New York Times (July 12)
“Mr. Branson’s flight reinforces the hopes of space enthusiasts that routine travel to the final frontier may soon be available to private citizens, not just the professional astronauts of NASA and other space agencies.” Other billionaire entrepreneurs are on his heels, all “risking injury or death to fulfill their childhood aspirations — and advance the goal of making human spaceflight unexceptional.”
Tags: Aspirations, Astronauts, Billionaire, Branson, Childhood, Citizens, Death, Enthusiasts, Entrepreneurs, Final frontier, Flight, Hopes, Human Spaceflight, Injury, NASA, Risk, Routine, Space, Travel
Washington Post (July 9)
“Tokyo’s newly rebuilt, 68,000-capacity National Stadium… will be empty throughout the Games, symbolizing the vast sums of money invested in these Olympics with little reward for the people of Japan or the country’s economy.” The spectator ban “highlights the government’s failure to get its vaccination program underway early enough to allow the Games to take place safely with fans.”
Tags: Economy, Empty, Failure, Government, Japan, Money, National Stadium, Olympics, Reward, Spectator ban, Tokyo, Vaccination program
USA Today (July 8)
“Even before the pandemic, which largely confined most Americans to their homes for months, communities that lacked reliable high-speed internet began falling behind those that were well-connected. The pandemic exacerbated the nation’s ‘digital divide’ – and those who suffered most were in low-income areas.”
Tags: Communities, Confined, Digital divide, Exacerbated, High-speed internet, Homes, Low income, Pandemic, Reliable, Well-connected
Chicago Tribune (July 7)
Illinois has successfully vaccinated 70% of its citizen. The “Department of Public Health on Monday reported zero deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since march 2020—a sign of how far the state has come since the pandemic took hold.” Though concerns over variants and the unvaccinated remain, this represents tremendous “change from the spring of 2020 and this past winter when the state was frequently reporting more than 100 deaths a day,” peaking at 238 on December 2.
Tags: 2020, 70, Change, COVID-19, Illinois, Pandemic, Unvaccinated, Vaccinated, Variants, Zero deaths
Philadelphia Inquirer (July 6)
“Interviews with doctors and nurses in the Philadelphia region revealed a sense of relief over a waning pandemic leavened by fears that the virus could surge again. They use different terms to describe what almost a year and a half of being on the front lines of treating COVID-19 has done. Moral injury. Trauma. Burnout. PTSD.” Even now, these “drained health care workers must still maintain a busy schedule as hospitals face a glut of patients who had put off health care out of fears of contracting the virus.”
Tags: Burnout, Busy, COVID-19, Doctors, Drained, Fears, Front lines, Health care workers, Interviews, Nurses, Pandemic, Philadelphia, PTSD, Relief, Surge, Trauma
Reuters (July 6)
The spectator ban on the opening ceremony is yet “another downgrade” for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, leaving its “pomp and public spectacle overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. Once promoted as an extravaganza to showcase Japan to the world, the Games appear in danger of taking place largely out of public view in a country closed to foreign tourists due to the pandemic.”
Tags: Ban, Closed, Coronavirus, Downgrade, Extravaganza, Foreign, Japan, Olympics, Opening ceremony, Overshadowed, Pandemic, Showcase, Spectacle, Spectator, Tokyo 2020
Washington Post (July 6)
“Climate change is slow, gradual, almost imperceptible — until suddenly it’s not. One day, it seems like a normal summer.” Then, the thermometer hits “an unbearable 121 degrees” in Lytton, Canada and 116 in Portland, Oregon. “The climate change and weather instability we are experiencing will be with us for centuries. But it will all get much worse unless humanity reduces carbon emissions by shifting to clean, renewable energy.”
Tags: Renewable energy
Institutional Investor (July 3)
Even though “private equity still outperforms listed stocks… It’s losing its edge.” Excess returns for private equity have narrowed from roughly 1 to 10% over the S&P 500 index to, since 2009, 1 to 5%. The blame is twofold: “stimulus from central banks and government spending,” along with “private equity’s unstoppable popularity.” These have led to “the sector’s narrower win over public equities.”
Tags: S&P 500
Financial Times (July 2)
“The readings on the Tankan, widely regarded as Japan’s most reliable economic data series, suggest Asia’s only G7 economy is well-positioned for growth in the second half of the year.”
Tags: Asia, Economic data, Economy, G7, Growth, Japan, Reliable, Series, Tankan, Well-positioned
Seattle Times (July 1)
“And on the 476th day, Washington returned—sort of, mostly, cautiously, officially if not practically—to normal.” COVID-19 related restrictions began across the state on March 11, 2020. “One year, three months, two weeks and five days later, the last of those major restrictions melted away on Wednesday.” It’s not as easy as flipping a switch. COVID-19 and government-issued restrictions effectively “pulled the emergency brake on Washington’s economic and social life.” It is going to “take more than just releasing that lever to get the engine back to full throttle.”
Tags: 476 days, Brake, COVID-19, Economic, Emergency, Government, Life, Normal, Restrictions, Social, Washington
