Chanel's flagship London store has become the first property on Bond Street, popular with designer brands, to come to the market since the pandemic began.
The store has three floors and was formerly the largest Chanel boutique in the world. Owner SEB, a Swedish pension fund, hopes to attract offers of more than £240 million ($315.7 million).
The area around Bond Street has seen a 73% decline in shopper numbers compared to last year, and COVID-19 has hurt the luxury goods market.
Chanel's flagship London store is coming up for sale, and the landlord, Swedish pension fund SEB, hopes to attract offers of more than £240 million ($315.7 million).
The Bond Street branch of the luxury French fashion house has three floors of clothing, jewellery, and beauty products, and is one of 14 Chanel boutiques in London, though many are located in department stores. When it opened in 2013, the store was the world's largest Chanel boutique.
The sale is the first on the street since the pandemic began, and is expected to attract interest from a range of bidders. Local property agents have speculated Chanel may buy the store itself, but the Abu Dhabi royal family and a range of private investors are also interested, according to The Times.
SEB is selling the store through advisory firm JLL.
The decline in international tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt the luxury goods market. Even in famous districts like Bond Street, the number of shoppers has plunged. This is also partly because wealthy residents have retreated from London to the countryside, and many are yet to return.
Earlier this month, the New West End Company (NWEC) announced that since the reopening of non-essential retail stores in the UK, visitor numbers to stores in Bond Street, Oxford Street, and Regent Street are down 73% year-on-year.
Turnovers slump, but area remains popular
The slump has hit turnovers. Stores in the area have an annual turnover of around £10 billion ($13.2 billion), but March to year-end sales are expected to fall to roughly £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion), according to NWEC, which represents traders in the area.
Despite the drop in earnings, Bond Street is still popular with designer brands. In June, French fashion house Balenciaga took over a lease on the street, while a new store for Italian fashion house Brunello Cucinelli also opened.
The northern section of the street, known as New Bond Street, was last year found to be the world's third-most expensive street to open a business, with annual rents averaging £1,333 ($1,753.8) per square foot.
Anthony Selwyn, who leads Savills' central London retail team, expects the Chanel store to sell for more than £240 million ($315.7 million) and achieve an annual rental return of roughly 2.5%, he told The Times. This is slightly lower than the street's average rental yield of 2.75%, as calculated by Savills.
Bed Bath & Beyond is in the process of nixing 2,800 jobs.
The layoffs will affect corporate and store employees alike, according to a statement from the struggling retailer published Tuesday.
In the statement, CEO Mark Tritton said that while "saying goodbye to colleagues and friends is incredibly difficult," the company needed to "rebuild the foundation of our business."
Bed Bath & Beyond is cutting 2,800 jobs from its corporate headquarters and store locations.
The "workforce reduction" is effective immediately, according to a statement published on the struggling retailer's website on Tuesday.
"This action is designed to further reduce layers at the corporate level, significantly reposition field operations to better serve customers in a digital-first shopping environment, as well as realign technology, supply chain and merchandising teams to support strategic growth initiatives," the statement said.
The company did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
In its statement, Bed Bath & Beyond estimated that while it will need to spend $25 million in severance and related costs due to the restructuring, the job cuts will save the company an annual sum of $150 million, at the very least.
"Saying goodbye to colleagues and friends is incredibly difficult, but this component of our comprehensive restructuring program is critical to rebuild the foundation of our business, construct a modern, balanced and durable business model, and meet the structural shift in customer shopping and service preferences that we have seen accelerate as a result of COVID-19," CEO Mark Tritton said in the statement.
According to the company's annual filing, Bed Bath & Beyond had a workforce of around 55,000 full-time and part-time employees as of February 29. The retailer furloughed the majority of its store workers and a number of corporate employees as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Bed Bath & Beyond temporarily closed its entire fleet of stores on March 23, eventually reporting a net loss of $302.29 million in its fiscal first quarter of 2020 – ending on May 30 –with a 49% drop in sales.
In July, the company announced that it would shutter 200 "redundant" stores and "leverage significant lease expirations" in an effort to cut costs. Bed Bath & Beyond also owns retail chains Buy Buy Baby and Cost Plus Inc., but executives said the mass shuttering of locations would mostly impact its namesake stores.
Are you a Bed Bath & Beyond employee? Email tips to acain@businessinsider.com.
On August 13, the wildly popular game "Fortnite" got an update on Apple and Android smartphones that allowed players to bypass the companies' digital payment systems and pay Epic Games directly.
In response, Apple and Google pulled "Fortnite" from their digital storefronts and cited the update as a terms-of-service violation — which caused Epic to sue both companies.
The game is outright unable to be downloaded through the Apple App Store, nor can it be updated, leaving iPhone and iPad players behind when the new "Fortnite" season premieres on August 27.
Epic filed for a temporary restraining order against Apple that would put it back on the App Store and enable it to be updated, but a judge ruled partially in favor of Apple on Monday evening.
But the case is far from over: Epic and Apple's legal battle is just beginning. Here's everything that led to the major legal battle between two tech titans.
"Fortnite" maker Epic Games and Apple are at the earliest stages of a heated legal battle, and there's already been one major casualty: "Fortnite" was kicked off the App Store on August 13, and it's not coming back anytime soon.
Worse, the game can't be updated. Anyone playing "Fortnite" on iPhone or iPad won't be able to play the game's next season, which starts on August 27, nor will they be able to play with friends on other platforms.
So, how'd things get here, where one of the world's biggest games is suddenly banished from Apple's main devices? From private emails between CEOs with major demands to a carefully manufactured anti-Apple public relations campaign, here's a closer look at the twisted path Epic and Apple walked to this legal showdown.
What started all of this? An update to "Fortnite."
On August 13, "Fortnite" players on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices started seeing a new payment option in the game.
The new option said "Epic direct payment," which is exactly what it sounds like: Instead of paying Apple, then Apple paying "Fortnite" maker Epic Games, you could pay Epic directly and it cost less for the same thing.
By doing this, Epic intentionally circumvented paying Apple and Google their respective cut of goods sold through their digital storefronts: 30%, an industry standard for digital platform holders like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and others.
In short order, both Apple and Google delisted the game from their respective app stores. Apple went a step further, and moved to revoke Epic's developer access to Apple software.
As a result of the payment option being added, which violated terms of service, both Apple and Google pulled "Fortnite" from their respective digital storefronts. Being pulled from both storefronts makes the game unable to be downloaded if you haven't done so before, and it also stops the game from receiving future updates.
That last bit is particularly critical for "Fortnite," an online game with seasonal updates. When the next update arrives, players on iPhone and iPad won't be able to play it, or buy the new Battle Pass, or play with friends on other consoles.
Beyond "Fortnite," Epic also maintains the Unreal Engine — a set of software that's used to create games, including the smartphone versions of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." But Apple also revoked Epic's access to its software development kit, which has a major impact on Unreal Engine and the games created with it.
Without access to Apple's developer technology, Epic says that it would be unable to issue updates to the Unreal Engine on iOS or Mac, which would in turn mean that any developer using the software would be unable to update their own games to support the new versions of iOS and Mac OS coming this year.
In short, Epic losing access to Apple's developer tools could have major ripple effects across the video game industry.
Epic was prepared for Apple and Google's reactions, and swiftly filed lawsuits against each company. Epic also launched a major public relations campaign against Apple — all on the same day, August 13.
The same day that Epic updated "Fortnite" to include direct payments, and the same day the game was delisted from both Apple and Google's digital storefronts, Epic filed suit against both companies.
Also on August 13, Epic launched a major public relations campaign that paints Epic as the victim and Apple as the aggressor.
The hashtag for the campaign was "#FreeFortnite," and it was introduced using a parody of Apple's famous "1984" advertisement — albeit set in the world of "Fortnite," and with Apple as the villain:
The "#FreeFortnite" campaign has extended beyond the initial video into a themed tournament with in-game and real life prizes intended to lampoon Apple. For instance, players could earn an in-game outfit that gave their avatar an apple-shaped head. It's name: "Tart Tycoon."
Behind the scenes, Epic's CEO privately asked Apple's CEO to implement Epic's own payment system in "Fortnite" — and to outright publish its own separate app store — on iPhone and iPad. Apple declined through its lawyer.
Sweeney also asked Apple for permission to add "competing payment processing options other than Apple payments" — the direct pay option in "Fortnite" that appeared on August 13, and subsequently caused the game to get pulled by Apple and Google.
The proposed features would make Apple's iOS devices "as open and competitive as it is on personal computers," Sweeney wrote in his June 30 email to Apple's chief executives, including Tim Cook.
Apple declined Epic's offer through a July 10 letter from its legal counsel. Approving a third-party store, such as the one Epic proposed, would harm "the health of Apple's ecosystem," Apple's Chief Legal Counsel Douglas Vetter said. "Apple has never allowed this. Not when we launched the App Store in 2008. Not now," he added.
Those private discussions culminated in a now infamous 2 a.m. email from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney to Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Apple execs, declaring war.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney sent an email at 2 a.m. PT on August 13, 2020, to Apple CEO Tim Cook and several other Apple executives, declared Epic's intentions for the day ahead:
"I'm writing to tell you that Epic will no longer adhere to Apple's payment processing restrictions," Sweeney wrote. "Today, Epic is launching Epic direct payments in 'Fortnite' on iOS, offering customers the choice of paying in-app through Epic direct payments or through Apple payments, and passing on the savings of Epic direct payments to customers in the form of lower prices."
Sweeney in the letter said he knew this would violate the App Store's agreement with Epic Games, but proceeded regardless because of "the firm belief that history and law are on our side."
Lawyers for Apple and Epic met in court for the first time this week, which resulted in a partial win for each company: "Fortnite" will remain off of Apple's App Store, but Apple can't revoke developer access to Epic in regard to Unreal Engine.
A few days after Epic filed its initial suit against Apple, the company filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that intended to get "Fortnite" put back on the App Store and reinstate Epic's developer contracts with Apple for Unreal Engine support — at least while the legal battle between the two is ongoing.
Moreover, the TRO would've enabled "Fortnite" players on iPhone and iPad to participate in the upcoming season.
Instead, California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled partially in favor of both companies late Monday evening. In a split ruling, Gonzalez Rogers denied Epic's request that would've put the game back in the App Store, but approved the request that enables Epic to continue updating Unreal Engine for iOS.
Gonzalez Rogers also said that neither party looked good in the legal battle. "This is not something that is a slam dunk for Apple or Epic Games," she said at the hearing.
This decision isn't permanent, however: There's a hearing for a preliminary injunction, currently scheduled for September 28, that will decide whether this measure will be put into effect until the legal battle between Apple and Epic is fully finished, one way or the other.
Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
A video showing Marines opening a door for President Donald Trump that aired during the Republican National Convention led to criticism that the troops were being used for political messaging.
But the two Marines show in the video were only carrying out their official duties, the Marine Corps said on Wednesday.
Two Marines who opened doors for President Donald Trump during an event that was featured during the Republican National Convention were just doing their jobs, the Corps said in a statement.
The convention aired video on Tuesday of Trump attending a naturalization ceremony at the White House that was presided over by Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Some of Trump's critics claimed that showing two Marines opening the doors for the president so he could enter the room in which the naturalization ceremony took place violated the Defense Department's longstanding policy against service members taking part in political rallies while in uniform.
"Using the Marines in this segment is just the latest example of Trump shamelessly and damagingly politicizing our military," Army veteran and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America founder Paul Rieckhoff tweeted Tuesday, adding that the Marines were merely "props" for the president.
The Marine Corps issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the two Marines were doing their official duties when they opened the doors for Trump.
"The Marines in the footage of the ceremony at the White House were at their assigned place of duty," the statement says. "Their official duty is to assist the President in office; those duties include opening doors for the President."
Moreover, a White House official told Task & Purpose that the naturalization ceremony was an official White House event.
"The White House publicized the content of the event on a public website this afternoon and the campaign decided to use the publicly available content for campaign purposes," the official said. "There was no violation of law."
It's hard to believe summer is already almost over.
One of the good things about the end of the season, though, is that many online retailers are starting to announce and hold their end-of-summer and Labor Day sales.
While you still have another month or so to go on vacation, relax at the beach, and enjoy a glass of rosé (or can of White Claw), now's also the perfect time to start thinking about your fall fashion, home and kitchen, and tech needs.
Labor Day sales provide an opportunity to save on anything you need to buy online. You may also be interested in the soon-to-be out-of-season stock from your favorite stores.
To potentially save more during Labor Day, you can visit our coupons site to find promo codes to these retailers.
Shop the best online Labor Day sales of 2020 below:
Mattresses and bedding
Allswell: Save 15% onthe Luxe and Supreme Mattresses plus 20% on bedding and bath & spa with the promo code PERFECTROOM through September 3
Brooklyn Bedding: 25% off sitewide and 50% off sheets now through August 27
Dreamcloud: $200 off the Dreamcloud Mattress, plus a free mattress protector and sheets now through August 30
Eight Sleep: Save $150 off a Pod and get 20% off accessories through September 7
Layla: Save up to $200 select mattresses through September 7
Leesa: Insider Reviews readers can take 20% off any Leesa Hybrid or Legend mattress with our exclusive discount code INSIDER
Mattress Firm: Save up to 50% on select mattresses, plus free shipping
Nectar: $100 off the Nectar Mattress + 2 free pillows now through September 9
PlushBeds: $1,200 off organic mattresses plus a free plush luxury sheet set and mattress protector with the code LABOR2020. Additionally, you can save 25% on all toppers, pillows, bedding and beds.
Primary Goods: Save 25% sitewide with the promo code WERK
Purple: Save up to $350 off mattress and sleep bundles and up to $150 off select mattresses
Saatva: Save $200 off any order over $1,000 through September 7
Serta: Save up to $400 on iComfort mattresses through September 15
Tuft & Needle: Save 10% sitewide through September 7
Home and kitchen
Birchlane: Save up to 65% on select outdoor home goods
Burrow: During Burrow's Labor Day sale, shoppers will save more the more they buy. Starting August 29 and ending September 13, use the code LDW to save 10% on purchases up to $1,799, $200 off $1,800+, $250 off $2,200+, $300 off $2,600+, $400 off $3,000+, and $500 off $4,000+
Saatchi Art: Save 10% on Originals of $1,000+ with code ANNIVERSARY10; 15% off Originals orders over $2,500+ with the code ANNIVERSARY15
Society6: Take 30% off select outdoor and home decor
Wayfair: Up to 70% off sitewide starting August 31 through September 8
Clothing and accessories
2Xist: Save up to 20% off sitewide with the promo code 2XHead
Nemesis Yachts has unveiled its concept zero emissions 223-foot hydrofoil catamaran, the Nemesis One.
Nemesis Yachts specializes in multihull ships that are fast, comfortable, and zero emissions, according to the company. This includes its Nemesis One, a carbon fiber build that still maintains a comfortable interior despite its "stealth fighter jet"-like exterior, according to its maker.
If created, the Nemesis One will be the world's fastest luxury hydrofoil yacht, according to its maker. This is done by equipping it with gear necessary to travel faster than 50 knots, including several automated components, such as its wing sail and hydrofoils.
According to Nemesis Yachts, these wing sails automatically adjust themselves, taking away the need for manual sail handling while making it 2.6 times more productive than a traditional sail plan.
According to Nemesis Yachts, the Nemesis One “resembles more of a stealth fighter jet.”
Nemesis One is equipped with 8,072 square feet of solar panels that provides at least 150 kilowatts of solar power for the batteries.
The ship is powered by this solar energy and its retractable hydrogen-electric propulsion, all of which allows the yacht to stay at zero emissions, according to Nemesis Yachts.
The yacht uses the automated VPLP Design Oceanwings wing sails.
The wing sail is also reefable and furlable, meaning the sail can be rolled up and its size decreased, allowing it to be more aerodynamic, according to its maker.
The Oceanwings lends itself to the ship's cruise speed of 35 knots and its aforementioned top speed of 50 knots.
Nemesis One is 128 feet long with a mast height of 292 feet.
The interior sits at 12,163 square feet, although this decreases to 8,181 square feet for its exterior.
In lieu of extra crew members, the Nemesis One uses hydraulic and electrified handling with a more streamlined design than traditional large yachts, according to its makers.
The yacht also has updated laser radar sensors that allows the ship to be aware of its surroundings, including wave height and obstacles.
This information then allows the hydrofoils and rudders to safely control the ship.
It also helps the Nemesis One stay at a constant height by avoiding any rolling movements, according to its maker.
There are several hydrofoil "modes", and each foil can be individually controlled to help stabilize or speed up the ship.
According to renderings of the interior, the luxury yacht provides several indoor-outdoor living aspects, such as a large television screen in front of a view of the waters.
There are also several lounging and dining spaces, as well as beds that look like a geometric clamshell.
Nemesis One's owner's cabin also comes with an outdoor deck space.
The control center is "aviation style" with its full views of the water and wing sail.
The control center's windshield also uses augmented reality to find potential obstacles and redirect the ship to avoid collision.
The port and starboard of the ship can be altered by inserting different "living modules" with various setups and uses, according to its maker.
However, under the "Ultra-Light Race Mode" configuration, all of the modules have to be removed with a crane to make the yacht lighter and therefore faster.
No production date has been announced yet, but its makers are testing a prototype of the ship shrunk down to 26 feet long.
McDonald's is investigating if ex-CEO Steve Easterbrook covered up misconduct by other executives during his time leading the fast-food giant, as part of a wider investigation.
The company is also investigating allegations related to the company's HR department while Easterbrook was CEO.
Earlier in August, McDonald's filed a lawsuit claiming that Easterbrook had sexual relationships with three employees.
McDonald's is investigating if former chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, covered up misconduct by other executives during his time leading the fast-food giant.
The company confirmed that it was investigating Easterbrook's broader conduct at the company, following a Bloomberg report on Tuesday. McDonald's also said it is investigating allegations related to the company's HR department while Easterbrook was CEO.
McDonald's said in a statement that, "The Board will follow the facts wherever they may lead."
On August 10, McDonald's filed a lawsuit claiming that Easterbrook had sexual relationships with three employees that he had covered up from 2018 to 2019. Easterbrook left McDonald's in November 2019, following McDonald's investigation into a separate consensual relationship between the CEO and a McDonald's employee.
Easterbrook's attorney said in a counter-filing that the company had access to evidence of Easterbrook's sexual relationships (in the form of explicit photos attached to an email Easterbrook sent himself from his corporate address) when it negotiated the then-CEO's severance agreement.
Easterbrook's attorney did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on McDonald's investigation into the ex-CEO covering up other executives' misconduct.
"Our Board and CEO are committed to leading with integrity," McDonald's said in a statement. "We know actions speak louder than words. Since being appointed CEO in November, Chris has installed a new Chief People Officer, announced refreshed values with input from employees around the world, and has committed to making these values part of everything we do. We will continue to make changes, where necessary, to support all parts of our organization."
McDonald's HR department has seen significant shakeups
Soon after Easterbrook left McDonald's, the company announced that chief people officer David Fairhurst would also be leaving the company. McDonald's said the move was not related to Easterbrook's departure, with Fairhurst writing on LinkedIn at the time: "I have decided the time has come for me to move on to my next career challenge."
McDonald's now says that Fairhurst was terminated with cause, for conduct that was inconsistent with the company's policies and values.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January that both Easterbrook and Fairhurst contributed to a "party culture," in which top executives were known for drinking with other employees at the company. The Journal reported on Tuesday that some former McDonald's managers and employees felt they missed out on advancement opportunities because they were not involved in an after-hours social circle, made up of leaders in the HR department.
In April, Heidi B. Capozzi became McDonald's new global chief people officer, previously serving as the senior vice president of human resources for Boeing Company.
Capozzi wrote in an internal memo viewed by Business Insider the day that McDonald's lawsuit against Easterbrook was filed that the company was "partnering with a third party to conduct a cultural assessment."
In June, Melanie Steinbach was promoted to the position of the US chief people officer. News broke last week that Steinbach had left the company, with The Journal reporting that Capozzi said in an online meeting that "her separation was really in the best interest of the company."
Prior to her departure, Steinbach's corporate email's auto-reply indicated she was on "medical leave." Steinbach did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. McDonald's declined to comment on her departure.
In early July, McDonald's announced Wendy Lewis, its global chief diversity officer — a department that falls under the people department, or HR, at McDonald's — would be retiring from the company. An internal memo viewed by Business Insider announcing Lewis's retirement indicated she would be staying on to advise the business through September 1.
If you have a story to share about working at McDonald's, email ktaylor@businessinsider.com.
Airbnb employees will be able to work remotely until at least the end of August 2021, the company announced on Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic persists in the United States.
It's the longest such work-from-home policy enacted by a major tech company; Facebook employees are able to work remotely until at least July 2021. Google recently extended employee work-from-home through June 2021.
Airbnb employees will also get a $300 stipend "for home office equipment," the company said, "with an additional $200 to cover ergonomic equipment." They will continue to get a $500 quarterly credit to use on Airbnb's rental platform.
Airbnb is letting employees work remotely until at least the end of August 2021, the company said on Wednesday.
It's the longest work from home period of any of the major tech players, besting Facebook's July 2021 policy by a month, as the coronavirus pandemic persists in the United States.
Moreover, Airbnb is offering employees a $500 monthly stipend to their normal paychecks. The stipend is intended for "home office equipment" and "ergonomic equipment." And that's on top of the quarterly $500 credit Airbnb gives employees for use on the site itself.
"While we don't know when the pandemic will end, we want to provide our employees with flexibility and choice to make decisions about the next year," the company said in the blog post. "We are offering this remote working extension to give employees the ability to plan further ahead and make the choices they need around school calendars, being closer to family, caring for vulnerable family members, and other personal decisions."
In July, after travel restrictions and shelter-in-place orders began lifting, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company's business bounced back. "We were down, but we're not out," Chesky said in an email to employees shared with Business Insider. "We're not committing to going public this year, but we're not ruling it out. When the market is ready, we will be ready."
Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
The NBA has since July been making use of technology as part of its health and safety measures, which have been successful so far: there have been zero COVID-19 cases among players since the season restarted in late July.
One optional tool the NBA is using is the Oura smart ring, a wearable device that can measure skin temperature and heart rate, among other metrics.
About 25% of the NBA bubble has been using the health-tracking Oura ring, a spokesperson told Business Insider.
Oura is one of several technologies being deployed. Players also use bluetooth thermometers, pulse oximeters, and smart wristbands to log their movements and vitals.
Partnerships like Oura's with the NBA are raising new questions about the potential of wearable devices in tracking and preventing the spread of diseases like COVID-19.
The health andsafety protocols that the NBA has implemented since its season restarted in late July include many of the measures you may expect, such as regular testing, frequent disinfecting of basketballs and courts, and limitations on who players can come into contact with.
But the NBA has also been making use of high-tech gadgets like smart thermometers and connected pulse oximeters to monitor players' and staff health. as USA Today first reported in mid-July.
It appears to be working. The NBA announced on August 19 that none of its 341 players had tested positive for COVID-19 for the fifth week in a row. The NBA's "bubble" at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been without a coronavirus case since games started in late July.
That might change. The league will start to allow some guests into the complex on August 31, according to a memo sent to teams and obtained by ESPN earlier this month. The potential strain on the bubble means players, coaches, and staff will be relying even more heavily on their strict protocol — and those high-tech gadgets.
Among the most interesting of those gadgets is a $300 smart ring called Oura that's capable of measuring body pulse, activity, heart rate, and skin temperature. About 25% of players, coaches, and staff have been using the ring on a daily basis as they sequester in the NBA's bubble, spokesperson Joanna Shapiro told Business Insider. This number has not been reported previously.
The ring is optional and not a mandatory part of the NBA's 113-page safety protocol, which required players to undergo quarantine upon arrival and implements a tiered system that governs how and when players can come into contact with others inside the bubble, among other measures, according to The Washington Post. It was previously reported that the NBA had ordered 2,000 of Oura's smart rings.
Oura is also just one of several technologies being used by the NBA in its health and safety plan. Players log their symptoms in the NBA's MyHealth app, record their temperature in the app after taking it with a Kinsa Bluetooth thermometer, and measure their oxygen levels with a smart pulse oximeter made by a company called Masimo, according to USA Today.
The NBA and health officials have access to a database that tracks these data points logged by NBA players, coaches, and staff members, the report says, and players wear Disney Magic bands on their wrists. These bracelets are typically used to allow guests to sign into attractions and unlock their hotel rooms, but the NBA is using them to manage everyone's whereabouts by having those in the bubble use it to check in to various points around campus, like COVID-19 testing sites and practice facilities.
The fact that Oura is optional has made it impossible to attribute the health of players and staff to usage of the ring, and difficult to tell just how widely the gadget is being used inside the bubble until now. Still, Oura's partnership with the NBA and WNBA, as well as its usage in COVID-19 research projects, has raised new questions about the potential of wearable devices to quickly identify illness.
Fitbit devices, for example, are being used in a study from Scripps Research Translational Institute. The Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab is also looking at how fitness trackers made by Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, and Garmin in addition to Oura can be used to track diseases like COVID-19.
Oura is a lightweight metallic ring clad in sensors that enable the ring to measure metrics like your heart rate, skin temperature, and respiratory rate as well as your activity. It certainly feels a bit bulkier than your average piece of jewelry, but once you get used to it the ring is barely noticeable.
The ring first gained attention for its sleep tracking capabilities, as it can measure the duration of your sleep, various stages of sleep, and how restful your sleep was among other metrics. It's been worn by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Prince Harry.
Oura says on its website that the ring should be considered a supplement to testing and other safety protocols rather than a standalone tool. Harpreet Rai, CEO of Oura, sees the ring as being an additional tool that can be useful for helping companies prioritize testing among employees.
"Everyone's trying to figure out how to become a pro at operating in a pandemic," Rai said in an interview with Business Insider. "And I think what we've just found is being able to help those organizations prioritize those individuals who may need help most is really helping them."
One way Oura does this is by calculating a risk score, Rai said. This assesses four metrics: changes in temperature, changes in respiratory rate, changes in heart rate, and heart rate variability versus a user's baseline.
The idea is to eventually make it so that worksite administrators can look at a dashboard of employee data and immediately see which workers might be at risk and in need of testing. Employees would have to consent to having their data shared.
Oura has been in the spotlight since the early days of the pandemic for research investigating whether the rings could be used to detect COVID-19 symptoms early. The company distributed 2,000 rings to staff at UCSF Medical Center and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in March as part of an effort to help frontline health workers spot symptoms ahead of time.
It's also worked with the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and WVU Medicine on a digital platform it claims can predict symptoms related to COVID-19 up to three days in advance.
Still, some experts have expressed skepticism about the ring's effectiveness in detecting COVID-19 symptoms, mostly because there's little data available, CNN reported.
Oura isn't a medical device, but Rai said he hopes the ring can provide more insight for signaling when it might be time to go to the doctor. The studies and research are intended to be a step in the direction of being able to provide tools that can help users seek medical attention more proactively, rather than waiting for something to go wrong.
"Here's an early warning sign that something may be off, but go seek the proper medical assistance to help you confirm this," Rai said, citing an example of how the ring's data should be interpreted. "And I think that is really what's going to change the healthcare industry."
Four overnight camps in Maine implemented a multi-layered strategy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and, in doing so, successfully avoided secondary transmission, according to a report out today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The four camps hosted a combined total of 1,022 kids and staffers from across the US and abroad.
Two staff members and one camper at three different camps tested positive for COVID-19, though they showed no symptoms, after arriving at camp. They were quickly isolated and their contacts were quarantined, resulting in no spread to other camp members.
A recent outbreak at a camp in Georgia demonstrated how just one case can spread rapidly without proper containment, as 260 campers and counselors tested positive after one staffer came down with the virus.
While the campers in Georgia were not required to wear masks, campers and counselors in Maine were masked when participating in activities outside of their assigned cohorts, which ranged from five to 44 people depending on the camp.
Employing a multilayered strategy allowed the camps to mitigate the spread of coronavirus
Laura Blaisdell, lead author of the report and a camp mom herself, said there's not one gold-standard strategy that is 100% effective at preventing the spread of coronavirus. She said this intervention was successful because it combined multiple strategies including early identification and isolation, quarantining, cohorting, masking, and physical distancing.
"It's like a piece of Swiss cheese. Every layer has a limitation, and it's the putting of the layers on top of each other that allows us to cover up those holes," Blaisdell said.
Camp attendees were instructed to quarantine at home with their family units for 10-14 days before arrival, then quarantined with their cohorts for 14 days after arrival.
The camps required attendees to show negative coronavirus test results from 5-7 days before arrival, with four attendees delaying their arrival because they tested positive. At one camp, 15 campers were isolated while they waited to learn their test results.
Campers and staffers were tested again a week after arrival, which yielded positive results for three attendees. The positive individuals were isolated until they tested negative, and their cohorts quarantined for 14 days. The camps also implemented daily temperature checks and questioning about COVID-19 symptoms.
The cohort system limited indoor interactions that could lead to transmission
By assigning campers and counselors to small, stable cohorts, the camps cut down on scenarios that could spread the virus and set clear expectations for mask-wearing.
"Those cohorts acted essentially and functionally as family units," Blaisdell said. The groups initially quarantined together, and campers were allowed to not wear a mask while within their cohort.
The cohorts dined together, bunked together, and used the same bathrooms. The camps limited mixed-cohort indoor activities where the virus might spread, and encouraged sports that allowed physical distance between cohorts, according to the CDC report.
Blaisdell said the camps were able to create a "culture of compliance" around mask-wearing within the larger camp community, and they didn't have any issues with people not wearing masks.
"As a public health trained physician, I'm thrilled about the results because we entered into the summer with a small degree of trepidation and a large degree of uncertainty," Blaisdell said. "As a camp mom, I'm equally grateful because my sons were able to play and to connect with friends and to enjoy being outdoors after having a tough spring."
Antitrust laws were created to keep the big conglomerates, or trusts, that were forming across oil, railroad, steel, and other sectors in the late 1800s and early 1900s from growing too large and powerful.
Now, regulators coming after 21st-century big tech.
Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook remain under the microscope in a congressional investigation into online market competition.
The ongoing investigation could eventually lead to more specific legislation designed to keep tech companies from growing too big and mighty — just like how three original antitrust laws began reining in oil and railroad companies over 100 years ago.
The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook were grilled in front of Congress on July 29 over whether they violate antitrust regulations.
The law term "antitrust" has a long history in the United States, and the hearing was part of a probe into online market competition. Lawmakers will attempt to determine if antitrust regulations can be applied to four large tech companies that dominate the industry.
But let's back up a bit: What does "antitrust" mean?
Around the turn of the 20th century, "trust" was used as a term to describe a new type of large corporation, as American business titans in the steel, oil, railroad, and banking industries began to form larger conglomerates. For example, the railroad sector needed corralling as hundreds of smaller railroad operators were acquired and clumped together into mega-companies. Another example was Standard Oil, a major oil monopoly, or trust, run by John D. Rockefeller starting in the late 1800s and into the 20th-century.
And so regulators sought to establish laws to keep big businesses across every sector from growing too large and powerful and to maintain a healthy amount of competition in the market.
Trust: This term refers to the big businesses (in this case, in railroad, oil, and steel) that began to form and encroach on smaller competitors in the US
Antitrust: The term that was given to the "trust-busting" set of laws that were created to counteract that encroachment and stem the corporations' growth in size and power
There are three core federal US antitrust laws you should care about: the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. The last would lead to the creation of the Federal Trade Commission, which is the main government entity tasked with enforcing antitrust laws today.
Sherman Act of 1890: This is the backbone of American antitrust policy. It allows the federal government to take companies to court that it believes are participating in anticompetitive practices and abusing their monopoly power.
Clayton Act of 1914: This act was passed to fill in the gaps left by the Sherman Act. It prohibits certain business practices that can weaken economic competition, like anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions or price-fixing.
Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914: Similar to the Clayton Act, this one was passed to further round out antitrust legislation and banned more competitive practices that were deemed unfair or deceptive, such as those that violate consumer protection laws.
How have these laws been used to rein in US businesses in the past?
The Sherman Act was used to break up Standard Oil, which was found to have lowered their prices specifically to drive their competitors out of business, in the early 1900s. The trust was divided into dozens of companies, including what are now ExxonMobil and Chevron.
In 1969, the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against IBM, the New York-based tech firm whose computer market dominance put it on the government's radar. However, the case was thrown out.
In 1982, the US under President Reagan used the Sherman Act to divide phone service goliath AT&T, or "Ma Bell," into eight different companies, or "Baby Bells."
And in the late 1990s, Microsoft was hit with an antitrust lawsuit as Internet Explorer began to dominate the internet browser market by bundling its browser with Windows software, making it difficult for Windows users to install and run competing browsers. A federal judge ruled that the company was indeed in violation, and the company settled in 2001, but it was a pivotal moment for the tech industry as its players began to realize they may have to eventually reckon with oversight from Uncle Sam.
Why is it bad if companies break antitrust laws?
The main reason, economists say, is that healthy competition is key to a steady, thriving economy, one in which small business owners and consumers benefit. If big businesses squash out smaller competitors, and the market is instead ruled by a small number of monopolies, that could result in a shaky economy. Consolidating economic power into a handful of companies could also be dangerous to the nation's democracy, as Wired notes.
So what's the parallel between tech companies and the big businesses around the turn of the 20th century?
Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook — the world's most powerful tech companies — are being investigated over business practices designed to step on smaller competitors and maintain their dominant position in the marketplace. They're all being investigated over antitrust violations, but they're not necessarily being probed for the same thing:
Google: Lawmakers questioned CEO Sundar Pichai regarding the company's iron grip on the advertising and search market and how it has affected other online businesses.
Amazon: The Seattle-based firm is being probed over whether it promotes its own brands ahead of third-party sellers on its online marketplace.
Apple: CEO Tim Cook fielded questions regarding claims that the company gives its own apps special treatment over third parties in its App Store.
Facebook: The social media giant is in the spotlight for the acquisitions it has made in recent years of would-be competitors, like WhatsApp and Instagram.
How can antitrust laws be used on Big Tech?
These laws were intentionally created in broad terms in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Retrofitting the century-old laws — or creating new ones — to accommodate 21st-century companies offering products that are at the forefront of tech innovation wouldn't be an easy task. But some government officials, like Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, have said the laws are well-equipped as they are to apply to Big Tech. It just comes down to lawmakers enforcing them.
Take the example of a search engine like Google dominating. When Standard Oil controlled the marketplace, consumers had only one option for where to buy. Google, meanwhile, wins because consumers mainly choose to use Google. Consumers aren't being harmed – but other companies that want to compete against Google (or Apple or Facebook or Amazon) arguably are.
The task now in front of Congress is determining how to interpret that consumer welfare argument in its enforcement of antitrust laws in the tech industry.
So then what's going to happen?
As a direct result of the July 29 hearing, almost nothing. It wasn't a trial, and no one was found guilty. The hearing was instead an opportunity for lawmakers to question the tech executives and gather evidence about their business practices by listening to their testimonies. The lawmakers involved in the hearing sit on the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee, a group that has already been conducting a yearlong investigation into how companies operate in the digital marketplace. The subcommittee members have been speaking with smaller competitors, who have alleged that tech's biggest firms engage in anticompetitive business practices.
The leaders of the "big four" tech companies attempted to make their case as to why they aren't infringing on the competition. Their answers helped inform the subcommittee's ongoing investigation, which could eventually lead to more specific legislation designed to keep tech companies from growing too large and powerful — just like how the three original antitrust laws began reining in big oil and big railroad over 100 years ago.
Fluidigm, a small-cap diagnostics company, surged as much as 42% on Wednesday after the FDA granted its COVID-19 saliva test emergency authorization.
Fluidigm's COVID-19 saliva test allows patients to avoid the more invasive nasal swab that has primarily been used to detect COVID-19 in a patient.
According to Fluidigm, its saliva-based COVID-19 test "demonstrated 100 percent agreement" between the saliva results from the assay and the results from paired nasal swab samples tested with authorized assays.
Andrew Left of Citron Research tweeted that Fluidigm will "change COVID-19 testing forever," adding that its stock is poised to surge 314% from its Tuesday close to $35.
Fluidigm might be the company to finally offer an alternative to the painful nasal swabs used to test patients for COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the California-based small-cap diagnostics company received FDA emergency authorization for its COVID-19 saliva test.
The company demonstrated that 100% of its saliva-based tests matched the results of nasal swabs in a clinical study, according to a press release.
Fluidigm said the saliva test for COVID-19 will be available for immediate shipment, and each diagnostic system used to analyze samples will have a capacity of up to 6,000 tests per day.
The arrival of a new COVID-19 test that is minimally invasive and produces rapid test results has the potential to change the dynamic of the testing landscape in the US, which has been bogged down by delayed test results and unwillingness of some to get tested due to the invasive nature of the nasal swab.
One hedge fund manager that sees potential in Fluidigm is Andrew Left of Citron Research.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Left said he thinks Fluidigm could surge 314% from Tuesday's close to $35 due to the FDA's emergency authorization decision.
"Company [Fluidigm] will change COVID-19 testing forever as their saliva-based test Demonstrated 100 Percent Agreement with Nasopharyngeal Assays," Left said, adding that Fluidigm has a "real product and management" team.
Shares of Fluidigm surged as much as 42% to $12.45 in Wednesday trades.
In just 22 weeks, more than 57 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance — that's more than the number of claims filed during the Great Recession.
The travel and hospitality industries have taken a significant hit. In addition to major airlines, businesses such as ride-share company Uber and hotel giants Hilton and Marriott have announced furloughs.
Here's a roundup of the major companies who have announced downsizing their workforce due to the coronavirus thus far.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Salesforce started to lay off 1,000 of 54,000 employees on August 26, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news comes one day after the company posted record sales. In March, CEO Marc Benioff pledged a 90-day freeze on layoffs.
On August 25, American Airlines, which previously announced cutting 20% of the company's workforce, said that it would cut 19,000 employees in October when federal aid ends.
In April, Boeing committed to cutting its massive staff by 10%. In an August 17 memo, Boeing told employees it was starting a second round of buyout offers that would extend beyond the original expected numbers.
WarnerMedia started layoffs on August 10. The first round of cuts are expected to impact 600 employees, mostly at Warner Bros. The cuts include top executives.
NBCUniversal started layoffs on August 4, impacting its broadcast networks, movie studio, and theme parks. The company is expected to cut less than 10% of its 35,000-person workforce.
In a July 30 internal memo, United Airlines said it would furlough a third of its pilots — 3,900 people. The airline previously announced on July 8 that it would issue layoff and furlough notices to 36,000 employees, including 2,250 pilots and 15,000 flight attendants.
Previously, in a leaked May 4 memo, United Airlines said it expects to lay off at least 30% or some 3,400 employees on its administrative staff.
Spirit Airlines is preparing to furlough 20-30% of its workforce, according to a July 28 internal memo. Those at risk include pilots and flight attendants.
L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, said it would lay off 15% of its workforce on July 28. The job cuts impact 850 people at the company's Columbus, Ohio, headquarters.
Creative Artists Agency, a major Los Angeles talent firm, announced layoffs on July 28. It will layoff 90 agents and furlough 275 assistants — or nearly 20% of its workforce.
Tailored Brands, the parent company behind Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, said it expects to layoff 20% of its workforce and shutter 500 stores on July 21.
Instead of involuntary layoffs, Southwest Airlines offered extended leave and exit packages. As of July 20, 28% of its workforce — mostly pilots and flight attendants — have accepted such deals.
On July 15, American Airlines said that it will soon layoff 25,000 workers, including 9,950 flight attendants and 2,500 pilots. The cuts represent almost 20% of the company.
Department store JC Penney announced that it would shutter 152 stores and lay off 1,000 jobs in corporate and field management on July 15. The company filed for bankruptcy in May and furloughed thousands in April.
PVH Corp, the company that owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger among other brands, announced that it is shuttering 162 stores and cutting 450 jobs, or 12% of its workforce, on July 14.
Boeing said it would lay off nearly 7,000 employees on May 27. The company initially announced that it would cut about 10% of its workforce on April 29. The company had 143,000 workers at the beginning of the year.
IBM will eliminate "several thousand jobs" as of May 22, mainly in the company's technology-services division. Cuts come a month after new CEO Arvind Krishna withdrew IBM's financial outlook amid economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Weeks after ride-hailing giant Uber announced it is cutting 3,700 jobs (14% of its workforce), CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced on May 18 that he will cut 3,000 additional jobs and close 45 offices.
Airbnb announced it is laying off about 25% of its workforce, or 1,900 employees, on May 5. Its severance package includes several months' pay, a year of healthcare, and support finding a new job.
Ride-hailing company Lyft is laying off 982 employees and furloughing another 288, accounting for 17% of the company's workforce. The company made the announcement on April 29 and added that other cost-cutting measures include pay cuts for executive leadership.
On April 12, a union representing workers at Walt Disney World said the company will be furloughing 43,000 employees starting April 19. The amusement parks have been closed since March 16 and 200 essential workers will continue maintaining them.
On April 7, Tesla sent an email to employees saying it will furlough all nonessential workers until at least May 4, and reduce all employees' pay by at least 10%. These cost-cutting measures are expected to start April 13.
JCPenney has already started furloughing workers and confirmed it would continue to furlough a "significant portion" of its 85,000 employees as of April 5.
The Wing, a buzzy Instagram-ready women's coworking company, is laying off nearly all of its hourly employees and half of its corporate staff as of April 3, according to Vice. The company confirmed the layoffs but did not elaborate on numbers. Its founders are foregoing their salaries.
ClassPass, the billion-dollar fitness platform, furloughed or laid off over half of its 700 employees on April 2 — 22% were laid off and 31% were furloughed.
On April 2, airplane manufacturer Boeing announced that it would offer a voluntary layoff plan to employees to cut costs. Those opting into the layoff plan will leave with a pay and benefits package, but the company offered no details about compensation.
Sephora laid off over 3,000 employees across the US via conference call on March 31. "It is our sincerest hope that we are able to bring these employees back on staff in the near future," Sephora said in a statement.
Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette informed his staff via email that the company would be furloughing most of its 125,000 employees on March 30. The company only plans to have work for "the minimum number of employees necessary to maintain basic business operations" across Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Bluemercury, Gennette wrote. He will stop receiving his salary, along with the rest of the board of directors.
Everlane, the clothing retailer focused on ethical sourcing, laid off over 200 employees and furloughed 68 others on March 27. CEO Michael Preysman will reduce his salary to zero.
ZipRecruiter laid off 443 employees and furloughed dozens more on March 27, days after CEO Ian Siegel said the billion-dollar online job-hub company was safe.
Sonder, a billion-dollar apartment-rental startup billed as a hospitality industry disruptor, laid off or furloughed 400 people — one third of its workforce — on March 24, according to The Information.
GE announced that it will be reducing approximately 10% of its aviation unit's workforce, amounting to about 2,500 employees, on March 23. It also announced a three month furlough impacting 50% of its maintenance and repair employees. GE CEO Larry Culp will forgo his salary for the rest of the year, while GE Aviation CEO David Joyce will give up half of his salary.
According to the Washington Post, at least 200 workers across President Trump's hotels in Washington DC, New York City, and Las Vegas were laid off as of March 20. Other Trump properties, like Palm Beach's Mar-a-Lago, have temporarily closed.
Air Canada announced it is set to lay off more than 5,100, or 50%, of its flight crew on March 19. Renee Smith-Valade, the airline's vice president, called the decision "difficult but necessary" in a statement.
Cirque du Soleil announced it is laying off 95% of its 4,679 person staff on March 19, a week after canceling all its upcoming performances. The circus producer kept 259 staffers to plan and sell tickets for future tours.
New York's Metropolitan Opera is the largest performing arts organization in the US by budget. On March 19, the Met laid off all of its union employees for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak. The Met also announced the cancellation of all performances through the end of the 2019-2020 season, which was set to end May 9.
Famous restaurateur Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, which owns beloved NYC staples like Gramercy Tavern, laid off 2,000 employees, or 80% of its workforce, on March 18.
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, which owns over 50 hotels in the US including the W in Los Angeles, laid off 50% of its 8,000 employees on March 17. CEO Jon Bortz also told the Los Angeles Times that the company may need to lay off an additional 2,000 employees by the end of the month.
Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company, said it has started to furlough what could amount to tens of thousands of employees on March 17. Furloughs, as opposed to layoffs, occur when employees are required to take an unpaid leave of absence. Arne Sorenson, the president and CEO, announced that his own salary will be suspended for the rest of the year and senior executives' salaries will be reduced by 50%.
Norwegian Airlines announced the temporary layoff of 90% of its workforce on March 16, amounting to 7,300 employees. The airline also canceled 85% of its flights.
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced that it would temporarily lay off 10,000 employees — 90% of its staff — on March 15. SAS also halted the majority of its flights and is operating with limited service.
The paper sheets are easy to fold up and put in your pocket before heading out on a walk with your dog.
I've found one sheet is enough to pick up the waste from both of my dogs on a single walk.
It takes a few days to get used to the paper, but they're worth it if you're looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
My two hounds enjoy their walks, and we go on about three a day. I always clean up their waste and then dispose of it in the garbage bin in our garage. After a week, the trash gets hauled away and I feel good that the waste wasn't left on my neighbor's lawn or my own.
Yet I use plastic bags to pick up their waste. According to a waste calculator from Doody Calls, my two dogs produce 8 pounds of waste each week. What's more alarming than that is that's 416 pounds of waste each year. I don't want to think about the number of plastic bags that I use in a week.
Recently, though, I found Pooch Paper, an eco-friendly paper alternative to plastic poop bags, and the company sent me some to test for this review. You can purchase Pooch Paper as a one-month supply (50 sheets) or in bulk (4,000 sheets).
Each Pooch Paper sheet is made of recycled non-chlorine-bleached paper and measures 12 inches by 12 inches. The sheets are manufactured using renewable energy and are 100 percent biodegradable and compostable.
"Our paper is made with recycled, unbleached, uncoated softwood pulp using a machine-finished, sustainable manufacturing process," said Tracy Rosensteel, the founder of Pooch Paper. She explained that the unbleached fiber produces a higher pulping yield, which in turn lessens the overall environmental footprint.
Sustainability is the company's top priority. Its goal is to reduce our plastic footprint and its destructive impact on our environment. Plastics are toxic to most species and can result in the creation of dangerous greenhouse gasses when disposed of in a landfill.
A sheet of Pooch Paper is easy to use. A single sheet holds the waste produced by both of my dogs on a single walk. The texture of the paper took a few days to get used to, but the grease-resistant coating made from corn helps get the waste up into the sheet in just one try.
The instructions say to twist the corners around the waste to contain it before you toss it into the garbage bin. Twisting the corners take a little practice and how much waste is in the center of the sheet will determine how much paper is left to twist.
Ideally, after you've picked up waste, there will be a space at the top to twist together either the edges or the four corners. The sheet will stay closed, but you do have to carry the used paper with one hand unless you have a carrying pouch attached to your waistband. I highly recommend having a pouch for used sheets. If you do have to carry it with your hands, it's not inconvenient when on a short walk.
The used waste sheets can go directly into the garbage bin. The FTC's Green Guide explains that all earth-friendly products must completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time. I now toss the paper sheets into the garbage can without any guilt.
I attach the 3-inch-by-3-inch zippered Pooch Pouch (temporarily sold out) to my leash, and it fits about 10 sheets and my house key. You can also attach the pouch to your wrist or belt loop. It is not only practical but also really cute.
The cons
If the waste I'm picking up isn't solid and firm, it's a little messy to get it into the Pooch Paper and twist the corners without a lot of fuss.
The paper could also be a bit challenging if you have a large breed dog. When I'm dealing with a large amount of waste, it can be difficult to pick up all of it. My recommendation is to use two sheets, and you'll definitely want to have a pouch to put your sheets into after they're full.
The bottom line
Pooch Paper is the best eco-friendly option I've found for cleaning up after my dogs on walks. After I pick up the waste, it easily fits in a waist pouch, and one sheet is typically enough for both of my dogs. While they aren't as easy to use as plastic bags, their reduced carbon footprint make them a worthy alternative.
Pros: Manufactured using renewable energy, biodegradable alternative to plastic poop bags, easy to pick up firm waste, one-step process to twist shut
Cons: Can be difficult to clean up loose or large amount of waste, requires a separate pouch to carry used sheets on longer walks
North and Central America see most hurricanes from May or June through November, and scientists have warned that climate change could make these storms more severe and intense.
Since the year 2000, Florida has seen over 79 hurricanes — meanwhile, Europe hasn't had a hurricane in over 50 years, but that could soon change.
Watch the video above to learn how some parts of the world avoid tropical storms and hurricanes.
You don't have to live far inland to avoid hurricanes. Just move to Europe or the western coast of the United States. These areas rarely see full-on hurricanes. But that may soon change.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: Europe hasn't had a hurricane reach its shore in over 50 years. Now don't get the wrong idea. Hurricane season still brings a hefty dose of wind and rain. But Europe has something that North America doesn't, when it comes to protection against hurricanes. Location.
Hurricanes usually form off the coast of West Africa, where warm water near the Equator and high humidity create columns of rapidly rising rotating air. It's the perfect recipe for a storm. Now the more warm, moist air that the system picks up, the stronger it becomes. That's why a tropical storms can quickly grow into a full on hurricane as it marches across the Atlantic. Now normally hurricanes are propelled on a westward track by the trade winds, caused by the Earth's rotation. That's why Europe as well as the West Coast of the US, rarely experience full on hurricanes. But that's not the whole story.
After all, since the year 2000, remnants of around 30 hurricanes have reached Europe. For comparison, over the same time frame. By the time these remnants make landfall, they've went from a hurricane force, to a tropical storm or weaker. And that's where Europe's location comes into play. In order for a hurricane to head towards Europe, something crucial has to happen. It has to travel really far North by about 200 miles. Once a storm system reaches 30 degrees north, it encounters the subtropical jet stream. Which moves in the opposite direction of the trade winds. And therefore, blows the storm East But because the storm is now farther North, the waters underneath are colder by up to about five to 10 degrees Celsius. Which means less energy available to feed the storm. And as a result, it starts to die down by the time it's headed for Europe. Even though it's no longer a hurricane, it still packs a punch when it hits shore.
In fact, most of these hurricane remnants will combine with other nearby cyclones and weather fronts, that create high winds and rain that mainly hit Ireland and Great Britain. But have been known to reach as far as Greece or even farther in Northern Russia. Typical damages include power outages, flooding, and occasionally casualties. Most recently the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia made landfall in Ireland and Scotland in 2017. About 50,000 households in Northern Ireland lost power. Three deaths were reported and downed trees closed many of the public roads and highways. This was the worst storm that Ireland had seen in 50 years. And it may be a sign of what's to come.
As global surface temperatures rise, it will also increase the sea surface temperatures in the Northern Atlantic. Which researchers estimate could contribute to an increase in the number of hurricane force storms that reach Europe. Some experts predict that by the end of the 21st century, Europe could experience, on average, 13 powerful storms each year during hurricane season. Compared to the two per year it sees now.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in October 2018.
Teenagers drive the least safe vehicles despite being the riskiest drivers on the road, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Teens tend to drive older and smaller vehicles, which have higher fatality rates than their newer, larger counterparts.
Nearly two-thirds of teens killed behind the wheel from 2013 to 2017 were driving cars six to 15 years old, the study found.
With little experience in the driver's seat, it's not particularly surprising that teens make up the riskiest driving demographic — they crash four times more often than adult drivers relative to how many miles they drive, despite spending less time on the road.
And teens' well-being behind the wheel isn't helped by the fact that they often aren't driving the safest vehicles, a new study suggests.
The study, compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, concluded that teenagers tend to drive older, smaller vehicles, which are more likely to be involved in a fatal incident than their larger, newer counterparts.
More than 25% of teens killed behind the wheel between 2013 and 2017 were driving small, mini, or micro cars, while close to two-thirds were driving vehicles six to 15 years old, the study found. On the other hand, less than 4% of 15-to-17-year-old drivers killed during that period were in a vehicle less than three years old.
"It's understandable that parents don't want to shell out big bucks for their teen's first car, and they probably don't realize how much safer a newer, larger vehicle is," Rebecca Weast, the IIHS researcher who authored the study, said in a statement. "Small vehicles don't protect as well in a crash, and older vehicles are less likely to be equipped with essential safety equipment."
Small vehicles, even relatively new ones, have much higher driver-fatality rates than larger ones, another recent IIHS study found. Their lower mass makes them fare badly in collisions with large vehicles, and their shorter front ends provide less driver protection.
IIHS safety ratings for small vehicles may also be inflated because the organization's crash tests evaluate how well a vehicle fares in a collision with a stationary object, which in turn means crashing a car against its own weight. That means a Honda Civic is rated for how it'll fare against another car of its size and weight, not a large SUV or pickup. Newer cars also include advanced safety features like side airbags and electronic stability control.
To help teens and parents choose safer vehicles, the IIHS partnered with Consumer Reports to develop a list of the safest and most affordable cars for teens. Check out the list here.
Reebok founder Paul Fireman just sold his Boston mansion for $23 million — roughly a quarter of its original asking price, Douglas Elliman confirmed to Business Insider.
Fireman first put the home on the market for $90 million in 2016, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The eight-bedroom home, which sits in the affluent Boston suburb of Brookline, was one of the most expensive listings in the Boston area.
Reebok founder Paul Fireman just sold his seven-acre estate in a ritzy Boston suburb for $23 million — about a quarter of its original asking price, according to listing brokerage Douglas Elliman.
Fireman first put the home on the market for $90 million in 2016. After several price cuts, it was most recently listed at $33 million.
Fireman said he and his wife "built Woodland Manor as the house of [their] dreams," choosing Brookline for its proximity to Boston and large lot size, according to Douglas Elliman.
George and Manny Sarkis of Douglas Elliman held the listing for the home, which was built in 1999.
Take a look inside the nearly 27,000-square-foot home.
Paul Fireman is the founder and former CEO and chairman of Reebok, the footwear and apparel company.
Fireman said he and his wife "built Woodland Manor as the house of [their] dreams," choosing Brookline for its proximity to Boston and large lot size, according to Douglas Elliman.
Less than a mile down the road from Fireman's estate is Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's home, which got a price cut last year and is now asking $33.9 million.
Cases stemming from the 460,000-person event, which kicked off on August 7, have now been spotted in eight states: Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Washington. That's in addition to the cases spotted in South Dakota, where new cases spiked to 251 on August 22 and the seven-day average of new cases continues to climb. Altogether, the cases total more than 100, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Ahead of the rally, as city officials said there was no way to stop people from coming even if the rally had been canceled in an official capacity, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem welcomed the event with open arms. She's also voiced doubt about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines detailing the effectiveness of masks.
Once the revelers arrived, photos showed few masks and crowded bars, despite warning signs throughout the area. On stage at a packed concert, Smash Mouth's lead singer mocked the pandemic: "We're being human once again. F--- that COVID s---," he says in a video.
"I sat at a bar elbow-to-elbow with guys. No one was wearing masks," one attendee from Arizona, Stephen Sample, told The Associated Press.
The US is slowly stemming the spread of the virus, with the seven-day average of new cases falling to 42,078 from above 66,000 in July.
The Trump administration has tried to mount a full-court press on China, ramping up its anti-China rhetoric and increasing their military, economic, and diplomatic pressure on Beijing.
But the US is losing to China in two important areas — economics and technology — and it's a change that has been a long time coming, writes author and journalist Dilip Hiro.
For the Trump administration's senior officials, it's been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president's blame game about "the invisible Chinese virus" as it spreads wildly across the US.
When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop.
Between the end of June and the end of July, four members of his cabinet vied with each other in spewing anti-Chinese rhetoric. That particular spate of China bashing started when FBI Director Christopher Wray described Chinese President Xi Jinping as the successor to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
It was capped by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's clarion call to US allies to note the "bankrupt" Marxist-Leninist ideology of China's leader and the urge to "global hegemony" that goes with it, insisting that they would have to choose "between freedom and tyranny." (Forget which country on this planet actually claims global hegemony as its right.)
At the same time, the Pentagon deployed its aircraft carriers and other weaponry ever more threateningly in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific. The question is: What lies behind this upsurge in Trump administration China baiting? A likely answer can be found in the president's blunt statement in a July interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News that "I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose."
The reality is that, under Donald Trump, the United States is indeed losing to China in two important spheres. As the FBI's Wray put it, "In economic and technical terms [China] is already a peer competitor of the United States ... in a very different kind of [globalized] world." In other words, China is rising and the US is falling. Don't just blame Trump and his cronies for that, however, as this moment has been a long time coming.
Facts speak for themselves. Nearly unscathed by the 2008-2009 global recession, China displaced Japan as the world's second largest economy in August 2010.
In 2012, with $3.87 trillion worth of imports and exports, it overtook the US total of $3.82 trillion, elbowing it out of a position it had held for 60 years as the number one cross-border trading nation worldwide. By the end of 2014, China's gross domestic product, as measured by purchasing power parity, was $17.6 trillion, slightly exceeding the $17.4 trillion of the United States, which had been the globe's largest economy since 1872.
In May 2015, the Chinese government released a Made in China 2025 plan aimed at rapidly developing 10 high-tech industries, including electric cars, next-generation information technology, telecommunications, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence.
Other major sectors covered in the plan included agricultural technology, aerospace engineering, the development of new synthetic materials, the emerging field of biomedicine, and high-speed rail infrastructure. The plan was aimed at achieving 70% self-sufficiency in high-tech industries and a dominant position in such global markets by 2049, a century after the founding of the People's Republic of China
Semiconductors are crucial to all electronic products and, in 2014, the government's national integrated circuit industry development guidelines set a target: China was to become a global leader in semiconductors by 2030. In 2018, the local chip industry moved up from basic silicon packing and testing to higher value chip design and manufacturing.
The following year, the US Semiconductor Industry Association noted that, while America led the world with nearly half of global market share, China was the main threat to its position because of huge state investments in commercial manufacturing and scientific research.
By then, the US had already fallen behind China in just such scientific and technological research. A study by Nanjing University's Qingnan Xie and Harvard University's Richard Freeman noted that between 2000 and 2016, China's share of global publications in the physical sciences, engineering, and math quadrupled, exceeding that of the US.
In 2019, for the first time since figures for patents were compiled in 1978, the US failed to file for the largest number of them. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, China filed applications for 58,990 patents and the United States 57,840. In addition, for the third year in a row, the Chinese high-tech corporation Huawei Technologies Company, with 4,144 patents, was well ahead of U.S.-based Qualcomm (2,127).
Among educational institutions, the University of California maintained its top rank with 470 published applications, but Tsinghua University ranked second with 265. Of the top five universities in the world, three were Chinese.
The neck-and-neck race in consumer electronics
By 2019, the leaders in consumer technology in America included Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft; in China, the leaders were Alibaba (founded by Jack Ma), Tencent (Tengxun in Chinese), Xiaomi, and Baidu. All had been launched by private citizens.
Among the US companies, Microsoft was established in 1975, Apple in 1976, Amazon in 1994, and Google in September 1998. The earliest Chinese tech giant, Tencent, was established two months after Google, followed by Alibaba in 1999, Baidu in 2000, and Xiaomi, a hardware producer, in 2010. When China first entered cyberspace in 1994, its government left intact its policy of controlling information through censorship by the Ministry of Public Security.
In 1996, the country established a high-tech industrial development zone in Shenzhen, just across the Pearl River from Hong Kong, the first of what would be a number of special economic zones. From 2002 on, they would begin attracting Western multinational corporations keen to take advantage of their tax-free provisions and low-wage skilled workers. By 2008, such foreign companies accounted for 85% of China's high-tech exports.
Shaken by an official 2005 report that found serious flaws in the country's innovation system, the government issued a policy paper the following year listing 20 mega-projects in nanotechnology, high-end generic microchips, aircraft, biotechnology, and new drugs. It then focused on a bottom-up approach to innovation, involving small start-ups, venture capital, and cooperation between industry and universities, a strategy that would take a few years to yield positive results.
In January 2000, less than 2% of Chinese used the internet. To cater to that market, Robin Li and Eric Xu set up Baidu in Beijing as a Chinese search engine. By 2009, in its competition with Google China, a subsidiary of Google operating under government censorship, Baidu garnered twice the market share of its American rival as Internet penetration leapt to 29%.
In the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial meltdown, significant numbers of Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs returned from Silicon Valley to play an important role in the mushrooming of high-tech firms in a vast Chinese market increasingly walled off from US and other Western corporations because of their unwillingness to operate under government censorship.
Soon after Xi Jinping became president in March 2013, his government launched a campaign to promote "mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation" using state-backed venture capital. That was when Tencent came up with its super app WeChat, a multi-purpose platform for socializing, playing games, paying bills, booking train tickets, and so on.
Jack Ma's e-commerce behemoth Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, raising a record $25 billion with its initial public offering. By the end of the decade, Baidu had diversified into the field of artificial intelligence, while expanding its multiple internet-related services and products.
As the search engine of choice for 90% of Chinese Internet users, more than 700 million people, the company became the fifth most visited website in cyberspace, its mobile users exceeding 1.1 billion.
Xiaomi Corporation would release its first smartphone in August 2011. By 2014, it had forged ahead of its Chinese rivals in the domestic market and developed its own mobile phone chip capabilities. In 2019, it sold 125 million mobile phones, ranking fourth globally. By the middle of 2019, China had 206 privately held start-ups valued at more than $1 billion, besting the U.S. with 203.
Among the country's many successful entrepreneurs, the one who particularly stood out was Jack Ma, born Ma Yun in 1964.
Though he failed to get a job at a newly opened Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in his home city of Hangzhou, he did finally gain entry to a local college after his third attempt, buying his first computer at the age of 31. In 1999, he founded Alibaba with a group of friends. It would become one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. On his 55th birthday, he was the second richest man in China with a net worth of $42.1 billion.
Born in the same year as Ma, his American counterpart, Jeff Bezos, gained a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. He would found Amazon.com in 1994 to sell books online, before entering e-commerce and other fields. Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing company, would become the globe's largest.
In 2007, Amazon released a handheld reading device called the Kindle. Three years later, it ventured into making its own television shows and movies. In 2014, it launched Amazon Echo, a smart speaker with a voice assistant named Alexa that let its owner instantly play music, control a Smart home, get information, news, weather, and more. With a net worth of $145.4 billion in 2019, Bezos became the richest person on the planet.
Deploying an artificial intelligence inference chip to power features on its e-commerce sites, Alibaba categorized a billion product images uploaded by vendors to its e-commerce platform daily and prepared them for search and personalized recommendations to its customer base of 500 million. By allowing outside vendors to use its platform for a fee, Amazon increased its items for sale to 350 million — with 197 million people accessing Amazon.com each month.
China also led the world in mobile payments with America in sixth place. In 2019, such transactions in China amounted to $80.5 trillion. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the authorities encouraged customers to use mobile payment, online payment, and barcode payment to avoid the risk of infection. The projected total for mobile payments: $111.1 trillion. The corresponding figures for the United States at $130 billion look puny by comparison.
In August 2012, the founder of the Beijing-based ByteDance, 29-year-old Zhang Yiming, broke new ground in aggregating news for its users. His product, Toutiao (Today's Headlines) tracked users' behavior across thousands of sites to form an opinion of what would interest them most, and then recommended stories.
By 2016, it had already acquired 78 million users, 90% of them under 30.
In September 2016, ByteDance launched a short-video app in China called Douyin that gained 100 million users within a year. It would soon enter a few Asian markets as TikTok. In November 2017, for $1 billion, ByteDance would purchase Musical.ly, a Shanghai-based Chinese social network app for video creation, messaging, and live broadcasting, and set up an office in California.
Zhang merged it into TikTok in August 2018 to give his company a larger footprint in the US and then spent nearly $1 billion to promote TikTok as the platform for sharing short-dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. It has been downloaded by 165 million Americans and driven the Trump administration to distraction.
A Generation Z craze, in April 2020 it surpassed two billion downloads globally, eclipsing US tech giants. That led President Trump (no loser he!) and his top officials to attack it and he would sign executive orders attempting to ban both TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US or being used by Americans (unless sold to a US tech giant). Stay tuned.
Huawei's octane-powered rise
But the biggest Chinese winner in consumer electronics and telecommunications has been Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Company, the country's first global multinational. It has become a pivot point in the geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington.
Huawei (in Chinese, it means "splendid achievement") makes phones and the routers that facilitate communications around the world. Established in 1987, its current workforce of 194,000 operates in 170 countries. In 2019, its annual turn-over was $122.5 billion.
In 2012, it outstripped its nearest rival, the 136-year-old Ericsson Telephone Corporation of Sweden, to become the world's largest supplier of telecommunications equipment with 28% of market share globally. In 2019, it forged ahead of Apple to become the second largest phone maker after Samsung.
Several factors have contributed to Huawei's stratospheric rise: its business model, the personality and decision-making mode of its founder Ren Zhengfei, state policies on high-tech industry, and the firm's exclusive ownership by its employees.
Born in 1944 in Guizhou Province, Ren Zhengfei went to Chongqing University and then joined a military research institute during Mao Zedong's chaotic Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He was demobilized in 1983 when China cut back on its engineering corps. But the army's slogan, "fight and survive," stayed with him. He moved to the city of Shenzhen and worked in the country's infant electronics sector for four years, saving enough to cofound what would become the tech giant Huawei.
He focused on research and development, adapting technologies from Western firms, while his new company received small orders from the military and later substantial R&D (research and development) grants from the state to develop GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) phones and other products. Over the years, the company produced telecommunications infrastructure and commercial products for third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) smartphones.
As China's high-tech industry surged, Huawei's fortunes rose. In 2010, it hired IBM and Accenture PLC to design the means of managing networks for telecom providers. In 2011, the company hired the Boston Consulting Group to advise it on foreign acquisitions and investments.
Like many successful American entrepreneurs, Ren has given top priority to the customer and, in the absence of the usual near-term pressure to raise income and profits, his management team has invested $15 to $20 billion annually in research and development work.
That helps explain how Huawei became one of the globe's five companies in the fifth generation (5G) smartphone business, topping the list by shipping out 6.9 million phones in 2019 and capturing 36.9% of the market. On the eve of the release of 5G phones, Ren revealed that Huawei had a staggering 2,570 5G patents.
So it was unsurprising that in the global race for 5G, Huawei was the first to roll out commercial products in February 2019. One hundred times faster than its 4G predecessors, 5G tops out at 10 gigabits per second, and future 5G networks are expected to link a huge array of devices from cars to washing machines to door bells.
Huawei's exponential success has increasingly alarmed a Trump administration edging ever closer to conflict with China. Last month, Secretary of State Pompeo described Huawei as "an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang."
In May 2019, the US Commerce Department banned American firms from supplying components and software to Huawei on national-security grounds. A year later, it imposed a ban on Huawei buying microchips from American companies or using US-designed software. The White House also launched a global campaign against the installation of the company's 5G systems in allied nations, with mixed success.
Ren continued to deny such charges and to oppose Washington's moves, which have so far failed to slow his company's commercial advance. Its revenue for the first half of 2020, $65 billion, was up by 13.1% over the previous year.
From tariffs on Chinese products and that recent TikTok ban to slurs about the "kung flu" as the Covid-19 pandemic swept America, President Trump and his team have been expressing their mounting frustration over China and ramping up attacks on an inexorably rising power on the global stage.
Whether they know it or not, the American century is over, which doesn't mean that nothing can be done to improve the US position in the years to come.
Setting aside Washington's belief in the inherent superiority of America, a future administration could stop hurling insults or trying to ban enviably successful Chinese tech firms and instead emulate the Chinese example by formulating and implementing a well-planned, long-term high-tech strategy.
But as the Covid-19 pandemic has made abundantly clear, the very idea of planning is not a concept available to the "very stable genius" presently in the White House.
Dilip Hiro, a TomDispatch regular, is the author, among many other works, of "After Empire: The Birth of a Multipolar World." He is currently researching a sequel to that book, which would cover several interlinked subjects, including the Covid-19 pandemic.