Coronavirus News (239)

Airbus Just Unveiled Three New Zero-Emission Concept Aircraft 

At 75, is the United Nations still relevant or necessary? Legitimate criticism and lingering questions surround the UN, even as it makes important progress in areas mostly unseen and vastly under-reported Instead of using the UN as a scapegoat for political failures, criticism should be turned on to states that overpromise and underfund humanitarian operations

Australia has ‘painted itself into a geopolitical corner’ with China, but what is Beijing’s trade endgame? Australia agreed to lead the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus following a call between its Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Donald Trump China has since imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Australian barley, suspended certain beef imports and launched two investigations into wine imports

Indonesia’s biggest YouTube star Atta Halilintar on fame, fortune, his mistakes – and why he’s not happy any more Atta Halilintar has 25.5 million subscribers on a channel that earns him up to an estimated US$1.6 million a month But he says being number one comes at a price and that at his lowest he has thought of famous people who had committed suicide

Who’s playing the Taiwan card in India-China tensions, Modi or the RSS? Members of expatriate Indian Hindu nationalist groups are unofficially calling for greater engagement with Taipei – something likely to anger Beijing While the calls mirror a hardening of New Delhi’s stance, it is unclear how much weight they carry with PM Modi – and for him, that’s very convenient

China’s middle-class dream of a second home in Malaysia dashed by coronavirus and geopolitical tensions Many Chinese people have left Malaysia, opting to sell their homes remotely rather than wait to see when and if they will be allowed to return Individual Chinese investors are often unprepared – both financially and psychologically – for the risks of overseas investment, expert says

50 startups on the rise

Global income falls by $3.5 trillion

CEOs speak out on remote work

The Keys to Remote Work - What We Have Learned in a Decade of Leading an Award-Winning Remote Team  .... the importance of boundaries in remote work. ...... There’s a misconception that people who work from home are not accountable and let their home-life distractions spill into their work. For many remote workers, however, the opposite is more often the case. ..........  keep a structured schedule and be intentional about how time is used .......... schedule breaks into their day and stick to those break times. ........ manage your energy and keep yourself from burning out from too much uninterrupted work .......... can be easy to dive deep into work, not get up from your desk for hours, and exhaust yourself in the process ........  In the fitness world, there’s a widespread practice of interval training: strong bursts of rigorous exercise, followed by a brief period of rest. This builds your strength and stamina without overex­erting your body. Interval training can be applied to mental tasks as well—it’s important to sepa­rate periods of mentally strenuous work with short breaks to ensure you don’t burn out. ........... I like to schedule periods of intense work in the morning—when I am cognitively strongest—for tasks that involve writing and development of new materials. Then, I’ll follow that with a break and reserve the afternoon for meetings and tasks that are discussion-oriented and don’t require as much mental capacity and acute focus. ..........   Physical boundaries are also very important. We encourage employees to have a place in their home that is specifically designated for work. ........... Commuting can be a pain, but we often underestimate how much that time in the car or on the subway helps us separate from work on the way home. 

How live music makes a comeback

LinkedIn Top Startups 2020: The 50 U.S. companies on the rise.  Our editors and data scientists parsed hundreds of millions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s 171 million members in the U.S., looking across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. 

Covid-19: A Global Perspective  everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society, and the general public .......... COVID-19 has killed more than 850,000 people. It has plunged the world into a recession that is likely to get worse. And many countries are bracing for another surge in cases. .............  we argue for a collaborative response. There is no such thing as a national solution to a global crisis. All countries must work together to end the pandemic and begin rebuilding economies. The longer it takes us to realize that, the longer it will take (and the more it will cost) to get back on our feet. ..........  How bad the pandemic gets and how long it lasts is largely within the world’s control. 

Coronavirus News (238)

 In The Epicenter Of Mexico's Epicenter, Feeling Like A Trapped Animal  No part of the world has been as devastated by the pandemic as Latin America. Mexico, Brazil, Peru and other Latin American countries — hobbled by weak health systems, severe inequality and government indifference — have several of the highest deaths per capita from the virus in the world. ............ By the first week of September, the 10 countries with the highest deaths per capita were all in Latin America or the Caribbean. ..........  Poverty circumscribes life, with chronic water shortages. Hundreds of thousands live day by day, far more fearful of hunger than any virus. ............ Starvation haunted people who had never considered themselves poor, and rituals that had bound the community for generations were scrapped, including one of the biggest Christian celebrations in Latin America, which was canceled for the first time in more than 150 years. ............... People could wear masks, and distance as much as possible, but almost no one could afford to stay home. They had to keep working. ...........  The region is now bracing for one of the world’s worst economic crises. The old wounds of inequality are growing worse, and the poor will add another 45 million people to their ranks ........... Some officials are bracing for a lost decade. .............  Mr. Arriaga’s own attempts to stay away from the market lasted only a month before he blew through his life savings and trudged back to work in fear. ............... “Look around,” he said. “You see anyone here dying?” Many would, very soon. ........... “We survived the War of Reform, the Revolution and the 1985 earthquake,” lamented Tito Dominguez, one of the chief organizers, “and we’ve never had to do this.” .......... Hospitals began to fill and the plaintive wail of ambulances became a nighttime soundtrack. ........... Some claimed that the virus was a Chinese conspiracy, others that bleach was a cure. Even President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered his own theories, contending that a clean conscience helped prevent infection. ........... “I’ve heard government is paying people to claim their loved ones died from Covid,” Ms. Aquino whispered. “I have two friends who were offered money.” At best, the rumors sowed confusion and doubt. At worst, they were a death sentence. ............. “I don’t care about this virus,” he said, dropping onto a plastic stool, nearly toppling over. “I have no way to survive.” ..........  After his father got sick, Mr. Arriaga fled the city, decamping to his mother’s house in the town of Chalco. For the first time in five years, he took time off. It felt strange, like a guilty pleasure. He used to joke that his dream was to sleep until 10 a.m., if only for one day. ............ “It was really beautiful, just spending time with my mom and brother and sister,” he said. “For all the bad things that happened, at least this was a gift.” ..............  And at every level, there is simply less. Fewer clients. Fewer sales. And a looming sense that the worst still lies ahead. ............ “You have no idea what it feels like to be unable to feed your family,” he said. “I never thought it could get this bad in Mexico.”   

Covid World Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 31,746,600 people, according to official counts. As of Wednesday evening, at least 973,500 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country ............... The outbreak was initially defined by a series of shifting epicenters — including Wuhan, China; Iran; northern Italy; Spain; and New York. Cases worldwide leveled off in April after social distancing measures were put in place in many of the areas with early outbreaks. ............. After case numbers fell steadily in April and May, cases in the United States are growing again at about the same rapid pace as when infections were exploding in New York City in late March. But the hotspots are now mainly spread across the southern and western parts of the country. ..............  there are four factors that most likely play a role: how close you get to an infected person; how long you are near that person; whether that person expels viral droplets on or near you; and how much you touch your face afterwards. ..........  Wash your hands often. Anytime you come in contact with a surface outside your home, scrub with soap for at least 20 seconds, rinse and then dry your hands with a clean towel. Avoid touching your face. The virus can spread when our hands come into contact with the virus, and we touch our nose, mouth or eyes. Try to keep your hands away from your face unless you have just recently washed them.

Fauci finally loses his patience with Rand Paul  the four or five things: of masks, social distancing, outdoors more than indoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands—” ....... New York adopted some of the toughest measures, and it now has the third-lowest per-capita case rate among the 50 states.  

Massive genetic study shows coronavirus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread The largest U.S. genetic study of the virus, conducted in Houston, shows one viral strain outdistancing all of its competitors, and many potentially important mutations. ...........  Coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 are relatively stable as viruses go, because they have a proofreading mechanism as they replicate. ......... the strong possibility that the virus, as it has moved through the population, has become more transmissible, and that this “may have implications for our ability to control it.” ........... “Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers” ............. As people gain immunity, either through infections or a vaccine, the virus could be under selective pressure to evade the human immune response. ...............  as the virus interacts with our bodies and our immune systems, it may be learning new tricks that help it respond to its host.