CNN (March 10)
“Westerners are increasingly scared of traveling to China as threat of detention rises.” The increased apprehensiveness extends to academia and could have ripple effects. “With fewer academics willing to travel to China… the result could be fewer Western minds reporting on and studying China firsthand at a time when, arguably, the world has never had a greater need to understand the country.”
Tags: Academics, Arguably, China, Detention, Scared, Studying, Threat, Travel. Reporting, Westerners
Institutional Investor (March 9)
“Shareholder activists pulled in their horns in 2020, targeting 10 percent fewer companies than in 2019 and winning 16 percent fewer board seats.”
Tags: 2019, 2020, Activists, Board seats, Companies, Fewer, Shareholders, Targeting
New York Times (March 7)
“The pandemic has disrupted international trade, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery.” Although “the volume of global trade dipped by only 1 percent in 2020,” that fact obscures “a plunge of more than 12 percent in April and May, followed by an equally dramatic reversal. The system could not adjust, leaving containers in the wrong places, and pushing shipping prices to extraordinary heights.” Some experts believe the upheaval will last the remainder of the year.
Tags: Containers, Cost of shipping, Disrupted, Economic recovery, Global trade, International trade, Pandemic, Plunge, Reversal
The Economist (March 6)
“Though understandable,” the knee-jerk reaction following the Fukushima disaster “was wrong.” Nuclear power has numerous drawbacks, but “well-regulated nuclear power is safe” and essential given the climate crisis. Nuclear provides constant generating capacity to support a reliable grid. Furthermore, “nuclear provides such capacity with no ongoing emissions, and it is doing so safely and at scale around the world.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Disaster, Drawbacks, Emissions, Fukushima, Generating capacity, Grid, Nuclear power, Reaction, Reliable, Safe, Scale, Understandable, Well-regulated
Washington Post (March 5)
“This week’s report by a bipartisan commission on artificial intelligence is an early sign of what could become a major shift in America’s economic strategy: Without much public debate, the United States is moving toward what amounts to a U.S. version of industrial policy to compete with China on technology.”
Tags: AI, Bipartisan, China, Commission, Compete, Economic strategy, Industrial policy, Major shift, Public debate, U.S.
WARC (March 4)
“Ultimately, the cookie was one of the aspects of the internet (and, by extension, digital advertising) that gave it a bad name. But at least they were everyone’s problem/opportunity – what comes next could lead to a vast concentration of power.” One proposal, federated learning of cohorts (FLoC), is facing growing skepticism.
Tags: Concentration, Cookie, Digital advertising, FLoC, Internet, Opportunity, Power, Problem, Skepticism
San Francisco Chronicle (March 3)
“COVID-19 remains a deadly disease—but it took fewer lives in February than it did the month before. The virus claimed 11,286 Californians in February, a shocking figure that is nevertheless 25% lower than the 14,953 COVID deaths in January.”
Tags: Californians, COVID-19, Deadly disease, Deaths, February, January, Lower, Shocking, Virus
Boston Globe Times (March 3)
“The president’s timetable” of having enough vaccine for every American by the end of May “provides a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, although he acknowledged that the nation remains in a tenuous situation” as experts “fear a fourth surge of the pandemic, fueled by worrisome new variants, as states like Texas and Mississippi rush to fully reopen.”
Tags: Bright light, Dark tunnel, Experts, Fourth surge, Mississippi, Pandemic, President, Reopen, Tenuous, Texas, Timetable, Vaccine, Variants, Worrisome
Houston Chronicle (March 2)
“Houston is the nation’s first city to record every major variant of the novel coronavirus—many of which are more contagious than the original strain.” This unwelcome milestone “comes barely a week after the ever-evolving virus’ death toll in the United States passed the half-million mark, a grim figure that…experts believe will continue to increase unless Americans double-down on social distancing, masks and vaccination efforts.”
Tags: Contagious, Coronavirus, Death toll, Distancing, Double-down, Experts, Houston, Masks, Milestone, Original, Strain, U.S., Variant
Financial Times (March 2)
“ExxonMobil appointed two new board directors yesterday, its latest move to placate activist shareholders pushing for an overhaul after the US oil super-major suffered its worst year on record.”
Tags: Activists, Appointed, Board directors, ExxonMobil, Oil, Overhaul, Placate, Shareholders, U.S.
