Monthly Archives: May 2020

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is planning to build a multibillion-dollar chip plant in Arizona, a potential realignment of global trade designed to allay U.S. concerns over supply chain security.The Taiwanese company is negotiating a deal with the administration of President Donald Trump to manufacture semiconductors in the U.S. to create jobs and produce sensitive components domestically for national security reasons, according to people familiar with the situation. Talks have been progressing swiftly in recent days and an announcement could come as early as Friday, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal is not public yet.

We are now actively evaluating the U.S. fab plan, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said on a recent analyst conference call, referring to fabs, the industry term for chip factories. There is a cost gap, which is hard to accept at this point. Of course, we have -- we are doing a lot of things to reduce that cost gap.

TSMC is the largest and most advanced maker of chips for other companies. Its factories, which are primarily located in Taiwan, produce important components designed by Apple Inc. and most of the largest semiconductor companies, including Qualcomm Inc., Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Chinas Huawei Technologies Co. That makes TSMC a crucial part of many electronic devices, such as smartphones, laptops and servers running the internet, and corporate and government computer networks.An agreement would call for TSMC to build a plant in Arizona by 2023, according to the people. Its unclear what type of support the project will get from the federal government or the state of Arizona.

A cutting-edge fab is expensive to build. TSMC spent NT$500 billion ($17 billion) to build an advanced facility in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan that will churn out components for new iPhones this year. It plans another $16 billion in capital spending this year.

If the federal government provides cash for a U.S. plant, itll mark a shift in policy and rhetoric from a Republican administration. Trumps White House has rarely supported such direct industrial intervention, favoring market dynamics. However, emerging trends may be forcing a reconsideration. The U.S. government is already giving or lending billions of dollars to keep companies afloat in the midst of a pandemic-fueled recession. The crisis has also highlighted how vulnerable global supply chains are to such shocks.

Meanwhile, Trump has attacked international trade deals and tried to limit Chinas access to semiconductor technology. A TSMC deal to bring high-skilled work to Arizona may help Trumps re-election prospects this year. However, a similar government-backed effort with Foxconn in Wisconsin has so far not created as many jobs as expected.

Read more: Foxconn Factory Subsidy Estimate Slashed by Wisconsin Agency

Shares of Applied Materials Inc., Lam Research Corp. and KLA Corp. rose on optimism that these U.S.-based providers of chipmaking equipment may face fewer export controls when supplying TSMC.

By producing chips for many of the leading tech companies, TSMC has amassed the technical know-how needed to churn out the smallest, most efficient and powerful semiconductors in the highest volumes. Concentrating such valuable capabilities in the hands of one company in Asia, is a concern for the U.S., especially when, across the Strait of Taiwan, China is rushing to develop its own semiconductor industry.

TSMCs local rival, GlobalFoundries Inc., has given up on advanced manufacturing and Intel Corp., the worlds largest chipmaker, mainly manufactures for itself. Its attempt to become a so-called foundry, has failed to gain major customers. TSMCs only other significant challenger is South Koreas Samsung Electronics Co.

(Updates with details on Wisconsin project in eighth paragraph.)

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TSMC to Build Chip Plant in Arizona With Government Support - Yahoo Finance Australia

For one manicurist at a nail salon in Texas, May 18 looms large. Its the tentative date that she must return to work, but her fears over the coronavirus pandemic remain.

Doing someones nails is an extremely close contact job. Youre constantly in someones face, said Anh, 54, who asked to go by her first name only to avoid any conflict with her employer and customers. Many customers didnt think COVID-19 was something to be afraid of, and therefore did not halt travel and social plans.

Ahn is scared to return to work because she gets sick easily and her husband, who is 65, is at a higher risk of developing a serious illness if he contracts the virus. But many of her customers have been messaging her and her manager, asking when the salon will reopen.

Theres a pressure to open and keep customers happy, said Ahn, who is the sole provider for her family.

Laura Spencer, a recruiter at the corporate offices of the Fox Restaurant Concepts' Phoenix-based eateries, cleans off surfaces as she helps out at Flower Child restaurant as Arizona slowly relaxes restrictions due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Ahn is one of many workers facing the prospect of going back to work as states reopen their economies during a pandemic. Questions of whether you can be forced back to work are mounting, and in most cases, employees have to return unless the work environment isnt safe or theyre considered high risk.

Generally speaking, if the employer requires you to return to work, you must return to work, said Daniel Feinstein, a labor and employment lawyer at Davis & Gilbert LLP, unless you could show that there's an imminent danger of returning to work.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, or OSH Act, allows workers to refuse work if theres an imminent danger or your employer is not taking responsible steps to ensure a safe working environment.

Read more: Workers rights: Here's how the new coronavirus legislation protects you

So, if your employer is taking steps to protect you such as promoting social distancing measures, having the office cleaned regularly, and ensuring people who have tested positive for COVID-19 don't come to the office this means you likely wont be protected under the OSH Act.

In Ahns case, the employer is taking extra precautions, which means her employer likely would have the right to let her go if she refuses to return to work.

My employer is requiring masks for customers upon entering the store, Ahn said. Workers will also have masks and will be sitting six feet apart from each other.

People who are at higher risk for a more severe illness if they contract the disease may be allowed not to return to work. That could include those who have diabetes, chronic lung disease or are immunocompromised, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A customer arrives for a pickup dinner at a downtown restaurant In Lawrence, Kan., Monday, May 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

If returning to work or commuting to work could endanger them, then they may be protected under the disability laws, Feinstein said. If an employer lets them go for not returning to work, they could have legal exposure.

Guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says employers must find ways to mitigate the risk for people with underlying conditions under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

If employees refuse to return to work and arent protected by ADA or OSH Act, they likely will lose access to unemployment benefits, too, unless they have a good cause.

Story continues

Read more: Coronavirus: How to find a job in a tough economy

A good causeincludes situations such as having a health issue or needing to care for a close family member who has a health issue. If you must provide childcare because your child is not in school is also considered a good cause, along with having unsafe working conditions.

But the outcome is really decided on a case-by-case basis.

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In the absence of good cause, if an employee refuses to return to work, that will generally mean that they're not entitled to unemployment insurance, Feinstein said.

Some states such as Ohio, Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and South Carolina are asking employers to report to the state department of labor if an employee refuses to come to work without good cause.

If you have health reasons for not returning to work, you may have the legal right to negotiate your future work arrangements.

Your legal right will really be dependent on if you have a reason why it's necessary, Feinstein said. You and your employers are supposed to engage in what's called the interactive process to determine how best to accommodate that medical condition.

Read more: Coronavirus: Here's how to make the best work-from-home arrangement

Employers may be more open than before to negotiate work arrangements after offices reopen. One in 6 employers are investing in the development of their employees and my provide re-skilling and training, according to a survey by Society for Human Resource Management.

Signs are posted for social distancing as Dan Loftus organizes books at Half Price Books, Monday, May 11, 2020, in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

I always advise any worker and any employer to have honest conversations and to request things in any situation, said Alex Alonso, SHRMs chief knowledge officer. The worst possible outcome is that you're told no. As long as youve asked for it and make a case, there's a good reason to pull this together.

The recently-passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) gives more leeway to employees who cant work because they have childcare responsibilities because schools are shut down.

Theyre now entitled to these 10 weeks of leave at partial pay, Feinstein said. The partial pay is around two-thirds of the employees usual pay.

Yes. Under the FFCRA, many employers are required to provide paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for COVID-19-related reasons through the end of 2020.

Read more: How to file for unemployment insurance

The paid sick leave provisions apply to certain public employees and private employers with fewer than 500 employees, while small businesses with fewer than 50 employees may qualify for exemption in some cases.

If employees are sick or if they've been quarantined, Feinstein said, then they're entitled to two weeks of sick leave at their regular salary for coronavirus-related reasons.

Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance andCashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter@denitsa_tsekova.

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Coronavirus: What American workers should know about their rights as the economy reopens - Yahoo News

Officials are delineating the parameters of relaxing stay-at-home orders that have throttled the global economy, yet a few companies are already giving the public a glimpse of life once stringent coronavirus restrictions begin winding down.

Currently, states and cities are crafting a pell-mell retreat away from lockdowns designed to contain the COVID-19 crisis but that have decimated growth and the jobs market. Yet, it's widely acknowledged that social distancing protocols that enforce small crowds and require the use of face masks in public will remain in effect.

Already, a range of big and small businesses around the country are actively implementing the post-lockdown new normal. Its become a catchphrase that has defined public discourse since COVID-19 upended societal norms, and brought the global economy to its knees.

Its also a dynamic consumers will be forced to navigate in the near-term, with many citizens desperate to resume public life, but without an approved coronavirus treatment or vaccine on the immediate horizon.

From cashless transactions, to smaller office footprints with fewer on-site workers, to cleaner hotels and less crowded casinos (alas, with no buffets), the post-lockdown era will be characterized by changes to public life that will be both subtle and dramatic.

To be honest I think were going to be seeing structural changes within the U.S. economy, and other economies around the world as well, because this has opened up new opportunities too, ING Chief International Economist James Knightly told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview.

Knightly believes that with so many white-collar professions working remotely, employers are likely to ask hard questions about whether they need as much office space, and whether business travel is necessary.

Last month, Barclays (BCS) CEO Jes Staley told reporters that the notion of putting 7,000 people in a building may be a thing of the past. And already, companies are reconfiguring existing offices to conform to the imperatives of preventing the spread of the deadly virus, and planning for more to work from home.

There could be longer-term implications for the airline industry, hotel chains and of course hospitality, INGs Knightly said.

That runs the risk of making the recovery story last longer, or take longer to come to fruition, the economist said adding that it could take 2 years to recoup the growth lost in the wave of lockdowns that put the economy in suspended animation.

There are over 1.3 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

The hospitality industry, which includes hotels and casinos, have been hemorrhaging money, and are deeply invested in a return to normal. However, whether consumers feel safe returning to public life in droves is very much an open question.

Hilton (HLT) CFO Kevin Jacobs told Yahoo Finance on Monday that the chain was pushing heightened level of cleanliness for guests, while Las Vegas Sands (LVS) COO Robert Goldstein warned on an earnings call that it will take time for Americans to 'acclimate' to this new world.

Separately, Andre Carrier, the COO of Eureka Casinos in Las Vegas said recently that the gaming industry is in the process of imagining what a socially-distant casino experience will look like once the city reopens for business.

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Clearly distancing is part of that, were blessed that by their nature, casino floors are large, and we do have the ability to spread out games and equipment, Carrier told Yahoo Finance last week.

Casinos will have more equipment and processes to sanitize and enforce social distancing, he said. Meanwhile, at the behest of Nevada regulators, elaborate open air buffet dining a staple of the Las Vegas dining experience will be a thing of the past for now, as will jam-packed casino floors.

I think you may see fewer games on the floor to provide the spacing required, so some casino environments have 2000 games, there may be fewer when we come back, the executive said.

NEW YORK, NY- MAY 11: Antibody Testing for MTA Employees at Grand Central Station's Vanderbilt Hall during the coronavirus pandemic in New York City on May 11, 2020. Credit: Rainmaker Photos/MediaPunch /IPX

The wealthy yet densely populated East and West Coasts have been epicenters of the U.S. outbreak, which has infected over 1.3 million and killed about 80,000.

According to some observers, a major overarching theme in the post-coronavirus future is the potential for a migratory shift away from bustling coastal regions that include New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, all hotbeds of coronavirus infections.

A subplot to this global vs. local dynamic is urban vs. rural. The virus outbreak has been hardest felt in dense urban areas, which are also major hubs of business activity, according to Antonio DeSpirito, a managing director and CIO of U.S. Fundamental Active Equity at BlackRock.

Along with turbocharged virtual life trends like online learning, streaming and gaming, DeSpirito thinks the move away from traditional office spaces may fuel a move away from big city life.

We could see a shrinking office footprint as populations gravitate away and remote workforces grow, he wrote in a recent note to clients.

Meanwhile, less-urban areas could benefit in several ways: on-shoring of manufacturing would likely go to these areas; the ability to work remotely means people can relocate from urban hubs; and retirees who preferred culture centers like New York City may see disadvantages of dense areas and look to more rural settings, DeSpirito added.

INGs Kingsley cautioned that the staggering job losses seen over the last two months could take longer to come back, mainly because protocols that block large crowds will still be in effect while consumer psychology may take longer to heal.

We have to be cognizant of the risks people dont want to take, people dont want to go to as many bars or restaurants, they dont want to go to as many stores, Kingsley said. These issues all do make it... a risk that we see a much more prolonged period before we regain the lost output.

Javier David is an editor at Yahoo Finance. He can be reached at @TeflonGeek.

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Companies are dropping big hints about the 'new normal' once coronavirus lockdowns end - Yahoo Finance

People line up for coronavirus testing in Wuhan, China, where the city government has required that all residents be tested after new cases were reported on May 10, 2020. (For The Times )

Red lanterns swayed in the wind above beeping thermometers. A queue jerked forward every few minutes, moving like toy soldiers through a socially distanced assembly line. Medical staff in goggles and face shields manned three tables: one for registration and temperatures, two for testing.

Open your mouth, the staff commanded over and over. The residents in the Jade Belt apartment complex obeyed, wincing, sometimes gagging, as the workers scraped the backs of their throats with long cotton swabs. Security guards hovered around the area, cordoned off with string.

The Jade Belt residents a few wearing raincoats as protection were among the first in line after the city government ordered Monday that all Wuhan residents be tested for the coronavirus within 10 days. The action was a swift response to six new cases of COVID-19 reported on Sunday the first such infections since early April.

The 10-day time frame appeared implausible based on the citys testing capacity. It was also somewhat impractical given that the limited accuracy of the nucleic acid virus tests were not followed by restrictions on movement. One could test negative Wednesday morning, have lunch with an asymptomatic person that afternoon, and become infected without knowing.

But this was Wuhan, ground zero for a pandemic, and a city the Chinese government was determined to keep under control. The community workers got the message: Test everyone. All residents. No household left behind, recited Ms. Duan, a worker in the Jade Belt complex.

Chinas residents live under a grid-style social management system: All residential areas are divided into geographical blocks, and street-level authorities assign individual workers to manage each of them.

The system enforces social stability in regular times, with these workers monitoring their assigned residents and reporting them for undesirable activities such as gambling or religious gatherings. During the pandemic, theyve become responsible for enforcing restrictions on movement, registering people for tests, and caring for the vulnerable under lockdown.

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Everyone is pretty self-aware, Duan said. Four people had died in Jade Belt during the first lockdown, she said. Twenty-eight had been infected, a low number compared with many other neighborhoods. Most residents were now eager to cooperate with testing and anything else that might prevent another outbreak.

Temporary lockdown is for the sake of long-lasting freedom, declared the large white characters on a red banner hung outside the testing area. Yet one month after Wuhans celebrated reopening, that freedom seems still far out of reach.

More than 10 million people were sequestered in Wuhan as the pandemic spread across China in January. Many were kept inside their apartments for nearly three months. Thousands of residents died, many of them at home with their families, unable to find space in overwhelmed hospitals.

The world waited as Wuhan hunkered down in those days. Snow and rain swept the city's empty streets as its people sent endless pleas for help on social media. It took weeks before enough makeshift cabin hospitals were built to house the sick and quarantine mild cases and their contacts, and months before the deaths and infections finally dwindled.

Only when the lockdown lifted on April 8 did the city breathe again.

Green banners were hung on apartment compounds declared coronavirus-free, emblazoned with the slogan: All Peoples Anti-Epidemic War Decisive Battle, Decisive Victory.

One grade of high schoolers was allowed back to school, though some had to wear watches with QR codes tracking everywhere they went. Swimmers returned to the Yangtze River. Nail salons reopened to customers, who complained that they were gaining weight, now that they could finally relax.

Relieved residents punched holes and removed bars from the blockades that had been erected around their communities, climbing out to see their city again. It felt as if an unwelcome stranger had been banished.

Then came the new cluster: only six cases, a seemingly immeasurable fraction compared to the 50,000 total reported in Wuhan and millions more across the world. But rumors took flight, spurred by lingering distrust and anxiety from the lack of government transparency in January. Residents shared unverified videos online of elderly people dragged into ambulances in different compounds, and warned one another to stay home.

Should we get our team back together? wrote a volunteer in a WeChat group of Wuhan citizens whod spent three months braving the first outbreak in makeshift protective gear, delivering medical supplies and driving patients and nurses to and from hospitals when public transportation was shut down.

By Tuesday afternoon, many communities began blocking their streets again.

Residents of one neighborhood in Qiaokou district were caught by surprise as a makeshift roadblock orange, yellow, blue and teal shared bicycles stacked on top of one another appeared at one of their main street entrances.

Whats happening? Were closing again? a woman shouted over the bikes at a security guard on the other side. As he struggled to secure a tarp over the blockade, another woman clambered over the bicycle mountain, determined to take her planned route home.

Please scan and enter. Please scan and enter, a robotic voice in a Hubei accent repeated at a tent outside one building inside the neighborhood. A community worker sat in front of the tent, taking temperatures and pointing to a QR code that residents were asked to scan to keep track of every entry or exit.

One middle-aged woman stepped out of her apartment on the buildings second floor. The room behind her was filled with stacks of sealed cardboard boxes. Her family ran an online stationery store and delivery service, she said, sending school supplies around the country.

During the lockdown, though, theyd only been allowed to go outside once a day, and packages sent to the outside world from Wuhan were restricted. Shed spent 76 days at home with her husband and their undeliverable boxes.

We only just started going out for groceries again, she said. Shed been nervous about a second wave in the fall. But is it already getting worse?

In another neighborhood, a couple stood on their balcony two floors above a supermarket, lowering a plastic bag on a rope to the ground. A worker loaded eggs and vegetables in the bag before they hauled the bag back up, the wife telling her husband to watch out as it swung in the wind.

This is easier than putting on our gloves and masks and goggles to go outside, the woman explained from above.

By Wednesday evening, news of the citywide testing had spread across Wuhan and China, though some residents said they still hadnt received any such notification from their community workers. Another community worker in Qiaokou district said shed notified her residents of testing, but didnt know when it would be done.

Whether restrictions on movement are reinstated makes little difference for some. As residents of one neighborhood hollered from their balconies and bikes on Tuesday afternoon, asking questions about the new tests and roadblocks, a gray-haired woman stood in front of an old building, hunched slightly with her hands behind her back.

She hadnt left her apartment building since January, she said, pointing to her stunted legs: Its hard for me to walk. But she came outside occasionally, blinking at the sudden shift from her dark room, to look at a tree across the street.

See how the leaves are moving, she said then fell silent, gazing as they rustled in the light.

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Wuhan reopened last month. Now, new coronavirus infections spark mass testing and renewed fears - Yahoo News

The 2020 Major League Baseball season if it happens will feature several unique elements. That much is already clear as the league and MLB Players Association attempt to formulate a plan to resume play amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the strangest possibilities that exist? The highest-paid player this season might be an inactive slugger who has not appeared in a game since July 18, 2016.

According to The Athletics Ken Rosenthal, former Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder is in position to hold that distinction if there are no significant changes to the shortened-season pay structure previously agreed to by the owners and players.

Heres how, per Rosenthals report:

Prince Fielder, owed $24 million in the final year of his contract with the Rangers, is to receive his full termination pay under terms of the March agreement between the owners and players regarding a shortened or canceled 2020 season.

The amount Fielder receives might decrease if the parties reach a subsequent deal to reduce the pay of players who were released before the COVID-19 pandemic, but such an adjustment is unlikely, sources say. The players are no longer on 40-man rosters, and the sports collective-bargaining agreement seemingly protects the guarantees in their contracts.

In the March agreement referenced by Rosenthal, the players agreed to prorated salaries for the 2020 season based on the number of games played. On Monday, the owners approved a league proposal calling for an 82-game season. The players have not yet agreed to the proposal, but if they do players will receive just a little over half of their 2020 salary.

The owners are also seeking a 50-50 split of revenues, which didnt sit well at all with union executive director Tony Clark. In other words, the money issues are far from settled. But the current agreement would bump Fielder into an unusual position.

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout is currently slated to be MLBs highest-paid player this season at $37.7 million. Gerrit Cole is close behind at $36 million. The 29-year-old right-hander signed a nine-year, $324 million free-agent deal with the New York Yankees over the winter.

Trout would receive just under $19 million, while Coles salary would drop to just over $18 million if the prorated salaries stay in place. They are two of 24 players scheduled to earn at least $24 million this season.

Retired slugger Prince Fielder could be MLB's highest paid player in 2020. Here's how.. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

Fielder, who was deemed medically unable to play after suffering a second herniated disk in his neck in 2016, would have been entering the final year of the nine-year, $214 million contract he originally signed with the Tigers.

The Rangers officially released Fielder after the 2017 season.

Editors note: This article previously described Prince Fielder as retired. He has not officially retired, which is why hes still eligible to be owed money.

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Why this inactive slugger might be MLB's highest-paid player in 2020 - Yahoo Sports

The fast-moving coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of Americans to work from home, with no immediate end in sight. Dates for when employees will return to office buildings move later and later or remain uncertain for many companies.

On Tuesday, Twitter told its employees that many of them will be allowed to work from home in perpetuity, even after the pandemic ends. The move signaled a growing shift in attitudes in certain industries toward remote working a change that could have lasting implications.

Gallup data from the end of April showed that 63 percent of U.S. employees said they had worked from home in the past seven days because of coronavirus concerns, a number that had doubled from 31 percent three weeks before.

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Even as dozens of states have begun to partly reopen months after the initial shutdowns, experts said that past stigma around working from home has largely been lifted and that they expected much more remote work to be incorporated into office life for the foreseeable future.

"The views around work from home have completely changed," said Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom, co-director of the productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship program at the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research. "There is no stigma around working from home now."

Bloom said that beyond the next year or two, he believes there could be "an explosion of working from home" in industries in which it was possible, "in part because we've all now tried it, we've got it up and running and invested our time and effort into it."

But future work-from-home scenarios would be very different from current conditions, Bloom said not only would children be back at school, but it's likely that employees would still have the option of going into the office a few times a week.

"That, I think, will end up being the new norm, and that's a big step up, two to three times as much home working as we previously did," he said.

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Barbara Larson, a management professor at Northeastern University, also said she expected a trend toward less density in the office for at least the next year or two in industries in which remote work was feasible.

"But who knows how that could play out over a longer period of time?" she said.

A study Bloom published in 2015 found that Chinese call-center employees took fewer breaks and were 13 percent more productive when working from home. He said that in the long run, the move toward increased remote working would benefit employers and employees.

Bloom said that usually working remotely was done on occasion and by choice. It provides a quiet, stable environment for employees a situation at contrast with the current reality, which is fraught with public health concerns and extreme isolation.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Larson also said it was important not to "make sweeping generalizations" about remote working from the extreme conditions you're seeing during the pandemic.

"What you do want to be doing is looking for the bright spots in your workforce, what types of jobs are actually working out pretty well remotely," she said. "Where are there opportunities in deciding who comes back to the office first?"

Larson said it would be critical for companies and managers to be "very thoughtful and mindful of the way in which they are bringing people back into the office, not just from a public health standpoint.

"They need to be considering the nature of the jobs they have people doing and the individuals," she said.

Laurel Farrer, founder of Distribute Consulting and the Remote Work Association, said there was a very big difference between allowing remote working and adopting effective remote working strategies.

In the long run, companies will have to go a lot further to update their policies and communication to optimize their remote work settings and enhance their business operations, she said.

"They're not going to see that by just sending somebody home with a laptop. They really need to invest some intention and time into updating all their business operations to match this new way of working," she said.

Bloom said he believed the pandemic could also affect how we view sick leave.

"The stigma of taking sick leave, I think, will evaporate in part in the short run," he said, with companies terrified to have potentially contagious employees in the office. "How permanent that will be is hard to tell, but I think all of this is going to be a somewhat more permanent change. It will be more acceptable to take sick leave and more acceptable to work from home."

Bloom said that in the aftermath of the financial crisis, there were major pushes for regulation, which could happen in the years after the pandemic.

"There will be much more recognition that this is unlikely to be the last pandemic, so we want to make sure we're in better shape," Bloom said.

There could be "a massive regulatory push" to force companies to provide sick leave or health care, as the virus illustrates how low-wage, front-line workers without benefits have been forced to work, putting themselves and others at risk.

"It's the very group that you don't want coming in to work that tend to be those that don't get sick leave," he said. "A lot of the lowest-paid service-sector jobs that have the most contact with other people are the ones without sick leave."

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Goodbye offices? Working from home might be here to stay - Yahoo News

Demonstrators watch a parade of motorcyclists riding in honor of Ahmaud Arbery

Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in February when he was confronted by Gregory and Travis McMichael. Mr Arbery was fatally shot during the encounter. Now, over two months later, the pair have been arrested.

Here's what we know about the case.

Gregory, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, are in the custody of the Glynn County Sheriff's Department. They were detained by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) on 7 May.

The father-son pair face murder and aggravated assault charges.

The GBI has said the investigation is ongoing. More arrests could be coming. A neighbour who filmed a video of the confrontation, William Bryan, is also under investigation.

On May 11 Georgia appointed a new lead prosecutor in the case - district attorney Joyette Holmes - the fourth since Mr Arbery was killed. Her predecessor had called for a grand jury, but they cannot convene until Covid-19 restrictions ease in June.

In the afternoon on 23 February, Mr Arbery was out for a jog in the coastal city of Brunswick.

At one point, he entered the Satilla Shores neighbourhood.

A neighbourhood resident, Gregory McMichael, told police he believed Mr Arbery resembled the suspect in a series of local break-ins.

Police have said no reports were filed regarding these alleged break-ins.

Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis, armed themselves with a pistol and a shotgun and pursued Mr Arbery in a pickup truck through the neighbourhood.

According to the elder Mr McMichael, he and his son had said "stop, stop, we want to talk to you".

He said Mr Arbery then attacked his son. Lawyers for Mr Arbery's family have said the 25-year-old was unarmed.

Three shots were fired and Mr Arbery fell down on the street.

An autopsy report showed Mr Arbery had two gunshot wounds in his chest, and a gunshot graze wound on the inside of one of his wrists. He did not have drugs or alcohol in his system.

The delay is in part tied to prosecutor turnover: the case is currently on its third, Tom Durden.

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Two local district attorneys recused themselves due to professional connections to the elder Mr McMichael.

Officials have also publicly disagreed over whether there were orders to not arrest the pair.

Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson - whose office initially handled the case - has been accused by two county commissioners of not allowing police to arrest the McMichaels immediately after the shooting.

Mr McMichael had been previously employed by her office.

But Ms Johnson has denied the claim, and said no prosecutors in her office told law enforcement not to arrest them. She blamed local police for not deciding what to do.

The second district attorney involved, Waycross Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill, had told police he believed the father and son had used citizen's arrest rights in confronting the jogger, and that as a result there were no grounds for arrest.

Mr Barnhill recused himself, citing concerns raised by the victim's mother over his ties to Mr McMichael.

Mr Arbery's family have criticised prosecutors' handling of the case as a "cover-up".

Atlanta Attorney General Chris Carr has now formally requested the GBI to look into the conduct of the district attorneys who first handled the case before charges were filed.

A former star high school football player, his father said he often exercised in the area.

His family has described him as a good, generous young man with a big heart. He would have turned 26 this month.

When Mr Arbery was in high school, he received five years probation for a first-time weapons charge and in 2018, was convicted of probation violation for shop lifting according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

Mr McMichael was reportedly involved in that 2018 case.

Gregory McMichael was a former police detective.

He also worked as an investigator for the local district attorney for years and had retired in 2019.

The first video surfaced publicly on 5 May. The 36-second clip was filmed from a vehicle following Mr Arbery.

It shows Mr Arbery jogging, and approaching a stationary pickup truck which is ahead of him on the road.

He tries to bypass the truck and then is seen struggling with a man carrying a shotgun. There is muffled shouting and three gunshots are heard.

A second man is standing in the bed of the pickup. The second man is then shown with a pistol standing alongside the other armed man with the jogger no longer in view.

On 10 May another video emerged, showing a man believed to Mr Arbery at a home construction site shortly before the shooting.

In the footage from a surveillance camera, a black man in a white T-shirt walks onto the site and is seen looking around for a few minutes before leaving and jogging down the street.

Lee Merritt, an attorney for Mr Arbery's family, said in a statement that it was Mr Arbery in the clip, and that it confirms the young man was out for a jog and did nothing illegal.

Police are investigating William Bryan, who filmed the first video. Mr Bryan, along with the two McMichael's, appeared to have been following Mr Arbery "in hot pursuit", according to a memo by Mr Barnhill.

However, Mr Bryan told a local TV station that he "had nothing to do with it" and was in "complete shock".

He did not answer questions on why he was there or why he started recording, but his lawyer said: "My client was responding to what he saw, which was someone in the community he didn't know being followed by a vehicle he recognised."

Around the time of the incident, a number of emergency calls were made, CBS News has reported. In one, a neighbour said a black man was seen at a home under construction. When asked if the man was breaking in, the caller replied "No, it's all open, it's under construction."

The caller then said that the man was "running down the street".

The dispatcher says "I just need to know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on the premises and not supposed to be?" and the caller replies: "He's been caught on the camera a bunch before at night. It's kind of an ongoing thing out here."

The owner of the home that was under construction told CNN that, while his CCTV captured four short clips of a man that appeared to be Mr Arbery "trespassing" on his properly on 23 February, he had not reported any crime to the police.

"I don't want it to be put out and misused and misinterpreted for people to think that I had accused Mr Arbery of stealing or robbery, because I never did," he said.

Police records show only one burglary report in the neighbourhood between 1 January and 23 February, US media report. That incident involved a gun being reported stolen from a pickup truck outside the home of Travis McMichael on 1 January.

The McMichaels have not issued a statement to US media. It remains unclear if they are represented by an attorney at this time.

But in their account to police, Mr McMichael alleges the jogger attacked his son in the road after they tried to stop him, and that they acted out of self-defence.

Mr Arbery's family has called his death a "lynching".

His parents said the arrest of the McMichaels was a relief, but they have expressed a distrust of local law enforcement.

His mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, told PBS News: "I honestly think that if we didn't get national attention to it, my son's death would have actually been a cover-up."

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the family, has asked for the same justice for Mr Arbery if the situations were reversed and two black men had attacked an unarmed white man.

"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt they would've been arrested on day one," Mr Crump said.

Under the citizen's arrest law, an individual can detain someone they have seen committing a serious crime and if the suspect is trying to escape.

Local media note that the law does not always allow deadly force in carrying out an arrest - that's limited to self-defense or times where it is absolutely necessary to prevent certain serious crimes.

While Georgia is one of four states that has no hate crime statutes, the federal government can file those charges.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday said its civil rights division, the FBI, and the US Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia have been supporting the state investigation.

"We are assessing all of the evidence to determine whether federal hate crime charges are appropriate," spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

Georgia's Attorney General Chris Carr has also asked the department to investigate the handling of the case.

The DOJ said on Monday it has requested Mr Carr send any information he has to federal authorities.

The case has also prompted members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus to renew calls for a state hate crime law.

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Ahmaud Arbery: What do we know about the case? - Yahoo News

Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that the response to the coronavirus pandemic has been hampered by wrong prediction after wrong prediction as he advocated for schools to reopen in the fall.

The history of this when we look back will be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction, Paul said during a Senate hearing Tuesday at which Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the Trump administrations coronavirus task force, testified.

I think we ought to have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know whats best for the economy, the Kentucky Republicansaid.As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I dont think youre the end all. I dont think youre the one person who gets to make a decision,

Paul said he believes it would be ahuge mistake not to open schools in the fall and noted that the mortality rate from the coronavirus for children approaches zero.

Keeping children out of school would have a disproportionate effect on poor and underprivileged kids who do not have a parent who is able to homeschool them and will end up not learning for a full year, the senator said.

In rural states we never really reached any sort of pandemic level, Paul continued. Its not to say this isnt deadly, but really, outside of New England weve had a relatively benign course for this virus nationwide.

Fauci said he agreed with Paul that the coronavirus has not proven as deadly to children as to others, but argued that the virus is still relatively mysterious and noted that some children with the virus developed a very strange inflammatory syndrome.

Paul himself tested positive for the coronavirus in March. As of Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. has seen more than 1.3 million cases of the virus and 80,000 people have died from it.

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Rand Paul: Pandemic Response Marred by Wrong Prediction after Wrong Prediction - Yahoo News

ESPN is going to begin anew with its Monday Night Football booth, per a report by The Athletics Richard Deitsch. The network will not bring back play-by-play broadcaster Joe Tessitore nor analyst Booger McFarland.

ESPN will hire within the company to replace them and the two will remain in prominent roles at ESPN, per the report. That confirms a New York Post report earlier this week that pegged Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Dan Orlovsky as in-house candidates for the job.

Last week, ESPN tapped Phil Dean, who has been with the network since 1992, to produce the weekly primetime game.

The MNF booth has been a question mark for quite a while. Jason Witten was not a hit with fans in his one year in the booth. He returned to the Dallas Cowboys last offseason. And McFarland got off to a bad start with viewers in the Booger mobile, which placed him at field level while commenting. It obstructed views and was retired for the 2019 schedule.

Whoever calls games this season will have a great schedule to work with after the NFL released it late last week in a three-hour show on ESPN. When Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN, it seemingly took a backseat to NBCs Sunday Night Football in getting the best games of the week in primetime.

The company reportedly wanted to bring over Tony Romo from CBS, where hes been a star since jumping into the booth a few years ago. Romo instead agreed to a record deal with CBS on the No. 1 broadcast team.

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Then ESPN moved on to Peyton Manning, reportedly offering $18 to $20 million per year higher than Romos $17M to be its lead analyst. The dream was reportedly to combine Manning and play-by-play legend Al Michaels, currently of NBC, though that didnt pan out either.

Theyre still reportedly eyeing New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees to take over once he retires.

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Report: Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland will not return to ESPN's MNF booth - Yahoo Sports

UFC 249 ended like we thought it would spectacularly. It was an incredible show filled with exciting fights, unexpected moments and all of the things that make mixed martial arts so great.

Getting to the starting line, though, was a problem, and that has nothing to do with when the card was originally scheduled for April 18.

When news broke on Friday that middleweight Ronaldo Jacare Souza and two of his cornermen had tested positive for COVID-19, it was like a kick to the gut.

Without any other information and knowing only that Souza had the coronavirus and was out of his hotly anticipated fight with Uriah Hall, it felt like this horrible year was going to continue to take its vengeance out on us.

Surely, it seemed, the UFC 249 fight card would not go on.

Were used to that by now five UFC events were postponed prior to Saturday because of the COVID-19 pandemic but on paper, this was one of the great cards the UFC had ever assembled and it appeared that it might be slipping through our grasp.

There were those who, justifiably, wondered if we should have ever gotten to this point. Coronavirus cases around the country are continuing to pop up and at this stage, there is no way to guarantee someone isnt going to catch it no matter how much testing is done.

But people are beginning to break their governors stay-at-home orders because were going stir crazy, and there have been no live sports to keep us company.

As Anthony Smith, the light heavyweight contender who headlines Wednesdays show against Glover Teixeira told Yahoo Sports, You can only watch the replay of the 1995 National Championship game so many times.

Hes right. And finally, the UFC brought live sports back.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - MAY 09: (L-R) Opponents Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje face off prior to their UFC interim lightweight championship fight during the UFC 249 event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on May 09, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

As if they knew they were on a platform theyd never had before, these fighters poured their hearts out in the cage and in the process, provided a salve on a gaping wound that we needed desperately.

I know where we are right now, said Justin Gaethje, who performed brilliantly and with previously unseen restraint in a fifth-round stoppage victory over Tony Ferguson that was never even close that gave him the interim lightweight belt. I know where peoples minds are. I know how anxiety and depression, those are very, very strong things that can overcome anybody. I just want to inspire.

I think I inspired some people to do better tomorrow than they did today. Thats all I do every day. Thats all I try to do. Im not perfect.

But this event was the perfect antidote for what ails us. For seven hours of the entire card or three hours of the main card or however long you watched, it was a break in the everyday grind.

Turn on the news and all you see is the death toll and the number of jobless claims and conflict and division. This fight card, no matter what you thought of it going in, no matter whether you were even an MMA fan, was a break from the tedium life has become.

It began on the undercard. Vicente Luque and Niko Price went to war in a rematch that would have been Fight of the Night on many shows. Calvin Kattar delivered an elbow to Jeremy Stephens chin that had to sound like Mike Trout teeing up a hanging curve when it connected. Francis Ngannou did what only Francis Ngannou can do, putting Jairzinho Rozenstruik to sleep within 20 seconds with a blistering left hook.

Henry Cejudo defended his bantamweight championship with a remarkable performance, becoming the first man to stop the legendary Dominick Cruz. Then, Cejudo stunned everyone by announcing his retirement.

Walking to the cage, he flung his hat into the empty arena like hed done so many times in front of a crazed and packed crowd. He did it just to continue the ritual, to make things seem normal.

He wants to move on to a more normal life. He grew up largely without a father in very impoverished conditions in Los Angeles to become a hugely successful athlete. He won an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling in 2008, then became one of only four UFC fighters to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously.

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Hes been a prisoner of the grind that locks elite athletes in, and wants to live that normal life with our families that we all seek.

Its more the freedom, Cejudo said of his reason for walking away at just 33. Youve followed my story since the Olympics. I havent stopped since. Give a brother a break, man. But I did want to leave on top. Its a Cinderella story.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - MAY 09: Henry Cejudo announces his retirement in the Octagon after his victory over Dominick Cruz in their UFC bantamweight championship fight during the UFC 249 event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on May 09, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

All of that would have been taken away had Souzas positive test caused the UFC to cancel Saturdays show.

White was adamant that we needed to move on and find a way to live while still battling the coronavirus.

Saturdays was the first of three shows the UFC scheduled at VyStar. The next is Wednesday and the finale will be on May 16.

White, in a brief post-fight telephone conversation with Yahoo Sports, said things will continue to get better.

Well improve, he said. Well be better on Wednesday than we were tonight and well be better next Saturday than we are on Wednesday. I thought the card was [expletive] awesome. I say it all the time but we do all the bells and whistles and these guys deliver and man did they deliver tonight. It was [expletive] awesome.

Awesome it was.

And, more importantly, desperately needed. We can go back to watching the death toll monotonously rising on Sunday.

For a few hours on a Saturday, though, Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo and all of the UFC staff and fighters who took part made UFC 249 the perfect antidote for what ails this nation.

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UFC 249 delivers a welcome distraction from pandemic-afflicted world - Yahoo News