Federal Reserve to withdraw stimulus more quickly
The Federal Reserve will cut back its stimulus programme more quickly than planned, as it ratchets up its response to rising inflation.
The US central bank had already announced it was tapering off the monthly support, introduced to bolster the economy during the pandemic.
But on Wednesday officials said the process would be speeded up, suggesting the stimulus will end by March.
The move opens the door to an interest rate rise in the first half of 2022.
"Economic activity is on track to expand at a robust pace this year, reflecting progress on vaccinations and the reopening of the economy," said Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
"In my view, we are making rapid progress toward maximum employment," he said.
Demand remained "very strong", although the arrival of the Omicron variant posed a risk to the recovery, he added.
Officials forecast that inflation will run higher next year than they had previously projected and that unemployment, the other measure targeted by the Federal Reserve, would fall to 3.5%.
As a result they forecast that benchmark interest rates would need to rise from current near-zero levels to 0.9% by the end of 2022.
The Federal Reserve began winding down its $120bn-a-month bond-buying programme in November, saying it would reduce the stimulus by $15bn a month.
Source - BBC
New UK cases record as Whitty warns worse to come
The UK has recorded the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 78,610 reported on Wednesday.
The previous record was 68,053 on 8 January - when the UK was in lockdown.
Speaking at a news conference, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty warned that records will be broken a lot in the next few weeks.
He added people should prioritise what matters with regards to social mixing in the run-up to Christmas.
Speaking alongside Prof Whitty, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "absolutely vital" that everyone gets a booster jab.
He warned that in some areas the doubling rate for cases was now under two days, adding: "I'm afraid we're also seeing the inevitable increase in hospitalisations up by 10% nationally, week-on-week, and up by almost a third in London."
Prof Whitty said the country was experiencing two separate epidemics, one driven by the "very rapidly-growing" Omicron variant and the other by the Delta variant.
"I'm afraid we have to be realistic that records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks as the rates continue to go up," he added.
Asked whether people should be going to Christmas or New Year parties, Prof Whitty: "Don't mix with people you don't have to.
"[You] don't need a medical degree to realise that is a sensible thing to do with an incredibly infectious virus."
He encouraged people to take tests before visiting vulnerable people and to meet in areas of good ventilation or outdoors if possible.
The prime minister said the government was not cancelling Christmas events by restricting gatherings or closing pubs and restaurants, but cautioned people to think carefully about the socialising they did.
He said: "I said many times that I thought that this Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas, and I stick to that."
Questions about whether restrictions should be introduced are going to grow the more cases rise.
That is understandable. But it is also important to remember restrictions don't stop the epidemic - they just prolong it.
They can be used to buy you time. Last winter the lockdown allowed the rollout of vaccines.
With more than 80% of the most vulnerable boosted the benefits of a lockdown are much lower this time.
The costs, however, are the same, perhaps greater considering what people have endured so far in terms of the harm to jobs, mental health and education.
Source - BBC
Danny Ainge taking a new role as the CEO of Utah Jazz
Toyota launches $70B electrification push; Lexus will be all-electrified brand
Toyota Motor Corp. committed 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) to electrify its lineup by 2030, half of it to develop a battery electric vehicle lineup, as it looks to tap a growing market for zero-emissions cars and light trucks.
But the world's biggest automaker, which is a relative latecomer to full-electric vehicles, said it expected annual sales of EVs to reach only 3.5 million vehicles by the end of the decade, or around a third of its current vehicle sales.
That is less than rivals such as Volkswagen Group, which in July predicted that half of its global vehicle sales will be battery-powered cars by that date.
Speaking at a news briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday surrounded by more than a dozen planned full-electric models, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said the company was still pursuing a multi-pronged, carbon-reduction strategy that also includes hybrids and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
"We want to leave all people with a choice, and rather than where or what we will focus on, we will wait a little longer until we understand where the market is going," Toyoda said.
The company's plan to introduce a full lineup of 30 EVs by 2030 goes beyond the 15 models Toyota earlier said it would have available by 2025.
EVs still only account for a small portion of light vehicle sales, but the market is growing rapidly, with new registrations up 41 percent in 2020 even as the global auto market contracted by a sixth that year.
In November, Toyota declined to join a pledge signed by six major automakers, including GM and Ford, to phase out fossil-fuel cars and light trucks by 2040. It argued that not all parts of the world would be ready to transition to green vehicles by then.
In addition to electrified models, Toyota is also developing internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen fuel. Toyoda said the technology could help to save some of Japan's 5.5 million auto jobs by allowing the company to keep supply chains that would disappear with a full shift to electric vehicles.
Source - Automotive News
Supermarkets say they will not adopt “safe zone’ initiative
The Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT) Wednesday said its members will not be adopting the ‘safe zone’ initiative that was rolled out by the government as part of the efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has killed 2, 454 and infected 81, 857 others since March last year.
“This means we were forced to embrace the flood of information that was coming out of the leading worldwide health authorities, with respect to the use of PPE, sanitation and what would eventually become the health protocols of hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing,” it said, adding that its members “are uniquely positioned to deal with it having done so for the period since March 2020”
SATT said that it has also held talks with the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association to determine the best way to manage numbers, signage, wearing of masks, regular public ads reminders, sinks to be used and other safety measures.
“We also have been proactive in the education of our customers as a national body in tandem with several NGO’s to sensitize and create COVID-19 awareness. We were also the chief pioneer of vaccination efforts having vaccinated close to 70,000 persons,” SATT added.
Source - Cananewsonline
Bank of England warns on crypto-currency risks
Fast-growing crypto-currency assets could pose a danger to the established financial system, a senior Bank of England official has told the BBC.
Although not much of UK households' wealth is currently held in assets such as Bitcoin, they are becoming more mainstream, said deputy Bank governor Sir Jon Cunliffe.
If their value fell sharply, it could have a knock-on effect, he said.
The Bank needed to be ready to contain those risks, he added.
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Sir Jon said that at present, about 0.1% of UK households' wealth was in crypto-currencies.
About 2.3 million people were estimated to hold them, with an average amount per person of about £300.
However, he stressed that crypto-currencies had been "growing very fast", with people such as fund managers wanting to know whether they should hold part of their portfolios in crypto-currencies.
"Their price can vary quite considerably and they could theoretically or practically drop to zero," he said.
"The point, I think, at which one worries is when it becomes integrated into the financial system, when a big price correction could really affect other markets and affect established financial market players.
"It's not there yet, but it takes time to design standards and regulations."
He added: "We really need to roll our sleeves up and get on with it, so that by the time this becomes a much bigger issue, we've actually got the regulatory framework to contain the risks."
The cost of living rose by 4.2% in October, its highest rate in almost 10 years. This surge in inflation has led analysts to predict an increase in interest rates from their current record low of 0.1%. But doubts have recently set in because of the spread of the Omicron variant.
"The UK and global economies have continued to recover from the effects of the pandemic. But uncertainty over risks to public health and the economic outlook remains," said the Bank.
Source - BBC
US surpasses 800,000 pandemic deaths
More than 800,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus, the highest recorded national death toll from the global pandemic.
It comes as the US reached 50 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Monday.
Most deaths have been recorded among the unvaccinated and the elderly, and more Americans died in 2021 than in 2020.
The US is again seeing deaths rising at an alarming rate.
The last 100,000 deaths came in just the past 11 weeks, a quicker pace than any at other point aside from last winter's surge.
"The waves of illness that we're seeing will continue until the population-level immunity is high enough to prevent them. Quite simply, we're not there yet," said Dr Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
It has been more than 650 days since the first American patient dying from Covid-19 was reported in Seattle, Washington (public health officials have since attributed earlier deaths to the virus).
Since the Pfizer vaccine - the first jab to be approved in the US - was rolled out last winter, nearly 300,000 more fatalities have been recorded.
The next highest are Brazil, with more than 616,000 deaths, and India, which has had over 475,000 deaths.
In terms of deaths per capita, the US currently ranks 20th in the world, trailing several South American and European countries, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Each country in the chart below - except the UK - was initially slower to roll out vaccines than the US. Vaccinations levels in all have since surpassed the US where 61.6% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Source -BBC
Billie Eilish says porn exposure while young caused nightmares
Singer Billie Eilish has described how she suffered nightmares after being exposed to "abusive" pornography from the age of 11.
Speaking on SiriusXM, the 19-year-old said she is now "devastated" to reflect on her exposure to the content.
Eilish said the experience led her to "not say no to things that were not good" when she began having sex.
"It was because I thought that's what I was supposed to be attracted to," the Grammy Award-winner said.
Eilish, who is about to turn 20, has spent much of her teenage life in the public eye. She forged a reputation for wearing a baggy style of dress and has regularly spoken about body image and being sexualised while growing up.
The topic of pornography came up in the interview as it is referenced in a song, Male Fantasy, on her album Happier Than Ever.
She told interviewer Howard Stern that she now thinks porn "is a disgrace" after watching content she described as "violent" and "abusive" while growing up.
Eilish particularly criticised the way pornography can depict women's bodies and sexual experiences.
"I didn't understand why that was a bad thing - I thought it was how you learned how to have sex," Eilish said about watching, adding her mother was "horrified" when she told her.
"I was an advocate and I thought I was one of the guys and would talk about it and think I was really cool for not having a problem with it and not seeing why it was bad."
The singer-songwriter said she believed viewing the content while so young had "destroyed" her brain and caused her to suffer nightmares.
Eilish said it is a "real problem" that porn could skewer wider understandings of what is normal during sex, including around consent.
The view is echoed by experts focusing on child welfare, including Unicef, who say exposure to pornography at a young age can be harmful. They say pornography that portrays abusive and misogynistic acts can lead to normalisation, as well as poor mental health and other negative outcomes in children.
Eilish also discussed a range of other issues in her interview, including dating in the public eye and contracting Covid-19 earlier this year despite being vaccinated.
"I didn't die, and I wasn't gonna die, but that does not take away from how miserable it was. It was terrible," she said, adding she was unwell for almost two months.
Source - BBC
Curry supersedes Ray Allen record while obtaining the victory against the Pacers
Stephen Curry moved to within one three-pointer of the NBA record as the Golden State Warriors earned a 102-100 win at the Indiana Pacers.
Curry registered five three-pointers to reach 2,972 for his career, one adrift of legend Ray Allen.
He could break the record on Tuesday, when the Warriors take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
"I'm enjoying the moment and now you're knocking on the doorstep, it's pretty surreal," Curry said.
"But [I am] just trying to let it happen. It's one thing I've learned these last three games, is keep playing basketball, keep taking shots you think you'll make and enjoy the experience of it because it's a long time coming."
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, though, believes 33-year-old Curry has been trying "a little bit too hard" to surpass Allen's mark in recent games.
"It will be a relief for him I think, and for our team, when he does break it," said Kerr. "He just needs to make the simple pass, he knows that, but he's kind of trying too hard to make a big play."
Monday's win - earned when Kevon Looney made a lay-up with 13 seconds remaining - put the Warriors top of the Western Conference after the second-placed Phoenix Suns lost 111-95 to the LA Clippers.
Monday night's stand-out performance came as Jayson Tatum scored 42 points in the Boston Celtics' 117-103 home win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Nikola Jokic produced 28 points, 19 rebounds and nine assists before being ejected from the game as his Denver Nuggets side beat the Washington Wizards 113-107.
Jokic was out of the game halfway through the fourth quarter for arguing against calls made by different referees, but the Nuggets held on to make it back-to-back wins and stay eighth in the Western Conference.
Trae Young scored 41 points but the Atlanta Hawks lost 132-126 to the Houston Rockets.
A season-high 32 points from Eric Gordon was crucial as the Rockets came back from being 13 points adrift going into the final quarter.
The Cleveland Cavaliers claimed a fourth successive win, beating the Miami Heat 105-94 to sit fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Nine members of the Toronto Raptors squad scored double figures in a 124-101 success over the Sacramento Kings.
The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Philadelphia 76ers 126-91, while Kristaps Porzingis hit 24 points and made 13 rebounds and five blocks as the Dallas Mavericks eased past the Charlotte Hornets 120-96.
Source - BBC
The people of Port Au Prince experience a deadly explosion
Prime Minister Ariel Henry has declared three days of national mourning after a tanker truck loaded with fuel exploded on Monday night, killing several people.
“I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion, last night, in Cap-Haitien, of a tank truck which was transporting gasoline and which caused, according to a partial report, around forty deaths, dozens of wounded, as well as significant material damage,” Henry said in a statement.
“Three days of national mourning will be decreed throughout the territory, in memory victims of this tragedy which mourns the entire Haitian nation. Field hospitals will be quickly deployed in Cap-Haitien to provide necessary care to the victims of this terrible explosion,” he added.
Police are still investigating the incident which occurred at the eastern entrance to Cap-Haitien between roundabout Samari and Pont Grand-Bois.
Source - Cananewsonline