#How is Coronavirus Affecting Recycling

[aylce101]

The Curious World of Gold Prices: FintechZoom's Views

Introduction

Always a major commodity in the financial markets, gold serves as a safe refuge during economic crisis, a hedge against inflation, and a basic component of world reserve currencies. Platforms like FintechZoom provide real-time insights and analyses priceless for traders, investors, and economists both as the financial terrain changes. We will investigate the elements driving gold prices in this blog, look at current trends, and learn how FintechZoom could be a very useful tool for people engaged in the precious metal market.

Gold's Historic Significance

From its use in ancient civilizations as money and jewelry to its part in contemporary financial systems, gold's appeal stems from past. Gold has long been a consistent source of value, holding worth over millennia. Unlike fiat money, which might be devalued by inflation and other economic events, gold's inherent value stays rather constant.

Aspects Affecting Gold Prices

Economic Indices: Economic data greatly shapes the value of gold. Important markers are GDP growth, employment numbers, and inflation rates. Investors swarm gold as a safe haven during times of economic uncertainty or downturns, so driving up its price.

Monetary Policy: The gold market depends much on central banks. Gold prices might change depending on policies on reserve requirements, money supply, and interest rates. Low rates, for example, often lower the opportunity cost of owning gold, which increases its appeal.

Geographic Events: Geopolitical Gold prices can vary greatly depending on political unrest, wars, and world conflicts. In geopolitally tense times, investors see gold as a safe investment.

Value of the US dollar has a notable inverse relationship with gold prices in terms of fluctuations. For foreign buyers, a stronger dollar increases the cost of gold, so lowering demand; a weak dollar has the reverse effect.

Supply and market demand: The price of gold is directly impacted by demand from sectors including jewelry, technology, and investment as well as by mining output and recycling's effects on supply.

Recent developments in gold prices

Gold prices have been rather erratic in recent years, shaped by different worldwide events and economic policies. Let's review some important patterns:

coronavirus 19 Pandemic: The worldwide epidemic set off hitherto unheard-of levels of economic uncertainty that drove gold prices skyward. Fears of inflation drove investors toward gold as central banks carried out bold fiscal stimulus and monetary easing.

Concerns about inflation: Significant pressures on inflation resulting from post-pandemic recovery Though the link is complicated and affected by several factors, including real interest rates, gold, usually considered as an inflation hedge, has benefited from these worries.

Technological Advancements: Blockchain and digital gold trading platforms among other financial technology innovations have made gold more available to a wider audience. These developments have improved the gold market's transparency and liquidity.

Many central banks—especially those in developing nations—have been building more gold reserves. Supporting gold prices, this trend shows a diversification approach away from the US dollar.

Gold Price Insights Using FintechZoom

Leading venue offering real-time financial news, data, and analysis is FintechZoom. For those who invest in gold, it provides several tools that might improve decision-making:

FintechZoom guarantees investors have the most recent information at their hands by offering up-to--minute gold price updates. Those who trade short-term or make quick investment decisions depend on this ability.

With regard to several economic indicators, geopolitical events, and market attitude, the platform provides in-depth study of gold price fluctuations. Detailed studies and expert analysis enable investors to grasp the fundamental causes influencing gold prices.

By means of historical gold price data, investors can spot long-term trends and tendencies. Those who want to make wise decisions depending on past performance and cyclical behavior of gold must have this knowledge.

FintechZoom compiles pertinent news and events possibly influencing gold prices. Anticipating price movements depends on keeping up knowledge of world events, central bank policies, and economic developments.

For traders, FintechZoom provides a selection of technical analysis instruments including trend lines, charts, and indicators. These instruments use technical signals and price trends to help find possible points of entrance and exit.

Techniques for Allocating Gold Funds

Investing in gold calls for a calculated approach based on long-term goals as well as present possibilities. Investors should give these some tactics some thought:

Purchasing physical gold in the form of coins, bars, or jewelry is a conventional approach of investment. Though it offers a physical benefit, storage and insurance expenses should be taken into account.

ETFs for Gold: Mutual Funds Without having to physically handle it, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) expose to gold. These financial instruments offer liquidity and diversification advantages as well as track the value of gold.

Investing in companies engaged in gold mining and production provides a leveraged view of gold prices. Still, it's important to evaluate these companies' geopolitical and operational risks.

Futures and Options: Contracts offering a means of gold price movement speculation allow sophisticated investors. These derivative instruments carry more risk and call for a strong awareness of the market.

Thanks to fintech innovations, investors may purchase and sell fractional ownership of gold on digital gold platforms. These sites provide less entry requirements and convenience.

The direction of gold prices:

Given the several elements influencing gold prices, it is difficult to project their future. Still, several patterns will probably affect the market:

Sustainable and Ethical Gold: Growing knowledge of ethical and environmental problems in mining could stimulate market for gold derived sustainably. Investors are growing more aware of how their choices affect the surroundings and society.

Blockchain technology integration in gold trading might improve traceability and openness, so improving the market efficiency. Digital gold platforms probably will become more popular.

Monetary Policy Shifts: Particularly in reaction to inflation and economic recovery, central bank policies will always be very important. Any notable modification in monetary policy or interest rates could affect gold values.

Global Economic Conditions: Investor attitude toward gold will be influenced by trade conflicts, geopolitical stability, growth possibilities, and state of the global economy. Gold is probably going to be a preferred asset in unsure times.

Final Thought

Still a great value in the financial markets, gold provides inflation and economic uncertainty protection. For investors trying to negotiate the complexity of the gold market, sites like FintechZoom offer insightful tools and analysis. Understanding the elements affecting gold prices and using technology developments will help investors to make wise decisions and maximize their portfolios.

The interaction of economic policies, technological developments, and world events will always help to define the gold market going forward. Maximizing possibilities in this ever-changing terrain will depend mostly on keeping informed and flexible. 

[garbagebinrentals]

How is Coronavirus Affecting Recycling and Waste Disposal in Canada – read here!

Coronavirus is impacting virtually every industry. Every business category is either seeing its numbers fall in one way or another, or sizeable disruptions to business. Waste disposal and recycling are not excluded.

Is coronavirus a threat to recycling? How are waste management companies handling coronavirus waste? Could cross-contamination make the spread of the virus worse? How expensive could a disruption to waste management from coronavirus be?

These are all questions that deserve answers. While the coronavirus continues to worsen in countries from Canada to the other side of the Earth, it’s tough to predict the full extent of consequences. Here’s our take on where the relationship between recycling, waste, and the coronavirus are right now.

Is recycling being affected by coronavirus?

At an international level, recycling is being affected by coronavirus. Facilities overseas are equipped with fewer staff. There are difficulties in shipping and transporting recycling and waste. Any growth in waste management and recycling has not only stalled but has lost steam compared to what was initially projected for the year.

Is it ‘business as usual’ in waste management?

At a local level, Canada is fortunate to not have the same level of outbreak as other regions. Garbage pickup, waste removal, and sorting haven’t really been impacted. In waste management, precautions are being followed. It is similar to what’s done to guard against flu influenza.

As of right now, even though coronavirus numbers are increasing in Canada, garbage pickup hasn’t been affected. If things worsen to an extreme degree, this could change. For the foreseeable future, waste pickup and disposal locally and domestically will continue as normal.

What is happening in China with coronavirus and recycling?

Even without coronavirus disruptions, China’s been undergoing a change in its waste and recycling culture. They are no longer accepting certain materials and not entertaining the purchase of others. Although China’s not the only one to blame on the reduced growth in recycling, they play a big influence internationally. What happens in China affects everyone.

Where are we supposed to bring our recycling?

Coronavirus is shutting down certain shipping routes and recycling methods, resulting in accumulations of materials with no place to go. Facilities in China, particularly with scrap recycling, are closed. The plastic recycling industry has several facilities shut down. There are scrapyards in India, among other places, refusing to accept recycling waste.

The Canadian recycling industry employs roughly 110,000 people. It is still very much early days with coronavirus in Canada. If things continue to worsen, it might be reasonable to expect recycling facilities are going to temporarily close and the result may be storage over processing. This is only speculation, of course. It is one possibility, however.

Canada does not have a self-sustaining recycling industry. We rely on other countries to assist in processing recycling. For years, the government’s been called on to expedite recycling development. It is moments like this where such a system would benefit us and our eco commitments.

How is coronavirus affecting waste collectors and sorting facilities?

Anyone working in waste management and recycling facilities is at high risk of contracting coronavirus. This is because they are physically touching the community’s waste. If multiple undiagnosed cases exist, the virus could go from a waste product transferred to the person collecting or sorting the waste.

Waste disposal professionals and sorters are heavily encouraged to practice excellent hygiene. Wear gloves. Disinfect immediately after the job is done. Do not touch your face during a shift and/or while handling waste. In some cases, it may be reasonable to wear a facemask to maximize avoidance of bacteria transfer.

Why Canada will probably make less money this year than last on its recycling

Recycling relies on markets. Without them, we can’t turn a profit. Without a profit, recycling is unjustifiable. Coronavirus could affect that – in a big way.

Until the pandemic is under control, there’s a high level of volatility in the market. Recycling materials that were once valuable could be reduced to significantly less. It could take time for everything to bounce back. Much like other elements of coronavirus’ impact on recycling, the extent of the consequences remains to be seen.

This will no doubt affect the construction and development of new recycling infrastructure. Economically speaking, this could set things back by a year or longer. Some estimates suggest coronavirus may not be adequately contained for a few more weeks in Canada. For the sake of the recycling industry, we hope it is weeks and not months.

How is coronavirus waste being handled?

Coronavirus waste, or any materials that have been in contact with a coronavirus-infected individual, is double-bagged and tied to prevent the spread of the virus. As it’s not an airborne virus, the objective of coronavirus waste is to simply prevent touching.

This directive of ‘double-bag and tied’ is being followed by hospitals and medical facilities. Coronavirus waste should be stored in a secure location not accessible by children or pets. Garbage is then assigned to the relevant container and category of waste.

Waste management companies handling this waste are thankfully very specialized. They are knowledgeable about the expectation around what’s to be done with this waste.

Thus far, no coronavirus transfers have been reported around waste disposal or recycling. For all intents and purposes, we don’t expect to see any.

As long as waste is adequately contained and those collecting are following the appropriate guidelines, there is no reason to believe garbage, recycling, or waste are ever going to be a problem as it relates to the spread of coronavirus.

Are you looking for recycling and waste disposal in the GTA? Contact Core Mini Bins. We offer dumpster and mini bin rentals, waste disposal, and more. We are responsible in handling waste, maximizing landfill diversion efforts and recycling efforts. There’s no reason you should have to settle for less than adequate waste management. We can help. Even with coronavirus raging, companies and households are still creating waste. We’re still offering services. The world is still turning. If you need garbage pickup and disposal, a mini bin rental, junk removal services, or more, reach out.

Source: https://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/769-how-is-coronavirus-affecting-recycling-and-waste-disposal-in-canada-read-here.html

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Check your privilege. You are not on the side of Asians, only the whites who have been supposedly the most affected by this. Says a lot that THAT is what you're worried about.

Yes, I’m sorry, the media, politicians and activists widely condemning an entire race and pinning the racist attacks on them is no big deal and should not be discussed, you are right. You may have a point. In my last post, I did not bring enough attention to the severity and often savagery of these recent attacks against Asian Americans, usually elderly. The victims deserve to be heard and their violent, racist attackers condemned to the fullest. So let’s do that.

On January 28th, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was walking in his driveway in San Francisco. A 19-year-old male barreled into him, knocking him to the ground. The male, Antoine Watson, was accompanied by a 20-year-old female. Two days later, Ratanapakdee died of his injuries. In March, an elderly woman was beaten during a robbery in broad daylight in Daly City. The attacker stripped her of her belongings and started to leave, before returning to club her again. In San Jose, on February 5th, a 64-year-old Vietnamese grandmother was getting into her car after withdrawing $1000 in cash in advance of the Lunar New Year. Two males yanked open the car door, grabbed the woman’s purse, keys, and phone and fled.

On January 31st, a 91-year-old man was walking along an Oakland sidewalk when a young male came up behind and pushed him to the ground. As the man’s head hung over the curb into the street, the assailant calmly continued walking off. A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman were attacked in Oakland’s Chinatown by the same assailant. Seventy-five-year-old Pak Ho was robbed and killed while taking his morning walk near Oakland’s Lake Merritt in March. He hit his head on the sidewalk and was taken off life support for brain trauma shortly after. On February 3rd, a 71-year-old grandmother was walking across an Oakland sidewalk towards her apartment when a young man dashed up and knocked her to the ground. A second male ran up and danced around as the first pulled the woman’s purse from her body, breaking the strap. Both males then ran off with the purse.

On February 23rd, two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old walked into a San Francisco laundromat where a 67-year-old man was sitting. They kicked him to the ground, dangled him upside down by his legs, twisted him back and forth and beat him while they rifled through his pockets. Finally, they found his wallet and walked out the door. An 88-year-old great-grandmother, Yik Oi Huang, went missing. When her son searched the park next to her home, he saw what he thought was a pile of old clothes next to a recycling bin. It was his mother, beaten so brutally as to be unrecognizable and choking on her own blood. Her pants were down and her belly exposed. The 18-year-old suspect had gone on to burglarize her home, stealing jewelry and house keys before fleeing the area. Huang died. On March 18th, a man yelled “you motherf**king Asian!” as he knocked a 68-year-old Sri Lankan unconscious on a New York subway. The man remains in a critical condition. On March 21st, a 37-year-old woman attending a rally in lower Manhattan against anti-Asian violence was punched twice in the face by a man who took her protest sign and stuffed it in a trash can. In March 2020, four teenage girls assaulted a 51-year-old woman on a bus in the Bronx, hitting her with an umbrella and accusing her of spreading the coronavirus.

On March 30th, a man assaulted a mother on a train heading to Times Square, New York, and began yelling anti-Asian slurs at her and her three children. He then knocked the woman’s phone to the floor and kicked it off the train. On March 27th, a man beat and choked an Asian man unconscious aboard a Manhattan-bound train. The attacker repeatedly punched the man down to the subway seat, he then wrapped his arm around the other man’s neck, putting him in a chokehold for nearly 15 seconds, before the victim’s body falls to the train floor, his head flopping back unconsciously. Also on March 27th, a 37-year-old woman was at a NYC station when she was approached by a man who struck the woman in the face and made anti-Asian statements to her. On March 24th, a 35-year-old woman was riding on a NYC train when a man on board started making racist slurs her. When the victim started recording him on her cellphone, police say he smacked it out of her hand, picked it up, and smashed it on the ground. 

On April 3rd, an elderly couple were attacked in Tacoma, Washington by a 15-year-old male, who ran up to them, swinging punches at the man as the woman cries out while others record it and cheer. Another video shows the victim being further verbally abused and assaulted. On April 7th, a 25-year-old female was sitting, talking to a friend, when an individual made anti-Asian statements and slapped her in the face. On April 11th, a 57-year-old man was brutally assaulted on an Oakland street. The perpetrator sat on top of the victim, holding him down physically and landed blows to his face and chest as the victim struggled, screaming for help. On April 13th, a man was walking through the streets of the Upper East Side, ranting about Asians and white people, when he followed after a man who walked into the street to get away before the suspect followed him and body slammed him into a glass storefront. The victim tried to run away, but the suspect chased him until someone intervened. On April 14th, a convicted sex offender was arrested after following a woman into her garage, shouting race-based insults at her and spitting in her face.

How do I show I’m on “Asian’s side”? I’m allowed to condemn these violent, racist attacks, but I can’t condemn the violent, racist attackers because every single one of them is also black, and I can’t condemn the media and politicians for not only hiding the truth about these violent, racist attacks, but putting all blame and condemnation on an entire unrelated race in order to advance a radical agenda? Since I apparently can’t be “on Asians side” while at the same time condemning the corrupt and distorted reporting and narrative of these attacks, I will not pay attention at all to those who are committing the attacks or those who are using them for profit and gain. That’s how this works, right? Thank you for making me woke like you xx 

[corisanna]

Over 100 Years of Generational Pandemic Trauma with a Side of WW1/Depression/WW2 Trauma and Frugality: 1917-2020

This will be more personal than I usually get on Tumblr, but for some reason, I wanna share it. I wanted to put it in words with a bit of research as a way to process it and maybe get some other stories from other people.

...

So the other day, Mom and I were talking about illness and reactions to the threat of widespread, dangerous illness while watching pandemic coverage on TV. (Yes, we talk about weird social stuff a lot. A lot.) Mom casually said she and her sister were distressed every time they got even a little bit sick and tried to hide it from my grandfather because he seemed to react to illness with anger. Huh, we said, How odd.

“Maybe he was angry at the illness, not at you?” I guessed.

“Hmmmmmmm,” Mom said doubtfully.

So we were taking a break from talking and someone on TV brought up the 1917-1918 flu pandemic.

“Oh, hey, didn’t Great-Grandpa live through that?” I idly asked.

Mom blinked and went utterly still. After a minute of staring blankly, she said, “Oh. Oh.”

“What?”

“He wasn’t angry. He was afraid,” Mom said.

“Who? Oh, Grampa?”

Mom nodded, face in an expression of epiphany.

I started thinking. It turned into diving into family history and history in general.

Okay, so. Let’s back up for some context.

...

2000s back to 1950s back to 1940s back to 1930s back to 1914: Habits from World Wars and the Great Depression

First of all: I know for a fact that my mother, born in the 1950s, was raised on Depression/WW2 Era food frugality. My grandparents lived through both and were old enough to remember them; Grandpa was around twelve on Black Tuesday and Gramma was around two years older. Grandpa and his brother were in the military during WW2.

The things Mom was raised on:

Very simple recipes, all based on salty canned/jarred food that had been cooked to Hell and back. SO MUCH SALT. SO MANY PEAS. Grampa was especially focused on canned food; he likely ate mostly canned food when deployed and on kitchen duty. Treating sugar and salt like gold. Stretching meals that had meat with potatoes and gravy. A backyard pseudo-Victory Garden Gramma and Great-Grandma canned veg from and orange trees that Grampa obsessed over keeping healthy and productive; the garden was dominated by tomatoes to be stewed even into the 1980s and the obsessive care for the orange trees had them massive and healthy when I was a kid in the early 1990s. Butter was for holidays; the rest of the year was margarine (”oleo”). Leftover grease was strained and saved. SO MUCH JELL-O and relish IN SO MANY RECIPES, possibly because it hadn’t been rationed. (You know all those weird old 1960s-1970s recipes with gelatin and odd stuff? Look at when the recipe-makers were kids.) Did you burn your food nearly to charcoal? Eat it. Food was absolutely not to be wasted.

Shoes were to be worn until mending or tape couldn’t hold them together anymore. Weird little broken things were saved in a junk drawer as possibly useful for scrap-- broken rubber bands, screws from something that had broken, old keys, bent nails-- and metal cooking pans were to be used until they started ruining food. Boxes, scrap paper, newspapers, and magazines were to be bundled up and saved.

(source)

And so on.

For other rationing information, see the “Make It Do” tag on Sarah Sundin’s blog.

But my grandparents’ frugality goes back another generation. There was no formal rationing in WW1 in the US, but there were massive propaganda campaigns to reduce consumption of certain things. People were encouraged to have “meatless” and “wheatless” days. Weird recipes for “Camouflage Cookery” appeared.

(source)

WW1 “War Gardens” were the predecessors of Victory Gardens. Canning the produce from the gardens was patriotic. And so on.

My grandparents improved bit by bit as Mom grew and Grampa made more money at better jobs and the economy recovered. One of the first things they caved on was having coffee all day every day as some kind of personal victory, but still never with cream or sugar. Mom and I keep suddenly realizing some of their habits were tied to rationing.

Generational drift has kept a lot of those odd little habits. Mom hates vegetables that aren’t salty and cooked to floppiness. Eat freezerburned food because it’s your own damned fault it got freezerburned. Wear shoes until they fall apart and unless they are flip-flops that become 100% unusable, keep the worn out pair until our next pair of shoes wear out “just in case” the new shoes get damaged. Shoelaces are saved when the shoes get trashed. Clothes get ripped beyond repair? Fight the urge to save the cloth for “something.” Recycle things to near-obsession. “Waste not want not,” but for very specific things.

I explain all this to establish that we have already identified patterns in hardship coping mechanisms within our family.

Now we have identified another.

1917-1918 Influenza Pandemic

My great grandparents-- the parents of my maternal grandfather-- were European immigrants who lived in Chicago during WW1 and the pandemic. My other grandparents likely did, too, but I have very little information about them. My GGF’s occupation would be considered non-essential in modern times, but I’m not sure about 1917-1918. I don’t know what he did during that time; though I know there is a Draft Registration Card for him, I have no proof or anecdotal evidence that he served in the military. So he was likely home with his wife and baby. During a time of fear of bringing illness home enhanced by propaganda,

real(?) news,

(source)

and gradually escalating sanitary measures imposed by the local government.

(source)

So. Terror.

Mom and I talked about him. Obsessive about handkerchief use and washing. Strict standards for cleaning. He didn’t live with Mom’s family, so she doesn’t remember much else relevant. And Great Grandmother? She focused on the food and frugality.

But their son, my grandfather? Also obsessive about handkerchief use and washing. So unreasonably obsessed with cleaning that Gramma threw up her hands and said, “Then you do it!” and Grampa, a man in the early 1950s, did it without complaint. Silverware and dishes were never to be shared or used twice and must be washed immediately after use.

He was born during a pandemic and raised by a father who had to keep his family safe during a pandemic. And a world war. And the Great Depression.

How could my great grandfather’s parenting not be affected by all that trauma?

How could my grandfather not be affected by that parenting from trauma?

How could my grandfather’s parenting not be affected by all that trauma, plus trauma from serving in WW2?

How could my mother not be affected by that parenting from trauma?

Mom said she and her sister were distressed every time they got even a little bit sick and tried to hide it from my grandfather because he seemed to react to illness with anger. Huh, we said, How odd.

“Maybe he was angry at the illness, not at you?” I guessed.

“Hmmmmmmm,” Mom said doubtfully.

“Oh, hey, didn’t Great-Grandpa live through that?” I idly asked.

Mom blinked and went utterly still. After a minute of staring blankly, she said, “Oh. Oh.”

“What?”

“He wasn’t angry. He was afraid,” Mom said.

“Who? Oh, Grampa?”

The chain was greatly loosened by my mother, who was a sheltered white girl who literally didn’t know who Martin Luther King Jr. was until everyone started talking about his assassination because my racist grandparents and their social circle controlled her access to media about the Civil Rights Movement so tightly. (The deprogramming of all their underlying racism is a completely different YIKES discussion for another day.) Grampa didn’t serve in Korea, she didn’t have any brothers to get roped into Vietnam, they were very middle class when she was old enough to notice such things, she never really wanted for anything. Just lived a very privileged white girl life.

A charmed life until her mid-30s.

And she still inherited a lot of frugal and cleanliness/sanitation compulsions from my grandparents, which she then passed down to me. Diluted twice over, but very much there. And very useful, now that we are low-income and disabled but still live in a run-down but big house capable of storing extra stuff. If one or both of us has a flare and can’t shop? We just turn to the freezer and pantry and the garage cabinet. Because always having a month’s worth of food is... just how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it?

Buy extra nonperishable food when it’s cheap whenever you can afford it. It’s better to have too much than to have not enough. Mind your hygiene. Wash, wash, wash anything that gets saliva or nasal discharge on it. Wash your hands before, during, and after food prep. Wash your hands in general. Grow your own vegetables and make sure they’re nutritious ones that’ll keep. Some things Are Not To Be Shared. Anything like double-dipping is a crime against humanity. Don’t lick the stirring spoon, or wash it immediately after if you do. Correct people who don’t cover coughs and sneezes and either make them wash their hands if they used them or do not let them touch you. If you get sick or poor or disaster/war breaks supply lines, you’ll be glad to have enough food to live on for a month. Buy extra nonperishable food when it’s cheap whenever you can afford it. It’s better to--

2020 Coronavirus Pandemic: Distilled Generational Habits and Coping Mechanisms

I still have the recipes Gramma carefully saved from the Eagle Brand canned, shelf-stable sweetened condensed milk that was given to her family by local welfare workers in the 1930s.

This is why when panic buying started in early March 2020-- before people started taking the possibility of long-term shutdowns seriously-- one of the first staples I went for was shelf-stable milk. I remember being surprised that there was so much of it on the shelf. Huh.

Fresh potatoes were gone, but the canned and dry/instant potatoes were untouched. Huh. Tons of Gramma’s recipes used “potato flakes.” Don’t they know that fresh potatoes have a much shorter shelf life? Huh.

Fresh tomatoes were picked over, but the canned diced/stewed/paste/sauce were still well-stocked. Huh.

Bread and bread products like tortillas were gone. The flour was untouched. Huh. I didn’t buy any because we already make sure we have a good amount of flour on hand. Same for salt, sugar, yeast, baking soda, and baking powder. Like, we have an in-other-times-(by-which-I-mean-January)-excessive amount of salt, sugar, and baking soda. Prepackaged bread crumbs were untouched; we still had a good amount of panko at home but I got two more boxes because they were BOGO and surely people would soon realize this was good to have for a bit of shelf-stable variety.

Buy extra nonperishable food when it’s cheap whenever you can afford it, Gramma may as well have whispered to me.

I should’ve bought dried split peas to make soup with the leftover ham hock we have in the freezer. They sold out the next week with all the pasta. Which I hadn’t even considered because Mom is diabetic and controls it through diet alone. Pasta is a no-no here.

I was so busy with sorting out *vague gestures* life in general during a pandemic that I delayed going through my seed stock; I didn’t realize some of my staple veggie seeds were so old because I started my garden so late last year that I just bought seedlings. I’m guessing seedlings are gonna sell out. So I was late to go hunting for seeds online, but now they’re in the mail. My usual tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, and winter squashes, along with things I hadn’t seriously considered before: Green/soup peas. Black-eyed peas. Carrots. Onions. I usually try to grow fun things mixed in with staples but not this year.

Remember to use sunflowers as wind and sun breaks, Grampa may as well have whispered to me. In hot and sunny places, they can make or break a garden. I learned that the hard way when I moved out west. They bring the bees, too.

Okay. I can do this. Thanks.

Conclusion

That meme of the person going “wow I wonder what it would be like to live through a major historical event-- WAIT NOT LIKE THIS NOT LIKE THIS NOOO” has me thinking even more than it usually does. This pandemic has made me acutely aware of how “macro” history’s threads are woven into the “micro” history of my family. It has made me more curious; if we’re shut in for longer, then I may actually get to poke into Mom’s side of the family more. Gaining extra context for things fascinates me-- and could be a great distraction when I’m not able to garden. I’ve already learned a lot.

I really wish I could talk to my grandparents and great grandparents about this. I can already see that I am going to have some habits permanently ingrained in me as compulsions, the same as pandemic and economic disaster did for them.

And I really understand my grandfather’s difficulty controlling anger at an invisible, microscopic enemy and what it could do to your family.

The only difference? I have twenty years of therapy behind me as a tool. I hope that’s enough.

Because yeah, there is anger in my anxiety.

[beautybranding12]

How Fenty’s Beauty Branding Positioning Generated $100 Million In 40 Days

Many of Huda Beauty’s high posts featured the brand’s photogenic founder, suggesting the brand is taking advantage of that Huda magic. Beauty branding is all about first impressions and in the enterprise of beauty the bar is set excessive. Salons want a distinctive style to face out and entice fashion-savvy shoppers in an over-saturated market. We are a beauty branding company, our skilled brand id companies create related, believable, well-positioned manufacturers https://mslk.com/.

Don’t cover them on a webpage nobody visits; use them to underscore your advertising, your website copy, and every thing else that comes from your model, implicitly and explicitly. According to Brand Finance, L'Oreal Paris is the main make-up brand in relation to net worth. In 2020 it's value was value a whopping 11.75 billion US dollars. It's adopted by Gillette and Nivea in the second and third places, respectively. Anyone could be their own makeup artist with the assistance of Make Up For Ever.

This beauty branding logo is kind of made up of a monogram illustration and a wordmark. The monogram is made up of a artistic and edgy letter mixture. The U and D are uppercase and angular, with gentle swirls, onerous traces and modern aptitude. Color is merely certainly one of three logo components - others are symbol and font.

The brand’s skincare, makeup and perfume merchandise combine science and sweetness to achieve the right blend of modern thinking and timeless style. Created by François Nars in 1994, NARS Cosmetics launched with simply 12 lipsticks. Since then, the label has grown considerably and now provides a various and in depth assortment of magnificence merchandise for women of all skin sorts. You don’t want to purchase couture clothes to find a way to put on luxurious.

This mega cosmetics firm is certainly one of the largest on the earth and has been providing girls with incredible cosmetics and fragrances since 1886. RMS Beauty prides itself on creating merchandise that are not solely non-toxic but in addition nourishing to the skin. The label’s makeup and skincare ranges function raw, food-grade and natural elements that promote anti-ageing and long-lasting magnificence.

They’ve backed up their dedication to that base of their marketing, and they’ve used social media to attach with their clients in unfiltered and organic methods. Since Lilah b isn't brand new, Foland is working via well timed issues that are important to modern beauty customers. The brand is increasing the variety of foundation shades provided, of which there are at present only 5, and addressing sustainability, an increasing area of focus for the wonder trade. The frequency of assortment has increased from monthly to weekly in just some years, and Lilah b is devoted to persevering with the scheme as a value of doing enterprise. Vegan beauty brand The Lip Bar was a prime performer on each Instagram and Twitter this year.

As prospects are exposed to a beauty model extra typically, they become extra inclined to like it. Successful brands have a constant look and feel in every little thing they put in front of their prospects. One of the major benefits of this type of consistency is that it offers easy recognition of any product amongst customers. Attractive packaging design is a motivating pressure in encouraging folks to make impulsive selections. Taking benefit of this reward-seeking conduct with a good design can have a robust influence on customers’ receptiveness to your products.

To be thought-about natural, the product must meet non-toxic standards for ingredients and processing. Up from $483B in 2020 to $511B in 2021 — and with an annual compounded development rate of four.75% worldwide — it’s predicted to exceed $716B by 2025. Long controlled by legacy conglomerates, the sweetness business has turned on-line. Spend a while really nailing down what makes your products different. You have to not be afraid to level out what makes you stand out, there’s plenty of power in that. You’re a growing group with systemic issues which may be affecting your brand.

Lilah B promote multi-use merchandise using "clean" components, encouraging clients to recycle their old cosmetics packaging. Customer engagement is handiest if it’s organic, through “deep connection” corresponding to user-generated content or influencers who've plausible relationships with products. A robust online presence might help entice stockists—so it’s worth investing in social media areas. Early on, you will want to create a website—try Squarespace for an inexpensive, secure, and slick on-line retailer you could build your self with no coding skills. I constructed my very own retailer on Squarespace within the time it took to watch an episode of Black Mirror.

Skincare model Mary Kay swiftly jumped into the fight against coronavirus by redirecting resources to fabricate hand sanitizer within the early days of the pandemic. Instagram followers jumped in to applaud the brand’s actions with more than 17,000 likes and comments. Not all brands went so far as to change up manufacturing, however many beauty manufacturers tried to make a difference by actively sharing what they have been doing to fight the pandemic with followers on social media. Many manufacturers noticed success with giveaways this yr, but this one from ColourPop is a textbook instance of a dynamite social media giveaway. The brand stored the criteria for entry easy and centered on ColourPop as an alternative of creating fans hop around to a bunch of different brands. The giveaway in celebration of a big follower milestone sneakily helped ColourPop develop followers even more by incentivizing casual followers to follow the model on Instagram.

The company serves various industries together with sports, leisure, food & beverage, retail and travel. But the joy in this brand comes in its simplicity — particularly in comparability to the encompassing packaging. The monogram is made up of the overlapping E and L of the model name in a curly, inventive and splendid font. The backward “N” adds a cool, innovative and edgy tone to the logo that elevates the brand’s mastery within the beauty industry. Due to Instagram API limitations, we’re capable of pull accurate Instagram engagement numbers only for verified and/or Instagram business accounts. Helpful business articles, our work, and special provides are introduced on these platforms.

You’ll also need an on-brand business card full with your logo, website and another components of your model identity, to construct these connections. The visual id communicates instantly what it would take a long time to place throughout in words. For example, are your values natural, natural and eco-friendly or glamorous and glossy? The customer will instantly get an impression from your packaging and marketing materials to assist them resolve if the product is for them. Of course the phrases are important too, but you have to get your clients to notice you first, and that's where visuals are so necessary.

After Fenty launched, their deep shades offered out across the nation, and customers took to social media to share their joy at discovering foundations that matched their pores and skin tone. But while Fenty is priced as a luxury model, they still aren’t as expensive as most of the other manufacturers promoting a lot of shades. Estée Lauder’s foundation range with forty two shades, for instance, is priced at $42; Fenty’s foundation is $35.

By posting YouTube movies of her make-up routines and sharing seems on her Snapchat tales, she had positioned herself as a number one voice. eMarketer reviews that 38% of shoppers interested in testing pop-up stores are those that already store on-line every week in comparability with 28% preferring brick-and-mortar shopping. By engaging with its followers in a face-to-face setting, Glossier is prepared to deepen relationships with customers past online interactions. Yet, it doesn’t come with the monetary obligations of following a chain-store mannequin. With different themes in every area and experiential advertising activations — it’s constructed hype that attracts droves of brand name lovers desperate to try out the products in real-time.

While the beauty and private care business will stay strong globally, the cosmetics and skincare verticals specifically will expertise probably the most income growth within the US at a fee of 3.5% by 2021. Crafted is a inventive branding agency that companions with startups and fortune 100 brands across the globe. They have experience in brand design, video manufacturing, web site improvement ad content material advertising. Does a Black-owned magnificence brand need to post about Black founders, Black influencers, and makeup shades for darker skin tones to be successful on social media?

Fenty is a good instance of magnificence brand advertising, from their partaking social media channels which include sharing well-liked memes on Twitter and sharing selfies of their clients sporting Fenty makeup. Fenty was initially launched in 2017 by way of an exclusively digital marketing campaign and to this present day the model is a testomony to the significance of how important the web area is for modern magnificence manufacturers. Different branded cosmetics model design elements by Almi designLogo. Your brand is the face of your beauty enterprise and, as such, it’s the most important component you’ll bring to life through the branding course of. Fenty found next-level success because it positioned itself from day one as a diverse brand for a various buyer base. They’ve built products for an enormous and underserved market—women whose pores and skin tones don’t fall into the ranges that the most important makeup brands focus on.

According to NPD, Benefit Cosmetics had a 50% share of the £20 million brow market in 2016, and that was before the model launched thirteen model new brow-related products. Fenty continues this strategy across digital channels, using YouTube tutorials and stay virtual events to generate engagement and hype around each new product launch. Many magnificence brands launched digital tools in 2020, as customers have been unable to visit stores , and L’Oreal’s ‘Signature Faces’ digital make up line was arguably one of the most innovative releases.

Your web site is a superb platform to start a dialogue about all magnificence topics and, who is aware of, maybe a while down the road you might begin producing a line of beauty products that you never considered. Funkhaus is a digital creative company working on the intersection of design, content material, programming, and strategy. One reason behind Benefit’s domination of the area is its shrewd advertising activity, which in 2017 concerned the ‘Browmobile’ campaign. Combining experiential elements with digital advertising, it involved an online competition offering customers the possibility to win a visit from the browmobile.

"Aside from social media, a advertising tactic that usually will get overlooked is the unboxing experience you could create for influencers," says Wittick. "Fabfitfun created a stir about this, yet it’s a tactic that still will get uncared for." When operating a cosmetics advertising marketing campaign on social media, begin by figuring out what makes your product visually intriguing.</p>

<p>Glossier managed to tie for first with last year’s Instagram winner Huda Beauty thanks to dynamic posts tailor-made to the instances. Many of the brand’s prime Insta posts featured COVID updates, assist of frontline staff, and popping out in support of Black Lives Matter, indicating the model was unafraid to take a stand. Going beyond the makeup was a profitable strategy for Glossier throughout all channels and was especially powerful on Instagram.

A logo that conveys your brand and character instantly is one which prospects will respond to. Those are just two examples, but you should take the time to determine the place your clients spend their time if you'd like your marketing to be effective. Once you could have taken these three steps, you have to use the information you could have gathered to market your company and merchandise. New web shoppers must create an online account to earn & redeem rewards. “We actually imagine that Then I Met You has its own distinct branding and story to inform, and we want to grow separate and distinctly from Soko Glam,” says Cho.

You will create much less waste and save vitality by using recycled supplies. This sort of engagement is gold, and firms like ColourPop comprehend it. The brand is constantly increasing its product range and making an attempt new things, and the probabilities are countless. In 2017 it put a name out for a name for a model new, yet-to-be-released concealer and inside seconds had dozens of replies. The website Bustle rapidly caught on to the thread, stating ColourPop teased a possible concealer on Twitter and followers already have the right name idea. A large seventy % of Glossier’s on-line sales come from peer referrals.

Matt Holt, Chief Strategy Officer at Digitas UK, explains why we have to deliver memorability and utility via buyer expertise. The travel trade fascinates me; not just because like everyone else I love a good holiday and a while within the solar, however it’s additionally some of the aggressive industries in relation to the SERPs. A beautifully designed web site in its personal right – it’s fairly simple to get lost browsing round. However, by pointing customers back to content material on the primary Aesop web site, it is in a position to deliver on its authentic function of promoting the core model.

Social media cosmetics branding by JayJacksonIf you need your magnificence brand to succeed, you need to model yourself on social media. While all platforms are necessary, YouTube and Instagram are each visual platforms where the majority of magnificence content material lives, making them, palms down, the most important channels for beauty manufacturers. Fenty launched with forty totally different shades of foundation, encompassing an enormous variety of pores and skin tones. As a outcome, the company was in a place to supply a greater number of choices in darker and lighter shades of make-up than most other major firms.

Logo by thisisremedy for Floral Chemistry.Customers wish to work with manufacturers they'll stand behind. So when you really wish to connect together with your customers, you should do greater than make superb lipsticks or tremendous pigmented shadows—you want a powerful corporate mission and values. Sign up for our free, 7-day e mail course and learn to construct the proper model id. When it comes to branding your corporation, there are three fundamental ideas you have to understand.

It specializes in science, and you'll see that within the design components that the logo embodies. You can’t ignore a model whose beauty brand is shiny, daring and dynamic in the way this model is — and you don’t want to. The first store opened a hundred sixty five years ago as a New York apothecary, nevertheless it has advanced right into a model that cares about all-natural merchandise and the shoppers that use them. Glossier is a modern cosmetic brand that is identified for its simplicity and minimalism — in its product providing and its product packaging.

The flowing feel of a script font is inherently feminine and conveys a simple class that might be perceived at a look. What meaning in sensible phrases is that the competitors in the magnificence industry is fierce. The huge cosmetics corporations are continuously engaged in a battle to win the business of more and more subtle customers. And even in the smallest cities, generally two or three hair or nail salons have to compete with one another for a small pool of shoppers. Over the previous twenty years we now have helped manufacturers grow from the bottom up, launch line extensions, rediscover their voice in a crowded market, and create totally new product categories. While public relations, partnerships, events like Indie Beauty Expo, and different advertising tactics may be efficient, Instagram influencers will actually increase your beauty business.

The emblem is a mirror of this magnificence brand’s products, usually described as bold, surprising and vivid. Its aesthetics is immediately derived from Kat’s tattoo artistry in its intricate typography sample even in its retail places which echo stylistic cues from gothic artwork and structure. It balances a regal history with a contemporary energy that can’t be ignored or tamed.

[lsc-enviromental]

Blog Post #1

“Oregonians use more than 1 billion single-use plastic bags each year,” is just one of the facts contributing to the issue Oregon faces as it contributes to environmental pollution (”Keep Plastic,” 2021). Environmental pollution can be defined as “the contamination of the physical and biological components of the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal environmental processes are adversely affected” (Krishna et al.,2017) but for our group, we want to specifically focus on Oregon’s problem with garbage and water pollution. As both types of pollution go hand in hand, we find that it’s important to address both problems rather than just one. While we analyze environmental pollution in Oregon as a whole, we also want to look at Portland Metro as a narrowed down example of how a community can contribute to the bigger issue at hand. 

As we look outside our windows and drive down the roads and highways, there is no question that there is garbage all along the roads of Portland. Though in recent years, while some Oregonians have tried to recycle more, the overall number of recycling has gone down by 5% since 2014 and the amount of waste generated has gone up. 5% may not sound like much, but when considering that Oregon had produced 5.5 million tons of municipal waste in 2017, it becomes clear that there is an issue (Williams, 2019). Now, with COVID-19 added into the equation, the U.S creates even more waste from personal protective equipment (PPEs) and single-use food packaging items (Haque et al., 2019). All of this waste is not only a problem in itself, but it also leads to water pollution in Oregon. As the amount of waste increases, it makes its way into our natural rivers and lakes. In one report done by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), they took multiple samples from rivers and lakes throughout Oregon and found that every sample they took contained microplastics. At the top of their list with the most microplastic contamination was the Willamette River in Portland, with 57 million microplastics in one day (Burns & Profita, 2019). 

An even larger issue is happening roughly 1000 miles off the coast of Oregon. According to Environment Oregon, the Pacific Garbage Patch contains over 100 million tons of trash that is floating off our coast. This problem is creating a toxic environment for all sorts of marine wildlife, yet it’s not just fish, turtles, birds, and other animals suffering from the garbage patch. Toxic pollution and microplastics are seeping into the water, causing us to ingest those harmful toxins when we eat fish harvested from the pacific. 

Consumerism is a leading cause of why our environment is undergoing a major crisis. “Every year we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste.” (”What’s Wrong,” 2021) If the world continues down this path, the amount of waste produced annually is predicted to go up by over 1 billion tons by the year 2050. For a long time, people are demanding more products to be produced quickly at high rates. Unfortunately, damaging material to our environment is the most efficient way to meet public demands. However, 99% of the things we buy are thrown away within 6 months of getting them (What’s Wrong, 2021). Our toxic throw-away culture is affecting everything on our planet. Since around 1955, throw-away living has been quickly destroying our environment (Macarthur 2018). Not only do we want to research ways to reduce waste, we also want to ask ourselves how Oregon can change from a “throw-away culture” to a sustainable one. 

What can we do to solve the problems happening all around us? So far four cities in Oregon have improved their plastic bag bans, which will hopefully remove 371 million bags every year (”Keep Plastic,” 2021). If more cities in Oregon adopted a plastic bag ban, we could significantly reduce the amount of plastic circulating in our waste stream. Not only would this help reduce the amount of plastic waste being poured into the Pacific Garbage Patch, but it could significantly improve water quality in places closer to home. 

Already, there are lots of great organizations located right in our community. SOLVE Oregon, founded in 1969, has been working hard to improve the environment through trash cleanups. Events are hosted multiple times a month, many located in the portland-metro area ("Our Story,” 2019). If you might be interested in learning more about different legislative policies, Oregon Environmental Council works heavily to keep our water clean, keep toxins out of our environment, and encourage eco-friendly transportation solutions ("About,” 2021). Environment Oregon is another non-profit organization dedicated to making Oregon a healthier and greener place. They focus on educating others and advocating for change in our environmental policies (”Action,” 2021). Right now, they are calling to ban take-out foam containers from Oregon. If plastic pollution is a main concern of yours, check out Environment Oregon and see how they are working towards clean water, air, energy and conservation (”Keep Plastic,” 2021).

-----------------------------------------------------

References

About. (2018, August 28). Retrieved from https://oeconline.org/about/

Action for a Greener, Healthier oregon. (2021). Retrieved March 08, 2021, from https://environmentoregon.org/feature/ore/about-us

Brett Chamberlin: Plastics and the Story of Stuff, Graham Hill: Founder of LifeEdited and TreeHugger, Cara Delevingne & Annie Leonard on Plastics, Juliet Shor: Psychology and sociology of consumption systems, Consumerism, N. P., Angela Horn: Living More by Buying Less, . . . Simon, J. M. (n.d.). Waste & Consumerism. Retrieved from https://ecoresolution.earth/waste-consumerism

Haque, M. S., Uddin, S., Sayem, S. M., & Mohib, K. M. (2021, February). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced waste scenario: A short overview. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7648514/

Keep Plastic Out of the Pacific. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://environmentoregon.org/programs/ore/keep-plastic-out-pacific

Krishna, I. M., & Manickam, V. (2017). Environmental Management Science and Engineering for Industry. Elsevier Science.

Oregonian/OregonLive, K. W. (2019, November 14). Oregonians are recycling less while generating more waste, report says. Retrieved from https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2019/11/oregonians-are-recycling-less-while-generating-more-waste-report-says.html

Profita, J. B. (2020, June 03). Hunt For Answers Shows Oregon Rivers Not Immune To Microplastic Pollution. Retrieved from https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-rivers-microplastic-pollution-investigation/

SOLVE: Our Story. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.solveoregon.org/our-story

STACKPOLE, P. B. (2020, November 05). Why our throwaway culture has to end. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2018/06/why-our-throwaway-culture-has-end

[newstfionline]

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Tax cuts for the wealthy aren’t trickling down (CBS News) Do tax cuts for the wealthy really help the overall economy and “trickle down” to everyone else? It’s not a trickle question. David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London examined 18 developed countries and did the math. “Per capita gross domestic product and unemployment rates were nearly identical after five years in countries that slashed taxes on the rich and in those that didn’t, the study found. But the analysis discovered one major change: The incomes of the rich grew much faster in countries where tax rates were lowered. Instead of trickling down to the middle class, tax cuts for the rich may not accomplish much more than help the rich keep more of their riches and exacerbate income inequality.” 50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down.

Suspected Russian Cyberattack Strikes at Heart of U.S. Government (Foreign Policy) As more details are revealed about Russia’s alleged hack of the U.S. government, it’s becoming clear that the breach is much worse than previously thought. On Thursday, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that is “poses a grave risk” to federal, state, and local governments as well as private companies and organizations. There is a growing list of reported victims: the Centers for Disease Control, the Defense Department, State Department, Commerce Department, Department of Homeland Security, Treasury Department, the U.S. Postal Service, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy were all affected. “This is, I think, appears to be at this point the most serious cyberattack this country has ever endured,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine said on NPR. Microsoft, which is helping to respond to the hack, noted that “the attack unfortunately represents a broad and successful espionage-based assault on both the confidential information of the U.S. Government and the tech tools used by firms to protect them … ongoing investigations reveal an attack that is remarkable for its scope, sophistication and impact.”

California hospitals buckle as virus cases surge (AP) Hospitals across California have all but run out of intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients, ambulances are backing up outside emergency rooms, and tents for triaging the sick are going up as the nation’s most populous state emerges as the latest epicenter of the U.S. outbreak. On Thursday, California reported a staggering 52,000 new cases in a single day—equal to what the entire U.S. was averaging in mid-October—and a one-day record of 379 deaths. More than 16,000 people are in the hospital with the coronavirus across the state, more than triple the number a month ago. Patients are being cared for at several overflow locations, including a former NBA arena in Sacramento, a former prison and a college gymnasium.

‘Unbelievable’ snowfall blankets parts of the Northeast (AP) The Northeast’s first whopper snowstorm of the season buried parts of upstate New York under more than 3 feet (1 meter) of snow, broke records in cities and towns across the region, and left plow drivers struggling to clear the roads as snow piled up at more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) per hour. “It was a very difficult, fast storm and it dropped an unbelievable amount of snow,” Tom Coppola, highway superintendent in charge of maintaining 100 miles (160 kilometers) of roads in the Albany suburb of Glenville, said Thursday. “It’s to the point where we’re having trouble pushing it with our plows.” The storm dropped 30 inches (76 centimeters) on Glenville between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Thursday, leaving a silent scene of snow-clad trees, buried cars and laden roofs when the sun finally peeked through at noon. Much of Pennsylvania saw accumulations in the double digits. Boston had more than 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow early Thursday morning.

1 in 5 prisoners in the US has had COVID-19, 1,700 have died (AP) One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project. As the pandemic enters its 10th month—and as the first Americans begin to receive a long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine—at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,700 have died and the spread of the virus behind bars shows no sign of slowing. New cases in prisons this week reached their highest level since testing began in the spring, far outstripping previous peaks in April and August. As the virus spreads largely unchecked behind bars, prisoners can’t social distance and are dependent on the state for their safety and well-being.

Shut down by corona, Berlin restaurant opens for homeless (AP) The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t made life on the streets of Berlin any easier for Kaspars Breidaks. For three months, the 43-year-old Latvian has faced homeless shelters operating at reduced capacity so that people can be kept at a safe distance from one another. And with fewer Berliners going outdoors, it’s much harder to raise money by panhandling or collecting bottles to sell for recycling. But on a chilly winter morning this week Breidaks found himself with a free hot meal and a place to warm up, after the German capital’s biggest restaurant, the Hofbraeu Berlin—itself closed down due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions—shifted gears to help the homeless. It was a clear win-win proposition, said Hofbraeu manager Bjoern Schwarz. As well as helping out the homeless during tough times the city-funded project also gives needed work to employees—and provides the restaurant with welcome income. In cooperation with the city and two welfare organizations, the restaurant quickly developed a concept to take in up to 150 homeless people in two shifts every day until the end of the winter, and started serving meals on Tuesday.

Japan: Snow traps 1,000 drivers in frozen traffic jam (BBC) Rescuers are trying to free more than 1,000 vehicles which have been stranded on a highway for two days after a heavy snow storm struck Japan. Authorities have distributed food, fuel and blankets to the drivers on the Kanetsu expressway, which connects the capital Tokyo to Niigata, in the north. The snow, which began on Wednesday evening, has caused multiple traffic jams along the road. Officials have been using a combination of heavy machinery and physical labour to dig out the vehicles one by one, but around 1,000 cars were still stranded on the road as of Friday noon.

‘Nightmare’ Australia Housing Lockdown Called Breach of Human Rights (NYT) The sudden lockdown this summer of nine public housing towers in Melbourne that left 3,000 people without adequate food and medication and access to fresh air during the city’s second coronavirus wave breached human rights laws, an investigation found. The report, released on Thursday by the ombudsman in the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, said that the residents had been effectively placed under house arrest for 14 days in July without warning. It deprived them of essential supports, as well as access to activities like outdoor exercise, the report said. The lockdown was not “compatible with residents’ human rights, including their right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty,” Deborah Glass, the Victorian ombudsman, wrote. The report recommended the state government apologize publicly to tower residents, as well as improve relationships and procedures at similarly high-risk accommodations in the city so that they might be better prepared for future outbreaks. Though Australia has won global praise for successfully slowing the spread of the coronavirus in the country, the report was a scathing rebuke of state officials’ decision to apply stringent measures to the public housing residents, who said they felt trapped and traumatized and suspected discrimination. Several described it as a “nightmare.”

Fiji says two dead as powerful cyclone tears across Pacific nation (Reuters) A powerful cyclone pounded Fiji, killing two people and leaving a trail of destruction across the Pacific Island nation, authorities said on Friday. Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday evening, bringing torrential rain, widespread flooding and winds of up to 285 km per hour (177 miles) across the archipelago. Scores of houses were destroyed, while power was cut to some areas and roads blocked by fallen trees and flash flooding, authorities said. Officials with the Red Cross said authorities were scrambling to help affected communities. Adverse weather has hampered efforts by aid groups to dispatch assistance, with waves of more than 3 metres (10 ft) preventing ships leaving Suva.

Radio stations may be the real “e-learning” revolution (Rest of World) The impact of a student’s socioeconomic status on their access to education during the pandemic is playing out globally, exposing just how closely tied internet access is to educational opportunity. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 85% of households lack access to the internet at home and 89% of students do not have access to a computer outside of school. On the African continent, expensive and unreliable internet reaches only 40% of the population. Many governments, companies, and NGOs think that throwing millions of dollars behind providing tablets is the best way to improve the quality of education, but this impulse overlooks infrastructural issues like access to the internet, teacher training, and the cost of upkeep that students need to use the tablets in the first place. “Even if we did have a device for every student, they would have nowhere to charge them,” Reshma Patel, the executive director of Impact Network, a nonprofit that provides education for over 6,000 kids in rural Zambia through community schools, told Rest of World. Impact-run schools adapted radio lessons, since a majority of their students live in homes without electricity. Faced with the shutdown of the 43 schools she supervises, Patel relied on the “forgotten stepchild of tech interventions” to reach students: radio. On the continent, radio has long been a window to the external world. Shoeshoe Qhu works as the station manager at Voice of Wits 88.1 FM, a university radio station in Johannesburg, South Africa. She grew up in a mountainous village of 100 homesteads without electricity or running water. While there wasn’t television, there was radio. As long as her family had access to batteries and a receiver, it was free. “If you wanted to hear what was happening everywhere else, you could only get it through the radio,” Qhu said. “I grew up with radio, and it gave me access to the world,” she added. “It meant everything.”

Watch those passwords (NYT) Dutch hacker Victor Gevers claims to have logged in to President Trump’s Twitter account six years ago by guessing the password: “yourefired.” Then he did it again. On Oct. 16, Gevers, 44, made an accurate guess, “maga2020!,” on his fifth try, according to Dutch prosecutors. Hacking is a crime in the Netherlands. But on Wednesday, Dutch officials said they would not press charges because Gevers had met the bar for “responsible disclosure,” demonstrating how easy it could be to gain access to the U.S. president’s handle: @realdonaldtrump.

[pope-francis-quotes]

13th April >> (@VaticanNews) #PopeFrancis #Pope Francis calls for consideration of ‘universal basic wage’ for unprotected workers.

Pope Francis writes a letter to Popular Movements and community organizations on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic response, calling for the consideration of a possible “Universal Basic Wage”.

By Vatican News

In a letter dated Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Pope Francis has called for the consideration of a Universal Basic Wage “that would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.”

The letter is addressed to World Popular Movements, some of whom he recollects meeting with when in Bolivia during an Apostolic Visit in 2015 and in the Vatican the following year.

“Now, in the midst of this pandemic, I think of you in a special way and wish to express my closeness to you,” he writes.

The Pope’s message comes at a time in which the pandemic is devastating the health and lives of so many, and consequently putting millions of jobs on the line and undermining local – and world – economies. In it, he expresses encouragement and solidarity with those Movements who aim to bring change to global systems and structures that exclude a multitude of workers.

In these days of great anxiety and hardship, the Pope notes, “you are truly an invisible army, fighting in the most dangerous trenches; an army whose only weapons are solidarity, hope, and community spirit, all revitalizing at a time when no one can save themselves alone.”

He took the opportunity to thank the Popular Movements for the work they pursue. He acknowledges that work hardly ever receives the recognition it deserves, Pope Francis notes “You do not resign yourselves to complaining: you roll up your sleeves and keep working for your families, your communities, and the common good. Your resilience helps me, challenges me, and teaches me a great deal.”

A multitude of people suffering far from the limelight

He goes on to mention all those people suffering far from the eyes of the world:

The women, “who multiply loaves of bread in soup kitchens: two onions and a package of rice make up a delicious stew for hundreds of children.”

The sick and the elderly, “they never appear in the news,” he says, “nor do small farmers and their families who work hard to produce healthy food without destroying nature, without hoarding, without exploiting people’s needs.”

“I want you to know that our Heavenly Father watches over you, values you, appreciates you, and supports you in your commitment,”, the Pope writes.

He highlights how difficult it is for those who live in poverty and for the homeless “to stay at home.” In addition, he mentions the difficulty “for migrants, those who are deprived of freedom, and those in rehabilitation from an addiction.”

People, life and dignity at the centre

Again, thanking the Popular Movements for being there to help them make things less difficult and less painful, the Pope expresses his hope this may prove to be a moment of change.

“My hope is that governments understand that technocratic paradigms (whether state-centred or market-driven) are not enough to address this crisis or the other great problems affecting humankind. Now more than ever, persons, communities and peoples must be put at the centre, united to heal, to care and to share,” the Pope writes.

He underscores how such a multitude of persons have been excluded from the benefits of globalization. They, he said, have been hit twice as hard from the harms produced by a society marked by the “superficial pleasures that anaesthetize so many consciences.”

“Street vendors, recyclers, carnival workers, small farmers, construction workers, seamstresses, the different kinds of caregivers: you who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time … and the lockdowns are becoming unbearable. This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out. It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights,” says Pope Francis.

The three Ts

He goes on to point to the need to reflect on “life after the pandemic”. Its grave consequences are already being felt. This calls for an integral human development that is based on “the central role and initiative of the people in all their diversity, as well as on universal access to those three Ts that you defend: Trabajo (work), Techo (housing), and Tierra (land and food).

The Pope concludes with the hope that our sleepy consciences will be shaken, giving way to a “humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the centre.”

“Our civilization — so competitive, so individualistic, with its frenetic rhythms of production and consumption, its extravagant luxuries, its disproportionate profits for just a few — needs to downshift, take stock, and renew itself”, he says.

Finally, Pope Francis encourages the Popular Movements to stand firm in their struggle, caring for each other as brothers and sisters. He then assures them of his prayers and blessings.

POPE FRANCIS

Topics

WORK

SOLIDARITY

CORONAVIRUS

13th April 2020, 11:20

[rahulmmr]

Recycled Glass Market Size Will Hit USD 5894.2 Million at a CAGR of 6.31% by 2029

Recycled Glass Market:size was valued at USD 3612.7 Million in 2021 and is expected to grow by 6.31% from 2022 to 2029, reaching nearly USD 5894.2 Million.

Recycled Glass Market Overview:

The Recycled Glass market study may be customized to include pricing trend analysis of target brands, market knowledge for other countries (ask for a list), clinical trial results in data, literature research, refurbished market and product base analysis, and more. Target rival market analysis might include anything from technology-based research to market portfolio plans. We may add as many competitors as you require data on in the format and data type of your choice. Our analysts can also provide you with data in raw excel files pivot tables or assist you in creating presentations based on the data sets included in the report.

Details insights on this market, request for methodology here @https://www.maximizemarketresearch.com/request-sample/168069 

Market Scope:

The Recycled Glass market study provides insights into each of the top Recycled Glass Market end users, as well as yearly estimates through 2027. The study forecasts the worldwide Recycled Glass Market's revenue, sales, and growth rate. Forecasts for the market's product, application, and geographic sectors are also offered. Forecasts are created to assist individuals in understanding the industry's prospects and possibilities. 

Segmentation:

The Recycled Glass Market is divided into Cullet, Crushed Glass, and Glass Powder according to Product Type. In 2021, the Cullet type market category held the highest market share. A recycled glass that is ready to be recycled is called the Cullet.

Key Players:

The competitive landscape of the market Recycled Glass provides information by the competitor. The business overview, financials, revenue generated, market potential, R&D investment, new market efforts, global presence, production sites and facilities, production capacity, corporate strengths and weaknesses, product introduction, product width, and breadth, and application dominance are all covered. The aforementioned data points are only related to the businesses' concentration on the Recycled Glass industry. These are the primary characters:

• Consol Glass (Pty) Ltd. • Dlubak Glass Company • Vitro Minerals, Inc. • Glasrecycling NV • Harsco Minerals International • Coloured Aggregates • Gallo Glass Company • Strategic Materials, Inc., • Vetropack Holding • Berryman Glass Recycling • Glass Recycled Surfaces • Momentum Recycling, LLC • Trivitro Corporation • O-I Glass Inc. • Reiling GmbH & Co. KG • Strategic Materials Inc • United Resource Management

Request Free Sample Copy (To Understand the Complete Structure of this Report [Summary + TOC]) all https://www.maximizemarketresearch.com/inquiry-before-buying/168069 

Regional Analysis:

The region segment of the Recycled Glass market analysis also contains individual market influencing aspects and changes in market regulations that affect current and future market trends. Some of the major variables used to forecast market conditions for specific countries are consumption volumes, production sites and volumes, import-export analysis, price trend analysis, raw material prices, and downstream and upstream value chain analysis. While providing forecast analysis of national data, the existence and availability of global brands, as well as the difficulties they encounter due to strong or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, as well as the impact of domestic tariffs and trade channels, are also considered.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis on Recycled Glass Market:

The paper includes a full analysis of how Covid-19 affects the Recycled Glass Market. Because of the impact on thousands of patients globally, the World Health Organization has designated Covid-19 a global health emergency. The Coronavirus sickness, which already affects these individuals, hurts Recycled Glass Market segments.

Key Questions Answered in the Recycled Glass Market Report are:

Which are the crucial factors aiding the Recycled Glass market growth?

Which region has the maximum share in the Recycled Glass market?

What will be the CAGR of the Recycled Glass market during the forecast period (2021-2027)?

Which segment came out as the leading segment in the Recycled Glass market?

Which are the main players in the Recycled Glass market?

[capitalxtendsmartinvestment]

How to Trade Gold Online?

The online Gold trading market is one of the most fascinating forms of investment. However ,If you are a new trader and looking for ways to diversify your portfolio then Spot Gold trading should be on your checklist. However, traders often find this fact at a very late stage that Gold is one of the safest forms of investment during inflation. As currency market sentiments are indicating possible inflation across the global economy, we suggest you brace yourself with the concept of trading Gold online and become an intelligent trader.

As you go through this post, you will understand the correlation of Gold with the market forces, different ways to trade gold online, and some fundamentals to set your first step towards investing in this precious metal.

Market forces that move the price of Gold

It is important for a trader to have a solid understanding of the factors that affect the price of gold on the global market. These dynamics are connected to inflation and interest rates, the prices of currencies and the desires for them, the demand for gold as an investment, and the demand for gold as a physical commodity.

Furthermore, You will be in a better position to make trading decisions that are informed and will lessen the probability of experiencing losses as a result of using this knowledge. Gold prices may be significantly influenced by the prevailing attitude in the financial markets at various points in time; however, it is impossible to foresee how this will play out.

Inflation & interest rates

Gold's spot price is propped up by high inflation because the precious metal maintains its worth even as fiat currencies lose purchasing power.

Gold prices are affected by the monetary policy decisions made by the major central banks across the world, such as the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England. Interest rates, which are used to control inflation by central banks, have an effect on the price of gold.

US dollar

Despite the fact that the dollar is no longer bound to the gold standard, the price of gold has a tendency to move in the opposite direction of the dollar. Gold becomes more costly for buyers who use currencies other than the US dollar to purchase it; as a result, there are fewer individuals interested in purchasing gold.

In addition to this, the value of the US dollar rises relative to the value of other currencies. On the other hand, a decline in the value of the dollar makes gold cheaper for purchasers residing in countries other than the United States, which drives up demand.

Physical Demand

Jewelry demand can also affect gold prices. China and India, the world's biggest buyers, gift gold jewelry during festivals and weddings.

Demand for gold jewelry rises during economic expansion. Lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic reduced gold demand. Some electronics and industrial applications employ modest amounts of gold.

Demand for Investment

Jewelry and investment markets drive gold demand, not industry.Gold is seen as a safe haven investment during economic or geopolitical turmoil. Recession, market instability, geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, and unforeseen events like the coronavirus epidemic might boost investment demand.

Investors can acquire gold bars, coins, or gold-linked mutual or ETF funds (ETFs). According to the World Gold Council, investment demand averages roughly 1,000 tonnes per year.

Production

Gold prices can be affected by how much gold is mined. If production at a mine stops, there is less gold on the market. On the other hand, when a new mine opens, supply goes up.

The World Gold Council says that about 3,500 tonnes of gold are mined each year, which is up from about 2,800 tonnes a decade ago. Every year, recycling brings back another 1,100 tonnes.

In the last 10 years, the countries that made the most gold were China, Australia, Russia, and the US. South Africa was also a big player, but in recent years, it has lost its place.

Gold can be traded or invested in a variety of ways

You can trade gold using physical metal or derivatives, depending on your trading or investment strategy and portfolio composition. The currency code for the gold spot is XAU, which refers to the price of one troy ounce of gold and reflects the former usage of the gold standard in calculating the value of various currencies.

Spot Gold

You can trade gold online through a trading account. Gold spot is the price of the precious metal for immediate settlement, not a future date.

Dealers make money by buying gold at a bargain and selling it at a premium. Technical analysis can help spot metals traders purchase and sell gold.

Gold Futures

If you think gold's value will change, trade gold futures. These contracts allow investors to speculate on gold's future price. The buyer promises to acquire a particular amount of gold at a defined price on a future date.

The three primary regional markets for gold futures are OTC in London, COMEX in the US, and Shanghai Gold Exchange in China. You'll need a brokerage account with futures contracts to invest in gold futures.

Gold Stocks

Mining company equities can be bought instead of gold-linked assets. You can investigate gold companies and trade their stocks using your share dealing account if you want to invest in gold stocks.

Gold CFDs

Gold derivatives like CFDs allow you to speculate on the yellow metal's price without owning it. A CFD is a contract between a trader and a broker to profit from the trade's opening and closing prices.

CFDs allow margin trading and can be part of a diversified portfolio. Leverage can enhance profits and losses in leveraged trading.

Some steps to set up your Gold trading journey

Open a live trading account

Fund your account

Download MetaTrader 4

Research the market

Open your first position

Originally Published on Blogspot

Source:https://capitalxtendblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/how-to-trade-gold-online.html

[newstfionline]

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Teen well-being (The Atlantic) Teens who participated in a 1,523 respondent survey between May and July this year were assessed for various mental well-being measures including life satisfaction, happiness, depression symptoms and loneliness. Their responses were then compared to the results of the same survey in 2018, and much to the surprise of the researchers, the teens were pretty much on par, and the percentage of teens depressed or lonely was lower in 2020 than in 2018. This is not to say that teens escaped the malaise that gripped the nation, far from it: 63 percent were concerned about catching the virus, 27 percent said a parent lost their job, 29 percent knew someone who caught the virus. No, the reason for the shift is that those considerable sources of anxiety were compensated for by the fact that teens were finally sleeping the correct amount of time: in 2018, just 55 percent of teens slept seven or more hours a night, and this year 84 percent slept seven or more hours a night while school was in session.

Cruise ship dismantling booms after pandemic (Reuters) Business is booming at a sea dock in western Turkey, where five hulking cruise ships are being dismantled for scrap metal sales after the COVID-19 pandemic all but destroyed the industry, the head of a ship recyclers’ group said on Friday. Cruise ships were home to the some of the earliest clusters of COVID-19 as the pandemic spread globally early this year. In March, U.S. authorities issued a no-sail order for all cruise ships that remains in place. On Friday, dozens of workers stripped walls, windows, floors and railings from several vessels in the dock in Aliaga, a town 45 km north of Izmir on Turkey’s west coast. Three more ships are set to join those already being dismantled. Before the pandemic, Turkey’s ship-breaking yards typically handled cargo and container ships, Kamil Onal, chairman of a ship recycling industrialists’ association, told Reuters. “But after the pandemic, cruise ships changed course towards Aliaga in a very significant way,” he said of the town.

Europe tightens rules as virus surges (AP) Governments across Europe are ratcheting up restrictions to try to beat back a resurgence of the coronavirus that has sent new confirmed infections on the continent to their highest weekly level since the start of the pandemic. The World Health Organization said Tuesday there were more than 700,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in Europe last week, a jump of 34% from the previous week. Britain, France, Russia and Spain accounted for more than half of the new infections. Italy and France are restricting parties and putting limits on restaurants and bars. The Netherlands went further and ordered the closing of all bars and restaurants, And to discourage partying at home, it banned the sale of alcohol after 8 p.m. The Czech Republic is closing all schools until Nov. 2, while Latvia is ordering teenagers to switch to distance learning for a week. And Britain unveiled a three-tiered system for deciding what restrictions to impose, based on how severe the outbreak is in certain areas. Those moves reflect a new approach to containing the virus among governments wary of hurting already fragile economies. Officials are eager to avoid the total lockdowns they imposed in the spring that resulted in heavy job losses. Instead, they are relying on a patchwork of regional or targeted restrictions that have sometimes caused confusion and frustration by those affected. The U.N. health agency appeared to support the new approach, with WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic saying lockdowns should be a “last resort.”

With winter on the way and windows open, Europe’s students prepare for the cold (Washington Post) With winter on its way and coronavirus guidelines advising teachers to keep classroom windows open, students across Northern Europe are preparing for the chill by packing blankets in their school bags and layering up in warm clothing. There is increasingly a consensus among experts that good ventilation is one of the best ways to prevent the virus from spreading. Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization, said last month that children “can survive a bit of cold, and they’re going to have to, because ventilation is so important.” With temperatures in Germany frequently dropping to freezing, children in the city of Bochum are bracing for a crisp learning environment as officials advise teachers to open the windows for fresh air every 20 minutes. Children have been told to bring blankets and wrap up. Although some schools struggle with the advice that the cold air needs to be brought in, schools in Denmark and other Nordic education systems are taking lessons—and young students—outside. More than half of about 200 Norwegian schools surveyed in a poll by researchers Ulrich Dettweiler and Gabriele Lauterbach last month said they were holding more classes outdoors—a move some already had planned on that was further propelled by the pandemic.

Belarusian crisis escalates (Foreign Policy) Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has demanded that President Aleksandr Lukashenko resign by Oct. 25 or face nationwide strikes. “[On] Oct. 26, all enterprises will begin a strike,” she said in a statement, “all roads will be blocked, state-owned stores will no longer have any sales.” Tikhanovskaya is hugely popular among protesters but fled to Lithuania in the aftermath of the controversial Aug. 9 election, which saw Lukashenko win by a landslide amid allegations of electoral fraud. Tikhanovskaya’s ultimatum is part of a wider escalation of tensions between Lukashenko and anti-government protesters. On Monday, the government authorized police to use lethal force against protesters after the ninth consecutive Sunday of massive protests in the capital of Minsk.

For Nagorno-Karabakh’s Dueling Sides, Living Together Is ‘Impossible’ (NYT) Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived side by side in the Soviet days, until conflict over the disputed mountain territory called Nagorno-Karabakh exploded in the late 1980s into riots, expulsions and a yearslong war. The violence left personal wounds festering for decades, as stubborn as the tan and gray stone ruins of Azerbaijani villages still scattered in the Armenian countryside. In the last two weeks, those unhealed scars have erupted into a modern-day conflagration of trench warfare, drone strikes and artillery bombardments. More than 500 Armenian soldiers have died, along with scores of civilians and an unknown number of Azerbaijanis. A cease-fire brokered in Moscow over the weekend has failed to hold, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has threatened a further escalation of his offensive. For the region’s populace, the war is a continuation of on-off strife over both territory and history, with roots going back more than a century. The days when the Soviet Union kept a lid on such conflicts, and Azerbaijanis and Armenians mostly lived together in peace, feel like an irrevocably lost world. “Each wants to say that he is the master of this land,” said one refugee who left Azerbaijan in 1989. “To live together is, put simply, impossible.”

China’s Xi lays out plan to build Shenzhen into global rival to troubled Hong Kong (Washington Post) Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced plans to make Shenzhen an international trade hub and talent center, setting up the mainland metropolis as a business alternative to its politically troubled neighbor, Hong Kong. In a speech on Wednesday, Xi called for Shenzhen to take the lead in developing high-value innovative industries and drawing international talent. He said Shenzhen will develop its finance sector and international trade capabilities—which are Hong Kong’s economic strengths. The top-level support for Shenzhen was a clear message for Hong Kong, which lies just across a river from Shenzhen, said Victor Gao, a chair professor at China’s Soochow University and a former Foreign Ministry official. “If you do not have stability, if you are caught up in revolution, or great turmoil, or anarchy, then you will lose out on whatever advantages and resources you may have previously had,” Gao said. “Then your economic development will reverse course.” Hong Kong, which was supposed to enjoy self-governance in most of its affairs until 2047, has become a thorn in Beijing’s side because of large-scale public protests against China’s tightening control.

Japan’s navy adapts to the digital generation (Times of London) Japan’s navy is to launch a new, scaled down warship to compensate for a drop in recruitment among young people who cannot tolerate long periods at sea without access to their smartphones. The 30FFM frigate is designed for a crew of about 90 sailors, half that of the older vessels. The smaller crews reflect the crisis in recruitment faced by the Maritime Self-Defense Forces. The navy is struggling to fulfill its recruitment quotas, and in 2018 reached only 60 per cent of its target. In that year, it raised the upper age limit for recruits from 26 to 32. It has also taken steps to overcome the principal disincentive to would-be sailors—enforced isolation from the outside world. Sailors can now send emails from their mobile phones and have limited wireless internet access.

Thailand declares emergency after unprecedented protest (AP) Thai authorities declared a strict new state of emergency for the capital on Thursday, a day after a student-led protest against the country’s traditional establishment saw an extraordinary moment in which demonstrators heckled a royal motorcade. After the pre-dawn declaration, riot police moved in to clear out demonstrators who after a day of rallies and confrontation had gathered outside Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s office to push their demands, which include the former general’s stepping down, constitutional changes and reform of the monarchy. The protest Wednesday in Bangkok’s historic district, not far from glittering temples and royal palaces, was the third major gathering by student-led activists who have been pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable—and legal—language by publicly questioning the role of Thailand’s monarchy in the nation’s power structure.

Southeast Asia flood deaths near 40 as new storm approaches (Reuters) Nearly 40 people have died in Vietnam and Cambodia and scores more were missing, including rescuers, due to prolonged heavy rain and flash flooding as tropical storm Nangka edged towards the Vietnamese coast on Tuesday. Heavy rains since early October have caused deadly floods and landslides in several provinces in central Vietnam and displaced thousands of people in western Cambodia, officials and state media said. The floods are expected to worsen over the coming days, with tropical storm Nangka forecast to dump more rain as it makes landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday.

Coronavirus lockdown 2.0 deepens divisions in Israel (AP) When Israel went into lockdown last spring, Jerusalem pub owner Leon Shvartz moved quickly to save his business—shifting to a delivery and takeaway model that kept him afloat throughout the summer. Then came the second lockdown. With restaurants and shops shuttered again, Shvartz’s business is struggling to survive. He has laid off 16 of his 17 employees. By contrast, Israeli software maker Bizzabo, which operates in the hard-hit conference-management sector, quickly reinvented itself last spring by offering “virtual events.” It has more than doubled its sales and is expanding its workforce. Such tales of boom and bust reflect Israel’s growing “digital divide.” Even before the pandemic, Israel had one of the largest income gaps and poverty rates among developed economies, with a few high earners, mostly in the lucrative high-tech sector, while many Israelis barely get by as civil servants, in service industries or as small business owners. Those gaps have widened as the second nationwide lockdown, imposed last month, dealt a new blow to an economy already hit hard by the first round of restrictions. The fallout from the pandemic has also deepened long-simmering divisions among Israeli Jews, pitting a largely secular majority against a powerful ultra-Orthodox minority.

[energysolutions]

REA: Half of UK electricity generation could be produced by renewables by next year

Trade body publishes roadmap setting out its vision for how the UK can accelerate drive to net zero emissions while generating hundreds of thousands of jobs

Half of the UK's electricity generation could be provided by renewables by the end of next year, provided the government introduces the right policy environment, according to a major new report from the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA).

The trade body made the claim yesterday, as it published a 'green recovery roadmap' that sets out its vision for how the UK can meet its net zero emissoins target while providing thousands of new jobs in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The report, titled Strategy for Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies, calculates that UK electricity generation could be powered entirely by renewables by 2032, and that half of all electricity generation could be provided by renewables by the end of 2022.

A separate recent analysis by think tank Ember suggested renewables provided 42 per cent of the power mix last year, outstripping fossil fuels for the first time. Renewables and nuclear combined have consistently delivered more than half the UK's power in recent years, but renewables advocates maintain that the sector could top 50 per cent in short order if the government moves to beef up energy efficiency programmes and remove a number of barriers to renewables deployment, such as VAT on domestic clean technologies and on-going planning delays.

REA, which brings together more than 500 companies working to decarbonise heat, power, and transport, and deliver a more circular economy, estimates that nearly 200,000 jobs could be created in the renewable energy and clean technology sector within the next 15 years under an effective policy environment. Some 157,000 of these jobs can be created in clean energy and technology in industry in England with a further 16,000 in Scotland, it said. The remaining 16,000 would be split equally between Northern Ireland and Wales, it estimated.

REA chief executive Dr Nina Skorupska emphasised that the government needed to introduce the right policy environment to meet the targets set out in the report and harness the full green jobs potential offered by the sector.

"It is now abundantly clear that the argument of an 'either or' choice between tackling climate change and providing an economic boost is over," she said. "Support for the renewable energy and clean technology sector will not only help the government reach its net zero ambitions, but it could deliver hundreds of thousands of new jobs and return billions of pounds worth of investment too."

The report also calculates that the majority of energy demand for the heat and transport sectors could be met from renewable and clean technologies by 2035 and that all bio-waste could be either separated and recycled at source or collected separately by 2023.

Skorupska emphasised that delivering a net zero emission economy would require industrial transformation on a scale not seen since the industrial revolution of the early 19th century.

"The UK's energy system is in the midst of the largest transformation for generations, moving towards the legally-binding 2050 net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions," she said. "The change required over the next three decades is on a par to that experienced during the industrial revolution; affecting people's homes, businesses and the very fabric of the nation."

This content was originally published here.