October
6, 20201:44
AM By Alun John ,
Tom
Westbrook
SINGAPORE
(Reuters) - Asian stock markets advanced to a two-week high on Tuesday after
U.S. President Donald Trump was discharged from hospital following treatment
for COVID-19 and as prospects for a fresh U.S. stimulus package appeared to
brighten.
Bonds and the dollar nursed losses amid the
improving risk appetite, while oil extended gains.
Trump returned to the White House on Monday
after a three-night hospital stay and said he felt “real good”, though one of
his doctors cautioned that he may not be out of the woods yet.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS .HSI .N225
Separately, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone for about an hour and were
preparing to talk again Tuesday, continuing their work towards a deal on
coronavirus relief spending.
As well as Trump’s health, “there is also
some market attention on whether the U.S. Congress will pass the extra stimulus
bill,” said Tai Hui, Chief Asia Market Strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
“If we do see some form of stimulus coming
through, I think the market will take it in a positive light as much of the
important support from the previous round has expired,” he said.
S&P 500 futures ESc1 .SPX
Australia's ASX 200 .AXJO
China’s markets remain closed for a holiday.
Asian markets on Monday unwound most of a
Friday selloff in the wake of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. That improvement also
caused Wall Street to rally sharply overnight with energy, tech and healthcare
stocks leading. The Dow .DJI .IXIC
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-stocks-at-two-week-high-as-trump-returns-to-white-house-idUKKBN26R028?il=0
Of course, reality is somewhat different. The Democrat
Socialist presidential team is leading President Trump by 14 percent in most
polls. If it holds up, that’s probably large enough for a landslide romp into
the White House and the US Senate.
The Magic Money Tree hasn’t seen anything yet, although I
suspect that the money will stop flowing to Wall Street banksters and the stock
market casinos.
Where the “People’s Magic Money” flows under the
Democrats is an open question, but I suspect America’s money class one percent
will likely be facing pay-back time.
U.S. House's antitrust report
hints at break-up of Big Tech firms: lawmaker
October
6, 20204:46
AM By Diane
Bartz
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives antitrust report on Big Tech
firms contains a “thinly veiled call to break up” the companies, Republican
Congressman Ken Buck said in a draft response seen by Reuters.
The House antitrust subcommittee is expected to publish its report this
week on Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google owner Alphabet Inc.
A Buck representative confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the draft
response, which was first reported by Politico.
In the draft, Buck said he shared Democratic concerns about the power of
Big Tech firms, with their penchant for “killer acquisitions” to eliminate
rivals and self-preferencing in guiding customers to their other products.
However, he objected to a plan to require them to delineate a clear
“single line of business”. Social media platform Facebook also owns Instagram
and WhatsApp, search engine provider Google’s businesses include YouTube and
Android, and e-commerce leader Amazon operates a massive cloud computing unit.
“This proposal is a thinly veiled call to break up Big Tech firms. We do
not agree with the majority’s approach,” Buck wrote.
It is not yet known how many Republicans will support the report, which
is being led by Democratic Chairman David Cicilline. Reports and recommendations
with bipartisan support usually have a bigger impact.
“The report offers a chilling look into how Apple, Amazon, Google and
Facebook have used their power to control how we see and understand the world,”
Buck wrote.
He agreed with some of the report’s recommendations, such as making it
easier for the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to stop mergers
by lowering their burden of proof, and allowing consumers to take control of
their data through data portability and interoperability between platforms.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-tech-antitrust/u-s-houses-antitrust-report-hints-at-break-up-of-big-tech-firms-lawmaker-idUKKBN26R0E8?il=0
Southwest Asks Employees to
Accept Pay Cuts to Avoid Furloughs Airline
says it can avoid job cuts through next year with union deals
Updated Oct. 5, 2020 8:47 pm ET
Southwest
Airlines Co. LUV -0.70% is asking the company’s labor unions to
accept pay cuts for the first time to prevent furloughs and layoffs through the
end of next year.
Airlines have started taking more drastic action, as hopes
of receiving more federal aid to cover worker salaries for another six months
have grown dimmer, with Congress still at an impasse over additional pandemic
relief. Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly, who had been receiving reduced
pay since March, said Monday he will forgo his salary altogether through the
end of next year.
Airlines were barred from furloughing or laying off workers
until Oct. 1 under the terms of the $25 billion in aid they received earlier
this year. With demand for travel still 70% lower than a year ago, airlines say
they cannot justify retaining employees they no longer need while bleeding
cash. When the restrictions that accompanied government aid expired last week,
rivals including American
Airlines Group Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. went ahead with over 32,000 cuts .
Southwest has never furloughed or laid off employees and
had pledged to avoid those measures this year. But Mr. Kelly had warned last
week that furloughs would be inevitable without additional federal aid. He said
Monday that quarterly losses could be “in the billions” until an effective
vaccine has been widely distributed, likely not until late next year.
More
https://www.wsj.com/articles/southwest-asks-employees-to-accept-pay-cuts-to-avoid-furloughs-11601940411
Las Vegas Tops U.S. in Rise of
Apartment Tenants Not Paying Rent
Prashant Gopal October
5 2020
(Bloomberg) -- With Covid 19 tanking tourism, Las Vegas saw
the biggest jump in apartment tenants who have stopped paying rent.
In September, 10.6% of Vegas tenants missed a rent payment,
up from 4.1% a year earlier, the largest increase in the U.S., according to
data on the top 50 metropolitan areas from RealPage Inc. New Orleans, also
heavily dependent on tourism, had the highest overall share of people not
paying, at 12.9%, up from 8.6%.
Tenants
are most likely to stop paying in areas with the hardest-hit economies,
including expensive cities from Los Angeles and Seattle to New York, where
unemployment benefit payments aren’t enough to cover high rents and living
expenses.
“There’s more stress in hospitality-focused and expensive markets,” said
Greg Willett, chief economist at RealPage. “The wild card in everything is what
happens in the economy and what happens in the economy is dependent on what happens
with the pandemic.”
Across the U.S., rent payments have remained relatively stable, with
7.8% failing to pay in September, up 1.5 percentage points from a year ago,
according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
The data covers tenants who still occupy their units and doesn’t include
single-family rentals. It’s from professionally managed buildings and more
representative of large landlords. Smaller ones tend to own older buildings
with poorer tenants more vulnerable to job loss.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/las-vegas-tops-us-in-rise-of-apartment-tenants-not-paying-rent/ar-BB19IAhk
In other news, here we go on hurricane watch again.
Delta grows into hurricane in
Caribbean; eyes Yucatan, Cuba an
hour ago
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Delta rapidly strengthened into a
hurricane in the Caribbean Monday, aiming to hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula
potentially as a major storm before continuing on to strike the U.S. Gulf coast
later in the week.
That part of Mexico is still soaked from Tropical Storm Gamma which hit
its popular coastal resorts over the weekend and forced thousands from their
homes in Tabasco and Chiapas. Gamma weakened to a tropical depression Monday
after leaving seven dead in southeastern Mexico. It continued to break up just
north of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Delta had been forecast to strike western Cuba, but shifted to the west
Monday putting it on a path to hit the northeast tip of the Yucatan early
Wednesday morning with hurricane conditions starting to affect the
resort-studded area late Tuesday.
The hurricane was moving into an area with very warm water and nearly
calm high winds that forecasters at the hurricane center called “a very
conducive environment for strengthening.”
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Monday evening that a hurricane
warning was in effect in Mexico, from Tulum to Rio Lagartos, as well as
Cozumel. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Cayman Islands and the
Cuban province of Pinar del Rio.
Delta was forecast to be southwest of the Cayman Islands early Tuesday,
and the hurricane center said it is expected to continue strengthening rapidly
over the next day or so, and be a major hurricane when it nears the Yucatan
Peninsula. It is forecast to make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast around
Friday.
Delta is the earliest 25th named storm to form in the Atlantic, beating
the old record of Nov. 15, 2005, according to Colorado State University
hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
More
https://apnews.com/article/cuba-storms-mexico-tropical-storms-tropical-depressions-f8b50ab5fb82bdd137f6748c2a1e6050
"I just received the following wire
from my generous Daddy: "Dear Jack, don't buy a single vote more than is
necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide."
Senator Kennedy.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Hong Kong Keeps Covid Measures;
U.S. Trends Worsen: Virus Update Bloomberg News October
6, 2020, 12:03 AM GMT+1 Updated on October 6, 2020, 4:38 AM GMT+1
Hong Kong will keep social-distancing measures in place,
even as fresh cases remain low. The Food and Drug Administration said it’s made
clear to drugmakers the standards for a vaccine to be cleared for emergency
use, amid reports that the White House had blocked its formal guidance.
President Donald Trump brought his coronavirus infection
upon himself by ignoring safety protocols, Democratic presidential nominee Joe
Biden said as Trump returned to the White House.
Key Developments:
Global Tracker :
Cases pass 35.3 million; deaths near 1.04 millionTrump returns to White House after
hospital treatment Half a billion travelers
show China’s moving past Covid Neurologic symptoms found in 4 of 5 Covid
patients Covid worsens crisis in world’s most
unaffordable housing market After vaccine sprint would
come distribution slog: QuickTake More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-05/covid-s-big-u-s-comeback-trump-leaves-hospital-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
CDC Says Virus Can Spread Indoors
in Air Beyond Six Feet By John Tozzi October
5, 2020, 7:10 PM GMT+1 Updated on October 5, 2020, 9:24 PM GMT+1
The novel coronavirus can spread through the air to people
who are more than 6 feet away from an infectious person, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday, in guidance that could raise new
challenges for safely re-opening businesses and schools.
In an update to its website
“Today’s update acknowledges the existence of some
published reports showing limited, uncommon circumstances where people with
Covid-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the
Covid-19-positive person left an area,” the agency said in a news release
The change follows months of mounting scientific evidence
that Sars-CoV-2 can be transmitted through the air at greater distances than
understood in earlier stages of the pandemic. There have been indications the
CDC was moving toward updating its guidance. Last month, it posted and then
removed a guideline on airborne transmission, later describing it as a draft posted in error
---- The new guidance arrives as the pandemic appears to be
shifting into a more intense phase in the U.S. In 34 states, the seven-day average lifted restrictions
Ventilation
Issues A recent archived version
The CDC’s updated site includes a section acknowledging
that virus particles also sometimes spread through the air, particularly in
enclosed spaces with poor ventilation. Scientists believe that in these cases,
airborne virus particles emitted “became concentrated enough to spread the
virus to other people,” including sometimes shortly after the infectious person
left.
The transmissions sometimes occurred when the infected
person was breathing heavily, while singing or exercising, the agency said.
Linsey Marr, an expert on the airborne transmission of
viruses at Virginia Tech, in a tweet
In an open letter One study
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-05/cdc-says-coronavirus-can-spread-indoors-in-air-beyond-six-feet?in_source=postr_story_3
Sensor rapidly detects COVID-19
infection Date:
October 1, 2020
Source:
California Institute of Technology
Summary:
Researchers have developed a new type of multiplexed test (a test that combines
multiple kinds of data) with a low-cost sensor that may enable the at-home
diagnosis of a COVID-19 infection through rapid analysis of small volumes of
saliva or blood, without the involvement of a medical professional, in less
than 10 minutes.
One feature of the COVID-19 virus that makes it so difficult to contain
is that it can be easily spread to others by a person who has yet to show any
signs of infection. The carrier of the virus might feel perfectly well and go
about their daily business -- taking the virus with them to work, to the home
of a family member, or to public gatherings.
A crucial part of the global effort to stem the spread of the pandemic,
therefore, is the development of tests that can rapidly identify infections in
people who are not yet symptomatic.
Now, Caltech researchers have developed a new type of multiplexed test
(a test that combines multiple kinds of data) with a low-cost sensor that may
enable the at-home diagnosis of a COVID infection through rapid analysis of
small volumes of saliva or blood, without the involvement of a medical
professional, in less than 10 minutes.
The research was conducted in the lab of Wei Gao, assistant professor in
the Andrew and Peggy Cherng department of medical engineering. Previously, Gao
and his team have developed wireless sensors that can monitor conditions such
as gout, as well as stress levels, through the detection of extremely low
levels of specific compounds in blood, saliva, or sweat.
Gao's sensors are made of graphene, a sheet-like form of carbon. A
plastic sheet etched with a laser generates a 3D graphene structure with tiny
pores. Those pores create a large amount of surface area on the sensor, which
makes it sensitive enough to detect, with high accuracy, compounds that are
only present in very small amounts. In this sensor, the graphene structures are
coupled with antibodies, immune system molecules that are sensitive to specific
proteins, like those on the surface of a COVID virus, for example.
Previous versions of the sensor were impregnated with antibodies for the
hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress, and uric acid, which at high
concentrations causes gout. The new version of the sensor, which Gao has named
SARS-CoV-2 RapidPlex, contains antibodies and proteins that allow it to detect
the presence of the virus itself; antibodies created by the body to fight the
virus; and chemical markers of inflammation, which indicate the severity of the
COVID-19 infection.
"This is the only telemedicine platform I've seen that can give
information about the infection in three types of data with a single
sensor," Gao says. "In as little as a few minutes, we can
simultaneously check these levels, so we get a full picture about the
infection, including early infection, immunity, and severity."
Established COVID-testing technologies usually take hours or even days
to produce results. Those technologies also require expensive, complicated
equipment, whereas Gao's system is simple and compact.
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201001200234.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
Common cold could help stop you
getting Covid-19 It may provide a “temporary buffer against getting another
virus” while the body is all “revved up” to fight it
By Neil Shaw 06:47, 5 OCT
2020 Updated06:49, 5 OCT 2020
Researchers are looking at whether the common cold could
offer some protection against contracting Covid-19.
A recent study by scientists at Yale University found that
rhinovirus – the most frequent cause of common cold – could jump-start the
body’s antiviral defences, providing protection against the flu.
They discovered that the presence of rhinovirus triggered
production of the antiviral agent interferon, which is part of the early immune
system response to invasion of pathogens.
The researchers are now looking at whether introduction of
the cold virus before infection by the Covid-19 virus offers a similar type of
protection.
Dr Ellen Foxman, of the Yale School of Medicine, told the
PA news agency: “The common cold virus triggers the normal antiviral defences
of these cells that form the lining of the airway.
“So the cells that form the lining of the airway is where
all these viruses need to go to grow.
“That includes flu, common cold, Covid-19 – basically all
the viruses that you get by breathing them in, they all grow in this tissue
that forms the lining of your airway.”
She added: “This response, the interferon response, which
is this general defence mechanism against all viruses, we know that response
does work against Covid-19.
“If you do the experiment in a lab, you can apply this
chemical – interferon – to cells, then you can block the virus that causes
Covid-19 as well.
“So it’s possible that we’ll see the same thing, but we’re
just beginning to do the experiments.
“Sometimes you see unexpected things happening so you have
to just do the experiment and see what the result is and that that’s just a
work in progress at the moment.”
Dr Foxman said she thought interferon-based immunity lasted
about a week, maybe up to two, adding that it did not prevent infection
forever.
But she explained it may provide a “temporary buffer
against getting another virus” while the body is all “revved up” to fight it.
However, the expert said while she was sure this could be
applied to flu, Covid-19 is unpredictable.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/common-cold-could-help-stop-19049126
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
President Kennedy.
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
Sensor with 100,000 times higher
sensitivity could bolster thermal imaging Better detection
of microwave radiation will improve thermal imaging, electronic warfare, radio
communications Date:
October 1, 2020
Source:
U.S. Army Research Laboratory
Summary:
New research developed a new microwave radiation sensor with 100,000 times
higher sensitivity than currently available commercial sensors. Researchers
said better detection of microwave radiation will enable improved thermal
imaging, electronic warfare, radio communications and radar.
Army-funded research developed a new microwave radiation sensor with
100,000 times higher sensitivity than currently available commercial sensors.
Researchers said better detection of microwave radiation will enable improved
thermal imaging, electronic warfare, radio communications and radar.
Researchers published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature .
The team includes scientists from Harvard University, The Institute of Photonic
Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pohang University of Science
and Technology, and Raytheon BBN Technologies. The Army, in part, funded the
work to fabricate this bolometer by exploiting the giant thermal response of graphene
to microwave radiation.
"The microwave bolometer developed under this project is so
sensitive that it is capable of detecting a single microwave photon, which is
the smallest amount of energy in nature," said Dr. Joe Qiu, program
manager for solid-state electronics and electromagnetics, Army Research Office,
an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army
Research Laboratory. "This technology will potentially enable new
capabilities for applications such as quantum sensing and radar, and ensure the
U.S. Army maintains spectral dominance in the foreseeable future."
The graphene bolometer sensor detects electromagnetic radiation by
measuring the temperature rise as the photons are absorbed into the sensor.
Graphene is a two dimensional, one-atom layer thick material. The researchers
achieved a high bolometer sensitivity by incorporating graphene in the
microwave antenna.
A key innovation in this advancement is to measure the temperature rise
by superconducting Josephson junction while maintaining a high microwave
radiation coupling into the graphene through an antenna, researchers said. The
coupling efficiency is essential in a high sensitivity detection because
"every precious photon counts."
A Josephson junction is a quantum mechanical device which is made of two
superconducting electrodes separated by a barrier (thin insulating tunnel
barrier, normal metal, semiconductor, ferromagnet, etc.)
In addition to being thin, the electrons in graphene are also in a very
special band structure in which the valence and conduction bands meet at only
one point, known as Dirac point.
"The density of states vanishes there so that when the electrons
receive the photon energy, the temperature rise is high while the heat leakage
is small," said Dr. Kin Chung Fong, Raytheon BBN Technologies.
With increased sensitivity of bolometer detectors, this research has
found a new pathway to improve the performance of systems detecting
electromagnetic signal such as radar, night vision, LIDAR (Light Detection and
Ranging), and communication. It could also enable new applications such as
quantum information science, thermal imaging as well as the search of dark
matter.
The part of the research conducted at MIT included work from the
Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. The U.S. Army established the institute
in 2002 as an interdisciplinary research center to dramatically improve
protection, survivability and mission capabilities of the Soldier and of
Soldier-supporting platforms and systems.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201001133221.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
US Politics Betting Odds https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics
Great fire of
Newcastle and Gateshead October 6, 1854. The
great fire of Gateshead and Newcastle was a tragic and spectacular
series of events starting on Friday 6 October 1854, in which a substantial
amount of property in the two North
East of England towns was destroyed in a series of fires and an
explosion which
killed 53 and injured hundreds. There is only one building still extant on the
Newcastle Quayside which predated the fire. [1]
---- Such a large fire
naturally attracted many spectators, who occupied every spot on the bridges, boats,
quayside and surrounding buildings. The fire spread to a wooden staith or jetty used in former
times for loading coal ,
which for a time shared with the warehouse the attention of the thronging
multitude.
A slight concussion warned the crowd that there was
something more perilous than sulphur alone in the burning pile. A second slight
explosion
did not warn the firemen and surrounding crowds. A third passed unheeded even.
After a few minutes, the final explosion occurred. The
vaults of the warehouse were burst open with a tremendous and terrific
explosion, heard 20 miles (32 km) away. Vessels on the river lifted as if
lashed by a sudden storm. The old bridge shook, and the new quivered. Massive
walls were crumbled into heaps, houses tumbled into ruins. The venerable parish
church , on the hill, was shattered to a wreck. Gravestones
were broken and uplifted. The hands on the dial of its clock stood at ten
minutes past three.
Thick black smoke rose as a "pillar of cloud";
temporarily all was silent; and then the scene was lit by falling burning
debris from the warehouse, the noise of falling dwellings and then the cries of
the injured.
More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_fire_of_Newcastle_and_Gateshead
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