The Unprecedented Bravery of Olivia de Havilland – The Atlantic

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There really wasnt any doubt about the right decision for me to take, de Havilland would recall. One of the nice things I thought was, If I do win, other actors, feeling frustration such as I feel, will not have to endure that. Theyll take the suspension, without pay, of course, but knowing they will not have to serve that time again. In fact, prominent stars like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, whose contracts had been extended because of service in World War II, promptly took advantage of the de Havilland rule, as it came to be known, to forge lucrative freelance careers. In the decades since, entertainers as diverse as Johnny Carson, Courtney Love, Melissa Manchester, and Jared Leto have also invoked the ruling, in contexts from television-talk-show obligations to multimillion-dollar recording contracts.

As for de Havilland, after two years without work, she struck out for Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox and soon enough won her two Oscars, for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), while also making a harrowing impression as the victim of a nervous breakdown confined to an asylum in The Snake Pit (1948). But as the 1950s dawned, de Havilland never quite regained her former stardom, and in 1952, she forsook Hollywood for Paris and a marriage to Pierre Galante, the editor of Paris Match magazine. She continued to make occasional appearances in both film and television until 1988, when she played her last role, in The Woman He Loved, a TV movie about the abdication of King Edward VIII.

In later years, de Havilland recounted her adventures with the same kind of sly wit that had impelled her to tell Hal Kern, Gone With the Winds film editor, that she could do a better job of retching in the climactic first-act finale than Vivien Leigh, who played Scarlett OHara and didnt think vomiting was ladylike. (Kern agreed, and its de Havillands desperate sounds that appear on the finished soundtrack). A postWorld War II teatime encounter in her home with a smitten Kennedy, just back from naval service in the Pacific, came to an amusing end. He was quite silent, she would say in a British newspaper interview many years later. His friend did most of the talking. He just sat there, those great big eyes staring. Then when it was time for them to leave, we walked into the hallway and he very decisively opened the doorand it was the closet, and all my old boxes of summer hats and tennis rackets fell on his head. Later, she declined a dinner invitation from Kennedy, claiming she had to study her lines, and when Kennedy spotted her dining that night at Romanoffs with the much older author Ludwig Bemelmans, he was dumbfounded. Do you think it was me walking into the closet? he asked a friend. Do you think thats what really did it?

Near the end of her life, beginning in 2017, de Havilland waged one last legal battle, this time a losing one, as she sued FX and the producer Ryan Murphy over her portrayal by Catherine Zeta-Jones in Feud: Bette and Joan, a miniseries about the rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, in which the de Havilland character is seen reminiscing about Davis. De Havilland claimed the portrayal was an unauthorized use of her name and likeness. But a California appeals court dismissed the case on First Amendment grounds and the California and United States Supreme Courts declined to review the decision.

To the end, de Havilland remained wryly proud of her role as a champion of working actors. I suppose youd like to know how actresses of my day differ from actresses of today, she said to the American Academy of Achievement interviewer in 2006. Well, she went on, cocking an eyebrow as the hint of a smile crept into her twinkling eyes, the actresses of today are richer.

Thanks in no small part to Olivia de Havilland, they are.

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The Unprecedented Bravery of Olivia de Havilland - The Atlantic

VERIFY: The Fourth Amendment has nothing to do with wearing masks at a grocery store – WUSA9.com

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If a medical condition prevents you from wearing a mask, and a business employee asks about your medical condition, is that a violation the Fourth Amendment?

WASHINGTON D.C., DC QUESTION:

If a medical condition prevents someone from wearing a mask, and a business employee asks about his/her medical condition, is that a violation of that person's Fourth Amendment right?

Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Erwin Chemerinsky- Dean and Professor of Law at University of California Berkeley School of Law

Robert Dinerstein- Acting Dean at American University Washington College of Law and Director of the Disability Rights Law Clinic

Several posts going around claim that a business can't legally ask you about your medical condition, because that would violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

So we're verifying if the Fourth Amendment bans a private business from asking about medical conditions.

Our Verify researchers contacted Erwin Chemerinsky with Berkeley School of Law and Robert Dinerstein with American University's Washington College of Law and their Disability Rights Law Clinic.

Boiled down,the Fourth Amendment is your right to privacy, and protects a person against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Fourth Amendment only applies to the government, just like the First Amendment with regard to freedom of speech only limits what the government can do," Chemerinsky said. "The Constitution is meant to limit government action, and it doesn't restrict what private businesses or private universities or private entities can do."

Chemerinsky also said that simply asking a personal question is not considered a search.

Robert Dinerstein agreed.

"The Fourth Amendment really has no applicability here," he said. "The relevant law is the Americans with Disabilities Act."

So we can Verify, experts said the Fourth Amendment has nothing to do with wearing a mask at a business.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's illegal to discriminate against a person because of a disability. So in a situation where someone says they can't wear a mask because of a medical condition, Dinerstein suggests taking them at their word and offering a reasonable accommodation.

You should take the person at his or her word at that point, I think, and it's a whole lot easier and less intrusive, Dinerstein said. Who walks around with medical documentation when you want to go to the grocery store?

Continued here:

VERIFY: The Fourth Amendment has nothing to do with wearing masks at a grocery store - WUSA9.com

Tesla Reaches a Milestone With Another Quarterly Profit – The New York Times

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Heres what you need to know:Growing sales in China and Europe helped cushion the pandemics negative impact on Teslas sales in the United States.Credit...An Rong Xu for The New York Times

Tesla on Wednesday reported a profit of $104 million for the three months ending in June.

The profit surprised analysts who were expecting the electric carmaker to lose money because it was forced to halt production at its main plant in Fremont, Calif., for nearly two months, from late March until the middle of May. Sales also slowed as much of the economy shut down and as millions of people lost their jobs and cut back on spending.

The profit was achieved despite tremendous difficulties in the quarter, the companys chief executive, Elon Musk, said in a conference call with analysts. We were able to achieve a fourth consecutive profitable quarter. Although the auto industry was down about 30 percent year-over-year, we managed to grow deliveries in the first half of the year.

In a statement, Tesla said revenue in the second quarter fell 5 percent, to $6 billion. Total sales of automobiles declined 5 percent, to about 91,000 cars, an update to preliminary figures it released earlier this month. Growing sales in China and Europe helped cushion the pandemics negative impact on sales in the United States.

The companys profit was also made possible by the sales of $428 million in emissions credits to other automakers who need them to meet regulatory standards. Thats nearly four times as many credits as it sold in the same quarter a year earlier.

Tesla said it ended the quarter with $8.6 billion in cash, up $535 million from the end of March.

The company added that it now has the capacity to produce more than 500,000 cars a year. While achieving this goal has become more difficult, delivering half a million vehicles in 2020 remains our target, Tesla said.

Tesla appears to be weathering the pandemic better than some other automakers. In China, the worlds largest market for electric vehicles, the company has benefited from a new factory near Shanghai that began production late last year. The plant enables Tesla to avoid the tariffs China imposes on imported vehicles and has made its cars more affordable to Chinese consumers.

The company has also added to its lineup a fourth car, the Model Y sport-utility vehicle, which is made in Fremont. Mr. Musk has said that he expects the car to become its biggest seller.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, could soon qualify for his second giant payday of the year.

Mr. Musks compensation is driven largely by the performance of Teslas stock. And as the carmakers share price has soared in recent weeks, he stands to receive a stock award worth roughly $2 billion. The awards are part of an unusual compensation package, set up in 2018. The first payout under that plan occurred in May and now is also worth close to $2 billion.

Teslas stock has risen just over 275 percent this year, as investors have become increasingly convinced that the company will have a dominant foothold in the global market for electric vehicles. The rise in the stock has bolstered Teslas stock market value to around $290 billion, or $100 billion more than Toyotas market value.

Mr. Musks 2018 compensation package was designed to release shares in 12 installments as certain milestones are met. The first goal was for Teslas market value to be at least $100 billion on average over two different time periods that was achieved in January. Tesla also had to hit operational milestones. Over 12 months, the company has to have brought in a certain amount of revenue or a measure of profits called earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. In May, Tesla said it had used the lowest revenue hurdle, $20 billion, to release the first tranche of shares.

Teslas market value recently exceeded $150 billion on average over the past six months and over the last 30 trading days, the threshold for the release of the second batch of shares. Tesla has already hit the lowest profit goal without considering the companys second quarter results released on Wednesday, in theory giving him the operational achievement he needs to get the shares, though the board still has to release the award. If Teslas share price stays close to current levels, Mr. Musk might even qualify for the third tranche of his stock awards this year.

Critics of the 2018 compensation package questioned why it was necessary. Before the award, Mr. Musk already owned a large chunk of Tesla shares that today are worth around $60 billion. Thats more than twice the $25 billion worth of shares available to Mr. Musk through the 2018 package. Amazons Jeff Bezos, another visionary chief executive, has not needed multibillion compensation packages to motivate him as he has led his company to become a dominant force in the American economy.

A surprise profit in the second quarter has set Tesla up for another major milestone: potential inclusion in the S&P 500 index. The index is one the most widely followed measures of the performance American stock market, with more than $11 trillion worth of mutual funds and other investments measured against it.

The company said on Wednesday it earned $104 million in the three months through June, in its fourth consecutive quarter of profitability.

Its unusual for companies with market values as large as Tesla roughly $290 billion not to be included in the S&P 500. But the companys inability to consistently generate profits has made it ineligible so far. (Criteria for inclusion require the sum of the companys fully audited profits in the four most recent quarters to be positive.)

The lack of profits hasnt bothered investors. Teslas share price has logged an astounding gain of more than 275 percent this year. But if Tesla were to be included in the index, it could trigger another upward push by stimulating a surge in demand for the shares by institutional investors.

Index-based funds low cost investment vehicles designed to mirror the performance of indexes like the S&P 500, rather than trying to beat the market must buy any stock included in the index, creating a rush for the shares of companies that are newly added.

When a company goes in that means theres a lot of buying there, said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, the company that publishes the S&P 500.

Changes to the index can, and do, occur regularly. For instance, when a company is removed from the S&P 500 after a merger or bankruptcy, requiring a new addition. The additions can occur at any time and are kept especially close to the vest by S&P, because of the money making opportunity someone could have if they learned about an inclusion before everybody else.

Nobody is supposed to know. The company isnt supposed to know themselves, Mr. Silverblatt said. Nobody even calls them.

Tesla has started work on its fourth car factory at a site near Austin, Texas, the companys chief executive, Elon Musk told analysts on Wednesday.

The factory will produce a new electric pickup truck and a new semi truck, along with the Model 3 and Model Y, which it already makes at a factory in the San Francisco Bay Area. The new factory represents a substantial investment for Tesla, which is already expanding a plant in Shanghai and building another one near Berlin.

We will be creating a massive Cybertruck and semi factory in Texas, Mr. Musk said, adding that the plant would be open to the public and have a boardwalk, biking trails and bird sanctuary.

Officials in Travis County, which includes Austin, this month approved a tax break to recruit Tesla, which was also being courted by Oklahoma and other states.

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines on Wednesday became the first major airlines in the United States to broaden their mask requirements to include passengers with a medical condition or disability that would otherwise prevent them from wearing one.

If a customer is unable to wear a face covering or mask for any reason, Southwest regrets that we will be unable to transport the individual, the airline said in a statement, noting that the virus can be spread by individuals who are unaware that they have been infected.

American followed suit, saying: All customers must wear a face covering from the time they enter their departure airport and not remove it until they exit their arrival airport.

The airlines said that children under the age of 2 will still be allowed to fly without a mask, a policy in line with other major carriers. Delta Air Lines still allows exceptions for individuals with a disability or medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask, and United Airlines says individuals seeking exemptions should reach out to its staff.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against masks for children under 2 years old and people with a medical condition or disability. A recent study indicated that children under 10 are less likely to transmit the virus than adults and older children, though the risk is not zero.

Southwests policy goes into effect on Monday, while Americans will start on July 29. Earlier in the day, United said it would extend its requirement for masks on planes to any area it operated in an airport. Southwest and Delta already had such policies in place.

Southwest and American are also expected to release financial results from the industrys devastating second quarter on Thursday morning. United said on Tuesday that its operating revenue declined 88 percent during the quarter from a year earlier, leading to a $1.6 billion loss. Delta said last week that its quarterly revenue had dropped 87 percent, resulting in a $5.7 billion loss.

Microsoft on Wednesday said its revenue rose 13 percent in the last quarter despite the slump in the economy. The companys growth was led by big gains in its cloud software offerings as more people work from home.

The company is not immune to shocks from the pandemic. Technology spending has fallen in industries like travel and retail. LinkedIn, the hiring and professional networking site owned by Microsoft, said on Tuesday that it was cutting 962 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, partly because hiring has fallen sharply. In June, Microsoft announced it was shutting down its 83 retail stores, taking a $450 million charge against earnings, or 5 cents a share.

But the weaknesses were more than offset by higher demand for its cloud businesses including its cloud processing and storage services, known as Azure, and its Office 365 productivity programs.

For the three months ended in June, its fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft generated revenue of $38 billion. Its operating profit increased 8 percent to $13.4 billion, or $1.46 a share. Both the companys sales and earnings per share surpassed Wall Street estimates.

As Congress struggles to advance negotiations over a new round of federal spending to help people and businesses endure the pandemic-induced recession, new research suggests a previous round of aid helped save millions of jobs but at high cost.

The Paycheck Protection Program, which lawmakers created in March, saved 1.4 million to 3.2 million jobs in small businesses through the beginning of June, according to research released on Wednesday by economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Federal Reserve and ADP Research Institute. That works out to a cost of $162,000 to $381,000 per job.

Some companies that accepted assistance through the program have emerged in better financial condition and no longer need federal help. But many companies have not seen the uptick in consumer demand that Republicans were counting on reopening plans to deliver and thus could be vulnerable to closure and layoffs without more aid.

Its plausible that, when the money runs out, some of those firms would downsize again, said David Autor, an M.I.T. economist and a lead author of the study.

This was actually a very aggressive policy, Mr. Autor said in an interview. Its useful to know that when Congress sets out and spends a half a trillion dollars, it can get something done.

The new findings appear to run counter to another recent paper from a team of prominent economists at Harvard and Brown, which concluded that the P.P.P. had little material impact on employment at small businesses.

That paper used similar methods to those employed by Mr. Autor and his co-authors. But it used a different, much smaller set of data, from a financial management application used primarily by low-wage workers. Mr. Autor said it was possible that the federal loan program did not do much to help those people, most of whom cannot work from home, even as it succeeded in bringing back jobs elsewhere in the economy.

Trump administration officials had claimed in a news release earlier this month that the program supported over 51 million jobs. Mr. Autor said that the idea that a much larger number of jobs saved was not right, because much of the money appears to have gone to help businesses that would not likely have folded shop without aid.

For several weeks, real-time data has suggested that the U.S. economic recovery could be stalling. Now there is evidence it could be going in reverse.

Data from the Census Bureau on Wednesday showed that the number of employed people fell by more than four million last week, the fourth-straight weekly decline. Taken literally, the results indicate that the economy has given up all the job gains since mid-May, before the recent surge in coronavirus cases.

Just under 52 percent of American adults were employed last week, according the survey, down from 54 percent in June.

The data comes from the bureaus weekly Household Pulse Survey, an experimental effort to track the pandemics economic impact. The survey has a brief track record, but a good one: It correctly signaled the big increase in employment in the jobs report for June.

The latest data corresponds to the survey week for the July report, which will be released in early August. If the results hold up again, it suggests that report could show a loss of millions of jobs, just as enhanced unemployment benefits from the federal government are in danger of expiring.

If the $600 weekly federal supplement to unemployment benefits expires, more than 20 million Americans could soon see their weekly income fall by half. But it wont just be individual recipients who will suffer, Ben Casselman reports:

The federal payments are injecting billions of dollars into the economy each week, money that flows to landlords, grocery stores, retailers and countless other businesses.

Ernie Tedeschi, a former Treasury Department official and an economist at Evercore ISI Research, has estimated that if the payments ceased, the United States gross domestic product would be 2 percent smaller at the end of 2020 and there would be 1.7 million fewer jobs nationwide.

Congress returned from recess this week to consider a new relief package, which could include at least a partial extension of the extra unemployment benefits. Senate Republicans and the White House are considering a roughly $1 trillion package that would retain the program but scale it back. Democrats are pressing to continue paying the full $600 per week.

But Congress seems unlikely to act before benefits lapse.

These unemployment benefit checks are really doing a large job in propping up spending by these unemployed households, said Joseph Vavra, a University of Chicago economist. If they expire, he said, theres a good chance that what is now an unemployment problem becomes a foreclosure crisis and eviction crisis.

Stocks on Wall Street rose on Wednesday, but the gains were constrained by rising tension between the United States and China.

After an early dip, the S&P 500 rose more than half a percent. Shares in Europe and Asia were mostly lower.

Relations between the United States and China, two giant trading partners, have been worsening recent weeks, as the Trump administration has tightened the reins on Chinese diplomats, journalists, scholars and others in the United States. In the latest action, the White House told China to leave the its consulate in Houston by Friday. China warned that it might retaliate.

News of the consulates closure had an immediate impact in financial markets, with stock futures falling and trading in Treasury notes, gold and oil also reflecting a jolt of nervousness.

But investors on Wall Street have shaken off a number of concerns lately, including about the surge in coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States. On Tuesday, President Trump, in a shift from his usual rosy forecasts, told reporters that the outbreak would probably get worse before it gets better. And a valuable economic lifeline for millions of Americans $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits is about to expire if Congress doesnt extend it.

Recent gains have come as lawmakers in Washington haggle over another economic aid package, and as some large businesses have reported better than expected results, or signs of improvement.

On Wednesday, for example, shares of Best Buy jumped almost 8 percent after the electronics retailer reported that sales were rebounding as stores reopened. Also sharply higher Wednesday was Pfizer, which rose more than 5 percent after the Trump administration said it would pay nearly $2 billion for up to 600 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. Shares of BioNTech, a German company that is developing the vaccine with Pfizer, were up nearly 14 percent.

After Walmart, Americas largest retailer, announced on July 15 that it would mandate in-store mask-wearing, a flurry of other companies, including Kroger, Target and Walgreens, followed suit. This means that customers will be required to wear face masks in stores even in places without local mask ordinances.

The National Retail Federation has encouraged companies to set nationwide mask policies to protect employees and shoppers.

Some chains, however, have moved in the opposite direction. After putting in place a customer mask requirement nearly two weeks ago, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar reversed course on July 20, saying they would require masks only if mandated by state or local rules.

With profit bolstered by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, HCA Healthcare, the giant for-profit hospital chain, reported much higher second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, even as its revenue fell when its huge network of hospitals treated fewer patients during the pandemic. The company reported $1.1 billion in net income for the three months that ended June 30, a 38 percent jump from the same period in 2019, on lower revenue of $11.1 billion. HCA, already a major beneficiary of hospital bailout money, said it had received a total of $1.7 billion from the federal government so far.

United Airlines said its revenue will max out at about 50 percent of last years haul if a vaccine does not become available. The airline expects passenger revenue in July, August and September to be down about 83 percent from the same period last year, a slight improvement over the nearly 94 percent decline the airline reported for the second quarter on Tuesday.

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Tesla Reaches a Milestone With Another Quarterly Profit - The New York Times

Tesla Texas, BYD Han EV, Rivian delay, battery supplies, the end of small cars: The Week in Reverse – Green Car Reports

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Which carmaker crammed seven motors into its electric SUV?

Which automaker said it no longer has plans for fuel-cell passenger vehicles?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverseright here at Green Car Reportsfor the week ending July 24, 2020.

The biggest series of stories of the week for the green-vehicle sector came out of Teslas periodic update Wednesday. Although it was news in itself that Tesla reported another profitable quarter, despite the challenges of the pandemic, CEO Elon Musk took the headline with the announcement that Tesla has chosen Austin, Texas, for a plant that will assemble the Cybertruck and Semi, plus Model Y and Model 3 for Eastern North America. Musk also confirmed Teslas use of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells in some Model 3 sedans built in China, which will help the company free up its more energy-dense cells for the Semi.

BYD Han EV

The BYD Han EV is the flagship model for the Chinese automaker 25% owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. As a battery expert as much as an EV car and truck maker, BYD hopes to sell its new safety-oriented Blade battery that debuts in the Han EV to other automakers, tooand likely encroach on Teslas market if not in the U.S., overseas.

Rivian started the pilot production line for its upcoming electric trucks, and that means theyll be delayed about six months overallto June 2021 for the R1T and August 2021 for the R1S.

Rivian R1S

Ford showed a new seven-motor, 1,400-horsepower version of the Mach-E electric SUV, called the Mach-E 1400. With plans to demonstrate the vehicle at a NASCAR event, the point is clearly getting those who might not have considered an EV to notice their performance potential.

There were several interesting pieces of news about plug-in hybrid products. And Jeep detailed two of its upcoming plug-in hybrid modelsthe Renegade 4xe and Compass 4xefor Europe, although the brand hasnt yet said whether these models will be coming to the U.S. The 2021 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring plug-in hybrid hasnt been rated by the EPA for miles or mpg, but this model that will arrive later this fall already has a price tag that, after credits and incentives, might make it more affordable than the non-hybrid. And the next-generation version of the Mitsubishi Outlander was spotted in California, but before that arrives theres a mechanical upgradewith more electric rangefor the 2021 Outlander Plug-In Hybrid.

2021 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring

Battery origins have become an important part of our EV coverage. Swedens Northvolt will be supplying BMW with $2.3 billion in electric-car batteries. Although its contract comes after those inked with Samsung SDI and CATL, its the only one thats headquartered in the EU. Meanwhile, Volkswagen and Ford voiced concern over a conflict between rival South Korean battery suppliers LG Chem and SK Innovation that could potentially get in the way of U.S. EV production.

Otherwise, Volkswagen confirmed that its ID.4 crossover is on-time for first U.S. deliveries in late 2020, with U.S. production in 2022.

VW ID.4 crossover

The Audi E-Tron SUV was the first electric vehicle to win the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating last year, and now the closely related E-Tron Sportback has done the same. Audi also revealed its been studying bi-directional charging functionalityboth for vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech to help buffer solar or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech to help balance the grid. It could be a few years before its ready in a product, however.

General Motors confirmed that its no longer working on hydrogen fuel-cell passenger carsalthough its fuel-cell development is pushing ahead with Honda and it aims to use the tech for military and fuel-cell vehicles.

UK-based Twisted Automotive will offer a limited number of Land Rover Defender 90 electric conversions for the U.S.

Twisted NAS-E electric Land Rover Defender

And last weekend we looked at the recently announced discontinuation of the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris and wondered if the age of the cheap, city-savvy, fuel-efficient small car is over.

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Tesla Texas, BYD Han EV, Rivian delay, battery supplies, the end of small cars: The Week in Reverse - Green Car Reports

Electric Vehicles: An ETF That’s More Than Just A Bet On Tesla – Seeking Alpha

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The iShares Self-Driving/EV And Tech ETF (IDRV) is a way investors can participate in rapidly growing electric vehicle industry while not placing too big a bet on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). Despite TSLA's recent pull-back from $1,750 to Friday's close of $1,415 (~20%), some investors - including myself - feel the stock has gotten way ahead of itself and is significantly overvalued. That said, it's hard to argue with Tesla's success in brand marketing, the China manufacturing plant, battery technology, and its potential to leverage its technology base into the home and industrial solar power and battery storage sectors. The point is: any long-term investment in the EV market obviously must include exposure to Tesla.

The IDRV ETF appears to be just such an investment. The list of the top-10 holdings is shown below:

Source: iShares.com

As can be seen, IDRV has a 6.5% position in Tesla. I've been waiting for Tesla to pull-back before buying shares in IDRV. The prospect that Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 after achieving four straight quarters of positive net-income appears to be fully baked into the stock in my opinion. In addition, I am concerned Tesla may soon take advantage of its high flying stock to announce a common stock offering to finance the recently announced manufacturing facility to be built in Austin, TX.

Combined with the big drop in Intel (INTC) Friday (together INTC and TSLA equate to ~10% of IDRV's entire portfolio), it appears to be a good time initiate a position. Note IDRV was down -1.7% Friday.

I also find this ETF's diversified investment approach to the EV market very attractive. As one can see from the top-10 holdings above (which equate to roughly 45% of the entire portfolio), IDRV holds positions in key technology companies that will provide electronic chips and components to EVs (Nvidia (NVDA), Siemans (SIE), Schneider Electric, Qualcomm (QCOM) and Samsung) in addition to investments in software and mobile oriented companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

It is important to note that many of these technology companies will also benefit from the roll-out of 5G communications, which - in my opinion - is fully synergistic with the EV and self-driving markets.

Following my desire to allocate more capital outside of the US (see Newmont: How To Profit From The Potential End Of "King Dollar"), I like IDRV's exposure to foreign markets. While US investments are just over 50% of the portfolio, there is attractive exposure to Germany (14.3%), Japan (11%), and South Korea (8.8%). While the German economy is expected to shrink by 6.5% this year, Reuters reports that Europe's economy is likely to recover faster than that of the U.S. due to "starkly difference responses to the coronavirus."

I would have liked to have seen more direct exposure to Chinese companies in the fund (only 1.2%), but one could argue most of the companies in IDRV's portfolio are either directly or indirectly affected by China's fast growing EV market.

Like most of iShares ETFs, the expense ratio is reasonable at 0.47%. And despite the market turmoil this year, IDRV is up a respectable 8.9% YTD. The yield (1.26%) may seem inconsequential, but note that is more than 2x the current yield of the 10-year Treasury (0.59%).

Like virtually any investment, there are risks here. First, of course, is the fact that Tesla is the #1 holding and the correction in that arguably over-valued stock could be far from over. That said, Tesla has a 6.5% weighting, and I am comfortable (and like) the exposure to that company.

On the the Q2 conference call, Tesla appeared to be sticking with its guidance for 500,000 cars delivered this year. But Elon Musk it is not a demand issue:

It's really just a production issue. It's been pretty hard when you've got like a global supply chain, and it's kind of whatever the most effective part of supply chain is that sets your rate.

Note the 500K delivery target this year means 320,000 deliveries in the coming two quarters (Q3,Q4), which is obviously quite an acceleration from the ~180,000 units delivered in the first two quarters.

Secondly, many of the holdings are "high flying" tech stocks for which many analysts say are due to come back to Earth. In addition, executives from both Apple and Alphabet - which together compose about 8% of the portfolio - are scheduled to testify in front of Congress regarding anti-competitive practices. This could pose some headline risks, as well as the potential for punitive fines. But I like the growth potential of these companies even in the face of the current global economic contraction due to COVID-19: growth is essential in near zero interest rate environment when real rates are negative.

Third, there is always the possibility that EV market expectations don't measure up to its projected growth rate. According to the IEA, sales of electric cars topped 2.1 million globally in 2019, surpassing 2018 a record year to boost the stock to 7.2 million electric cars.Electric cars, which accounted for 2.6% of global car sales last year, registered a 40% year-over-year increase:

Source: EIA

If COVID-19 effects on the global economy short-circuit the established EV growth rate as shown in the chart above, valuations for EV related stocks could come down accordingly.

Lastly, the IDRV ETF has only been around a little more than a year, so there is no long-term track record to evaluate.

I find the iShares Self-Driving/EV and Tech ETF to be an excellent way to participate in the growing global market for EVs through a diversified approach. But with Tesla still trading at such a tremendously high valuation, I plan to move in slowly by dollar-cost-averaging over the next 12-18 months. I am initiating a starter position now and it my intent to establish a full portfolio allocation by end of 2021.

I'll finish with a chart of IDRV's performance since its inception in April of 2019:

Source: Yahoo Finance

Disclosure: I am/we are long GOOG. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: I intend to open a position in IDRV in the next few trading days.

I am an engineer, not a CFA. The information and data presented in this article were obtained from company documents and/or sources believed to be reliable, but have not been independently verified. Therefore, the author cannot guarantee their accuracy. Please do your own research and contact a qualified investment advisor. I am not responsible for the investment decisions you make.

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Electric Vehicles: An ETF That's More Than Just A Bet On Tesla - Seeking Alpha

Opinion: Teslas rise is a message to big oil in Texas its time to transform – Houston Chronicle

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Capital markets have voted. Technology companies are in, and Texas oil and gas companies are out. Thats not necessarily all bad news for Texas, which has been courting companies like Tesla and Amazon to set up shop here, but with mixed results. News that electric automaker Teslas market capitalization has surpassed that of ExxonMobil reflects more than questionable premises about the growth potential of electric cars and the sunsetting of the gasoline engine. It reflects investors hopes and fears for the future. In a world where longstanding lifestyles were abandoned overnight in the shadow of a global pandemic, financial bets on companies proficient in self-transformation and technological innovation seem prudent. ExxonMobils pitch that it has staying power when incumbent oil and gas infrastructure takes years to revamp is simply not resonating with investors.

The sudden love affair with Tesla stock is partly linked to new potential for growth. Since it opened its Shanghai, China giga factory, analysts forecast increasing cash flow for the firm, which in March captured 30 percent of the crowded Chinese electric vehicle market amid depressed demand due to COVID-19. Teslas market capitalization has now surpassed $300 billion, up 175,000 percent since 2010. By contrast, ExxonMobils market capitalization has now fallen to around $185 billion, down from $350 billion a decade ago.

But Teslas attractions go beyond its improving financial outlook. Investors are betting on its expansive innovation potential. Not only has Tesla Energy installed the worlds largest lithium-ion battery to mitigate wind generation intermittency in South Australia, it has provided small-scale, household solutions to reduce the regions frequent brownouts. The company offers a load-balancing system in which solar panels are matched with in-home battery storage and smart inverters to bolster the grid when electricity demand peaks, creating a virtual power plant. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has alluded to the possibility of deploying a similar model with vehicle batteries, allowing Tesla owners to use their cars as backup power sources or even sell their battery storage back to the grid.

Tesla has weighed in on a policy debate in Texas over whether the state should loosen restrictions so electricity distribution companies can own storage to buttress operations, but regulatory disputes over who can own and operate Tesla battery systems in the state are ongoing. Texas, with its weather and other load challenges, would do well to follow Teslas advice to loosen who can own battery systemswhile protecting consumers and competitive markets for local energy generatorsso benefits are shared from the kind of forward-looking innovation the state is well known for.

For investors, Teslas innovation goes beyond cars and energy. It has also developed a giant HEPA filter, installed in Model S and Model X vehicles, which Tesla claims stops 99.97 percent of particles 0.3 micrometers or larger from entering the vehicle. Amid endemic pollution in major cities and growing questions about airborne COVID-19 transmission, its no wonder that Teslas Bioweapon Defense Mode is a hit.

Then there is Californias new Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which requires truck manufacturers to sell an annually increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks in the state over the next two decades. With its light-duty Cybertruck and heavy-duty Semi model due for release in 2021, Tesla is well positioned to supply the new market. The Cybertruck already has over 650,000 pre-orders, and Austin is knee-deep in competition with Tulsa, Okla., to house a new giga-factory for its production. Meanwhile, Teslas vehicle software is growing ever closer to facilitating full, self-driving autonomy.

The point is that Tesla is no longer just a car company. It is a technology company creating products with cross-industrial applications fit to solve some of the societys most pressing challenges. Ditto Amazon, which is an increasingly important bridge between many Americans and essential household supplies. At $1.65 trillion, Amazons capitalization is now 160 times higher than ExxonMobils as the marketplace and logistics company looks to new vertical integration opportunities including autonomous delivery vehicles.

Research and development spending made up 32.5 and 35.8 percent respectively of Teslas and Amazons total operating expenses in 2019, according to Bloomberg News. By contrast, ExxonMobils R&D budget was a paltry 8.7 percent of its operating expenses based on our calculations from Bloomberg data. Unlike its European peers who are actively pivoting to new energy businesses, ExxonMobils admirable R&D in algae biofuel and carbon sequestration has brought neither technology to scale. Rather, ExxonMobils notable technology and process improvement gains focus on the companys here and now oil opportunities in places like West Texas and Guyana, and thereby lack the visionary pizazz and breadth of wider applicability that draw investors to Tesla.

ExxonMobil continues to try to mobilize its base of investors around the idea that the company is well positioned with a strong balance sheet, promising legacy assets and topnotch engineering knowhow to both weather the current oil downturn and meet rebounding oil demand when the economy recovers. But sell-side analysts say current oil prices are too low for ExxonMobil to generate sufficient cash flow to cover its dividends without cutting spending, discouraging bargain hunters from bottom-picking the companys stock.

ExxonMobils plight is a cautionary tale for Texas industry and Houston as the energy capital. Though other companies like Hess, ConocoPhillips and Chevron are garnering some positive investor attention based on cash outlooks, the heady days when Texas shale was lauded as a growth business are fading, at least for now. The solution to investor apathy might not just be cutting costs, but a reemphasis on transformative technological innovations.

Myers Jaffe is author of the forthcoming book Energys Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security. Schreiber is a summer intern at the Council on Foreign Relations and an undergraduate student at Rice University.

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Opinion: Teslas rise is a message to big oil in Texas its time to transform - Houston Chronicle

Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: IBM, Moderna, Tesla and more – CNBC

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines after the bell:

IBM IBM shares rose more than 6% in extended trading following the release of the company's second quarter earnings. The technology company reported second quarter earnings of$2.18 per share excluding items on revenues of $18.12 billion. This beat what Refinitiv analysts had predicted as earnings of $2.07 on revenues of $17.72 billion.

Moderna Moderna's stock fell 1% after the closing bell after falling 12.83% earlier in the day. The stock saw a drop after Pfizer and BioNTech reported promising data from their experimental coronavirus vaccine, showing their vaccine was safe and induced an immune response in patients. Moderna's stock was also downgraded by JPMorgan to neutral from overweight.Another coronavirus vaccine maker, Novavax, saw its shares climb 3% in extended trading.

Nikola Shares of electric truck maker rose 1% and whipsawed in after hours. Nikola's stock fell 10% earlier during the day after the company filed a new stock offering related to warrants and Deutsche Bank analysts said there could be more selling ahead.

TeslaThe automaker's stock gained 1% in extended trading after jumping 9.5% earlier Monday. CNBC contributor Jim Cramer said in a tweet that Tesla's big move, as well as those of Amazon and Microsoft, which rose 7.4% and 4.3% earlier Monday, was "truly insane." Tesla is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings results Wednesday.

Noble Energy Shares of the oil and gas company rose 1% after the closing bell. Noble's stock rose 5.4% earlier Monday after Chevron announced it willacquire the companyin an all-stock deal valued at $5 billion.

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Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: IBM, Moderna, Tesla and more - CNBC

Final Tesla Roadster ever built listed for more than $2 million – CarAdvice

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Only 2500 Lotus-based Tesla Roadsters were built, and the final one is for sale in Switzerland for more than AU$2 million.

The last original Tesla Roadster to be built has come onto the market in Switzerland for more than AU$2 million.

The 2012 car's Lotus-designed chassis is fitted with a 185kW electric motor that propels it from 0 to 100kmh in a claimed 4.0 seconds.

When new, a battery range of 393km was estimated.

The listed car is finished in sparkling white and has a white and black interior trim, full carbon package, carbon diffusor, and VIN 2500 badging (recognising that it was the 2500th and last Roadster built).

Dozens of Tesla employees also signed the car's battery pack on completion, and a scribble in the bottom left-hand corner strongly resembles the signature of company CEO Elon Musk.

According to the listing the car has been stored on tyre pillows on marble floor and was never registered.

It has just 200km on the odometer.

The vehicle is listed for 1,390,000 (approximately AU$2,082,220) which, if sold, would make it the world's most expensive electric car.

In Australia the 2012 Roadster was initially sold from $191,888 plus on-road costs slightly less than a Porsche 911 at the time.

Only one version of the car is currently listed for sale in Australia.

Located in Blackheath, NSW, the red MY2011 car is listed at $144,000.

The seller, Simon Crawford-Ash, told CarAdvice the Roadster represented a "pivotal moment" in automotive history.

"The rawness of it is what makes it so special. It is raw, unpolished and incredible to drive," he said.

"It is inspiring to touch and see how much had to be redesigned from an ordinary car. It is exposed and raw, and it feels very much like the prototype of future cars."

In 2017 Tesla announced plans for a new Roadster (pictured below), this time with a fixed roof, and claimed it would be capable of accelerating from 0 to 100kmh in 1.9 seconds faster than any production car available today.

After initially stating the car would be available by 2020, Tesla now says the Roadster will be launched in 2022.

Final Tesla Roadster ever built listed for more than $2 million

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Final Tesla Roadster ever built listed for more than $2 million - CarAdvice

They did it! Gorzw couple travel 45000km around the world in old PRL car – The First News

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Asia and Pawe Poterski spent two years driving around the world in their 1990s Fiat 125p car. dookolafiata.pl/Facebook

A couple from western Poland have proved that at least some things designed under communism were made to last after they drove a Soviet-era Fiat 125p around the world.

The couple set out in October 2018 in their car, which rolled off the production line in 1990, for a journey that they thought would only take nine months.dookolafiata.pl/Facebook

Asia and Pawe Poterski completed their epic journey, which lasted two years and covered 45,000 car-crunching kilometres, when they parked their heroic Fiat at their home in Gorzw Wielkopolski this summer.

The couple set out in October 2018 in their car, which rolled off the production line in 1990, for a journey that they thought would only take nine months, but in the end took somewhat longer as they drove through a succession of countries, including Slovakia, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia.

Asia and Pawe drove through a succession of countries, including Slovakia, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia.dookolafiata.pl/Facebook

They even shipped the car across the Pacific so it could experience the highways of Canada and the United States.

The couples epic journey in the Soviet-era vehicle generated media interest worldwide, with articles on the Poles appearing in The New Straits Times, a Malaysian paper, and CTV News from Calgary in Canada.

The Gorzw couple decided to return to their home town after Asia became pregnant.dookolafiata.pl/Facebook

Although the Fiat 125p may not have the best reputation in the world when it comes to reliability its rudimentary construction and, the couple explained, the expectation that something will fail, meant that they were ready and able to fix most problems with basic tools.

After covering 45,000 kilometres the couple had just about run out of road to drive on, but they also had a more pressing reason to wind up their journey.

The couples epic journey in the Soviet-era vehicle generated media interest worldwide, with articles on the Poles appearing in The New Straits Times, a Malaysian paper, and CTV News from Calgary in Canada.dookolafiata.pl/Facebook

Asia got pregnant on the road and had to come back to Poland to give birth.

The journey has made them local celebrities with the Gorzw council praising the couple for helping to put the town on the map.

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They did it! Gorzw couple travel 45000km around the world in old PRL car - The First News

U.S. and European Airlines Seek Virus Testing to Open Up Travel – Bloomberg

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Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Four of the biggest airlines in the U.S. and Europe are pressing for an international accord on coronavirus testing to allow broad trans-Atlantic travel.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG and commercial ally United Airlines Holdings Inc. joined with British Airways owner IAG SA and partner American Airlines Group Inc. to seek a U.S.-European Union testing program that would replace restrictions that prevent the recovery of commercial air travel. The U.S.-Europe market is the biggest for high-profit business trips.

Given the unquestioned importance of trans-Atlantic air travel to the global economy as well as to the economic recovery of our businesses, we believe it is critical to find a way to re-open air services between the U.S. and Europe, the carriers said in letter to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for home affairs. The letter, released Tuesday, was signed by the chief executive of each carrier.

The U.S. to Europe market leads the way in high-paying passengers

Source: OAG

Air France-KLM and part owner Delta Air Lines Inc., the two other major airline groups in the EU and the U.S., didnt sign the letter.

The World Travel & Tourism Council said separately Wednesday that country-wide border closures in response to second spikes in the virus should be resisted, urging governments to introduce localized measures instead. The group said it backs so-called air corridors permitting unhindered travel between financial centers such as London, Frankfurt and New York.

The EU has continued to bar visits by U.S. residents after relaxing a ban on non-essential travel from 15 countries with lower coronavirus infection rates. Britain requires that people arriving from the U.S. spend 14 days in self-imposed quarantine. U.S. rules, meanwhile, essentially prevent travel to the country by most Europeans.

British Airways owner IAG is most exposed on U.S. to Europe flights

Source: OAG

The International Air Transport Association warned on July 1 that its estimate for a 36% drop in traffic this year could worsen to 53% if curbs on trans-Atlantic travel remain in place.

The WTTC estimates that travel and tourism supports 10% of all jobs and provides the same proportion of global GDP.

(Updates with tourism council comments starting in fifth paragraph)

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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U.S. and European Airlines Seek Virus Testing to Open Up Travel - Bloomberg

COVID-19 Impacts on Travel Habits: New Study of 1045 US Travelers – TheWiseMarketer.com

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[Editors Note: We came across this study which surveyed 1045 U.S. travelers (55%+ were millennials) about their behaviors and attitude towards travel amid COVID-19. Some of the results were surprising, yet encouraging, and we thought others would be interested to see the results as well. Heres a snapshot of some of the more surprising results:

Related to this, we also wrote an article titled Business Travel After COVID-19 which covered 5 things to take into consideration for employers, business travelers, and the travel industry. Enjoy.]

As of May 26, 2020, the total number of coronavirus casesreached over 5.5 million worldwide, with the U.S. being the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, representing 1.7 million of the total number of COVID-19 cases.

Since it first emerged in Wuhan, China last December 2019, countriesimplemented total partial or complete lockdownand travel restrictions which madea huge dent in the travel industry. The damage is so huge that it was estimated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) that there will beover 100 million job lossesin the travel and tourism sector.

Moreover, the2020 tourism industry revenueisrestatedto 447 million U.S. dollars, down from theoriginal 2020 forecast, which is711 million U.S. dollars. In 2019, the travel tourism industry revenue earned 685 million U.S. dollars in revenue.

Its been over 5 months now, so how are the US travelers holding up? We conducted a survey involving 1,045 US frequent travelers to see the impact COVID-19 has on travel habits.

We specifically asked our survey participants to indicate their age so we can see which generation travelers belong to.

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the thought of traveling seems impossible to happen anytime soon. But earlier in May 2020, Australia announced a three-stage plan to reopen its economy, including tourism, which could be atravel recovery modelfor other countries.

Are people willing to follow strict protocols/protection while traveling amid the COVID-19 outbreak these days?

Major Takeaways:

By the end of March 2020, over3million unemployment claims were filed. This means the budget will have to be cut deeply to stillbe able to travel and keep up with the essentials amid the global pandemic.

Major Takeaways:

Major Takeaways:

According tothe World Economic Forum, We will travel again, but it will not be the same. So we asked our participants which type of travel platform would they prefer after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Major Takeaways:

To ensure that the above-mentioned data is only from frequent travelers in the U.S., we launched a survey on MTurk and set the qualifications to only U.S. citizens that travel frequently.

We also included attention-check questions somewhere in the survey to ensure our participants are not just answering the survey questions randomly.

Also, the surveys results do not, in any form and way, reflect the opinions of our editors and writers.

Originally posted here:

COVID-19 Impacts on Travel Habits: New Study of 1045 US Travelers - TheWiseMarketer.com

Letter to the editor: No need to travel Collins ensures that ‘Russia is coming to me’ – Press Herald

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Usually I email Sen. Susan Collins and ask her to resign, which Im sure shed do if she ever read those emails. But today, in this letter, I want to publicly thank Sen. Collins.

I want to thank her for being right about Donald J. Trump. He has learned his lesson, as she hoped. He has learned that he can do anything he pleases because the senator and her colleagues in the Republican Party will let him.

I want to thank her for allowing a man known for his lack of business sense and for his blatant racism to remain in office. I want to thank her for backing a bold leader who has not only put the entire nation at risk during a pandemic and destroyed the economy but also brought the Third World to America while trashing the Constitution. Now I no longer have to travel to China, the Philippines or Turkey to live under a brutal dictator because we are working toward that goal here in this country.

Good thing, too, what with travel restrictions limiting my access to so many nations. I dont have to go to Russia. Russia is coming to me.

Thank you, Sen. Collins.

Linda PankewiczRaymond

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Letter to the editor: No need to travel Collins ensures that 'Russia is coming to me' - Press Herald

Global Honeymoon Tourism Market: Overview, Opportunities, Analysis of Features, Benefits, Manufacturing Cost and Forecast To 2026 – Market Research…

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Global Honeymoon Tourism Market Research Report 2020

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Chapter 5 Company Profiles

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Chapter 9 World Honeymoon Tourism Market Forecast through 2027

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https://www.reportspedia.com/report/business-services/global-honeymoon-tourism-market-report-2020-by-key-players,-types,-applications,-countries,-market-size,-forecast-to-2026-(based-on-2020-covid-19-worldwide-spread)/68247#table_of_contents

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Global Honeymoon Tourism Market: Overview, Opportunities, Analysis of Features, Benefits, Manufacturing Cost and Forecast To 2026 - Market Research...

We were the luckiest people in the world: our month on the last lockdown cruise – The Guardian

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The cruise ship MS Maasdam left New Zealand on the evening of 1 March, steaming out of Aucklands Waitemata harbour into the Hauraki Gulf, where it headed north. The route was to San Diego via Fiji, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Hawaii. On board the Holland America Line ship were around 1,200 passengers, including Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians and French holidaymakers. The 542 crew included Dutch, Americans, Germans, Venezuelans and Filipinos. There were also a handful of entertainers and guest lecturers along for the ride, including Jon Tonks, a portrait photographer from Bath, who ended up with a portrait of a cruise that didnt go to plan.

Covid-19 was certainly a thing at the beginning of March, but it was still considered mainly a China thing. The Maasdam wouldnt be going anywhere near China. Questionnaires were handed to passengers, about symptoms and where theyd been before, but then they were good to go. Still, Tonks says that friends had joked before he left: Good luck on your corona cruise.

We had a whole schedule for this beautiful journey. Little did I know it was going to be my most challenging

In some ways it did turn into a corona cruise, in that the virus was the major factor in what played out over the next month. No one on board got infected; this is not a story of passengers being locked in their cabins and the ships morgue overflowing with corpses. But it will be some time before people gather en masse on a floating resort again.

To begin with, everything went to plan. We had a full entertainment team, and the schedule all worked out for this beautiful journey, says cruise director Thomas Weber, speaking on the phone from Palm Springs, California. Weber, 50, had by then been working for seven months straight, and had had to be begged to do this one. Little did I know it was going to be the most challenging contract I had taken so far.

Among that entertainment team was Adam Langstaff, 34, a drummer from Birmingham with onboard covers band the Runaround Kids, who mostly do 1950s and 60s rocknroll to cater for the tastes of the passengers, most of them in their 70s and 80s. Was there any dancing? We always tried, but it was normally an uphill struggle nobody has the guts to be the first, he says. But Langstaff was having a nice time in the South Pacific, enjoying the food, the friendly atmosphere and an undemanding workload.

There were lectures about the natural world, and Tonks gave his first photography talk, which went well. To his surprise, his former religious studies teacher was in the crowd. Terri Shanks, 49, from Worthing, was travelling with her 12-year-old son Cameron, whom she had taken out of school to world-school. Her grown-up daughter kept them up to date with life at home, sending pictures of supermarkets stripped bare and people fighting over loo roll. It was surreal. We stepped on in Auckland, in a normal world, and 28 days later stepped off in San Diego, into this global apocalypse. The whole world had changed in those four weeks.

Hygiene rules got stricter as the cruise progressed, with more frequent and visible cleaning. Crew members started standing by the hand sanitiser stations, to make sure passengers used them.

The Maasdam stopped further along the coast of New Zealands North Island, and in Fiji, and then the problems began. Tonga wasnt going to let them in, for fear of letting the virus in, too. Weber was sympathetic. You live on an island in the middle of nowhere with no cases: I 100% understand.

But it was becoming harder for him to go on stage to introduce a comedy show, when the audience had just been told that their next stop had been cancelled and that they faced several days at sea. Weber found that getting up there with a martini in his hand helped lighten the mood. The passenger questions in the regular Q&A sessions with the captain were suddenly all along the lines of: is there coronavirus aboard? And: where the hell are we getting off this ship?

Most passengers were understanding, with a small minority up in arms. Tonks remembers a group of young Americans, who had been looking forward to a diving excursion somewhere. They sat at the bar, smashing margaritas all day, getting progressively more drunk and irate. I remember one of them saying, Youre using a pandemic as an excuse!

Tonga wouldnt let them in. Tahiti, too. Passengers checked their phones. They were going round in circles

Then Rarotonga in the Cook Islands let the Maasdam in. Passengers could take one of the tenders ashore for a days sightseeing, before returning to the ship. Next stop: Tahiti, where several passengers and entertainers, including Tonks and the Runaround Kids, were due to disembark. But there was bad news that evening: Tahiti wouldnt have them, either. The Maasdam sailed on into a fog of uncertainty.

Tonks tells me he thinks people go on cruises to see the world, but also to be institutionalised. When that comfort blanket was removed, they didnt know what to do. He was with a group at the bar, staring into their phones, trying to work out which way they were heading: was it west, back to New Zealand? Or east, to America? It took a while to realise we were going round in circles. The captain was figuring out what to do, as well as trying to negotiate with ports to allow them entry. In the end, the Maasdam returned to anchor off Rarotonga, for further uncertainty, and for passengers to do more staring into their phones, trying to find out what was going on here, at home, in the world.

For Dave Morin, 79, on the cruise of a lifetime with his wife Vicki, the main worry was the family wedding venue business back home in Massachusetts. I was getting a lot of panicky phone calls: brides concerned about what was going to happen with their weddings. He didnt mind about extending the cruise. I can think of a lot worse places to be held hostage. While we were on the ship, we had three good meals a day and got to play bingo, and see shows at night and sunbathe on the back deck.

Other passengers were worried about their medication running out. But they were only allowed to disembark at Rarotonga if they could get an air ticket out, so there was a rush on the boats sketchy wifi to buy flights. Tonks managed to get one back to Auckland, from where hed get another to London. He was on the last tender ashore before the ship departed again, this time for Hawaii, 2,800 miles away.

He remembers watching from the shore until the Maasdam was a dot on the horizon, with mixed emotions. Part of me thinks I should have stayed. I went from being on a cruise ship which was incredibly sociable, had four bars and a load of people who were a good laugh, to isolating by myself in Bath. Also it would have been amazing to carry on shooting photographs.

Meanwhile, the camaraderie on board became more intense. The irate Americans had gone, and there were 350 fewer passengers, as well as less in the way of entertainment. Suddenly we had to work for a living, laughs Langstaff, who along with the Runaround Kids got roped into game shows and talent contests. He didnt mind; he didnt have anywhere else he needed to be. All our other work was out the window anyway.

Weber hosted a big coffee morning in the main theatre, and asked passengers who could do what, and who wanted to get involved. Someone said, I can teach Spanish, or I can teach ballroom dancing, remembers Shanks, who offered to do a storytelling session. After the initial frustration about the cruise not turning out as expected, people just said: lets get on and enjoy it. It was actually really lovely we became one big happy family. Cameron was the only child on the ship for those last two weeks: suddenly he had all these adopted grannies and grandads making a big fuss of him, which he absolutely loved.

One night an amateur astronomer held a stargazing session on the top deck. The captain turned off all the lights on the ship, so there was this immense blackness around us, says Huguette Khan, 76, from Ontario, on board with her husband, Sherry. That will stay in my mind for a long time.

After Rarotonga, everyone had been on the ship for more than two weeks; no one had joined, no one had got sick so they knew they were pretty much self-quarantined. Every time a port didnt let us in, I pointed out we were some of the luckiest people in the world in our little bubble, Weber says. St Patricks Day, cancelled around the world, was a big one on the Maasdam. Another night, the Runaround Kids abandoned Buddy Holly and came out dressed as schoolgirls; when they did Britney Spears Baby One More Time, with Langstaff on vocals, the crowd went wild.

Then another big blow: Hawaii wouldnt take them. The governor changed his mind at the last minute, and wouldnt let anyone not even US citizens ashore. After taking on supplies, the Maasdam set off again, for San Diego. Weber, whod mustered all his energy in keeping the ship on an even keel, emotionally speaking, until they got to Hawaii, faced another week at sea.

Good morning, refugees, he began his announcement the following morning, before alerting passengers to a change in the entertainment schedule due to a new health scare. We have postponed the Hawaiian shirt contest because the Center for Disease Control has announced that Hawaiian shirts can cause paranoia and a weakening of the spine

That night, instead of the martini hed been going on stage with, Weber had a bottle of rum. And the spirit on the ship warmed further. Everyone was in lockdown at home, Shanks says. We were spending our evenings in the theatre and the cinema. The beauty salon remained open, the gym and the pool. Everything that was closing around the world was still open to the very end.

I kept reminding everybody: Get your hair cut, get your nails done, because when you get home youre going to be locked up, and youre going to miss us, Weber recalls. That was if they ever got home. There were news reports that Trump was not letting ships dock: would they even be allowed off in San Diego?

The last night was a big one. They got every single crew member up on stage, singing and wishing us farewell, says Dave Morin. Waiters, cooks, housekeepers, people you never saw from behind the scenes, from the engine room. Not a dry eye in the house, Weber remembers. There were more tears on the gangway in San Diego the following day not because they werent allowed off, but because they were. It was time to say goodbye.

Back home in Massachusetts, the Morins found their weddings had been called off, and they havent got a booking this year. But they have a Christmas tree farm, too, and theyre hoping Christmas wont get cancelled. Weber is enjoying a long, well-earned break. Langstaffs next job is panto Jack And The Beanstalk, in Ipswich but hes not sure if thats going to happen, either.

Sherry Khan, 80, who describes his and Huguettes cruise as a significant emotional event, wont be sailing again soon. Its not that theyve been put off; they just want to wait a while, and maybe not go so far next time. Dave and Vicki, too, and Terri Shanks and Cameron all of them are looking forward to their next trip. As for the Maasdam, the next cruise, to Mexico and the Sea of Cortez, is due to depart San Diego on 7 October.

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We were the luckiest people in the world: our month on the last lockdown cruise - The Guardian

A Glimpse Inside the Workshops of the Worlds Finest Panama Hat Makers – The New York Times

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At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions in place worldwide, we launched a new series The World Through a Lens in which photojournalists help transport you, virtually, to some of our planets most beautiful and intriguing places. This week, Roff Smith shares a collection of photographs from the workshops of hat artisans in Ecuador.

Creamy as silk, costlier by weight than gold, the color of fine old ivory, a Montecristi superfino Panama hat is as much a work of art as it is of fashion. The finest specimens have more than 4,000 weaves per square inch, a weave so fine it takes a jewelers loupe to count the rows. And every single one of those weaves is done by hand. No loom is used only dexterous fingers, sharp eyes and Zen-like concentration.

You cannot allow your mind to wander even for a second, says Simn Espinal, a modest, soft-spoken man who is regarded by his peers as the greatest living weaver of Panama hats, possibly the greatest ever. When you are weaving it is just you and the straw.

Mr. Espinals hats average around 3,000 weaves per square inch a fineness few weavers have ever even approached. His best has just over 4,200 weaves per square inch and took him five months to weave.

The 52-year-old Ecuadorean is one of a dwindling number of elite Panama hat weavers, nearly all of whom live in Pile, an obscure village tucked away in the foothills behind Montecristi, a low-slung town about 100 miles up the coast from Guayaquil.

I became interested in the hats about 15 years ago, quite by accident, when I read about straw hats that could cost thousands of dollars. Intrigued, I began researching the hats, made a trip to Ecuador where all true Panama hats are woven and discovered this curious, and gently anachronistic world of the hat weavers of Montecristi.

Although the weaver is the star of the show, the making of a Montecristi is a collaborative art. After the weaver has finished his or her part, the raw hat body passes through the hands of a tag-team of specialist artisans whose titles the rematador, the cortador, the apaleador and the planchador lend the making of a Montecristi Panama hat something of the hot-blooded formality of the bullring. (The term rematador is drawn directly from bullfighting: There, it is the finisher, one who performs some act that will provide an emotional or artistic climax, as Hemingway describes it in Death in the Afternoon.)

In Montecristi, the rematador is the specialist weaver who performs the complicated back weave to seal the brim, thereby bringing to an artistic close the weaving phase of the hats creation. After that, the excess straw is trimmed away by the cortador, who then gives the hat the closest of shaves with a razor blade to trim away any burrs in the straw.

Sometimes, when I am cortador-ing, I come across a straw that has become discolored or has not been woven correctly, says Gabriel Lucas, one of Montecristis top finishing artisans, as he performs a delicate operation on a fine hat that will be worth thousands when it is finished. We call these hijos perdidos the lost straws. I have to carefully cut them out and weave in a new straw to replace it.

After it has been properly barbered, the hat is pounded with a hardwood mallet by the apaleador to help bed the fibers, then briskly ironed by the planchador to give it the right amount of stiffness in preparation for the final stage: blocking, or the sculpting by hand of the unformed hat into its recognizable styles: fedora, optimo, plantation.

Panama hats are uniquely Ecuadorean, despite their curious misnomer. The term Panama hat has been in use since at least the 1830s, and came about because the hats were often sold in trading posts on the Isthmus of Panama, which was a shipping crossroads long before the canal was built. The name was popularized during the California gold rush, when tens of thousands of prospectors passed through Panama on their way to the diggings, many of them picking up a hat along the way.

Panama hats became even more firmly fixed in the popular imagination after the Paris Exposition in 1855, when a Frenchman who had been living in Panama presented Napoleon III with a finely woven hat. His Highness loved the hat and wore it everywhere.

Then, as now, celebrities set the tone in the fashion stakes, and nobody was more A-list than the Emperor of France. Silky fine Panama hats for spring and summer became de rigueur among the rich and famous. King Edward VII is said to have instructed his hatter to spare no expense but get him the finest Panama available. Fabulous sums were paid by him and others for the best hats. A Talk of The Town article in The New Yorker from July 1930 describes a $1,000 Panama around $16,000 today on display at Dobbs hat store in the city. Florenz Ziegfeld was discussed as a likely buyer.

These days, the overwhelming majority of Panama hats are woven in Cuenca, an attractive town in the Andes whose residents, prompted by the local government, turned to hat weaving in the mid 1800s, once Panama hats became popular. These are the hats you find in department stores and most hat shops. Nice hats, they are woven in a light, simple brisa weave, which can be turned out swiftly and in commercial quantities.

Montecristi, on the other hand, is the seat of the art. Locals have been weaving fine hats out of the fibers of the toquilla palm for centuries. Here, hat making has remained a cottage industry, the weavers gathering and preparing their own straw as they have for generations, weaving their hats in their artistic and time-consuming liso weave, a pretty herringbone style.

Their output is necessarily small, and that of the elite weavers in Pile smaller still. In a good year, Simn Espinal might make three hats.

Lately the government has been urging the weavers in Pile to become more commercial, to abandon the old ways, not to weave such fine hats but theyve refused. This, says Simn Espinal, is a gift from God.

Roff Smith is a writer and photographer based in England. You can follow his adventures on Instagram: @roffsmith.

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A Glimpse Inside the Workshops of the Worlds Finest Panama Hat Makers - The New York Times

Op Ed: Gaurav Sundaram On Reinventing GBTA With A Global Focus – The Company Dime

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ProKonsul Consultings Gaurav Sundaram has some experience with the Global Business Travel Association. He served on the groups India advisory board between 2012 and 2015, and then for three more years as an external advisor in India and Singapore. Hes got some ideas on how to evolve GBTA into a more representative, worldwide organization.

With the demise of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, GBTA seems to be running a one-horse race to deliver a global business travel association. There are several things GBTA needs to take a good, hard look at to make meaningful change.

Lets start with leadership. As GBTA research in 2017 showed, the business travel world was shifting away from North America. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 30 percent of total global spending and Asia contributed 42 percent. The Americas generated 28 percent. These stats prompt questions about the structure of the GBTA board of directors, currently comprised only of representatives from North America.

Then there is the membership base. It is doubtful that even 10 percent of current members represent Europe and Asia combined. This points to a major failure in the way GBTA has been run the past several years. It contributed to North Americans winning almost every election for board seats and other leadership posts.

Unlike many other successful professional associations, GBTA remains an essentially North American entity with some international offshoots, some of which have been terminated in the recent past. Many potential members in markets outside North America dont really know or understand GBTAs value. Unfortunately for them, there isnt much.

GBTA currently offers no truly global education initiatives. Most current ones require in-person attendance in the United States and certain other locations. That is totally out of sync with how the business world delivers education today. GBTA offers a highly limited menu ofonline courses.

In most markets outside North America and Western Europe, there is a real dearth of business travel education, accreditation and certification. But there is a tremendous hunger among professionals in our industry who want to learn best practices and are willing to pay for such programs. Bereft of any institutional support, they stumble as they navigate their professional world.

Generating revenue in markets outside North America and Western Europe is a challenge. Event sponsors place strong emphasis on the expected ROI. Organizations in these markets value long-term partners rather than an entity that comes in for a couple of years before turning tail and heading back home. This is exactly how GBTA handled China, India, Singapore and Latin America. These markets require nurturing and collaboration, and work very differently than more mature markets.

GBTA has been unable to translate Global into anything more meaningful than a name.

Operating in a truly global marketplace requires a wider skill set and greater capability. Whats most important is listening to and understanding what each market expects.

To be truly representative, GBTA will need to review its bylaws, elections and governance. The association needs to hear from key markets beyond North America, recognize their unique developments and address their challenges. GBTA should be led by a board drawn from those key markets. Only then will it truly count as an inclusive, global body.

To be successful in acquiring and diversifying membership, GBTA will need a compelling value statement and deliverables that appeal to audiences across markets. It needs to establish membership pricing based on each region, accounting for exchange rates.

Because many markets outside North America and Western Europe dont have in-country bodies focused exclusively on business travel, GBTA will need to invest in building the basic frameworks. That should include in-country working groups and volunteer forums that help establish credible representation. Many of these markets have influential leaders who are willing to invest time and effort, as long as they are backed by institutional support.

GBTA needs to develop a long-term plan for visibility around the world including a genuinely global events calendar. Events mostly in North America and a couple in Europe are not sufficient.

Today, a lot can be done with webinars and other virtual events. Travel managers worldwide wont tune in, though, if discussions largely are U.S.-centric or too generic. Content needs to be directly relevant to specific markets at locally convenient times. A diversity of speakers also is a must.

For professional development, GBTA needs a layered and meaningful education program that offers some standards across markets along with specific local and regional learning. GBTA could adapt current education and certification programs (including Fundamentals in Business Travel, Global Leadership Professional and Global Travel Professional) to make them more applicable to more people in more markets.

To be relevant to the industry today and for the foreseeable future, GBTA will need to restart things from scratch. Credibility is dented today. A focus on immediate short-term returns hampers the vision. Strong, corrective action is necessary.

If this does not happen, I would not be surprised to see GBTA follow ACTE into liquidation.

Related Op Ed: Ron DiLeo On The Demise Of ACTE And Whats Next For Business Travel Industry Associations Op Ed: Tony OConnor On The Window Of Opportunity To Reset Industry Associations Op Ed: Caroline Strachan And Paul Tilstone On What Went Wrong With GBTA And How To Fix It GBTA Appoints Dave Hilfman As Interim Executive Director With Support Wilting, Solombrino Apologizes And GBTA Board Hires Trusted Legal Partner To Investigate New Allegations GBTAs McCormick: Creating Conference Content Should Be Like Church And State

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See the World’s Most Famous Landmarks From the Comfort of Your Room at These Perfectly Located Hotels – MSN Money

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Park Hyatt Sydney With views like these, why even leave your room?

Imagine waking up, opening your curtains, and looking out at the Eiffel Tower. What about the gleaming white tiles of the Sydney Opera House or the sun-drenched Giza Pyramids?

For many, visiting the worlds most iconic landmarks is a catalyst for travel and the chance to mark off some bucket list items. Do yourself one better and book a room at any of these hotels with incredible views of the most beloved landmarks on Earth.

Kill two birds with one stone at the Andaz Dubai The Palm. Stay on one of the worlds largest human-made islands, the Palm Jumeirah, with unobstructed views of the Burj Al Arab, the worlds tallest all-suite hotel. Plus, the worlds tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, can be seen in the distance.

Designed to resemble the sail of a boat, the Burj Al Arab is one of the citys most recognizable and iconic buildings. At the Andaz, you can marvel at both architectural feats from your room or the pool.

Near the banks of Puget Sound, this urban-chic hotel has unparalleled vistas of the water and two of the citys most significant attractions. From the Thompson Seattles floor to ceiling windows, youll be able to see Seattles famous Great Wheel and Pike Place Market. Youll also be within walking distance to both.

The hotels rooftop bar and terrace, appropriately named The Nest, has some of the best views of the city, including Pike Place below and the sunset over the water.

New York has one of the worlds most recognizable skylines. For some of New Yorks best city panoramas, the Hyatt Centric Times Square has you covered.

Watch as the sun dips below the Hudson River, and the skyscraper lights switch on one after the other. The Chrysler Building, one of the worlds most famous Art Deco-style buildings is also one of the citys crown gems and the Hyatt Centric Times Square has the perfect view.

Sydneys renowned Opera House is the most well-known landmark in Australia and one of the most photographed buildings in the world. At the Park Hyatt Sydney, you can book a room with an Opera view so you can wonder at its tiled white sails from your bed. Or dine out at its waterfront restaurant, The Dining Room, for the perfect vantage point.

It doesnt get more impressive than a hotel with views of the Eiffel Tower. Go all out and choose a room with a spectacular Eiffel Tower view and a balcony at the Pullman Paris. Every night after sunset, you can watch the worlds most famous tower come to life with twinkling lights every hour on the hour. It will be one of your favorite travel memories to date.

Sitting on top of Esquilino Hill, the Hotel Colosseum is a boutique three-star hotel with stunning views of, you guessed it, the Colosseum. If you dont get a glimpse at the former gladiator amphitheater from your room, head to their rooftop terrace. Order a Negroni and look out over the entire city of Rome, with prime views of the Colosseum.

Although Big Ben is currently receiving a facelift, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge has unbelievable views of the giant clock tower, the Parliament House, and the London Eye. For now, you may fancy looking at the citys biggest Ferris wheel, but once construction on Big Ben is done in 2021, youll want to arrange a stay to see it in all its glory.

This historic hotel located on Marina Bay has some of the best views of Singapores famous Marina Bay Sands. Select a room on the bay to ogle at the grandeur of the three-pillared hotel across the water. The Fullerton Bay Hotels rooftop bar, Lantern, also has phenomenal views of the building and its nightly light show.

Egypts Great Pyramids are one of the worlds most mystifying and magical destinations. At the five-star Marriott Mena House, guests can catch a glimpse of these towering structures without ever leaving their room. Book a room with a Pyramid view and marvel at the limestone wonders over your morning coffee.

Deep in the Australian Outback, right in the center of the country, sits Uluru. This giant red rock belonging to the Aboriginal community is one of the most incredible sights in Australia. Longitude 131 is a luxury desert camp looking out over Uluru as its colors change from purple to deep red throughout the day. Theres no better place to experience this geological masterpiece.

The Golden Gate City, or SF as its called by locals, has dozens of attractions. Coming soon to the heart of the city, guests can get views of the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz, all from their hotel room. At the Four Seasons San Francisco at Embarcadero, select your modern room based on which iconic landmark youd rather look out over. Were partial to the Premier Bridge-View room to watch the fog roll in over the red bridge.

Hue, also known as the ancient city, is the former capital of Vietnam. Once home to emperors and royalty, the Imperial Citadel is the citys most popular attraction. You could spend an entire day exploring its grounds.

From your room and spacious balcony at the Azerai La Residence, Hue, you can see the exterior wall of the famed Citadel and an enormous Vietnamese flag flying high above the ancient city.

Perpetually under construction, La Sagrada Familia is one of the most whimsical and visually stunning churches in the world. Designed by famed Spanish architect Gaud, its a must-see sight.

From the lavish Royal Penthouse at the Majestic Hotel & Spa Barcelona, guests can see the church and its cranes. If you cant swing the penthouse, their rooftop bar La Dolce Vitae has the same picture-worthy views.

Video: This Glamorous Mexican Hotel Has a Campsite That's Basically a Five-star Adult Summer Camp (Travel + Leisure)

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Canada ranked #2 country in the world for travel in 2021 – Vancouver Is Awesome

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Where are you planning on taking your next holiday?

If your answer was nowhere, or possiblya tent somewhere deep in the woods, you aren't alone.

While Canada's two major airlines have implemented new COVID-19 protocol, they have relaxed their positions on in-flight physical distancing. What's more, the number of possible exposures to thevirus on Canadian flightscontinues to climb, with the BCCDC reporting new confirmed cases almost daily.

Currently, the Government of Canada states that you should avoid all travel outside of the country until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic -but the future is entirely uncertain.

So, for those globetrotters hoping that next year will offer some safe opportunities for international travel, British tailor-made holiday company Kuoni has compiled a list of the top destinations based on Google searches. According to Kuoni, searches for travel in 2021 have increased by a staggering 124% since the end of March, which might indicate that people are itching to book their next trip.

To uncover 2021s most dreamed of destinations, the holiday providerreviewed data for 131 countries around the world, including the UK, to discover which countries travellers are searching for on Google for next year.

A new challenger has emerged on the list of must-see destinations that preceded the pandemic. The United States along with Qatar and Canada tied in second place in the latest ranking, behind the United Arab Emirates, which is now the most sought-after destination for 2021. In third, Egypt appears to be in a good position to attract more visitors and rebuild its tourist industry.

Stranger still, the destination most viewed by French potential tourists was Belgium, while the Spanish have their sights set on Italy, as do the Turks. In Europe, travellers seem to be keen on the radical change of scenery offered by a trip tothe Maldives, with Italians,Brits, Romanians, Bulgarians and Poles all dreaming of taking a plunge into the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Americans and Canadians are eager to embark for Japan. For their part,Australians would be happy to stay in Oceania witha trip to Fiji.

In its description of Canada, Kuoni notes that,"Its easy to see why this beautiful country might appeal to people dreaming of wide open landscapes and towering mountains."

Kunoi adds that popular Canadian activitiesinclude camping, fishing, hiking, climbing, kayaking and skiing, and that there are plenty of opportunities for whale watching. The report also notes that cities like Toronto and Vancouver offer a bustling, cosmopolitan buzz for those seeking an alternative to the great outdoors.

- With files from Relax News.

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Canada ranked #2 country in the world for travel in 2021 - Vancouver Is Awesome

How to have a safe vacation during coronavirus this summer – CNET

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Be safe while vacationing during the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the look and feel of summer, when wanderlust traditionally turns to global getaways, nature retreats and beach vacations. With acontinuing surgeof COVID-19 cases across the world, and particularly in the United States, it may seem impossible to plan a safe vacation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,travel increases your chances of getting or spreading coronavirus, so the safest choice to protect yourself and others is to stay home. But if you're still determined to have sometraveltime this summer, whether byairor on the road, you should beaware of the risksand know some important guidelines, such asminimizing your contact with other people.

Keep track of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some locations and activities may put you at a higher risk for contracting the coronavirus.

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Before you make plans to visit another state, it's important to know the local laws so you're aware of what's open. This can also help prepare you for what's expected of you, like wearing face masks inside all stores and restaurants.

The coronavirus is highly contagious and can take weeks for symptoms to develop, if they do at all. That means there's a good chance that areas known to have high levels of confirmed COVID-19 cases may also have a greater number of people going about their daily lives who could be unknowingly infected.

Be aware of COVID hotspots, like parts of Florida, Texas, Georgia and California, where cases are on the rise. If you're visiting family in the state, it's safest to stay outside of crowded areas and skip the sightseeing. When possible, choose less-traveled destinations.

Get tested for coronavirus before and after your vacation.

You may want to get tested for coronavirus before you go on your vacation -- you could be an asymptomatic carrier -- and when you get back. If someone is visiting you for their vacation, you can ask them to take a COVID-19 test before they arrive.

Air travel is considered one of the riskier situations for spreading the coronavirus. Even if airports are relatively uncrowded, not every airline spaces passengers throughout the plane. You may not be able to social-distance, and longer flights potentially expose you to more recirculated air -- it's still unclear if the coronavirus is airborne, but the World Health Organization has recently admitted that it's possible.

If you must fly, take all precautions, including wearing a face mask except while eating or drinking water, thoroughly washing your hands and keeping your distance from others as much as possible. Note that if you rent a car, you should call ahead of time to ask how the vehicles are disinfected between renters.

Feeling sick? You may need to postpone your vacation.

While beaches may be your usual go-to when planning a trip, they may not be the safest option if other people have flocked to the area. They're often crowded, making it improbable not to pass crowds in the parking lots or while finding a spot on the sand. While the water itself isn't thought to spread the coronavirus, shouting to others in your group and singing along with music are known to spray respiratory droplets, which is how the coronavirus spreads.

The same goes for crowded farmers markets and high-traffic downtown shopping areas, especially if they're indoors. You should also avoid bars where people are typically crowded together waiting for drinks or on the dance floor, if those businesses are open. Instead, look for areas that are out of the way and have fewer people, and get your drinks and food to go.

Even if you wear a mask and social-distance, you can't control the actions of those around you who choose not to.

If you have a relative that you're planning to travel with and they become infected or develop coronavirus symptoms -- some of which resemble a cold or the flu -- leave them at home. Also, if you've been in contact with that person since they've become infected, you need to get a coronavirus test before you leave for your destination to ensure you're not sick and potentially spreading the virus to high-risk groups.

At this point, most businesses you go to will require you to wear a face mask before entering. This means local shops, grocery stores and even restaurants while you're waiting for your food. Pack several face masks for your kids and yourself so that you have plenty for the duration of your trip. If you're going somewhere that's hot, look for a cotton-blend mask, which can be cooler and more comfortable.

Face masks can help prevent the spread of coronavirus if worn correctly. Make sure the one you're wearing is covering your nose and chin and doesn't create gaps. Masks that use thicker material and designs with more layers might trap larger particles you accidentally eject through talking, coughing or sneezing, but they may also be warmer to wear.

When vacationing, it's best to stick with only the people in your household. The more people you come into contact with, the higher your chances are of contracting the virus. If you know you'll be going somewhere that has a large number of people, like a major city, wear a mask whenever you leave your accommodations, even to ride an elevator or ride in a taxi cab.

Also, follow all social-distancing markings on the ground to keep a distance from others. Wash your hands often and bring hand sanitizer to areas where a hand-washing station isn't provided.

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If you know you'll be frequenting restaurants while on your trip, call ahead to make sure they have outdoor seating. Eating outside is considered much less risky than eating inside because airflow disperses the coronavirus rather than allowing it to collect in a single spot. Remember that even though you're outside, you should still wear a mask until your food arrives, especially since you'll be in constant contact with your server, who is in turn in constant contact with other members of the public.

For more information on COVID-19, read up on why we're still in the first wave and what happens next. Also, remember that people who are asymptomatic can spread coronavirus. Here's how long it takes to get coronavirus test results back.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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How to have a safe vacation during coronavirus this summer - CNET

The Coronavirus Unleashed Along the Amazon River – The New York Times

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The virus swept through the region like past plagues that have traveled the river with colonizers and corporations.

It spread with the dugout canoes carrying families from town to town, the fishing dinghies with rattling engines, the ferries moving goods for hundreds of miles, packed with passengers sleeping in hammocks, side by side, for days at a time.

The Amazon River is South Americas essential life source, a glittering superhighway that cuts through the continent. It is the central artery in a vast network of tributaries that sustains some 30 million people across eight countries, moving supplies, people and industry deep into forested regions often untouched by road.

But once again, in a painful echo of history, it is also bringing disease.

Hammocks have become stretchers, carrying the sick from communities with no doctors.

A family mourning their matriarch, Gertrude Ferreira dos Santos, who spent her life along the river.

Boat ambulances travel for hours to reach a single patient.

As the pandemic assails Brazil, overwhelming it with more than two million infections and more than 84,000 deaths second only to the United States the virus is taking an exceptionally high toll on the Amazon region and the people who have depended on its abundance for generations.

In Brazil, the six cities with the highest coronavirus exposure are all on the Amazon River, according to an expansive new study from Brazilian researchers that measured antibodies in the population.

The epidemic has spread so quickly and thoroughly along the river that in remote fishing and farming communities like Tef, people have been as likely to get the virus as in New York City, home to one of the worlds worst outbreaks.

It was all very fast, said Isabel Delgado, 34, whose father, Felicindo, died of the virus shortly after falling ill in the small city of Coari. He had been born on the river, raised his family by it and built his life crafting furniture from the timber on its banks.

In the past four months, as the epidemic traveled from the biggest city in the Brazilian Amazon, Manaus, with its high-rises and factories, to tiny, seemingly isolated villages deep in the interior, the fragile health care system has buckled under the onslaught.

Cities and towns along the river have some of the highest deaths per capita in the country often several times the national average. In Manaus, there were periods when every Covid ward was full and 100 people were dying a day, pushing the city to cut new burial grounds out of thick forest. Grave diggers lay rows of coffins in long trenches carved in the freshly turned earth.

Down the river, hammocks have become stretchers, carrying the sick from communities with no doctors to boat ambulances that careen through the water. In remote reaches of the river basin, medevac planes land in tiny airstrips sliced into the lush landscape only to find that their patients died while waiting for help.

The virus is exacting an especially high toll on Indigenous people, a parallel to the past. Since the 1500s, waves of explorers have traveled the river, seeking gold, land and converts and later, rubber, a resource that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, changing the world. But with them, these outsiders brought violence and diseases like smallpox and measles, killing millions and wiping out entire communities.

This is a place that has generated so much wealth for others, said Charles C. Mann, a journalist who has written extensively on the history of the Americas, and look at whats happening to it.

Indigenous people have been roughly six times as likely to be infected with the coronavirus as white people, according to the Brazilian study, and are dying in far-flung river villages untouched by electricity.

Even in the best of times, the Amazon was among the most neglected parts of the country, a place where the helping hand of the government can feel distant, even nonexistent.

But the regions ability to confront the virus has been further weakened under President Jair Bolsonaro, whose public dismissals of the epidemic have verged at times on mockery, even though he tested positive himself.

The virus has surged on his governments disorganized and lackluster watch, tearing through the nation. From his first days in office, Mr. Bolsonaro has made it clear that protecting the welfare of Indigenous communities was not his priority, cutting their funding, whittling away at their protections and encouraging illegal encroachments into their territory.

To the outsider, the thickly forested region along the Amazon River appears impenetrable, disconnected from the rest of the world.

But that isolation is deceptive, said Tatiana Schor, a Brazilian geography professor who lives off one of the rivers tributaries.

There is no such thing as isolated communities in the Amazon, she said, and the virus has shown that.

The boats that nearly everyone relies on, sometimes crowded with more than 100 passengers for many days, are behind the spread of the virus, researchers say. And even as local governments have officially limited travel, people have continued to take to the water because almost everything food, medicine, even the trip to the capital to pick up emergency aid depends on the river.

Life along the Amazon is sometimes called an amphibious way of being.

Sick people traveled on the river to get tested for the virus.

A woman being tested last month in Manacapuru, where cases had exploded.

Scholars have long referred to life on the Amazon as an amphibious way of being.

The crisis in the Brazilian Amazon began in Manaus, a city of 2.2 million that has risen out of the forest in a jarring eruption of concrete and glass, tapering at its edges to clusters of wooden homes perched on stilts, high above the water.

Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, is now an industrial powerhouse, a major producer of motorcycles, with many foreign businesses. It is intimately connected to the rest of the world its international airport sees about 250,000 passengers a month and, through the river, to much of the Amazon region.

Manauss first documented case, confirmed on March 13, came from England. The patient had mild symptoms and quarantined at home, in a wealthier part of town, according to city health officials.

Soon, though, the virus seemed to be everywhere.

We didnt have any more beds or even armchairs, Dr. lvaro Queiroz, 26, said of the days when his public hospital in Manaus was completely full. People never stopped coming.

Gertrude Ferreira Dos Santos lived on the citys eastern edge, in a neighborhood pressed against the water. She used to say that her favorite thing in the world was to travel the river by boat. With the breeze on her face, she said, she felt free.

Then, in May, Ms. dos Santos, 54, fell ill. Days later, she called her children to her bed, making them promise to stick together. She seemed to know that she was about to die.

Funeral teams worked around the clock to collect bodies, including that of Ms. dos Santos.

Many people with symptoms of the virus prefer to stay home, scared of the hospital and of dying alone.

There were so many deaths in Manaus that the city cut new burial grounds out of thick forest.

Eduany, 22, her youngest daughter, stayed with her that night. In early morning, as Eduany got up to take a break, her sister Elen, 28, begged her to come back.

Their mother had stopped breathing. The sisters, in desperation, attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. At 6 a.m., the sun rising above the city, Ms. dos Santos died in their arms.

When men in white protective suits arrived later to carry away her body, the sisters began to wail.

Ms. dos Santos had been a single mother. Life had not always been easy. But she had maintained a sense of wonder, something her daughters admired. In everything she did, Elen said, she was joyful.

Her mothers death certificate listed many underlying conditions, including longstanding breathing problems, according to the women. It also listed respiratory failure, a key indicator that a person has died of the coronavirus.

But her daughters didnt believe she was a victim of the pandemic. She had certainly died of other causes, they said. God would not have given her such an ugly disease.

Along the river, people said similar things over and over, reluctant to admit to possible contagion, even as the health of their siblings and parents declined. Many seemed to think their families would be shunned, that a diagnosis would somehow tarnish an otherwise dignified life.

But as this stigma led people to play down symptoms of the virus out of fear, doctors said, the pandemic was spreading quickly.

After Manaus, the virus traveled east and west, racing away from the regions health care center.

Medical teams traveling to test people.

A community center was transformed into a walk-in clinic.

In places far from the capital, basic supplies, including disinfectant, are shipped in.

In Manacapuru, more than an hour from the capital, Messias Nascimento Farias, 40, carried his ailing wife to their car and sped down one of the regions few country roads to meet the ambulance that could carry her to a hospital.

His wife, Sandra Machado Dutra, 36, gasped in his truck.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he prayed over and over until he handed her to health care workers. They were lucky. She survived.

But for most people living along the river, hundreds of boat miles from Manaus, the fastest way to a major hospital is by plane.

Even before the virus arrived, people in far-flung communities with a life-threatening emergency could make a frantic call for an airplane ambulance that would take them to a hospital in the capital.

But the small planes turned out to be dangerous for people with Covid-19, sometimes causing blood oxygen levels to plummet as the aircraft rose. Very few of the airlift patients seemed to be surviving, doctors said.

Instead, physicians and nurses found themselves flying their patients to painful deaths far from everything and everyone they had loved.

One morning in May, a white plane touched down at the airport in Coari, about 230 miles from Manaus.

Sandra Machado Dutra passed out before being lifted into an ambulance.

The family of Felicindo Delgado, the furniture maker, waved goodbye as he was loaded onto a plane in Coari.

The flight took a toll on Mr. Delgado.

On the tarmac on a stretcher was Mr. Delgado, 68, the furniture maker, barefoot and barely breathing.

Dr. Daniel Srgio Siqueira and a nurse, Walci Frank, exhausted after weeks of constant work, loaded him into the small cabin. As the plane rose, his oxygen levels began to dive.

Mr. Delgados daughter Isabel turned to the doctor in a panic. My father is very strong, she told him. He is going to make it.

When the Delgados finally reached the hospital in Manaus, Isabel was stunned by the scenes around her. Despairing relatives held up loved ones who had crumpled under the burden of disease, hurrying them in for treatment.

At the same time, patients who had managed to survive Covid-19 staggered out, into the jubilant arms of family and friends.

I was just there, she said, praying that God would save my father.

Mr. Delgado died a few days later. When Isabel found out, the doctor started crying with her.

She had no doubt that the river her father loved had also brought him the virus. Soon, she and five other family members fell ill, too.

A family in Manacapuru gathered to hear a doctors assessment.

A doctor treating a frail patient at her home in Manacapuru.

Some people who became sick waited until they were very weak to go to the hospital.

When the coronavirus arrived in the Americas, there was widespread fear that it would take a devastating toll on Indigenous communities across the region.

In many places along the Amazon River, those fears appear to be coming true.

At least 570 Indigenous people in Brazil have died of the disease since March, according to an association that represents the countrys Indigenous people. The vast majority of those deaths were in places connected to the river.

More than 18,000 Indigenous people have been infected. Community leaders have reported entire villages confined to their hammocks, struggling to rise even to feed their children.

In many instances, the very health workers sent to help them have inadvertently spread the virus.

In the riverside hamlet of So Jos da Fortaleza, Chief Iakonero Apurins relatives sent word, one by one, that they couldnt eat, that they heard voices, that they were too sick to get up.

Soon, it seemed to the chief that everyone in her community was sick.

Apurin families had survived generations of violence and forced labor. The virus tested them anew.

The virus hit during the rainy season, swelling waterways.

Ferries continued to ply the region, with people sleeping side-by-side for days at a time.

Chief Apurin, 54, said her group of 35 Apurin families had survived generations of violence and forced labor. They had arrived in So Jos da Fortaleza decades ago, believing that they would finally be safe.

It was the river, said the chief, that had sustained them, feeding, washing and cleansing them spiritually.

Then the new disease came, and the chief was ferrying traditional teas from home to home. Soon came her own cough and exhaustion. A test in Coari confirmed that she had caught the virus.

Chief Apurin didnt blame the river. She blamed the people who traveled it.

The river to us is purification, she said. Its the most beautiful thing there is.

Miraculously, she said in mid-July, not a single person among the 35 families had died.

In Tef, a city of 60,000 people nearly 400 miles along the river from Manaus, the virus had arrived with gale force.

At the small public hospital, where officials initially planned to accommodate 12 patients, nearly 50 crowded the makeshift Covid-19 unit. Dr. Laura Crivellari, 31, the hospitals only infectious disease expert, took them in, doing what she could with two respirators, no intensive care unit, many sick colleagues and no one to replace them.

At one of the worst moments, she was the only physician on duty for two days, overseeing dozens of critically ill patients.

Patients quickly overwhelmed the Covid-19 ward of the hospital in Tef.

The constant death in Tef pushed one doctor to the breaking point.

Awaiting burial in Tef.

The constant death pushed Dr. Crivellari to her breaking point. Some days she barely stopped to eat or drink.

At home, she shared her anguish with her partner. She was thinking of giving up medicine, she said. I cant carry on like this, she told him.

The pandemic has been brutal on medical workers around the world, and it has been particularly difficult for the doctors and nurses navigating the vast distances, frequent communication cuts and deep supply scarcity along the Amazon.

Without proper training or equipment, many nurses and doctors along the river have died. Others have infected their families.

Dr. Crivellari knew her city was vulnerable. Its a three-day boat ride from Manaus to Tef, with ferries often carrying 150 people at a time.

Our fear was that an infected person would contaminate the whole boat, she said, and thats what ended up happening.

Read more from the original source:

The Coronavirus Unleashed Along the Amazon River - The New York Times