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☆ How a deadly bat virus found new ways to infect people
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Scientists found bats with Nipah virus roosting near Sabith’s home. A search of the neighborhood led to a colony, near their house, of flying foxes, a common fruit bat. NETTING NIPAH: Researchers in Bangladesh use nets to catch bats and collect samples to find the Nipah virus in the wild. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainWhether Sabith ate contaminated fruit or somehow came into direct contact with a bat, the virus entered his cells. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainA year later, Chua’s team found the same strain of Nipah virus in flying foxes.

☆ Groves wins chaotic Giro stage five after dog causes Evenepoel crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

May 10 (Reuters) - Favourite Remco Evenepoel crashed twice on stage five of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday, the first time after a dog strayed on to the road in treacherous conditions caused by driving rain, before Kaden Groves won the stage in a bunch sprint. The second crash did not affect Evenepoel's time as it happened inside the three-km mark, effectively neutralising the general classification times. But the crash left the Belgian world champion fuming while the rest of the bunch surged ahead and Alpecin–Deceuninck's Groves dominated the sprint to win the stage. The breakaway trio of Thomas Champion, Samuele Zoccarato and Stefano Gandin had built up a head of steam before they were absorbed by the peloton with seven km to go. Just super bad luck, with the second crash," he said.

☆ They bought a huge rundown Italian castle and transformed it into a luxury retreat
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Silvia Marchetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

“And to think that we never wanted a castle, never wanted to own one.”Castle homeMax and Joy Ulfane spent years renovating neglected Tuscan fortress Castello di Fighine into a luxury retreat. Although it was dilapidated and filled with rubble, the Ulfanes saw huge potential in Castello di Fighine and felt it was the right place for them. Castello di FighineThe Ulfanes later decided to purchase some of the rundown houses in the surrounding hamlet, and began renovating them once they’d completed most of the work on Castello di Fighine. They went on to purchase the hamlet’s old village school, and have since transformed it into a high-end restaurant, Ristorante Castello di Fighine. Built in the 11th century as a military lookout, Castello di Fighine is connected to the main road by one single unpaved public path.

☆ Matthews wins stage three of Giro d'Italia, Evenepoel extends lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Cycling - Giro d'Italia - Stage 3 - Vasto to Melfi - Italy - May 8, 2023 Team Jayco AlUla's Michael Matthews celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win stage 3 REUTERS/Jennifer LorenziniMay 8 (Reuters) - Australian Michael Matthews timed his final effort to perfection to win a rain-affected stage three at the Giro d'Italia on Monday, following a 216-km ride from Vasto to Melfi. They were fully committed for me to win the stage," Matthews said. Now already on stage three with a stage win? Primoz Roglic, who was eclipsed by rival Evenepoel in the intermediate sprint, climbed to third. One second more on Primoz and three on the others, it's good, especially after such an easy day of racing."

☆ Explainer: What next for Microsoft's $69 billion Activision deal after UK ban?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday blocked Microsoft's (MSFT.O) $69 billion acquisition of 'Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming. The regulator's decision reflected a flawed understanding of the market, it said. Microsoft can appeal to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), an independent judicial body, which will only examine the CMA's decision-making process, not the merits of the merger. "The CAT aims to deal with 'straightforward' cases in under nine months – and Microsoft/Activision is anything but straightforward," Lane, said. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the deal, which Microsoft has indicated it will fight.

☆ Explainer: What next for Microsoft's $69 bln Activision deal after UK ban?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The regulator's decision reflected a flawed understanding of the market, it said. Microsoft can appeal to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), an independent judicial body, which will only examine the CMA's decision-making process, not the merits of the merger. "The CAT aims to deal with 'straightforward' cases in under nine months – and Microsoft/Activision is anything but straightforward," Lane, said. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the deal, which Microsoft has indicated it will fight. The regulator then "identified certain potential errors" in its investigation chaired by Martin Coleman, who also oversaw the Microsoft-Activision case.

☆ Irsina, the Italian village being repopulated by Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Silvia Marchetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

More than 15 families from the US and Canada have bought old properties in this remote village, known for its premium wheat fields and olive groves. The first foreign “pioneer” to buy a house in Irsina was Sandy Webster, a 63-year-old writer from San Diego. The couple fell in love with the village, bought an old house with thick stone walls, antique furniture and ancient maiolica-tile floors, and spent four years renovating it. “When we got here in 2016, over 80% of the population had fled to the newer district of Irsina, the old Irsina was empty and we loved how it looked. Their house, built into the old village walls, was on sale for 70,000 euros ($77,000).

☆ Why Olive Wagyu is so expensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Irene Anna Kim | Pj Rickards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

At over $500 a pound, olive wagyu is one of the most expensive meats you can buy. There are only 2,500 heads of olive wagyu cattle on the island of Shodoshima. Farmer Masaki Ishii feeds his cattle waste from local olive oil groves. In Shōdoshima, Japan, Masaki Ishii creates olive wagyu by feeding his cattle the waste from local olive groves. So, what makes olive wagyu different from other varieties of wagyu?

☆ Holy oil for King Charles' coronation consecrated in Jerusalem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III mixes the oils from the Mount of Olives to make Chrism Oil, which will be used in the coronation of Britain's King Charles on May 6, in Jerusalem, March 3, 2023. Patriarchate of Jerusalem/Buckingham Palace/Handout via REUTERSLONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - The sacred oil which will be used to anoint King Charles at his coronation in May has been consecrated in Jerusalem, reflecting the British monarch's links to the Holy Land, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. His Beatitude Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the city's Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum consecrated the Chrism oil in The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the palace said. Traditionally, the oil is poured from an amplulla onto the Coronation Spoon and then the sovereign is anointed on their hands, breast and head. "This demonstrates the deep historic link between the coronation, the Bible and the Holy Land," said Welby, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church.

☆ An easyJet pilot did a loop over the sea to give everyone on board an incredible view of the Northern Lights
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A pilot made a mid-flight loop on Thursday so that all passengers could see the Northern Lights. One newly engaged couple was able to see the lights after missing them during their Iceland trip. "Our crew will always go above and beyond for our customers and we're delighted to have been able to share this special view of the Northern Lights with them," an easyJet spokesperson said. FlightAware, InsiderOne passenger who was on the flight told Insider that being able to see the Northern Lights was particularly meaningful for him. Adam Groves wanted to propose under the Northern Lights, but did so on the south coast of Iceland in daylight instead.

☆ Turkey earthquake drone footage shows fissures slicing through land
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TEVEKKELI/TEPEHAN, Turkey, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Drone footage in southern Turkey showed fissures slicing and cracking across fields, roads, streams and hillsides, caused by a massive earthquake that struck the region at the start of the week. One jagged scar of bare and cracked earth, opened up by Monday's quake, cut deep into embankments and ran along expanses of open land up to the horizon near the town of Tevekkeli, in Turkey's southern province of Kahramanmaras. Near the village of Tepehan, huge gorges cut through groves close to a house, leaving islands of grey-brown land and trees perched on the edge of new precipices. "With the initial panic, nobody knew whether we could leave home or whether we could survive. Reporting by Issam Abdallah and Antonio Denti; Writing by Ben Dangerfield and Andrew Heavens; Editing by Edmund BlairOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Orange juice prices soar to record highs as recent hurricanes plunge Florida's expected production haul to lowest since the 1930s
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Orange juice prices have soared 30% year-to-date to record highs after recent hurricanes hampered production. And over the past year, futures contracts that are tied to orange juice concentrate have nearly doubled. The US Department of Agriculture expects this year's orange production to fall to its lowest haul since the 1930s. Orange juice futures are up 87% from a year ago, when they traded at about $1.40 per pound. Florida orange production has plummeted more than 90% from the peak seen in the late 1990s.

☆ Berkshire stock is trading at 20% discount, a level where Buffett typically ramps up buyback, UBS says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway are now trading at a significant discount to the conglomerate's intrinsic value, which may prompt the "Oracle of Omaha" to buy back more of his stock, according to UBS. "BRK's shares are trading at more than a 20% discount to its intrinsic value based on the methodology outlined in BRK's 2018 Annual Letter to Shareholders," UBS' Berkshire analyst Brian Meredith said in a note. The conglomerate's stock held up well in 2022 with a 4% gain as investors favored more stable pockets of the market. The fifth grove of Berkshire is its insurance operations, which are not included in the calculation. Meanwhile, Berkshire suffered a $63.9 billion loss on its investments last year through September amid the broader market selloff.

Olive farmers in Spain didn't have enough water for this year's crops due to severe droughts. We went to Antequera, Spain, to see how they managed to bottle up millions of liters of olive oil. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicySpain produces roughly half of the world's olive oil. In 2022, Europe experienced its worst drought in 500 years, making it tougher for these farmers to grow the olives they need.

☆ Why Orange Juice Is So Expensive Right Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Ryan Dezember | David Uberti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Florida orange growers are harvesting their smallest crop in nearly 90 years, the result of an ill-timed freeze, two hurricanes and citrus disease that is laying waste to its groves. The Sunshine State is expected to produce just 18 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, the Agriculture Department said last week. That would be less than half the size of last year’s poor crop and a 93% decline from Florida’s peak output in 1998.

☆ The tunnels and bridges linking Asia to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Lisa Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Sometimes called FSM Köprüsü, it’s another gravity-anchored steel suspension bridge similar in length to the First Bridge and costing a similar toll fee to use. Yavuz Sultan Selim BridgeThe Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge opened in 2016. irina lepnyova/Adobe StockIn 2016, a third suspension bridge opened up across the Bosphorus, near the Black Sea. With a 58.8-meter-wide single deck slab, it is the world’s widest suspension bridge, able to carry eight lanes of traffic and a double-track railway line. Çannakale 1915 BridgeThe 1915 Canakkale Bridge has the world's longest suspension bridge span. Measuring just short of 2.3 miles, it now claims the world record for the longest suspension bridge span.

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☆ As BlockFi files for bankruptcy, what to know about crypto investor protections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The ongoing FTX fallout — and bankruptcies earlier this year for lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital — is teaching crypto investors a hard lesson about their protections relative to more traditional asset classes. Howey Co., established the so-called Howey test to determine what constitutes a security, or "investment contract." More on how the Howey test works can be found below. Here's why this is important for crypto: It's unclear in many cases if digital assets are an "investment contract" under the 76-year-old Howey test. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation insures investors for up to $500,000 in the event a brokerage firm liquidates and their holdings are tied up in the insolvent firm.

☆ With TV prices down 17%, Black Friday shoppers may find ‘excellent deals’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Why TV prices are falling amid broader inflationAverage TV prices fell by almost 17% in October 2022 compared with the same month in 2021, according to the consumer price index. They're an outlier at a time when stubbornly high inflation led prices to climb steeply for a broad basket of consumer products. Manufacturers had cranked up production to historic highs to meet consumer demand — and retailers now have a glut of TVs, Kowalski said. Black Friday and Cyber Monday TV dealsRetailers have long used TV deals to draw in shoppers on Black Friday — the Friday after Thanksgiving and the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. watch nowSome Black Friday deals from retailers such as Best Buy have been jaw-dropping, especially for some well-known brands, said Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst with DealNews.

☆ ‘The stakes are high.’ Why there’s a push for Congress to renew the expanded child tax credit this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Larry French | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesMillions of families received monthly checks of up to $300 per child in 2021, thanks to the expanded child tax credit. "Policy makers can expand the child tax credit, or they can fail to act and see the Rescue Plan's historic gains against child poverty evaporate." Now, the child tax credit has reverted to previous rules, for a total of $2,000 per child up under age 17. The current child tax credit phases in with earnings above $2,500. Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAs Congress seeks a way to include corporate tax breaks in upcoming legislation, some lawmakers say they will not support those efforts without a renewal of an expanded child tax credit.

☆ Biden administration loosens Trump-era investing rules around environment, social and governance funds for 401(k) plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a final rule that makes it easier for employers to consider climate change and other so-called environment, social and governance factors when picking investment funds for their 401(k) plans. The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which takes effect in 60 days, undoes regulations put in place during the Trump administration. Those prior rules, issued in 2020, had a "chilling" effect that effectively sidelined employers from weighing ESG factors when selecting 401(k) funds, senior Labor Department officials said during a press call Tuesday. ESG funds have grown more popular in recent years. The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to further bolster the popularity of ESG investing.

☆ Consumers lay out $1,600 yearly for health-care products that flexible spending accounts could have covered
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Sarah O'Brien | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

If you have unspent money in your health-care flexible spending account, now's the time to make a plan to use it before you lose it. Health-care FSAs let workers stash away pretax dollars for qualifying expenses. The good news is that even if you don't have medical needs to spend the funds on — i.e., doctor's appointments or prescription drugs — an estimated $1,600 is spent by households each year on health care products that could otherwise be purchased using FSA dollars, according to FSAStore.com. This means it's likely you'd find a way to spend the money on things you'd end up buying anyway. The contribution limit to FSAs this year was $2,850, and in 2023 will be $3,050.

☆ Biden administration to extend payment pause on student loans until after June or when legal challenges resolve
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced that it will extend the payment pause on federal student loans until after June or when it's able to move forward with its debt forgiveness plan. Federal student loan bills had been scheduled to resume in January. The administration's move comes in response to a federal appeals court ruling last week that imposed a nationwide injunction on the debt relief plan. If it can't proceed with its policy and the legal challenges are still unfolding by June 30, 2023, student loan payments will restart 60 days after that. Federal student loan payments have been on pause since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S. and crippled the economy.

On social media, families say they’ve hunted for hours for Tamiflu and the first-line antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin. They have one viral illness after another. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of US states have “high” or “very high” respiratory virus activity. As for the antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin – a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanate, an agent that helps guard against antibiotic resistance – it’s not entirely clear why demand is so high. Some viral illness, like influenza, can leave the body more vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections that may need treatment with antibiotics.

☆ Why protections for crypto investors are linked to orange groves
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

watch nowHow orange groves impact crypto protectionsThe reason why largely hinges on a 1946 Supreme Court case about investors in Florida orange groves. Howey Co. — established the so-called Howey test to determine what constitutes a security, or "investment contract." (More on how the Howey test works can be found below.) Here's why this is important for crypto: It's unclear in many cases if digital assets are an "investment contract" under the 76-year-old Howey test. Why the 'security' distinction mattersThe Howey test has four parts to determine if something like bitcoin is an "investment contract."

☆ Remaking the River That Remade L.A.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Michael Kimmelman | Photographs Adali Schell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +33 min

Remaking the River That Remade L.A.February 1938 was a wet month in Los Angeles. Reservoirs overflowed, dams topped out and floodwaters careered down Pacoima Wash and Tujunga Wash toward the Los Angeles River. The Los Angeles River was never a storybook river of the kind that, like the Hudson or the Seine, we associate with great cities. Among the naysayers is a venerable organization called Friends of the Los Angeles River, founded by the Texas-born poet and performance artist Lewis MacAdams. “With all the problems L.A. is facing,” he said, “even if it costs $50 billion to fix the river, we should just effing do it.”The headwaters of the Los Angeles River aren’t easy to find.

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