New York Times (April 28)
“Delaying the Tokyo Games by a year already poses enormous economic, political and logistical challenges, including whether Japan can hope to recoup its $10 billion investment.” Without a vaccine, however, a 2021 “timeline may be optimistic.”
Tags: Challenges, Delay, Economic, Investment, Japan, Logistical, Optimistic, Political, Recoup, Timeline, Tokyo, Vaccine
Bloomberg (April 28)
“For years, technologists have been talking about smarter cars packed with sensors, chips and supercomputers that can replace human drivers.That was enough to get investors excited about the future of automotive semiconductors.” As earnings reports are revealing, however, there is “one slight flaw in the plan: People need to actually buy cars.”
Tags: Automotive, Cars, Chips, Drivers, Earnings, Investors, Semiconductors, Sensors, Supercomputers, Technologists
The Economist (April 25)
“The BBC is having a good pandemic, but the loss of young audiences poses a mortal threat to its funding.” Viewing by 16- to 24-year-olds is just 85 minutes versus the nearly 6 hours watched daily by those over 65. “Those aged 16-24 spend more time on YouTube than live TV” while “the next generation should terrify them. Children aged 12-15 are more likely to have heard of Netflix than the BBC.”
Boston Globe (April 25)
“Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus.” With about 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. has so far “had about one-third of all global coronavirus cases and one-quarter of the fatalities.” The “catastrophic failure” is largely due to President Trump. This is “not just the catalog of screw-ups…. It’s that Trump represents an ongoing danger to the health and well-being of the American people.”
Tags: Catastrophic, Coronavirus, Failure, Fatalities, Health, Ongoing danger, Resign, Screw-ups, Trump, U.S., Well-being, World
The Guardian (April 24)
“Amid the misery and chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there are some short-term consolations. The precipitous drop in road and air traffic has left the air cleaner and the skies clearer.” Hopefully, when it is finally “safe to emerge from economic survival mode,” we will reflect “on which kinds of productive activity actually enrich our lives – and which among these our planet can sustain.”
Wall Street Journal (April 23)
“As U.S.-China tensions increase, the chance of a miscalculation grows,” especially in the South China Sea. “China’s recent behavior has badly damaged its claims to be a global stakeholder that plays by the rules. The U.S. is right to make clear that it remains a Pacific power and that the coronavirus hasn’t lessened its resolve.”
Tags: Behavior, China, Claims, Coronavirus, Miscalculation, Pacific, Resolve, Rules, South China Sea, Tensions, U.S.
Time (April 22)
“Greece has an elderly population and a fragile economy,” but despite being a tourist mecca has somehow “escaped the worst of the coronavirus so far….with only 2,245 confirmed cases and 116 deaths as of April 21, one of the lowest counts in the European Union.” Some of this may be luck, but experts are attributing the early imposition of stringent “measures, and the way Greeks have largely abided by them.”
Tags: Confirmed, Coronavirus, Deaths, Economy, Elderly, EU, Fragile, Greece, Greeks, Population, Stringent “measures, Tourist
Financial Times (April 22)
“The collapse of the eurozone would be a catastrophe. The ECB is the one institution able and willing to act. Governments should back it.”
Tags: Act, Catastrophe, Collapse, ECB, eurozone, Governments
Washington Post (April 21)
“When the price of oil seemingly stepped through the looking glass Monday and tumbled into negative value, it summoned up an image of the world of petroleum turned wrong-side-round.” This shocker “was fleeting, and symbolic, more than anything, and it won’t have much effect on the price of gasoline at the pump. But it showed just how much the coronavirus pandemic has crushed the world’s energy markets — and how the global effort to stabilize them was failing.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Energy markets, Failing, Fleeting, Gasoline, Negative value, Oil, Pandemic, Petroleum, Price, Symbolic
Chicago Tribune (April 20)
J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois governor, has done “more than this inadequate and lame leader in Washington. Pritzker has donated $2 million of his own personal money, as well as is dealing with China directly to get PPE supplies instead of waiting on this dysfunctional administration. He has taken the bull by the horns to try and save people.”
Tags: China, Donated, Dysfunctional, Governor, Illinois, PPE, Pritzker, Supplies, Trump, Washington