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☆ A Chinese official said 'Putin is crazy' but Beijing may be trying to have it both ways by distancing itself from the Ukraine war while still supporting Russia financially
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Several Chinese officials tried to distance themselves from Putin and the Ukraine war, FT reported. China has not officially endorsed the war but continues to buy Russian energy and other exports. As of August, Chinese imports from Russia jumped by nearly 60% from the year prior, while exports to Russia increased by 26%, Reuters reported, citing customs data. And in the FT report published this week, several Chinese officials tried to distance China from the Ukraine invasion, even expressing mistrust in Putin directly. "Putin is crazy," one unnamed Chinese official told FT. "The invasion decision was made by a very small group of people.

The planet had one of its hottest years on record in 2022, as ocean heat soared and sea ice coverage in Antarctica melted to near-record lows, two federal science agencies announced Thursday. Last year was the fifth-warmest in recorded history, with global average surface temperatures that were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (about 0.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, according to the latest yearly analysis by NASA. A separate report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that Earth had its sixth-warmest year on record. That’s not a robust change,” Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said Thursday in a news briefing. The key thing is the long-term trends, and they’re very consistent from one record [to the next].”

☆ 2022 was one of the top 10 hottest years on record and the warmest La Nina year on record, according to government scientists
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

New data from the U.S. government shows that 2022 was one of the top 10 hottest years on record, with data going back to 1880. And of particular note, 2022 was the warmest year on record when there was a La Nina trade winds pattern, which is a weather event that has a cooling effect on global temperatures. According to both NOAA and NASA scientists, global temperatures were about 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above their respective baseline averages from the 20th century. 2022 had a La Nina weather pattern, which generally lowers global temperatures compared to what they would have been in a normal weather pattern year. El Nino and La Nina refer to opposite weather patterns determined by trade winds that blow in the Pacific ocean.

☆ The Companies Conducting Layoffs in 2023: Here’s the List
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Joseph De Avila | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Salesforce is one of several U.S. companies downsizing its workforce amid sluggish demand. Several U.S. companies are slashing staff at the beginning of 2023, continuing the downsizing that took place last year as businesses recalibrate after growing rapidly at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Waning demand and weaker revenue forced many major employers to scale back payrolls and institute hiring freezes in 2022. That hangover has spilled over into the New Year.

Guaido in 2019 won the recognition of scores of nations including the United States after the widely disputed election that kept Nicolas Maduro in power. The removal of the interim government "ended up undermining attachments among opposition leadership," said Piero Trepiccione, of Caracas' Gumilla thinktank. The opposition, many of whose leaders are in exile or barred from politics, has not held a primary for a decade. The United States has said it will continue to recognize the opposition assembly. Changing the presidential election to this year instead of next may also serve Maduro, Nicholas Watson of consulting firm Teneo said in a report.

The study participants all had blood-sodium concentrations considered to be within the normal range: 135 to 146 millimoles per liter. Even people with blood-sodium levels above 142 millimoles per liter had elevated risks of developing certain chronic diseases, including heart failure, stroke, chronic lung disease, diabetes and dementia, the study found. Dmitrieva's previous research similarly found that higher blood sodium may be a risk factor for heart failure. But the study authors cautioned that more research is needed to determine whether good hydration can help slow aging, prevent disease or lead to a longer life. The NIH study "doesn’t prove that drinking more water will prevent chronic disease," he said.

But persistent inflation and skimpier incomes, coupled with high input costs, will make it a tough year for conscious consumers and the companies that serve them. Take plant-based meat substitutes. They produce 30%-90% fewer emissions than their animal-derived counterparts, but a pound of the stuff costs shoppers twice as much, according to the Good Food Institute, a think tank. The price of U.S. pea protein isolate – a key ingredient in many meat substitutes – rose 10% between April 2021 and November 2022, according to Mintec Benchmark Prices. That would edge meat substitutes closer to their goal of one day costing the same, or less, than their animal-based equivalents.

☆ How Amazon's cloud unit is helping researchers analyze genetics
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Amazon Web Services recently launched general availability for Amazon Omics, which helps researchers store and analyze omic data like sequences of DNA, RNA and proteins. Amazon Omics helps researchers sort through their data by providing them with three components that they can leverage individually or as a collective. More than a dozen customers and partners tested a beta version of the service and are already using Amazon Omics. He said the department spent five years expanding the infrastructure to analyze omics data, and now it's no longer something they need to build or maintain themselves. C2i is a biotechnology company that's working to use genomic data to develop personalized treatments for cancer.

☆ Most House members didn't show up in person to vote on a $1.7 trillion government funding bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The House passed a $1.7 trillion government funding bill Friday, sending it to President Biden's desk. But a majority of House members were not physically present for the vote due to proxy voting. But most members of the House weren't there for the vote — at least in person. Below is a list of the members who voted by proxy, acccording to the the House Clerk. "For the first time in history, a bill in the House was passed without a physical quorum present – meaning more people voted from home than in the House Chamber," said McCarthy.

The country spent big on quarantine and testing facilities over the past three years rather than bolstering hospitals and clinics and training medical staff, these people said. "There is no transition time for the medical system to prepare for this," said Zuofeng Zhang, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. The failure to boost vaccination rates among the vulnerable could imperil China's health system, more than a dozen experts said. The death of a 23-year-old medical student in Chengdu on Dec. 14 fueled public ire at the strain on China's health system. Chen Jiming, a researcher at China's Foshan University, said there was every chance that China's medical system could cope now that the country has ended quarantine for asymptomatic and mild cases.

☆ Schools Prepare for Rise in Flu, Covid-19 Cases Tied to Holiday Break
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Ben Chapman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In Philadelphia, district officials will require masks at schools for two weeks following the winter recess. Schools across the country are bracing for a spike in Covid-19 and seasonal flu infections heading into winter break, in some cases reinstating mask requirements or canceling classes where cases have risen. New York City school district officials last week sent a letter to parents that recommended the use of masks in schools, and school district officials in Sacramento warned on Dec. 2 they would institute a mandate there if Covid-19 levels continued to rise.

☆ Lab-grown meat could be served up for dinner soon. What does it taste like?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

It has a capacity of 600 liters, or 159 gallons, allowing the company to produce 6,000 pounds of cultivated meat per year. Right now, Singapore is alone in allowing the sale of cultivated meat to consumers, having issued a green light in late 2020. Yet delivering on the promise of lab-grown meat won’t just come down to regulators. CNN“The promise of cultivated meat [is] to bring forth a taste and texture component, and to deliver sustainability,” said Gautam Godhwani, managing partner at Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital firm that has invested in eight cultivated meat startups. “I think the whole of the cultivated meat industry will go hybrid first,” Ivy Farm’s Dillon said.

According to the group's projections, cases in China would peak around April 1, when deaths would reach 322,000. About a third of China's population will have been infected by then, IHME Director Christopher Murray said. China's national health authority has not reported any official COVID deaths since the lifting of COVID restrictions. Based on China's population of 1.41 billion, and without measures such as a mass vaccination booster campaign, that amounts to 964,400 deaths. China's National Health Commission said on Friday it was ramping up vaccinations and building stocks of ventilators and essential drugs.

[1/5] People wait to purchase medicine at a pharmacy, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Beijing, China December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Xiaoyu YinBEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Funeral homes across China's COVID-hit capital Beijing, a city of 22 million, scrambled on Saturday to keep up with calls for funeral and cremation services as workers and drivers testing positive for the novel coronavirus called in sick. In Beijing, which has yet to report any COVID deaths since the policies changed on Dec. 7, sick workers have hit the staffing of services from restaurants and courier firms to its roughly one dozen funeral parlours. "We've fewer cars and workers now," a staffer at Miyun Funeral Home told Reuters, adding that there was a mounting backlog of demand for cremation services. China's health authority last reported COVID deaths on Dec. 3, in Shandong and Sichuan provinces.

☆ One million people could die from COVID-19 in China next year, according analysis of a new report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

2023 could see over 1 million COVID-19 deaths in China, per Reuters' analysis of a new report. The report predicts that the COVID-19 death toll in China could reach over 300,000 by April 2023. The IHME has suggested that the virus would peak at the start of April 2023, when they believe the country's COVID-19 deaths will soar to 322,000. It's just that that's the biggest concentration right now for that at-risk population," Murray said of the over-80 population. China has refused to use western vaccines in its fight against COVID-19, instead relying on its homegrown inoculations.

☆ New Covid model predicts over 1 million deaths in China through 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

According to the group's projections, cases in China would peak around April 1, when deaths would reach 322,000. About a third of China's population will have been infected by then, IHME Director Christopher Murray said. China's national health authority has not reported any official Covid deaths since the lifting of Covid restrictions. China's zero-Covid policy may have been effective at keeping earlier variants of the virus at bay, but the high transmissibility of Omicron variants made it impossible to sustain, he said. Based on China's population of 1.41 billion, and without measures such as a mass vaccination booster campaign, that amounts to 964,400 deaths.

☆ Strep A is surging in the UK and has already killed at least 19 children. Here's why it's taken so long to make a vaccine against this deadly pathogen.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Strep A is surging in the UK and has killed at least 19 kids, the UK Health Security Agency said. A vaccine would be better, but research groups have hit roadblocks during its development. Researchers have been trying to make a strep-A vaccine for decadesIf it's caught in time, strep A can be treated with antibiotics. There is no vaccine commercially available, but several research groups are working on developing one. A GSK spokesperson confirmed to Insider that it's also in the early stages of developing a strep-A vaccine but that it had not started human testing.

☆ German economy to grow slightly in 2023 - IfW forecast
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The Kiel-based institute now expects gross domestic product to increase by 0.3% in 2023, up from the institute's autumn forecast of a 0.7% drop. On Wednesday, the Ifo institute also revised up its 2023 forecast: It still predicts a decline next year of 0.1% but this is less severe than the 0.3% contraction previously forecast. The IfW expects growth of 1.3% growth in 2024 compared to the Ifo's 1.6% forecast for that year. The IfW said it expects inflation to hit 5.4% in 2023, down from its previous 8.7% forecast. On Thursday, the RWI institute said it also expects inflation to ease next year, falling to 5.8% in 2023 after reaching 7.9% this year.

Dec 8 (Reuters) - In a monastery in central Myanmar, a Buddhist monk, Wathawa, rallies his militia with a cry: "What's our spirit like?" shout a group of rifle-bearing men, loyalists of the military junta that seized power last year, now fighting to crush fledgling pro-democracy groups. Myanmar's Buddhist clergy previously sought to topple successive military dictatorships that kept citizens impoverished and isolated. Myanmar monks teach laypeople who in turn provide them with essentials such as food and clothing. State media broadcasts have shown military commanders showering Wathawa and his militia with cash and food donations.

☆ Long Covid is distorting the labor market — and that's bad for the U.S. economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

She eventually learned that the balance issues and ear pain resulted from a damaged vestibular nerve, a known effect of long Covid. She found that 2 million to 4 million full-time workers are out of the labor force due to long Covid. For one, many of the hundreds of potential long Covid symptoms are invisible to others, even if disabling for the afflicted. Why the long Covid labor gap mattersJerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, mentioned Sheiner and Salwati's long Covid research in a recent speech about inflation and the labor market. That burden will continue to rise if long Covid patients don't start recovering at greater rates, she said.

☆ Gladys Knight, George Clooney, Amy Grant feted at Kennedy Center Honors
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

WASHINGTON — A heartfelt Patti LaBelle praised her lifelong friend Gladys Knight. Matt Damon playfully teased his friend George Clooney — a lot — while Sheryl Crow gave thanks and a heartfelt rendition of “Baby Baby” to her fellow singer Amy Grant during Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors. Every year the Kennedy Center honors a select group of people for their artistic influences on American culture. 2022 Kennedy Center Honorees, front row from left, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, George Clooney, Tania León, join, back row from left, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, and Bono for a group photo at the State Department following the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Washington. León said during an interview when the honorees were announced that she wasn’t expecting “anything spectacular” when the Kennedy Center initially reached out to her.

☆ George Clooney, Gladys Knight among Kennedy Center honorees
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second from left, and his wife, Evan Ryan, left, join 2022 Kennedy Center Honorees, front row from left, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, George Clooney, Tania León, and Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, back row from left, Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein, along with fellow 2022 Honorees Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, and Bono for a group photo at the State Department following the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Washington. Sometimes the Kennedy Center honors not just individuals but groups; "Sesame Street" once got the nod. Composer and conductor León said during an interview when the honorees were announced that she wasn't expecting "anything spectacular" when the Kennedy Center initially reached out to her. After all, she's worked with the Kennedy Center numerous times over the years going back to 1980, when she was commissioned to compose music for a play. León left Cuba as a refugee in 1967 and eventually settled in New York City.

☆ Analysis: Russian oil revenues could weather EU ban, G7 price cap
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Olesya Astakhova | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Looking ahead to 2023, one of the main variables will be the ceiling G7 countries and the EU agree on importing Russian oil. Some of the biggest importers of Russian oil, including China and India, are not part of the initiative. The more Russian oil that is lost to world markets, the greater the likely impact on prices. "If the price cap is around $60 per barrel, Russia will continue to export its oil comfortably." Beyond the price cap and European import ban, Russia's oil sector may also be affected by COVID-19 restrictions in China, an increasingly important buyer of its crude.

After explosions - whose cause is under investigation - damaged the Nord Stream Russian gas pipeline system to Europe under the Baltic Sea, Putin in October proposed setting up a gas hub in Turkey, building on a southern route for exports. "Does Europe need the project, given the determination of the EU countries to forego Russian gas in the nearest future?" A source in Russia's pipeline gas exporting monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said be believed the hub would facilitate sales. "That will not be Russian gas, but gas from the hub," said the source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Neither Gazprom, nor the Kremlin provided a cost estimate for the Turkish hub idea.

☆ Death of Irene Cara, 'Fame' movie star and singer, evoked the loss of my youth
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Diane Forman | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

I was heartbroken when I learned that Irene Cara, who starred in the 1980 movie “Fame,” died over the weekend at age 63. Many people seem to like listening to sad music, in part because it’s a stronger trigger for nostalgia than sadness. I always felt like Cara was singing right to me, that she had a window into my emotional experience, which made me feel less alone. I’ve seen the original version of “Fame” a dozen times, always mesmerized by the character Coco, played by Cara. All of which might explain my strong reaction to hearing of Cara’s death even though she was a complete stranger.

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