestic Savings to GDP has been consistently falling and is currently at 30% (36% in 2007-08) which is significantly lower than China @ 44% but comparatively higher than developed economies like UK @ 16.2% and USA @ 17.9% (world bank). Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong- provident fund contributions and investments have always been considered as the fail-safe for the Indian working class and continues to be the bed rock of our fragile social security system.

(By Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder and Managing Partner, DVS Advisors LLP)

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How Provident Fund is taxed: All you need to know - The Financial Express

Several challengessuch aslabor shortages, cargo capacityconstraints, a manufacturing slowdown, order delays,and stuck shipmentsarose duringcountry-wide lockdownin India.Along with this,Indias real gross domestic product (GDP) is at its lowest in 6 years because of the COVID-19 standstill. It has further affectedconsumption and investmentadversely inIndian economy.

Thismanufacturing halthascausedadownward pressure on pricesof warehousing, freight, and logistics.Despite the obstacles,Indian logistics industry has shown resilience by resuming operations with help of digital tools.KSatyanarayana, Co-founder and Director atEcomExpressin conversation with SME futuresasserts thatlogistics will rebound in coming days and will play a dominant role in upliftment of Indian economy.

Edited Excerpts

India has made major strides in the logistics sectorduring last two decadesandit isnowa$200+ billionworth of industry.But,these are unprecedented times. Initially, the pandemic disrupted global supply chainandevenmovement of essential goods washalted. Due tothis,logisticsservices came toahalt. However,theindustrybounced backby quickly adopting the necessary protocols andbyresuming operations in no time.

Duringthe initial lockdown phase in late March and April, it was an opportunity for the logistics operators toaligntheirinfrastructure accordingtorequirements poised due tothecurrent crisis.Adding to it,adherence withstrict safety proceduresby government was also a necessity.This therebyensured business continuityforlogistics platforms.Personally, I feel there is a positive outlooknowfor post-COVID scenarioas we have enhanced our businessprocessesin many ways.

Also, people are hesitant to walk into physical storesdue to the fear of contracting virus and hencelogistics industry is growing.Till the time supply of non-essential goods started,our facilitiesgeared up for handling COVID-related protocols. We had almost 92 per cent of our employees reporting back to us. In June, we were fullyoperationaland Ifeelthatsituationisbetter than pre-COVID periodfor us now.

Absolutely, we can say that.The logistics sector has been provingto besaviourin current crisis for many. It has alsoplayed an important role in keepingtheeconomy running.People are restrictedtotheir homes doing their jobswhile sitting at home. Hence,we are seeing a complete transition in consumerbehaviourdue torisinghealth concerns.

Consumers are more inclined towards online shopping instead of going tomalls or big retail stores.They are opting for home deliveriesmore. Thus,I can say that our firm has beenproactive incontinuity of the supply chain.Asa stakeholder in logistics industry, we are working efficiently in taking care of our consumers needs. We are connected to themin every way todeliver all sorts of essential and non-essential goods.I believethat the crisis has presented an immense opportunity andwhile pursuing itgrowth isinevitable.

Technologynow-a-daysis the core ofanyindustrialoperationsirrespective ofsectors.COVID-19 has given an opportunity to companies to reshape their logistics operating model to increase effectiveness, efficiency and resilience.

Businesses are thus forced to innovate and adopt new digital tools faster than ever tominimisedisruptionsin current scenario. The players who embraced tech solutions were able tosurvivethe impactof pandemicand continue theirbusiness.

The tech tools help us to map and track the shipments or cargo andfollowsafety protocols.Entire workforce can communicate through these solutionsor apps.Digital services give real time supply chain visibility and helpsin runninglogistics operations smoothly.Industry embracing technology is just a silver lining in the current crisisand use of AI, machine learning andIoTis also on surge.

We have country wide reach.The complete life cycle of shipment from pick up to deliveryischannelizedthrough hub and spoke modelwhichis backed by technology. I mean to say every aspect of our operations is covered with tech tools, from pick topostdeliverystage.Thus,we are practicing contactless services for pickup, delivery and payment options such as scanning a QR code or signing a digital image.

For instance, we haveprovidedhandheld devicesto staffduring pick-up stage.People will know about the shipment informationthrough these API integrated devices. Thestageof each shipmentcan also bedeterminedand furthercourse ofactioncan be decided.Further, our staffhas tofeed informationat each stage. Itcan be aboutpick upof thepackage,customer information,orscanning.It can also be aboutbringing the package toprocessingcentre,distributioncentre,ortohub and then to delivery. We have a robust IT systemateach stage.

We have workforce presenceacrossIndia. Our entire human resource team dedicated itself towards connecting to staff wherever theywereduring this tough phase. They called eachoneof them time to time and updated records of their well-being.We also introduced family connectprogramme. In this, weconnected to family membersof our employeesand resolvedtheir health-related problems.

Wealsoassured them to pay their salaries and paymentson time. Notmuchproblems were posed for us due to migration of workforce sincewe believe in generating local employment.Majorityof people working in our company arenativesfromeach location.However,we had migrant workersin metro cities such as Delhi,Bengaluru,Suratetc.But,we were able tocomplete 65 per cent of shippingduringinitial lockdown phase when supply chain was highly disrupted.

Due to COVID-19situation operationsof industries from all sectorstook amassive hit.Entire supply chainsweredisruptedand drivers were stranded at checkpoints due to the lockdown.Hence,thevolume of inland logistics companies is likely to fall by 10-15 per cent. Also, companiescould take a longer time to recoveraccording to India rating.

India is however aconsumption-based economysincealmost 60 per cent of Indias GDP is determined by consumption.Thus, the country needs logistics more than evernow. The sectorwasthereforeplayinga significantrole in the manufacturing and supply of essential products such as FMCG, medicalequipments, masks, medicines, test kitsetceven during pandemic.

Ifirmlybelievethatlogistics industry has a larger role to playto connect manufacturers with suppliers and consumers.The industry also plays a pivotal roleincompletionof consumption cycleand its various phases such asproduction, demand, andsupplyetc.These phaseshenceneedefficient logistics infrastructure.

Further,government initiatives and reforms such as GST, Make-in-India,SagarmalaorBharatmalaprojects,self-reliantIndiainitiative etcwillpromote domestic production and manufacturingwhich thereby will lead to thegrowth oflogisticssector.Today, India has developed an excellent road and air infrastructure.

Oncethe situation gets back to the normalandsectors reopen,the freight capacitythatwehavecreatedinourexisting system willhelpinboosting thesupply of domestic manufactured products.Our role is to ensurethe supply to the last mile consumers wherever they are.Ibelieve logistics industryisvery significantto support the economic recovery.

With internet penetration in India, social sites have becomeprominent distribution channels for businesses showcasing their products. People are selling onWhatsApp, Facebook,Instagram,Pinterest, andYoutubethrough influencers and bloggers.For instance, Thailand operates 80 per cent onsociale-commerce platforms.Entrepreneurs are leveraging social media platforms for scaling up their businesses.

In otherwords,socialmediais another gateway of e-commerce.In India, socialmediacommerce has a potential to build a market worth of $70 billionwhich isjustthedouble of present e-commerce market.To attract consumers,merchants onsuchplatforms are incorporating facilities such as basic logisticsandgoodshipment processing.

Logistics operatorin turngenerate leadsthrough thisand weacquire connect to consumers through various channels.It also gives us chance to enhance customer experience and drive supply chain innovation.I believe social-mediacommerce has created anotheravenuefor logistics business and freight.Goingforward,we are going to see more entrepreneurs movingfrom web to social e-commerce platforms.This in turn is going to create immense market for us.

I believe the future of thissector isverybright.Till now, governmentis workingwellto develop better infrastructure of roadsandrailways for solving logistics issue.Announcementof Delhi-Bombay corridoris one such example.Even commerce ministry has created a logistics department.

There isthereforeanimmense opportunity for shipping and rivercargos and it can bethe bestway to attract more FDI in India.Local manufacturingaccelerated throughdifferent government initiatives will be a new business model for us. This will furtherhelp inoptimisingresources. These factors arewill propelgrowthofIndian logistics sector.

But,as an industry westillneed to work on few areassuch asimplementation of nationallogistics policywhich is still in draft.It isalsocritical to bring down the logistics costsas fuel chargesare rising indiscriminately.There is also a need to create more employment in the sector.Itwill need support from government and public sector.Lastly,companies hit by the pandemic require an easycredit toretain their normalcy.

More here:

India is consumption based economy and it needs logistics more than ever now: K Satyanarayana, Ecom Express - SME Futures

Clean Power

Published on August 1st, 2020 | by Brad Rouse

August 1st, 2020 by Brad Rouse

Please bear with me. I know this title is a turn-off to any but the most abject energy nerd, but this is a really important issue if we are to solve climate change. As noted in my first two articles (here and here) weve got to green the grid.

To green the grid, we must adopt a strategy of meeting our energy needs with low-cost renewable wind and solar resources. The obvious question is how to resolve the intermittency issue (what happens when the wind doesnt blow or the sun doesnt shine). Solving this problem is a necessary ingredient for saving the planet.

Wind and solar, now the lowest-cost sources of energy, are subject to intermittency, otherwise known as, what to do if the wind isnt blowing or the sun isnt shining.

Intermittency of wind and solar is a subset of the problem of resource adequacy do grid operators have the resources to meet the demand for electricity at every hour?

The real problem is resource adequacy. Are the resources that I can deploy at this instant sufficient to meet the demand for electricity? Intermittency MIGHT be a problem if other resources are not available to step in when needed. The variation in solar or wind output is just a subset of the problem of resource adequacy, which includes such factors as:

Renewables add new wrinkles to the question of resource adequacy, helping in some ways and making it more challenging in others. The amount of electricity you can get from them is not fully controlled by electric grid operators, but is subject to variations in time of day, time of year, and weather. Renewables output is only controlled by grid operators to the extent that their output can be reduced.

Renewables help, however, because they come in small increments (1 or 2 megawatts (MW) versus 500 or 1000 MW for a fossil fueled plant). Any mechanical reliability problems that wind and solar might have do not require the same high level of backup capacity available at an instant that large fossil or nuclear plants require. Its possible that a renewable dominated grid might be able to get by with lower reserves at peak demand than the current grid.

Finally, the state of emerging battery technologies offers cheaper, denser, lighter, and more powerful storage assets. Using different chemical and material properties, we can store energy output from renewable resources and discharge the power when needed for grid reliability.

The combination of my having studied economics and speaking Southern helped me get my first job as an energy consultant. My new employer had agreed to build a computer model to forecast the demand for electricity for the Southern Company which was then and still is one of the largest utilities in the US. Part of that was to build a load shape forecasting model. I had no clue what that was, but the client was paying good money, so I had to learn!

It turned out the load shape is just the hour by hour demand for electricity over the course of the day, week, month, and year. Its critical in utility planning, because you have to meet that demand with power resources every minute of every day. You can imagine how blown away this newly minted MBA was to learn that they wanted us to forecast 8760 data points a year! For 30 years! We never did make an accurate load shape forecast, but we did have some useful insights along the way.

Let me show you what they meant when they talked about a load shape. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes hourly loads for every balancing area of the US grid. In my case this is the Western North Carolina (WNC) balancing area hourly load shape for my area for two days this year:

In my next job, I went from working on forecasting electricity demand to planning the electric supply system. My colleagues specialized in modeling to simulate the power system. Their secret ingredient was a breakthrough in modeling the unavailability of resources due to mechanical breakdown. I was a lonely economist surrounded by engineers! But I learned a lot more about intermittency and developed software for long-range planning that is still used by power companies today. This problem of resource adequacy is something that grid operators have long been dealing with.

Dont just think that because solar and wind are cheaper than gas or coal that they will immediately take over. They need a little help. The problem is that the amount of output hour by hour is not under the control of grid operators and is often a severe mismatch with the hourly electric demand.

Lets do a thought experiment using the 7.5 kilowatt (KW) solar array on my home in Asheville as an example. The hourly output on the February and July days are below (note, my panels are west-facing so their output peaks later in the day than south-facing panels and is at a particular disadvantage in the winter). So heres a thought experiment. Lets scale up my solar panels to try to meet the entire regional demand for electricity for the day (but not hour by hour) for those specific January and July days. Heres the profile for that very day in February:

Wow. A HUGE amount of solar is required to do this. I know this is true because at my home I run surpluses in the summer and then I dont have enough solar output in the winter. I use Duke Energy as my giant battery! But as you might expect, if we took the incumbent utility out of the picture, we would need a giant battery charging during the day that could meet the load at night. (That is made worse by assuming that the roundtrip efficiency of charging and discharging a utility scale battery is 85%.) Meeting the energy needs for that day would require 8 gigawatts (GW) of solar, or about 20 KW per person in the region. At say $1 per watt, a good price these days, it would cost a cool $8 billion. And on top of that we would need storage for 8.5 gigawatt-hours (GWH) of electricity to meet the demand at night, which at a cost of $100 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) (the holy grail battery price for EV dominance) would cost another $850 million.

But look at the graph below representing that July day. To meet the energy needs that day we need only about 2 GW of solar versus 8 GW on the winter day. And due to the longer hours of summer sunlight, we need 6.7 GWH of storage versus 8.4 GWH on the winter day.

I provide this illustration because in a fully renewable electric system, this is the kind of mismatch that utility planners will have to deal with. Fortunately, a lot of factors will work to make the actual solution much more workable than this admittedly far-fetched example, which is nevertheless what an innocent bystander might understand when they hear the words but, but, but, but, but the sun isnt always shining and the wind isnt always blowing!

There are numerous solutions to the problem of resource adequacy, and many of them are probably more economical than just adding batteries. The most obvious is to increase supply diversity! There are lots of ways to do this adding wind power (offshore and land-based), increasing transmission ties, adding solar facing in different directions, etc.. Lets expand the thought experiment with wind power. In this case we add wind in equal proportions to solar on the July day. How much storage would we need in this case?

For this thought experiment, I used the hourly profile of wind power in Texas on similar days. (I know, you cant get Texas wind to WNC at the moment, but maybe in the future.) I assume that half of the daily energy need is met with wind and half from solar. Good news! Wind blows at night AND it blows more in the winter than in the summer. To simplify, I assumed that wind and solar would each meet half of the daily energy for the July day. Then, given how much wind and solar that amounted to be, I would see if I had enough to meet the day in February.

Heres the July day:

With the same amount of energy coming from wind and solar on the July day, there is much less storage needed to meet the load than just with solar. The problems of resource inadequacy and intermittency have been reduced. Diversity helps! The load and renewables are well matched in the early morning hours while batteries are needed to supply power till around noon. From noon to about 9:00 PM solar is charging the batteries, and battery power is needed again during TV prime time.

When that same MW of wind and solar are applied to the February day, we find that there is very little solar needed that day (thank goodness) since there is much more wind output on that day, and in fact the whole system is surplus to the point that the amount of energy available to be stored exceeds the energy needed for that day:

Battery discharge is needed in the morning and a tiny bit in the early evening, but otherwise the system is producing more energy than needed. Depending on the battery capacity, the system may have a curtailment event (so much solar and wind that the batteries cant hold it all).

Bottom line: I have added just one potential solution to the mix and had a dramatic reduction in the amount of battery storage needed. If this were a real utility planning exercise I would have much more powerful analytical tools at my disposal and would be able to draw from many other options to ensuring resource adequacy. My conclusion is that resource adequacy is a very solvable problem. From a policy perspective, of course, we need to continue to improve technology through research and there may be options for targeted government investments. Overall, solving this problem is well within the experience of utility planners, but it takes a new mindset that starts from the idea of meeting the energy needs and then having a set of tools like energy storage to allow exact matching of supply and demand.

Ill dig into these issues and examine some comprehensive studies of this subject in a later article.

Im a big fan of putting a price on carbon because it sends a signal to all players in the economy that they have a role in the energy transition. And the signal is, you will be paid according to your contribution to reducing your carbon footprint. Electric companies today have a huge carbon footprint (27% of total carbon emissions) and they will have a huge incentive to reduce emissions.

My favorite carbon fee proposal is the Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal filed as a bill in Congress called the Energy Innovation and Dividend Act (EICDA). This bill calls for a rising goal-based fee on carbon with all revenues returned to Americans in the form of a dividend.

The EICDA will increase the rewards to finding solutions to resource adequacy problems to the extent that they reduce the carbon footprint of the grid. A simple way to look at this is based on the economics of bringing on battery storage to allow substitution of renewable energy for fossil energy. At the current time, most utilities can simply add renewables and reduce fossil fuel use and reap the benefits. Battery storage will come into its own when there is too much zero carbon energy for the grid to handle without moving that energy to a different time period. This can come either when the renewable resource is likely to be curtailed or when the economics favor increasing fossil fuel use at one time and decreasing it at another, more carbon intensive time.

A simple approach to understanding how this will play out is to compare the cost of adding battery storage to the resulting decline in fossil fuel cost from the storage being utilized. The factors that go into this evaluation include the cost per megawatt-hour (MWH) to produce electricity with fossil fuels, the cost of the battery, the lifetime in cycles of the battery (number of times you can expect this battery to actually reduce the fossil fuel cost), and the charge/discharge efficiency of the battery. Carbon pricing affects the cost to produce with fossil fuels.

For a new thought experiment, lets look at the economics of batteries compared to the natural gas peaking plant, which is normally used as an option to provide resource adequacy. We assume the battery has a 20-year life and goes through 100 cycles per year, for 2000 cycles over its life, with a round trip efficiency of 85%. The cost of battery storage is assumed to decline in accordance with Cost Projections for Utility-Scale Battery Storage, a June 2019 study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). We use the mid case scenario (from $287 per kwh today to $76 by 2050). Carbon fees rise in accordance with the low boundary carbon fee increases under the EICDA. Both the carbon fees and gas costs are consistent with my earlier analysis in this series.

The economics move positive (green bars) with the projected decline in storage cost, and they become extremely high with a fee on carbon. And even though the economics are not positive today based on gas costs alone, storage is being added to the grid anyway due to the other benefits of storage beyond the simple cost per MWH comparison particularly the small size and quick construction time of storage versus the much larger size of a peaking plant, which means that a utility can bring on storage and more evenly match it to the need as it evolves.

But what of the case of an existing combustion turbine (peaker) plant? For plants already in service, it does not pay to bring on a battery to offset its use unless carbon is priced, even with the super cheap batteries expected by 2050. Clearly carbon pricing, or some sort of mandate, will be required. The following graph shows the situation:

Grid intermittency from cheap renewable energy brings new problems to grid operators and planners as we add more and more renewable energy to the grid. Fortunately, there are many tools at their disposal, chief among them (1) seeking a diversity of zero carbon supply resources and (2) storage batteries, which are declining in cost. Incorporating a price on carbon into grid planning and operations decisions will be one effective mechanism that will result in solutions becoming more and more economically.Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Send us an email: tips@cleantechnica.com

Tags: Carbon pricing, Climate Change Economics, Environment North Carolina, north carolina, solar intermittency, US grid, wind energy intermittency

Brad Rouse lives in Asheville, NC and is deeply involved in local efforts around the energy transition. He lobbies Congress for carbon fee and dividend as a volunteer for Citizens Climate Lobby. In 2016 Brad started a non-profit Energy Savers Network that mobilizes volunteers to help low income people save energy. He has a rooftop solar installation and his family cars are a Tesla Model 3 and a Prius Plug-in hybrid with 150,000 miles and still about 9 miles of EV only range. He has been studying energy economics for over forty years and holds a BA in economics from Yale University, where he learned about pricing pollution through a fee in freshman economics class. He also holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

View post:

Greening The Grid: Resource Adequacy, Intermittency, & Carbon Pricing - CleanTechnica

Action on plastic pollution has been slowed considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic but theres a new emerging angle that could help rebuild momentum for the transition to a greener and more circular society. Governments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are also showing increased interest in tackling plastics pollution.

In a world of global value chains and integrated markets, there is an important cross-border component, both existing and potential, to ramping up efforts on plastic action. Until recently, limited plastics recycling efforts often involved exports, the overwhelming majority of which flowed to China. These flows have become a source of controversy due to waste dumping and inadequate infrastructure for proper disposal.

In 2018 China introduced a ban on certain plastic waste imports, a move followed by several other countries. Subsequently, in May 2019, the 187 parties to the Basel Convention a treaty on the transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous and other wastes added most types of plastic waste to the list of controlled wastes. From 2021, plastic waste that is sorted, clean, uncontaminated and effectively designed for recycling can be traded freely, while other types will require the consent of importing and transit countries.

These changes could improve plastic waste management and reduce leakage into the environment. Yet, without additional implementation efforts, there is a risk of increased trade frictions that could stymie global plastics recycling markets. Such frictions have not developed to date, but trade facilitation measures to aid reduction and re-use have also not been enough in focus.

The World Economic Forum recently gathered a group of experts from consumer goods brands, industries, governments and civil society to discuss the role that trade could play in advancing plastic pollution action. The result of that initial cross-sector discussion and the many that followed have led to a new community paper that outlines trade barriers to accelerating action on plastic pollution.

We hope that trade policy-makers and environment practioners alike will find this paper a helpful resource to aid their discussions and promote new supportive actions for the 3Rs reduce, re-use and recycle.

Domestic bans and slow approvals curb recycled plastic use

Countries regulations determine which items can be brought into a market. In addition to bans on plastic waste imports, several countries have implemented more complex rules on high-quality recycling plastic imports, which limits the use of recycled plastic packaging. Further, in other cases manufacturers have had to switch to virgin plastic inputs for certain consumer goods, as the same quality of recycled plastic could not be sourced in the domestic market. Some markets have slow regulatory approval processes regarding the use of recycled plastic products.

Diverse standards and limited data are complicating circular supply chains

In a world of value chains, differences in standards create challenges whether on recycled plastic production, use or labelling. Varying grades of plastic by producers require recyclers to create different recycled plastic grades that add to costs. Missing information on materials properties complicates recycling processes since certain additives can pose risks to human or ecological health during the mechanical recycling process.

The absence of traceability and data shortages, meanwhile, creates uncertainty on what materials are where in the market especially for recycled content.

More efforts are needed to facilitate circular plastics investments worldwide

Part of the challenge in building a circular plastics economy lies in insufficient investment upstream and downstream in emerging and advanced economies alike. There is a need to incubate and scale innovations and new ventures including new material design and new businesses models and to close the operational financing gap for city-level waste collection and recycling systems while mobilizing capital investments for circular options and waste management more broadly.

Circular plastics investments can be slowed down or sped up based on several factors, not least the regulatory environment, local infrastructure and skills, incentives, government procurement policies and overall investment assistance. Facilitating and attracting investment in sustainable plastic solutions by matching solution providers with public and private funding opportunities will also help to close this gap.

From 2021, most plastic waste trade will be subject to the Basel Convention prior informed consent (PIC) procedure as a controlled waste. Interviews with companies highlighted that to date some countries lack the capacity to efficiently review and process PIC notifications. In many cases documents are still in paper format causing long delays in shipments.

It aims to help governments in developing and least developed countries implement the World Trade Organizations Trade Facilitation Agreement by bringing together governments and businesses to identify opportunities to address delays and unnecessary red-tape at borders.

For example, in Colombia, the Alliance worked with the National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute and business to introduce a risk management system that can facilitate trade while protecting public health, cutting the average rate of physical inspections of food and beverages by 30% and delivering $8.8 million in savings for importers in the first 18 months of operation.

So, what role can trade policy and capacity building play in tackling these challenges? Our community put forward ideas for further exploration in three areas, complemented by regulatory cooperation:

Efforts can be made to refine the Harmonized System (HS) classifications, an international classification for traded goods, which does not yet distinguish between hard- and easy-to-recycle plastic waste, nor between virgin and recycled plastics. Doing so could help ensure traded waste for circular economy objectives is more easily identified and policies adapted. The Basel Convention secretariat is drafting proposed amendments in this space.[KB1]

For example, trade in easy-to-recycle plastics could be encouraged by placing lower tariffs on these specific kinds of plastics. Countries could equally ban exports of plastic types that are restricted domestically to avoid the dumping of lower-quality materials in foreign markets.

Links could be made between capacity building around the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and digitising the PIC procedure. Countries have shown some appetite to move to electronic and automated notification for PIC requirements, but it is important to avoid running electronic and paper systems simultaneously.

Work could also be undertaken between countries and companies to pinpoint the weak points in the system that are driving illegal trade for plastic waste dumping. The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) will be taking a close look at how we can facilitate this type of collaboration as a platform for key industry-leaders and decision-makers.

3 ideas for further exploration of regulatory cooperation

Some policies operate away from the border but nonetheless have an impact on trade flows and investment decisions. Trade commitments can be used to enable foreign services providers to offer recycling services within a market and grant them the same treatment as national players to create competition. Work could be done on facilitating investment, including financial or regulatory incentives for production and consumption of recycled plastics.

The agreement of international standards in related areas can be promoted through trade policy as a guide for domestic regulatory initiatives to avoid arbitrary discrimination and promote convergence.

Transparency on domestic measures is critical for business to engage in trade and develop cross-border markets. Countries could agree, whether at a global level through the WTO or elsewhere, to share information on trade-related measures and sustainability standards relevant to plastic production, waste and recycling.

Data sharing on recycling rates as well as monitoring and analysis of trends in global recycled plastic production would also be helpful. Similarly, there is a need for improved trade and cross-border flows of plastics and plastic waste at a sufficiently disaggregated level (facilitated by a refined HS classification system).

Internal measures such as investment facilitation could stimulate advancements in the circular plastics economy. Creating a regulatory environment that increases transparency, consistency, and lowers risk will encourage investments in both developing and advanced economies and will support procurement of resources for more robust internal waste management facilities.

Increased transparency by means of data collection and monitoring is key an area of focus for GPAP.

Creating publicly accessible digital systems on cross-border plastics flows will allow governments to better tackle illicit activity and provide more accurate statistics on plastics recovery and recycling rates.

Governments can use a range of different trade instruments to advance these ideas. At a global level, some WTO members have shown interest in launching a new initiative, while free trade agreements (FTAs) are another option. Regulatory cooperation whether on standards, rules on materials treatment or on chemical governance will also be critical. Trade policy can support a scale up of the circular economy for plastics both upstream and downstream these opportunities should be seized to reset the global economy for sustainable development.

Read more from the original source:

Trade barriers are slowing plastic-pollution action. Here's how to fix it - World Economic Forum

Election Day is now just four sleeps away. It is recommended that voters mail their ballots in by the Friday before election Day to ensure it is properly postmarked. Ballot boxes are conveniently located throughout King and Pierce County for those who prefer this option. Remember, keep your stamp the states got ya on this.

Dont forget Pierce County residents, your ballot drop boxes are located in Sumner and Bonney Lake. Avoid the last-minute rush on Tuesday and get your ballot in now!

Ballotopia describes this position as an elected state official that oversees the Washington Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for environmental protection in the state.

This is a 4-year term statewide position.

Candidates submit their statements to the state for the voters guide. Neither the Office of the Secretary of State or Auburn Examiner make corrections or verify statements for truth or fact. A candidates preference does not imply that the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the party, or that the party approves of or associates with that candidate.

Elected ExperiencePlanning Commissioner Grand Coulee

Other Professional Experience30 years experience in Property and Land Development, Hotel Management, Property Management, Green Thumb.

EducationBS in CS, Real estate Broker

Community ServiceIve never been to jail

StatementI like environmental protection. I dont like fires. Lets work together to clean up the environment and stop fires. President Trump says we need to rake our forests to clean up debris that exacerbates fires and thats where I intend to start. Please Vote for me, Cameron Whitney.

Contact321 MEAD AVEGRAND COULEE, WA 99133Candidate Contributions

Steve Sharon(Prefers Republican Party)

Elected Experience2012 Commissioner of Public Lands Candidate (I). Garnered 92,000 votes which is the most ever by and Independent running for Washington state executive office. Represented swing vote in general election. Was asked for endorsement by both remaining candidates to general election.

Other Professional ExperienceSuccessful sales career for 3 different Fortune 500 companies.

EducationB.A Business Administration University of Washington 1989. Disciple of Jesus Christ. Favorite authors: David Icke, Thomas Aquinas, Mark Twain.

Community ServiceVolunteered 200+hours/year for New Horizons Ministries 1993-2006. Volunteered 200 hours/year Seattle Symphony Chorale 1994-1997.

StatementIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If elected, I will direct an independent, state funded study of the effects of 5G cell-phone towers upon living things. My research indicates that this radiation is killing trees, birds, honey bees, human life.

I will deconstruct 4 Hydro-electric dams in the Columbia River. This will allow salmon to return to their natural habitat eliminating the need for unhealthy salmon farms and saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

I will stand with Washington farmers against the radical policies of the EPA. I will allow livestock grazing on state land. I will allow sportfishing year-round. I will stop chemtrails in Washington state. I am against Bio-mass use for electricity. I am against the use of wind power. I am against coal trains. I am against massive solar power energy farms. I am against the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eugenics, Satan, New World Order. I will end clear-cutting of timber, and allow only selective timber cultivation. I am against off-shore oil drilling. I believe public lands should remain public and should not be sold. I am against the Green New Deal.

Contact(425) 922-9090[emailprotected]PO BOX #16531SEATTLE, WA 98116Candidate WebsiteCampaign Contributions

Elected ExperienceCommissioner of Public Lands 2017-present; Bainbridge Island City Council 2008-2011; served on Puget Sound Transportation Futures Task Force; Puget Sound Regional Council Economic Development Board; and Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council.

Other Professional ExperienceNonprofit Executive Director 2011-2015, developing solutions to statewide natural resource and economic development issues; Attorney, representing communities, local governments, tribes, unions, and nonprofits on agriculture, forests, fish and wildlife, aquatics, and labor issues.

EducationJD, Northeastern University; BA, Smith College.

Community ServiceFormer board member of Conservation Northwest and Washington Environmental Council.

StatementHilary Franz is proud to serve as Commissioner of Public Lands. She is relentless in creating bold, transformational change. As the leader of Washingtons wildfire fighting force, Hilary pushed for new strategies to reach fires quickly and keep them small. She then secured record-setting funding for our wildland firefighters.

Hilary is a defender of our public lands. When the federal government tried to open our waters to offshore drilling, Hilary refused to allow drilling equipment to cross our coastline. In the face of climate change, Hilary is prioritizing wind and solar power and making investments to save our forests.

Hilary leads by bridging divides and bringing people together. Shes earned high marks from leaders across the state, including from conservative leaders in rural Washington, whove praised her willingness to solve local issues, increase funding for schools, invest in rural economic development, and tackle our forest health crisis.

Hilarys Washington roots run deep, from her grandparents cattle ranch in Pierce County to raising her three boys on a farm on Bainbridge Island. Endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council, National Womens Political Caucus, Washington Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Washington Education Association, and Democratic and Republican leaders across Washington.

Contact(206) 682-7328[emailprotected]401 2ND AVE S STE 303SEATTLE, WA 98104Candidate WebsiteCampaign Contributions

Elected ExperienceThis would be my first elected position.

Other Professional Experience15+ years in the restaurant and retail industry.

EducationGraduated from Green River Community College, studying biology, chemistry and environmental science. Pursuing a degree in Agriculture Education with an emphasis on sustainability and ecology.

Community ServiceVolunteering through my daughters school, helping with the local river restoration and clean-up efforts to local parks.

StatementThese days, partisan politicians have become overbearing and lost the original purpose of this countrys core mission statement: To promote the liberty, freedom, and the ability to pursue happiness for the American public.

I, Kelsey Reyes, will ensure partisan politics has no place in our public lands and that we will continue to push for environmentally-backed reform that isnt based on personal feelings or corporate desires but rather objectively with science. It is time to remind our citizens that they hold the power in our nation. Elected officials should be honored to represent you and work for you, but understand that they do not rule over you nor should they act without taking accountability for their actions.

As such, as your Public Land Commissioner, I will place the needs of the environment and the people, above the needs of the State, political parties, corporations, and lobbyists. This nation is founded by the people, and its land is owned by we the people. The condition and health of how we leave the lands for the next generation is my upmost important role when I am elected as your next Public Lands Commissioner.

Contact(253) 267-3982[emailprotected]27177 185TH AVE SE STE 111-229COVINGTON, WA 98042Candidate WebsiteCampaign Contributions

Elected ExperienceNo Information Submitted

Other Professional ExperienceNo Information Submitted

EducationNo Information Submitted

Community ServiceNo Information Submitted

StatementNo Information Submitted

Contact10306 MERIDIAN AVENUE NORTH APT #401SEATTLE, WA 98133Campaign Contributions

Elected ExperienceFormer Chair, Grays Harbor Republican Party

Other Professional ExperienceFisheries Biologist, UW, NOAA Fisheries, Army Corps of Engineers (WA, OR, AK), WA Dept Fish and Wildlife, King County DNR. Power Manager, Grays Harbor PUD; Senior Power Analyst, Seattle City Light; Senior Environmental Analyst, Seattle City Light; Research Scientist/Publications Manager, BioSonics, Inc.

EducationMasters Degree in Public Administration, University of Washington; Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology (minors in Chemistry and German), Western Washington University.

Community ServiceBoard Member, Small Faces Child Development Center; Board Member, Ghana Together; Board Member, Commencement Bay Rowing Club (youth program).

StatementOur public lands have been ravaged by natural disasters including tree infestations and forest fires. Theyve also been damaged by a political disaster: state managers that have focused on serving special interest groups instead of providing for taxpayers, school districts, and outdoor recreational enthusiasts.

No more policy-by-press-conference, or angling for higher political office. Its time for new leadership. Sue is running to bring that new leadership to DNR, the agency responsible for managing our states 3 million acres of trust land.

Informed by a lifetime of managing natural resources, Sue will work to ensure that Washingtons working forests continue to provide a steady, reliable stream of income for our public schools. Well do this by adopting proven forest management techniques that reduce disease and excess fuel loads in our forests, which accelerate devastating forest fires. Sue will use her experience as a UW and NOAA fisheries and habitat biologist to strike the right balance between protecting wildlife and protecting Washingtons forest economy.

Raised in rural Washington, Sue has a distinguished career in natural resource management, including service as a regulatory liaison for a major hydropower construction project. She has raised two adult children and survived breast cancer.

Contact[emailprotected]PO BOX 98359LAKEWOOD, WA 98496Candidate WebsiteCampaign Contributions

Elected ExperiencePCO(MLT001), Snohomish County 2019/2020; Various Offices, College

Other Professional ExperienceComputer Technician, DCCi; Industrial Hygiene Technician, Former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant; Environmental Science Technician, FGDP; Data Management Intern, FGDP; Phi Mu Delta (Mu Rho Chapter) Charter Member; Union Member (IWW IU640)

EducationBachelor of Science degree in Natural Science w/ concentration in Geology & Associate of Science in General Mathematics from Shawnee State University; Various OTJ Training (eg OSHA HAZWOPER)

Community ServiceOur Revolution Washington Berniecrats Coalition Data Manager; People for Democratic Party Reform Communications Chair; Washington Progressive Caucus Member; Whole Washington Volunteer; Sea Salvage

StatementMy deepest concern is the selling of our state to the highest bidder. Amazon and Weyehauser will not buy me and I will not give up on the people of Washington. If we heal our politics, we can heal the PNW. We have to look deeper into the relationship our policies have on land use and the laws of nature in order to heal the land, sea, and animals.

The land cannot speak for itself, the animals are being ignored, and many people of our state are forgotten. I would like to give all a voice, even if they are not Democrats. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have been mistreated since European explorers first set foot on this land. I intend on giving them their autonomy back and helping them to restore the land, water, and wildlife of this state.

Part of healing the land is healing our economy. Restoration ecology and permaculture are vital to the survival of the PNW. I believe in the GND and that organic hemp farming is a way to create living wage jobs for our people and end our addiction to petroleum and clear cutting.

(425) 285-7927

The Auburn Examiner encourages voters to do additional, independent, candidate research before casting their vote. Information on candidates can be obtained through interviews and profiles (local news outlets are usually a great source), questionnaires, candidate forums and debates, and any available voting records. A variety of websites also provide further details and information about candidates. We urge all voters to verify the authenticity of any website, and information used to inform their voting decisions. Always remember: trust, but verify.

July 27:LAST DAY for online and mail voter registration and updates!Thesemustbe received 8 days before Election Day. You are still able to register to vote and update your voter registration in person during business hours and any time before 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.July 31: Unofficial, it is recommended that if mailing in your ballot, you return it by the Friday before Election Day to ensure it is postmarked by Election Day.August 4:Deadline for in-person voter registration and updates (up to 8:00 pm).August 4:Primary Returned ballots must be postmarked or deposit your ballot in an official drop boxby 8 pmon Election Day.

Dont panic if you miss the deadline to register to vote online. You can still register in person up until 8:00 pm on election day.If you have not yet received your ballot, contact your county (King or Pierce) elections department ASAP. Remember,voters do not have to declare a party affiliation to vote in the primary.

The Auburn Examiner does not endorse any candidate, party, or ballot measures.We endorse voting, plain and simple.

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What's on the Ballot: Commissioner of Public Lands - Auburn Examiner

Tropical Storm Isaias heads toward the East Coast; Hurricane warnings in the Bahamas via John Bernier of WRIC Tropical Storm Isaias is crossing the Dominican Republic this afternoon headed toward the North shore this evening. As of this afternoon around 8 p.m., it was located 14 miles WNW of Puerto Plataana in the Dominican Republic. Top winds are 60 miles an hour. Its still moving very rapidly to the northwest at 20 miles an hour. Currently, were looking at a track for the storm that will take it from a strong tropical storm to a minimal hurricane along the eastern coast of the United States just offshore through the weekend. As we head into Saturday, it will be over the Bahamas and approaching the southeastern portions of Florida. Then it will move up parallel to the coastline start to curve to the northeast.

Heads up, Tropical Storm Isaias is barreling toward Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warns of impacts from Isaias via News Service of Florida With Tropical Storm Isaias expected to reach hurricane strength, DeSantis warned of impacts to Florida this weekend even if the growing system remains offshore. A tropical storm watch was issued along Floridas East Coast between Ocean Reef and the Sebastian Inlet. The system was bringing heavy rains and maximum sustained winds near 60 mph to Hispaniola Thursday. Isaias is the earliest storm to begin with an I on record, besting Hurricane Irene, which formed August 7, 2005. The 2005 season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record.

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Theres a new way to get your Florida Politics fix: The Spectrum News App.

Spectrum Networks new app allows viewers to check weather forecasts, browse local news and tune into livestreams of its networks across the country. It also puts the best of the best in print news from entertainment to business at users fingertips.

Internet and mobile customers are the fastest-growing segments of Spectrums customer base, and our viewers are consuming news online more now than ever before, said Spectrum Networks Executive Vice President Mike Bair. The Spectrum News App is the first content product available to all 28 million residential Spectrum customers, adding significant value to our existing local services, but particularly our internet-only customers who could not previously access our news reporting.

Spectrum Networks has partnered with news outlets small and large, mainstream and niche to ensure users get comprehensive coverage from a diverse mix of voices.

For statewide political news, Spectrum is turning to Florida Politics.

When Spectrum Networks needed Florida state political and policy reporting for their newly launched news app, they turned to Florida Politics.

We know that local journalism is vital to the communities we serve. From political coverage of press briefings, local debates and elections, to public affairs programming and community news that is relevant to local residents, our networks serve as a valuable resource, especially during times of crisis, Bair continued.

The Spectrum News App is available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Access is free for everyone for the first 30 days, and after the trial period, will be available to all authenticated Spectrum residential video, internet and mobile customers at no additional charge.

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Another poll, another sign of flagging support for DeSantis.

According to a Mason-Dixon Polling survey released Friday, the Governors overall job approval rating has slipped into the negative.

The poll, conducted July 20-23, found Florida voters disapprove of the job DeSantis is doing by a 49-44% margin.

The minus-5 approval rating represents a monumental shift since March, when three-fifths of voters approved of his job performance and less than a quarter were unsatisfied.

The poll shows an across the board drop for DeSantis.

Over the past four months, hes lost the support of about 11% of Republicans, 17% of independents and 24% of Democrats. Men, women, Black and Hispanic voters also fled by double digits.

In no corner of the state did his numbers avoid a slashing hes down 18 points in Central Florida, 19 points in Tampa Bay and a whopping 23 points in South Florida.

There are no bright spots in the crosstabs, just some slightly less gloomy ones.

A majority of voters in North and Southwest Florida both Republican strongholds are still keen on him, though hes lost 9 points in the former and 12 in the latter.

DeSantis is still in positive territory among White voters though he is now supported by a slim plurality rather than a firm majority.

The over 50 crowd are the only demographic bloc where he still enjoys majority support, 51-45%. Hes at minus-17 among younger voters, however.

The Mason-Dixon Poll surveyed 625 Florida voters by telephone. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

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A new poll conducted by Clarity Campaign Labs found Floridians are souring on DeSantis, with 53% of voters disapproving of how hes handled the pandemic-induced unemployment crisis while just 41% approve.

His stature was lowest among Democrats, four-fifths of whom say DeSantis has fallen short. A majority of independents (53%) agree. Only Republicans are in the GOP Governors corner, though by a lower-than-usual 69-24% margin.

The coronavirus crisis has crippled Floridas tourism and service-based economy, forcing a staggering number of people to file for unemployment. Floridians are finding out firsthand that when it matters most Floridas leaders are failing them, Progress Florida executive director Mark Ferrulo said in a release highlighting the poll.

The poll also found Floridians support extending supplementary federal unemployment benefits by a 53-41% margin. Additionally, three-fifths of respondents believe containing the virus is more important than reopening the economy. About a third say the inverse.

Clarity Campaign Labs polled 2,039 likely voters online from July 6-13. Results were weighted to reflect a demographically and geographically representative statewide 2020 electorate.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

@RealDonaldTrump: With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???

@NoahPransky: The real goal of this tweet? To get national media talking about this nonsensical debate instead of the new report of a 33% crash in our nations GDP in the 2Q.

@BarackObama: John believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage and a longing to do whats right. We are so lucky to have had him show us the way. I offered some thoughts today on his life and how, like him, we can give it all we have.

Tweet, tweet:

@Kriseman: The most densely populated county in Florida, Pinellas, has one of the lowest COVID-19 positive rates over the past week (6.8%). Only Alachua, Brevard, Calhoun & Franklin are lower. This isnt a time to celebrate or relax. It means what were doing, what youre doing, is working

@GGreenwald: Ive been hearing this for 15 years ever since bloggers built a large enough audience to force journalists, for the first time, to hear public critiques. Professions are strengthened, not weakened, when they hear public criticisms. You just have to see the public as not-trash.

@Sache: Saw that Tim Allen was trending this morning. Clicked on topic to find out why only to discover a bunch of tweets asking why Tim Allen was trending. So, Twitter is finally eating itself, apparently.

DAYS UNTIL

NHL resumes 1; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races 18; Florida Bar exams begin online (rescheduled) 19; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins 19; Regal Cinemas reopen in U.S. 21; Indy 500 rescheduled 23; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte 24; NBA draft lottery 25; Rev.Al Sharptons D.C. March 28; U.S. Open begins 31;Christopher Nolans Temet rescheduled premiere in U.S. 34; Rescheduled running of the Kentucky Derby 36; Rescheduled date for French Open 51; First presidential debate in Indiana 60; Wonder Woman premieres 63; Preakness Stakes rescheduled 64; First vice presidential debate at the University of Utah 67;Ashley Moodys 2020 Human Trafficking Summit 67; NBA season ends (last possible date) 73; Second presidential debate scheduled at Miami 76; NBA draft 77;Wes Andersons The French Dispatch premieres 77; NBA free agency 80; Third presidential debate at Belmont 83; 2020 General Election 95; BlackWidow premieres 99; NBA 2020-21 training camp 101; Florida Automated Vehicles Summit 112; No Time to Die premieres 112; NBA 2020-21 opening night 123; Super Bowl LV in Tampa 191; A Quiet Place Part II rescheduled premiere 203; Top Gun: Maverick rescheduled premiere 336; New start date for 2021 Olympics 357; Jungle Cruise premieres 365; Spider-Man Far From Home sequel premieres 462; Thor: Love and Thunder premieres 560; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres 602; Black Panther 2 premieres 644; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel premieres 798.

CORONA FLORIDA

Florida breaks single-day record for coronavirus deaths for 3rd straight day with more than 250 via Tony Pipitone of NBC Miami Floridas coronavirus-related deaths increased by a record of 253 residents Thursday, the third day in a row the state set a single-day record for virus-related deaths. The 253 deaths come a day after the state confirmed 216 COVID-related deaths on Wednesday. Florida reported 186 deaths on Tuesday. Only 18 of the 253 newly confirmed deaths occurred Wednesday. Just over half occurred a week ago or earlier, as reporting is delayed while the state confirms the deaths are COVID-19-related. As those deaths are confirmed by date it is clear just how deadly July has become, with 42% of the resident deaths occurring during the month so far.

Florida breaks another record for the most COVID-19 deaths in a single day more than 250. Image via Getty.

At least 54 hospitals have reached ICU capacity in Florida via CNN At least 54 hospitals have reached capacity in their intensive care units and show zero ICU beds available, according to data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). Ten of the hospitals at capacity are in Miami-Dade County, and eight of them are in Broward County, AHCA data shows. Another 44 hospitals have 10% or less ICU capacity available, according to AHCA. AHCA reports about 16% ICU beds are available across the State of Florida.

Virus testing turnaround times reveal wide disparity via Tamara Lush of the Associated Press Cameron Settles was swabbed for COVID-19 in mid-June at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando and it took him eight days to get the results. He was positive, and so his wife went to the convention center for her own test. It took four days to receive her results, and they were negative. The entire process, the couple said, was frustrating. As coronavirus cases surge in hard-hit Florida, so do the turnaround times for test results. But there is one place in Central Florida where a group of people are being tested and getting results within a day: the NBA.

COVID-19 cases, deaths continue to climb in prisons via News Service of Florida Three more Florida inmates have died from complications of COVID-19, bringing the total number of prisoner deaths to 49, according to data released by the state Department of Corrections. The inmate death toll has doubled since June 30, when 24 inmate deaths were recorded. July has proved to be the deadliest month in Floridas prison system since the start of the pandemic, with 25 inmates dying since July 1. By comparison, nine inmates died in June. As of mid-Thursday, 9,501 inmates and corrections workers had tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. As of Thursday, corrections and health officials have conducted 45,781 tests on inmates, including 7,875 prisoners who have tested positive.

Youth infections in juvenile system top 300 via News Service of Florida More than 300 youths in juvenile-justice facilities have tested positive for COVID-19, as the number of cases in the state system continues to steadily increase. As of Thursday afternoon, 306 youths had tested positive, up from 290 on Tuesday, according to information from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Also, 235 workers at juvenile-justice facilities had tested positive, up from 221 on Tuesday. Overall, 101 of the 235 workers who had tested positive have been medically cleared to return to their jobs. The department has taken a series of steps, including suspending visitation at the facilities, to try to prevent the spread of the disease.

Record-high numbers of COVID-19 deaths wont end soon, experts say via Naseem S. Miller of the Orlando Sentinel For the third straight day, a record number of COVID-19 deaths were reported Thursday in Florida, and public health officials say they dont expect that to change any time soon. The seven-day average number of deaths continues its upward trend and will continue to do so in the coming weeks, say experts who have long cautioned that deaths would lag behind the spike in cases. The new deaths today would not trigger me to say that theres an emergency today that wasnt there before. I do think this is a snapshot of what happened a month ago, said Dr. Robert Cook, professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida.

FEMA: Florida veterans hospitals can admit nonveterans during pandemic via Ileana Najarro of the Tampa Bay Times Florida veterans hospitals are able to admit non-veteran patients if requested by the Florida Department of Health to assist community hospitals in treating patients with or without the coronavirus, according to Mary Kay Rutan, a spokeswoman for the Veterans Affairs network that oversees medical facilities in Florida. As of Thursday, there have been no requests for this assistance, Rutan added. Its the second mission assignment for Florida veterans hospitals from the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the pandemic.

Florida pair arrested for breaking COVID-19 quarantine order via Bobby Caina Calvan of the Associated Press Jose Freire Interianwas walking his dog near his Key West home when a neighbor began recording him on her cellphone. Hours later, police came knocking on his door with an arrest warrant and whisked Freire and his wife to the county jail. The charge: violating quarantine after testing positive forCOVID-19. As a national debate swirls over masks and self-quarantines, communities are grappling over how aggressively they should enforce myriad rules meant to control the spread of the novel strain of coronavirus, which has now infected more than 460,000 in Florida and killed nearly 6,600 of its residents.

BACK TO SCHOOL?

Children may carry coronavirus at high levels, study finds via Apoorva Mandavilli of The New York Times Infected children have at least as much of the coronavirus in their noses and throats as infected adults, according to the research. Indeed, children younger than age 5 may host up to 100 times as much of the virus in the upper respiratory tract as adults, the authors found. That measurement does not necessarily prove children are passing the virus to others. Still, the findings should influence the debate over reopening schools, several experts said. The school situation is so complicated there are many nuances beyond just the scientific one, said Dr. Taylor Heald-Sargent, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago, who led the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Open schools are the exception, not the rule, around the world via Ryan Heath of POLITICO President Donald Trump often cites examples from Europe as evidence American schools can reopen in-person this fall despite COVID-19, but he fails to mention one thing: They are the exception, not the rule. Only a few countries have opened schools nationwide in the manner the Trump administration is pushing. They include Norway, France and New Zealand, as well as Nicaragua, Taiwan and Vietnam. On the other hand, 143 countries have instituted country-wide closures. Countries with open schools tend to fall into two categories. Some took swift action against the pandemic in January to minimize disruption. Others were less proactive in the fight against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but they prioritized education in their recovery plan, coordinated by the top levels of government. The United States did neither.

Students wearing masks attend a class in Dinh Cong secondary school in Hanoi, Vietnam. In Vietnam, schools closed in late January and remained closed until May. Image via AP.

How to stop magical thinking in school reopening plans via Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post The 2020-2021 school year is almost upon us, yet many districts around the country still dont know when or how they plan to do it. And even some of those that do know when they are opening havent completed plans to improve remote learning (some have barely started) so that students will have a better experience than they did in the spring, when schools everywhere shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the author of this post writes, there are magical things in some of the plans being offered, recommendations by experts for measures that he says arent really possible. Can classes really be held outdoors or in empty spaces repurposed for school? Can students really stay six feet away from one another? Are teachers being asked to do and risk too much?

As pandemic continues, Richard Corcoran will send his kids to brick-and-mortar schools via Danielle Brown of the Florida Phoenix Corcoran revealed that his six children would be going back to school in the upcoming academic year, opting for traditional classroom experience and in-person instruction rather than an online learning program. Corcorans words are significant as hundreds of thousands of families make one of the most important decisions of their lives as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the new school year looms. Every parent wrestles with what are the risk of not sending my kids to school? versus what are the risk of sending my kids? Corcoran said in a roundtable discussion on education.

Broward County Schools planning to start classes fully online via Colleen Wright of the Miami Herald Even with half the number of cases as Miami-Dade, Broward County Public Schools has already called it. The second-largest school district in the state will start the school year Aug. 19 fully online. Theres a lot of work that needs to be done at a community level for us to safely return, said Superintendent Robert Runcie, who said data showed how unlikely infection rates would drop below 5% by the start of school. Our teachers need to prepare and our parents need to plan. The sooner we can do that the better. Runcie said the school district spent the entire summer getting ready for this worst-case scenario.

Orange County School Board can decide when to reopen local campuses, state says via Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel The Orange County School Board can decide when to reopen public schools and does not need a waiver from the state to do that, an attorney for the Florida Department of Education said in a letter Thursday that seemed to contradict the states school reopening order. The decision to open or close a traditional public school in Orange County rests with the School Board of Orange County. As a result, the waiver you have requested is unnecessary, read the letter from attorney David Wells. The Orange School Board and Superintendent Barbara Jenkins, like their counterparts across the state, had interpreted Floridas order as one that left them little room to make local decisions.

Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Jenkins: A court ruled that the district can determine whether schools will reopen. Image via I4 Business Magazine.

Orange County teachers sue over school reopening plan via Andrew Atterbury of POLITICO Florida The lawsuit was filed by the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, which represents 14,000 educators in Floridas fourth-largest school district. It asks for a delay in opening and demands that school officials turn over critical information about summer COVID-19 outbreaks. The legal action comes as national union leaders warn of possible teacher strikes and on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Floridas largest teachers union against the state. And it was filed as the coronavirus death toll mounts. Since the district leadership has shown they will not stand up for the health and safety of our community, we have no choice but to challenge their illegal actions in court, Orange County union President Wendy Doromal told reporters.

Heading back to Catholic school? Sign a waiver, St. Petersburg diocese says. via Jeffrey S. Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times As students prepare to return to classes, the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg stands ready to greet them at its schoolhouse doors. Were going to do everything we can to keep the children safe when they come to school, said Chris Pastura, superintendent of schools for the diocese. But the system cannot make blanket guarantees that everyone will be protected from the effects of COVID-19, Pastura acknowledged. So on Monday, it sent a letter to the parents of its nearly 13,000 students asking, among other things, that they sign a waiver of liability for the diocese if their children become ill because of the virus. At least one mom was outraged by what she called the death release.

CORONA LOCAL

South Florida prison tallies most inmate COVID-19 deaths among Florida facilities via Samantha J. Gross of the Miami Herald A South Florida prison Thursday emerged as the deadliest COVID-19 facility in the states prison system. The state reported nine COVID-19 deaths among inmates at the South Florida Reception Center, a mixed youth and adult mens facility in Doral, near Miami. The total number of inmates who have died of the highly contagious respiratory disease rose from 46 to 49 overnight, according to the Department of Corrections data. Two of the new deaths announced were inmates at the South Florida Reception Center. The South Florida prison, which holds 1,100 inmates, has 132 infected inmates. By that count, 7% of those infected with COVID-19 have died. The facilitys death toll has surpassed Blackwater Correctional Facility near Pensacola, which has reported seven COVID-19 related deaths.

Coronavirus did not kill Wellington-area nurse who worked on pandemics front lines, autopsy report says via Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post When Wellington-area nurse Danielle DiCenso passed away in April after working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, her grieving family was convinced she was another casualty of COVID-19. But DiCenso, who at the time appeared to be the youngest early coronavirus victim in Palm Beach County, did not die from the deadly respiratory disease, an autopsy released Tuesday by the Palm Beach County medical examiner said. The 33-year-old mother died April 9 from complications of acute pyelonephritis, a bacterial infection in the kidney, according to autopsy records. The findings came as a surprise to her ex-husband, David DiCenso, who said Danielle was convinced that shed contracted COVID-19 while working in the intensive care unit at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah.

MORE LOCAL

Three more Florida State Hospital patients with COVID-19 dead via Nada Hassanein of the Tallahassee Democrat Four Florida State Hospital patients have died after having COVID-19, according to the District 2 Medical Examiners office. The coroners report names three of those patients: Arthur Hayes and Robert Coles, both of whom died Wednesday and Fabian Pettiford, who died Sunday. The Department of Children and Families, which runs the Chattahoochee-based mental-health facility, released a statement from Secretary Chad Poppell. Poppell ordered mandatory testing for both staff and residents at the hospital, adding that the mandatory testing began Sunday, the day Pettiford died. His death was the first known death related to the facility.

More Florida State Hospital patients are dying of COVID-19. Image via Tallahassee Daily Photo.

Escambia County records 18 COVID-19 deaths in last five days via the Pensacola News Journal The deaths of four more Escambia County residents were reported Thursday, pushing the total since the pandemic began to 98. The county has recorded a staggering 18 deaths in the last five days, which correlates with the rising number of deaths in the state of Florida. Florida has set a record each of the last three days for the number of COVID-19-related deaths, recording 259 deaths Thursday. The Escambia County deaths included a 60-year-old man, an 81-year-old man, a 61-year-old woman and an 84-year-old woman. Santa Rosa County recorded three deaths this week and no new deaths Thursday. To date, 22 people have died in Santa Rosa County.

6 Niceville firefighters test positive for COVID-19 via Erin Franczak of the NWF Daily News

Sarasota Memorial Hospital expands COVID-19 antibody trial via the Sarasota Herald-Tribune Sarasota Memorial Hospital is expanding community access to a multinational clinical trial that is testing a new dual-action antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19. Two weeks ago,SMH became the first hospital in Floridato enroll hospitalized patients in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals experimental treatment (REGN-COV2) for COVID-19. This week, SMH opened the trial to people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus but arent sick enough to be hospitalized, the hospital said in a news release. In the past two weeks, SMH has enrolled 19 hospitalized patients, and enrolled its first outpatient on Monday.

Tropical Storm Isaias is shifting east. COVID-19 testing may remain open in Manatee via Ryan Callihan of the Bradenton Herald Florida officials are reconsidering their decision to close local COVID-19 testing sites in Manatee County after a favorable shift to the east for Tropical Storm Isaias forecast track. After strengthening overnight, forecasts show the storm traveling through the Hispaniola region before heading to Floridas East Coast, instead of the Gulf of Mexico as originally expected. The state expects to decide on coronavirus testing around 5 p.m. Thursday. In a presentation to the Manatee Board of County Commissioners Thursday afternoon, Public Safety Director Jake Saur said his department is also declining to request a local state of emergency because of the storm.

FSU sends letter preparing boosters for reduced stadium capacity for 2020 football season via Wayne McGahee III of the Tallahassee Democrat Florida State sent a letter to boosters and season ticket holders with details pertaining to the 2020 college football season. FSU stated that attendance for the home games this season will likely be limited and could be as low as 25% of the stadiums overall capacity. Season ticket holders may also not have their normal seats due to social distancing practices that will be implemented in the stadium. Doak Campbell Stadiums capacity is listed at 79,560. A reduced capacity to 25% would be 19,890. FSU has currently sold just over 20,000 season tickets. FSU also stated that ticket and parking assignments for 2020 will roll over to 2021 regardless of how the ticketing changes this year.

Florida-FSU series shelved as SEC football adopts conference-only, 10-game schedule via Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times When the ACC announced its updated football schedule, it included one nonconference game to preserve in-state, nonconference rivalries like Florida-Florida State. That protection lasted all of 24 hours. The SEC shelved the series when it announced it was abandoning its entire nonconference schedule, instead opting for 10 league-only games because of the coronavirus pandemic. Most importantly for now in the Sunshine State, it ices the fierce rivalry between the Seminoles and Gators a series that needed help from the state government to launch but has been played annually since 1958.

UCF football may get schedule boost following SEC decision via Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel UCFs football scheduling challenges may ease a bit after the SEC announced it is moving forward with a conference-only schedule this fall. The decision wipes away a handful of rivalry games between SEC and ACC teams, including Florida versus Florida State, Georgia versus Georgia Tech, Clemson versus South Carolina and Louisville versus Kentucky. The SEC decision opens the door for UCF as an attractive option for both North Carolina and Georgia Tech. The American Athletic Conference isnt expected to make a decision on the fall until next week.

Volusia residents masking up, avoiding fines via Eileen Zaffiro-Kean of The Daytona Beach News-Journal Whatever the motivation for wearing face masks, the majority of people in at least a few Volusia County cities are complying with indoor face-covering mandates, area officials say. Not a single face mask fine has been imposed yet in Daytona Beach, DeLand or Orange City, the only local municipalities that have adopted measures empowering police and code enforcement officers to impose financial penalties for mask violators. Were getting total compliance. Its amazing, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri. I think people are really taking this serious. In Ponce Inlet last week, there was a mask-related uproar over a fundraiser for the towns community center that centered on T-shirt sales. The T-shirts said Your Choice Mask It or Casket, and the point was reinforced with the images of a black mask and a black casket.

Hillsborough could consider tougher mask rule via C.T. Bowen of the Tampa Bay Times Hillsborough Commissioner Kimberly Overman wants the county to consider toughening its face mask rules to include wearing the coverings outdoors. Overman made her suggestion at the conclusion of the Emergency Policy Group meeting Thursday afternoon, saying the countys emergency order should align with the recommendation from Dr. Scott Rivkees, Floridas Surgeon General. Rivkees issued an updated recommendation July 20, calling for masks to be worn both indoors and outdoors when social distancing isnt possible and to limit social gatherings to no more than 10 people. The previous recommendation called for limiting group gatherings to 50 people and for masks to be worn in any setting, but did not specify outdoors specifically.

Hillsborough Commissioner Kimberly Overman is urging the county to consider stricter mask rules.

Tampa Bay power companies among first to resume shut-offs via Malena Carollo of the Tampa Bay Times The clock is ticking for Tampa Bay utility customers who havent paid their power bills during the pandemic. Beginning in September, both of Tampa Bays major power companies will resume shut-offs for those who havent paid their bills or made payment arrangements. Their Florida peers havent put a date on when they will resume disconnections. And other areas of the country are putting even wider moratoriums on power shut-offs. Like many businesses, we must now take steps toward resuming our standard billing practices, Tampa Electric said in a letter to customers. Tampa Electric Co. and Duke Energy Florida are the areas two primary power companies. Each will resume shut-offs as early as Sept. 1.

BayCare to close drive-thru coronavirus test sites at the Trop, Gulf High School via Caitlin Johnston of the Tampa Bay Times Friday is the last day to get tested for COVID-19 at Tropicana Field and Gulf High School in Port Richey. BayCare Health Systems, which has operated different drive-thru sites for COVID-19 testing since March, announced it would close the two sites to align resources with community need and further collaborate with government partners, according to a statement. BayCare officials said neither the Mahaffey nor the Trop site have experienced full capacity since both have been operating the past three weeks. They plan to open an additional drive-thru site with closer access for central and north Pinellas residents, but did not share additional details in Thursdays statement.

CORONA NATION

2nd US virus surge hits plateau, but few experts celebrate via Mike Stobbe and Nicky Forster of The Associated Press While deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are mounting rapidly, public health experts are seeing a flicker of good news: The second surge of confirmed cases appears to be leveling off. Scientists arent celebrating by any means, warning that the trend is driven by four big, hard-hit places, Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, and that cases are rising in close to 30 states in all, with the outbreaks center of gravity seemingly shifting from the Sun Belt toward the Midwest. Some experts wonder whether the apparent caseload improvements will endure. Its also not clear when deaths will start coming down. COVID-19 deaths do not move in perfect lockstep with the infection curve, for the simple reason that it can take weeks to get sick and die from the virus. The future? I think its very difficult to predict, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments foremost infectious-disease expert.

Healthcare worker Dante Hills passes paperwork to a woman in a vehicle at a COVID-19 testing site outside of Marlins Park in Miami. Image via AP.

At the heart of dismal U.S. coronavirus response, a fraught relationship with masks via Griff Witte, Ariana Eunjung Cha and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post The country hit a tipping point on widespread mask use only this month, with a majority of states and the nations largest retailers all mandating them. But the science has long been pointing toward the efficacy of masks even if the guidance from health authorities wasnt. Health officials had made their recommendations based on the flawed assumption that the bulk of transmission was taking place from people with obvious signs of illness. The thinking was that if people with fevers, coughs and other symptoms were to isolate, case counts would remain under control. But it wasnt long before CDC contact tracers began to find evidence of silent spreaders. Many experts backed the anti-mask guidance, arguing they werent sure face coverings would make a significant difference. They were worried masks could make people less disciplined about social distancing.

Young people are infecting older family members in shared homes via Lenny Bernstein of The Washington Post As the death toll escalates in coronavirus hot spots, the evidence is growing that young people who work outside the home, or who surged into bars and restaurants when states relaxed shutdowns, are infecting their more vulnerable elders, especially family members. Front-line caregivers, elected officials, and experts in Houston, South Florida and elsewhere say they are seeing patterns of hospitalization and death that confirm fears this would happen, which were first raised in May and June. That was when Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and other states reopened in efforts to revive their flagging economies. The emerging trend highlights the difficulty of relying on the Trump administrations strategy of sheltering the most vulnerable while the young and healthy return to work and school.

Anthony Fauci to tell House panel unclear how long pandemic lasts via Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Matthew Perrone of the Associated Press Theres no end in sight tothe coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Fauciand other top government health experts will tell Congress. While it remains unclear how long the pandemic will last, COVID-19 activity will likely continue for some time, Fauci. At a time when early progress seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the nations path forward, Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, is calling on lawmakers and all other Americans to go back to public health basics such associal distancingandwearing masks.

Johnson & Johnsons coronavirus vaccine protects monkeys, study finds via Carl Zimmer of The New York Times An experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson protected monkeys from infection in a new study. It is the second vaccine candidate to show promising results in monkeys this week. The company recently began a clinical trial in Europe and the United States to test its vaccine in people. It is one of more than 30 human trials for coronavirus vaccines underway across the world. But until these trials are complete, which will probably take several months, the monkey data offers the best clues to whether the vaccines will work. This week has been good now we have two vaccines that work in monkeys, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University who was not involved in the studies. Its nice to be upbeat for a change.

Drugmakers race to build COVID-19 vaccine supply chains via Elaine Chen of The Wall Street Journal Pharmaceutical companies that are racing to develop vaccines for the coronavirus are already working behind the scenes to build the supply chains needed to deliver their drugs to billions of people as rapidly as possible. To serve global demand once a vaccine is approved, a complicated and high-stakes supply chain would kick into gear on a scale that the drug industry has rarely seen. The preparations involve lining up raw materials and factory capacity to manufacture a vaccine in large volumes, and the equipment needed to transport many millions of doses at once through distribution channels that will be subject to tight security and temperature controls.

Most voters say theyd rather wait for an effective coronavirus vaccine via Zachary Brennan of POLITICO More than 60% of voters think the U.S. should fully test any coronavirus vaccine even if that delays rolling it out and allows the virus to keep spreading in the meantime. Just 22% of respondents said the government should make a vaccine available as soon as possible, even if it had not been fully tested. Republicans (26%) were slightly more likely than Democrats (21%) to favor getting a vaccine out as quickly as possible. Trump has repeatedly promised that a vaccine will be available by years end, raising fears among researchers and public health experts that his administration will rush to approve a shot without clear evidence that it is safe and effective.

A patient receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19 at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. Image via AP.

CORONA ECONOMICS

U.S. suffered worst quarterly contraction on record as virus ravages economy via Ben White of POLITICO The U.S. economy crashed in historic fashion this year, shrinking at a nearly 33% annualized pace in the second quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged businesses and sent joblessness soaring. The question now for Trump, trailing in the polls and facing a daunting reelection effort, is just how much conditions can snap back in the months leading up to Election Day. At least for the moment, the spike in COVID-19 cases, the potential for fresh trouble this fall and a bitter fight over how to pump more federal money into the ailing economy suggest the sharp bounce-back Trump is counting on may not show up in a way he envisions.

As coronavirus ravages the United States, the nation suffers its worst quarterly contraction on record. Image via AP.

1.43 million filed new state unemployment claims last week. via Nelson D. Schwartz of The Tampa Bay Times The number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment benefits totaled 1.43 million last week, the Labor Department reported. It was the 19th straight week that the tally exceeded 1 million, an unheard-of figure before the coronavirus pandemic. And it was the second weekly increase in a row after nearly four months of declines, a sign of how the rebound in cases has undercut the economys nascent recovery. Claims for the previous week totaled 1.42 million. New claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the governments program aimed at covering freelancers, the self-employed and other workers not covered by traditional unemployment benefits, totaled 830,000, down from 975,000 the week before.

New filings for unemployment fall in Florida again but continue to climb in the rest of the U.S. via Rob Wile of the Miami Herald The number of Floridians filing for unemployment benefits for the first time fell for the second-straight week. But the figure climbed in the rest of the U.S., suggesting the national economic picture remains grim. For the week ending July 25, Florida workers filed 87,062 new claims for unemployment, down from 108,976 the week prior. Nationally, new claims climbed by 12,000 to 1,434,000. And the insured unemployment rate, or the percentage of workers on unemployment for two-consecutive weeks, hit 11.6%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points the previous weeks rate.

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Sunburn The morning read of what's hot in Florida politics 7.31.20 - Florida Politics