G20 leaders have approved a global agreement that will see the profits of large businesses taxed at least 15%.
It follows concern that multinational companies are re-routing their profits through low tax jurisdictions.
The pact was agreed by all the leaders attending the G20 summit in Rome.
Climate change and Covid are also on the agenda of the summit, which is the leaders’ first in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic.
Leaders of the world’s 20 major economies – made up of 19 countries and the EU – is short by two, however, with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin choosing to appear via video link.
The tax deal, which was proposed by the US, is expected to be officially adopted on October 31, according to Reuters, and will be enforced by 2023.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the historic agreement was a “critical moment” for the global economy and will “end the damaging race to the bottom on corporate taxation”.
Janet Yellen tweeted that US businesses and workers would benefit from the deal even though many US-based mega-companies would have to pay more tax.
The G20 summit comes ahead of the much-anticipated COP26 summit on climate change in Glasgow which begins on November 1. What happens at the G20 may set the tone for COP26, with sharp divisions remaining between countries on their commitments to tackling climate change.
Italy’s PM Mario Draghi opened the two-day G20 summit with a message of unification, telling world leaders that “going it alone is simply not an option. We must do all we can to overcome our differences”.
There are increasingly dire warnings from experts for the future if urgent action is not taken to cut carbon emissions.
According to Reuters, a draft communiqué outlines a promise from the G20 to work towards limiting the rise in temperatures to 1.5C (2.7F), saying it “will require meaningful and effective actions by all countries”.
The draft also notes the need for “developed countries to mobilize $100bn annually from public and private sources through to 2025 to address the needs of developing countries” so they can tackle climate change – a promise richer countries have failed to keep since 2009, when it was initially pledged.
Hillary Clinton’s former aide Huma Abedin has reportedly written in a new memoir how she was sexually assaulted by a US senator.
According to the Guardian, Huma Abedin said the unnamed politician pounced on her on a couch in the mid-2000s after inviting her into his home.
Huma Abedin says she rebuffed him as he tried to kiss her and escaped.
The claim is detailed in her new book, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which is being published next week.
Huma Abedin was one of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former Obama-era secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s most trusted aides, and was once described by her as her “second daughter”.
She describes the assault while recounting her work for Hillary Clinton when she was a senator for New York between 2001and 2009.
Huma Abedin, now 45, does not reveal the senator’s identity or even his party.
She says that after a Washington dinner she walked out with the politician and when they stopped in front of his home he invited her inside for coffee. She accepted.
According to the Guardian, which has seen an advance copy of the memoir, Huma Abedin writes: “Then, in an instant, it all changed. He plopped down to my right, put his left arm around my shoulder, and kissed me, pushing his tongue into my mouth, pressing me back on the sofa.
“I was so utterly shocked, I pushed him away. All I wanted was for the last 10 seconds to be erased.”
Huma Abedin says the senator apologized and said he had “misread” her, before asking if she wanted to stay.
She writes: “Then I said something only the twentysomething version of me would have come up with – ‘I am so sorry’ – and walked out, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.”
She says she bumped into the senator a few days later on Capitol Hill, and he asked if they were still friends.
Huma Abedin also details in the book her anger at her ex-husband, former Democratic New York congressman Anthony Weiner, whose career was destroyed by sex scandals.
A former top Saudi intelligence official has alleged that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman suggested using a “poison ring” to kill the late King Abdullah.
In an interview with CB’s 60 Minutes, Saad al-Jabri said Prince Mohammed bin Salman told his cousin in 2014 that he wanted to do so to clear the throne for his father.
There were tensions within the ruling family at the time over the succession.
The Saudi government has called Saad al-Jabri a discredited former official with a long history of fabrication.
In his interview with CBS, Jabri warned that Crown Prince Mohammed – Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and the son of King Salman – was a “psychopath, killer, in the Middle East with infinite resources, who poses threat to his people, to the Americans and to the planet”.
He alleged that at a 2014 meeting the prince suggested to his cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the then interior minister, that he could arrange the killing of King Abdullah.
“He told him: ‘I want to assassinate King Abdullah. I get a poison ring from Russia. It’s enough for me just to shake hand with him and he will be done,'” Saad al-Jabri said.
“Whether he’s just bragging… he said that and we took it seriously.”
Saad al-Jabri said the matter was settled privately within the royal court. But he added that the meeting was secretly filmed and that he knew where two copies of the video recording were.
King Abdullah died at the age of 90 in 2015 and was succeeded by his half-brother Salman, Mohammed bin Salman’s father, who named Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince.
In 2017, Mohammed bin Nayef was replaced as heir to the throne by Mohammed bin Salman. He also lost his role as interior minister and was reportedly placed under house arrest before being detained last year on unspecified charges.
Saad al-Jabri fled to Canada after Mohammed bin Nayef was ousted.
He said in the interview that he was warned by a friend in a Middle Eastern intelligence service that Mohammed bin Salman was sending a hit team to kill him in October 2018, just days after Saudi agents murdered the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
He alleged that a six-person team landed at an airport in Ottawa but were deported after customs found they were carrying “suspicious equipment for DNA analysis”.
Last year, Saad al-Jabri accused the crown prince of attempted murder in a civil suit filed in a US federal court.
The prince rejected the allegations. He has also denied any involvement in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, although US intelligence agencies assessed that he approved the operation.
In a statement sent to CBS, the Saudi embassy in Washington labeled Saad al-Jabri as “a discredited former government official with a long history of fabricating and creating distractions to hide the financial crimes he committed, which amount to billions of dollars, to furnish a lavish life-style for himself and his family”.
Saad al-Jabri is being sued for corruption by various Saudi entities and a Canadian judge has frozen his assets saying there is “overwhelming evidence of fraud”.
He denies stealing any government money, saying his former employers rewarded him generously.
In March 2020, Saudi authorities detained Saad al-Jabri’s son Omar and daughter Sarah in what human rights groups said was an apparent effort to coerce him to return to Saudi Arabia.
Last November, two months after their father sued the crown prince, the siblings were sentenced to nine and six-and-a-half years in prison respectively by a Saudi court after being convicted of money laundering and “attempting to escape” the country. They denied the charges.
An appeals court upheld their sentences in a secret hearing at which they were not present.
Aging brings with it a host of life changes, from how our bodies work to how people interact with us. It’s typical to lose some mental sharpness over the years. In fact, some studies suggest that people’s mental skills can begin to dull in their late 20s, with a steeper decline in their 60s and beyond.
These mental skills are our most powerful tools for keeping our independence and having a satisfying life in our golden years. This may be especially important if we live alone or with diminished social interaction in an aging in place program.
Many of the challenges we face as we age are actually the same as we put effort into all of our lives. We sharpen up to react quickly in a crisis, and to come up with the right words when talking. We put effort into dividing attention between different tasks, and to perform tasks step by step, as well as placing awareness on listening and comprehension.
Memory is something we have to focus more on as we age and accumulate more memories, to remember past events and to commit something new to memory. We deal with problem-solving strategies, and use mathematical and technical skills. It’s only as we age that we have to think more deliberately about keeping all these faculties well tuned. So what should you be doing to keep these skills sharp?
Agile Minds Keep Moving
Physical activity, especially outside, is great for the body and mind. Even a brisk 15-minute stroll in the park flushes your brain with oxygen, lowers stress levels, and boosts your mood. People who exercise regularly can enjoy an improved memory and may think more clearly about novel problems.
Any activity will do, but aerobic workouts like dancing or jogging have the greatest benefit. Remember to talk to your doctor before beginning an exercise regimen.
Healthy Diets, Healthy Brains
A balanced, nutrient-rich diet gives your brain the building blocks it needs to function at its best. Remember that water is part of your diet – between 17% and 28% of older adults experience dehydration. Some of the first symptoms are poor alertness and fuzzy thinking.
Try to maintain a healthy weight and healthy blood pressure as well. This will lower your chance of stroke and ischemic (mini) stroke, which are some of the biggest contributors to cognitive decline in seniors.
Do you need to follow a specific diet? Not really. A lot of studies have focused on the Mediterranean and DASH diets. However, if you’re eating produce, lean protein, and healthy fats and are going easy on the treats, you’re on the right track.
Build Brainpower with Friendships
Research suggests that people who socialize more have a lower risk of developing dementia. Why? Interpersonal relationships act like a brain workout. You stimulate your mind by meeting new people in new places. Communication skills are built as you talk and debate other points of view. Social activities like senior classes and volunteering increase self-sufficiency and instill purpose. Finally, a strong social net helps people bounce back from brain-draining depression.
Quality is more important than quantity here. You’ll see more benefits from a close circle of friends than a long address book of people you haven’t talked to in a year. If you’re like many Americans who are planning on aging in place in the final home that you buy, having a social life will be very important.
Ban Stress and Embrace Sleep
High stress and resulting poor sleep wreak havoc on the brain. In fact, people of all ages will experience short-term cognitive decline when they’re bombarded with long-term stress. Poor sleep causes your ability to remember, learn and function to plummet.
It’s productive to relax before bedtime with habits and routines, such as avoiding electronics for an hour before bed, spending that time reading or catching up with loved ones. Sipping a hot, caffeine-free beverage, taking a bath, meditation or prayer are all habits of lifestyle that prove valuable at any age. You can set your medical alert system or smart watch to give you reminders at the right time.
Physical routines are good too, with gentle stretches to work out the knots in your shoulders, cuddle time with a pet or person. Some people keep a gratitude journal of good things that happened today, or vent their stress into a worry journal, to be set aside deliberately before sleep.
Learn Something New
Learning new skills and hobbies challenges your brain on multiple levels, from processing information to memory building and beyond. Look for skills that require you to actively engage. Two of the most effective ones are learning languages and playing an instrument.
Picking up a second language isn’t the easiest task in the world, but it enhances your brain’s elasticity and helps you process information faster. Think you missed the boat because you didn’t learn as a kid? Think again! Even seniors can get the basics down. Some of the easiest languages for English speakers to pick up include Spanish, Italian, French and German – a European vacation may be in the cards.
Learning to play a musical instrument stimulates minds of any age, helping seniors ward off a decline in speech and listening skills. Dust off your old skills if you once played an instrument, or begin from scratch with one of the more easily learned instruments, such as harmonica, bongo drums, recorder, ukulele or tambourine.
Cognitive Training, Your Way
There is no one special habit or technique that keeps aging minds sharp. Research suggests that a combination of activities repeated over time will slow down cognitive decline and may even reverse it.
You have a buffet of fun hobbies and health-boosting lifestyle changes that can all add up to a sharper mind. As jogging becomes too arduous, donate your running shoes and take up yoga instead, or swap something else in. Load up your life’s plate with many helpings of what you like, investing in a richer, mentally sharper life in your golden years.
Alec Baldwin fatally shot a woman and injured director Joel Souza after firing a prop gun on a New Mexico film set for the 19th Century western Rust.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, was shot while working on the set as director of photography. She was flown to hospital by helicopter but died of her injuries.
Director Joel Souza, 48, was taken from the scene at Bonanza Creek Ranch by ambulance.
Police said they were investigating and that no charges had been filed.
A spokesperson for Alec Baldwin, best known for his role as Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and for his portrayal of Donald Trump on sketch show Saturday Night Live, told AP the incident involved the misfiring of a prop gun with blanks.
In a statement to AFP, a Santa Fe sheriff spokesman said Alec Baldwin had spoken to detectives.
“He came in voluntarily and he left the building after he finished his interviews,” the spokesman said.
Alec Baldwin is a co-producer of the film and plays its namesake, an outlaw whose 13-year-old grandson is convicted of manslaughter.
The eldest of four brothers, all actors, Alec Baldwin has starred in numerous TV and film roles since the 1980s.
Halyna Hutchins was from Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle, according to her personal website. She studied journalism in Kyiv, and film in Los Angeles, and was named a “rising star” by the American Cinematographer magazine in 2019.
She was the director of photography for the 2020 action film Archenemy, directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer.
Police said sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Bonanza Creek Ranch, a popular filming location, at around 13:50 local time after receiving an emergency call about a shooting on the set of Rust.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has died of Covid-19 complications at the age of 84.
The former top military officer died on October 18, his family said. He was fully vaccinated.
Colin Powell became the first African-American secretary of state in 2001 under Republican President George W Bush.
He also sparked controversy for helping garner support for the Iraq War.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said in a statement, thanking the staff at the Walter Reid Medical Center “for their caring treatment”.
Colin Powell had previously been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer which may have made him more susceptible to Covid-19 symptoms, according to media, as well as Parkinson’s disease.
President Joe Biden, calling Colin Powell a “dear friend”, said he had embodied the “highest ideals of both warrior and diplomat”.
Former President George W. Bush was among the first to pay tribute to “a great public servant” as well as “a family man and a friend” who “was such a favorite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice”.
President Bush’s vice-president Dick Cheney saluted Colin Powell as “a man who loved his country and served her long and well” while also being “a trailblazer and role model for so many”.
Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell’s successor as secretary of state and the first black woman in the role, called him “a truly great man” whose “devotion to our nation was not limited to the many great things he did while in uniform or during his time spent in Washington”.
“Much of his legacy will live on in the countless number of young lives he touched.”
Current secretary of state Antony Blinken called Colin Powell’s life “a victory of the American Dream”.
Remembrances also poured in from prominent African-American leaders. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called him “a sincere and committed man”, while members of the Congressional Black Caucus praised his “legacy of valor and integrity”.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the first black man to serve in that role, hailed Colin Powell as “a tremendous personal friend and mentor” who would be “impossible to replace”.
Once a moderate Republican, Colin Powell became a trusted military adviser to a number of leading politicians.
However, he broke with his party to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, as well as Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. A sharp critic of Republican president Donald Trump, Powell said he could no longer call himself a Republican after the violent January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
Over the years, technology has been making the lives of human beings much easier. Whether it’s the wheel or the internet, new technology gives us better ways to be productive. Saving time, getting more work done, and accomplishing difficult tasks are some more benefits of newer technologies. With many new companies creating innovative products and services — like Tesla — hopefully, our lives and jobs will become even easier. But let’s not take for granted what we already possess. Let’s take a look at 3 technologies that are benefiting the workforce.
Chat and Group Apps
Teamwork, collaboration, and synergy are important for a successful business: to accomplish a large task, everyone must be on the same page. Before the days of the internet, working as a team was limited to in-person meetings, phone conferences, and other similar means. A scheduled time was almost always necessary, having to consider many schedules to make a time work. However, new group apps like Slack and Microsoft teams are addressing this problem. These group-based apps allow constant communication, file sharing, and collaboration on a large scale. Notifications and separate message chains are other benefits of these technologies.
RPA
Another technology making work life easier is RPA (Robotic Process Automation). Basically, RPA allows the simplification and automation of simple tasks. These tasks can include but aren’t limited to responding to emails, transferring contact information, and managing human resource responses. How does RPA do this? Scripted programs and AI are why this is possible. With RPA, tasks that can take several hours to complete are reduced to a fraction of that total time. If you would like to learn more about RPA and how it can improve the workforce, contact the medical RPA experts at Amitech Solutions today.
Cloud Storage
This last piece of technology goes hand-in-hand with the group apps mentioned above. Cloud storage systems allow for the sharing of data, projects, and important information between an entire team — wirelessly. If you save something in a cloud storage system, another teammate can access it and update it in real-time. Items can be shared, worked upon at the same time, and filed to positively benefit the workforce. Some of the main cloud storage providers include Google Drive, Dropbox, and the Microsoft OneDrive for Business. Need to learn how to recover and backup data from cloud storage? Find out here.
In today’s technologically advanced world, we have just about everything we need right at our fingertips. In fact, you can even get diagnosed online by a doctor for a variety of illnesses without ever having to leave your home.
But despite all of our technology and advances in telemedicine, there are still some things that we need to be consciously aware of, and our health is certainly among them.
Maintaining proper health is essential to living a full and productive life. Essentially, without good health, it’s hard to function. And this can make even the simplest of everyday tasks difficult.
One condition that you should be aware of that can make your life miserable is that of acute heartburn. Even mild heartburn can cause problems if it’s consistent over time. But thankfully, there are a few strategies that you can employ to avoid getting heartburn.
Here, we’ll explore a few tips on how to avoid heartburn, before the burning starts.
Modify Your Diet
Perhaps the first and best line of defense for avoiding heartburn is to avoid the foods that are known to cause heartburn. This might be easier said than done because we all know there are tons of wonderfully delicious foods out there just begging to be eaten
But without a proper diet, those tantalizing delights could ultimately become your worst nightmare, especially in the case of acute heartburn.
Many of the foods that cause heartburn are predominantly spicy or highly acidic. These can include buffalo wings, Asian cuisine, and anything heavily seasoned with pepper.
Additionally, acidic fruits and vegetables can also be causes of heartburn, so even though a diet of vegetables is recommended by many nutritionists, it’s best to steer clear of those with high acid content.
OTC Medication
Many people think they can fool their stomach by taking heartburn medication before a night of heavy eating or drinking. And while this may work on occasion, it certainly isn’t a foolproof plan.
In fact, taking heartburn medication on a regular basis can do more harm than good because your stomach needs to produce acid on a regular basis in order to regulate proper digestion. Further, some heartburn medications are known to cause serious problems.
For example, the heartburn medication Zantac has been linked to various types of stomach cancers, and the drug is now the subject of numerous Zantac lawsuits across the country.
Rather than try to “beat the system” and take medications to mitigate heartburn, adjusting your diet and using natural heartburn relief methods have proven to be a much healthier and more effective method altogether.
Natural Remedies
Of all the natural ways you can combat the onset of heartburn, perhaps the best method is rarely practiced.
You might be surprised to learn that saliva has a neutralizing effect on stomach acid. As such, many doctors actually recommend gum chewing after a meal. Not only does the saliva help calm an overactive stomach, the act of repeatedly swallowing will help to push stomach acid back down, out of the esophagus.
Other natural remedies include drinking calming teas such as those which contain Caraway or German Chamomile. Licorice root is also a safe, natural alternative for heartburn relief, and this can come in raw form or be added to a tea.
Beverages which are known to cure heartburn also include aloe vera juice, which has become the most popular in recent years, or the timeless classic virgin cocktail of aromatic bitters and soda. The latter has a near-immediate neutralizing effect on overactive acid production, and has been a remedy for a couple of centuries.
Heartburn is nothing to scoff at. And this condition can actually be so debilitating that sufferers often visit the emergency room due to the writhing pain they find themselves in.
At the end of the day, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So be proactive when it comes to dealing with heartburn and you’ll be able to enjoy your meals without worry.
Your smile is the world’s first impression of you, and as the old adage goes, first impressions are important. But looking after your teeth isn’t just as simple as brushing twice a day, although it’s a good starting point. If you’re looking to improve your smile, ask your dentist about these procedures to make you smile wider.
Things like red wine and coffee in your diet, as well as smoking, illness or a simple lack of oral hygiene, can all fade the bright whiteness of your teeth over time, a dentist in Weymouth MA details on their website. If it’s bothering you, there are options to whiten your teeth.
Your first move should be to talk to your hygienist. A simple, affordable, and usually very effective way to brighten your smile is to make an appointment to have your hygienist remove surface stains and plaque.
A professional teeth whitening can then be considered. Your dentist will guard your mouth and gums with a mold and then paint a bleach solution onto your teeth. They will then shine a lamp into your mouth to activate the solution and let it develop over 15 minutes.
Straightening
If you aren’t happy with how straight your teeth are, there are ways to sort that – yes even in adulthood. You can talk to an orthodontist about crowded, crooked or protruding teeth and how to straighten them out with a range of options.
The option of traditional braces may not appeal as many others. They are made up of metal brackets glued directly onto your teeth and held in place with wires. They’re hard to clean and to get used to, but advancements in orthodontics have given those looking to straighten their teeth a lot of options to choose from.
For example, it’s possible to get lingual braces, which are simply traditional braces but glued to the inside surface of your teeth. They still come with the issue of feeling like a mouth full of metal and the difficulty cleaning them but are invisible to anyone not getting uncomfortably close.
Clear aligners are by far the most popular choice. Made from a mold of your mouth, they are adapted to your individual needs. They are removable, can be worn during the day without discomfort or throughout the night, and, best of all, they’re invisible. They are made from clear plastic that will not show even to the nosiest onlooker.
Bad breath
If you don’t want anyone gagging when you smile, then you better keep on top of your breath. Bad breath is caused by bacteria in your mouth. It can be avoided by drinking water, which will wash away whatever bacteria is trapped by food and other sugar-filled drinks that will promote bacteria in the mouth. Water will also promote saliva, which has antibacterial properties to aid in keeping your breath fresh.
Lola Tillyaeva is a committed environmental activist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Her wide-ranging passions have allowed her to find success in a number of disciplines. She has founded two philanthropic foundations, as well as the Uzbek Federation of Gymnastics. She was a long-serving ambassador to UNESCO and has produced films and published books. You might say she is a modern-day Renaissance woman.
Founded in 2016, The Harmonist is a perfume house like no other. Lola Tillyaeva (Till) melds her lifelong passion for fragrance with the timeless philosophy of feng shui to, “render balance and harmony through the power of scent.”
As a child, Lola Tillyaeva grew up in Uzbekistan, a nation filled with scents dating back to the spice trade along the ancient Silk Road – jasmine, cinnamon and cumin – which even today have the power to trigger strong memories. “Smells act like time capsules and our childhood memories have a lasting impression staying with us throughout our life, affecting our perfume preferences,” says Lola.
With The Harmonist, Lola Tillyaeva aims to centre mind, body and spirit through carefully crafted fragrances. The role of feng shui is to reflect the “dual nature of Yin and Yang, the traditional Chinese concept of empowering your inner self and your whole body by bringing it into harmony with the world around you.” With such an ambitious goal Lola Tillyaeva goes to the ends of the Earth in search of ingredients.
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. At the last Fragrance Foundation Awards – known as the oscars of the perfume world – two of The Harmonist´s fragrances were finalists in the luxury category. This was no mean feat considering that Lola´s perfume house was up against some of the biggest brands in the business including Gucci, Chanel and Armani.
In her time as Uzbekistan´s delegate to UNESCO Lola Tillyaeva never tired of seeing how Uzbek art and culture entranced first-time visitors. Opening La Maison de l’Ouzbekistan in downtown Paris was one way of continuing this work. As Lola Tillyaeva sees it, her boutique is “a cultural bridge between Europe and Central Asia, providing a singular portal to Uzbekistan right in the heart of Paris – a means of introducing Uzbekistan’s rich cultural heritage to a European audience.” The gallery stocks a gorgeous selection of hand-crafted homewares, hand-woven silk fabrics, timber furniture and unique ceramic pieces. It´s almost like a museum, but one where visitors can take precious pieces home with them. Staff from Galerie Joseph in Paris who visited the gallery recently described its unique aura:
“Just push the door of ‘La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan’ in the heart of the French capital to be transported to a fascinating country. An open window to this country’s rich culture and artisanal ways, the Central Asian gem offers a total change of scenery through the objects and books it offers.”
Lola Tillyaeva has also recently published a new book: BeYour Own Harmonist: Awakening Your Inner Wisdom for Physical, Mental and Emotional Wellbeing. Drawing on both her unique life experience and years of research, Lola Tillyaeva outlines a strategy for achieving a healthy life balance – what she calls “a merging of science and spirituality… an all-encompassing solution for unlocking your intuition and living to your greatest potential.” If one thing holds all of Lola’s diverse activities together, it is this constant desire to embody and create harmony.
Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has resigned, after pressure triggered by a corruption scandal.
Sebastian Kurz has proposed Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg as his replacement.
The chancellor and nine others were placed under investigation after raids at a number of locations linked to his conservative ÖVP People’s Party.
Sebastian Kurz denies claims he used government money to ensure positive coverage in a tabloid newspaper.
The allegations this week took his coalition government to the brink of collapse after its junior partner, the Greens, said Sebastian Kurz was no longer fit to be chancellor.
The Greens began talks with opposition parties, who were threatening to bring a vote of no confidence against the chancellor next week.
Greens leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler welcomed Sebastian Kurz’s resignation and indicated he would be willing to work with Alexander Schallenberg, saying they had a “very constructive” relationship.
“What’s required now is stability. To resolve the impasse I want to step aside to prevent chaos,” Sebastian Kurz said as he announced his resignation.
He said he would remain leader of his party, and continue to sit in parliament.
“First and foremost, however, I will of course use the opportunity to disprove the allegations against me,” he added.
Sebastian Kurz became leader of the ÖVP in May 2017 and led his party to victory in elections later that year – becoming, at the age of 31, one the world’s youngest ever democratically-elected heads of government.
The corruption allegations relate to the period between 2016 and 2018, when finance ministry funds were suspected to have been used to manipulate opinion polls in favor of the ÖVP that were then published in a newspaper.
While no newspaper was named by prosecutors, the tabloid daily Oesterreich put out a statement on October 6 denying media reports it had taken taxpayers’ money for advertising in exchange for publishing the favorable polls.
Sebastian Kurz, nine other individuals, and three organizations, have been placed under investigation “on suspicion of breach of trust … corruption … and bribery … partly with different levels of involvement,” the Prosecutors’ Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption said in a statement on October 6.
Earlier in the day, prosecutors carried out raids at the chancellery, the finance ministry and homes and offices of senior aides to the chancellor.
Sebastian Kurz has called the allegations against him “baseless”. He also denies wrongdoing in a separate investigation he was placed under in May over allegations that he made false statements to a parliamentary commission.
Benjamin List and David MacMillan have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on building molecules that are mirror images of one another.
The two scientists were announced as the winners at an event in Stockholm.
Their chemical toolkit has been used for discovering new drugs and making molecules that can capture light in solar cells.
The winners will share the prize money of 10 million krona.
Asked how he felt winning, Scotland-born Prof. MacMillan, from Princeton University, said: “Dazed, confused, elated, proud, sentimental, weepy – you name it. I feel all of those things right now.”
German-born Prof. List was on holiday with his family when he heard the news: “I absolutely didn’t expect this huge surprise,” adding that he “thought it was a joke” when he received the call from Sweden.
The scientific process in question, called asymmetric organocatalysis, has made it much easier to produce asymmetric molecules – chemicals that exist in two versions, where one is a mirror image of the other.
Chemists often just want one of these mirror images – particularly when producing medicines – but it has been difficult to find efficient methods for doing this.
Some molecules with mirror versions have different properties. An example is the chemical called carvone, which has one form that smells like spearmint and a counterpart that smells like the herb, dill.
Nobel Committee member Prof. Peter Somfai reasoned that, if the body can differentiate between two mirror images, the same might be true for drugs used to treat illnesses. In other words, different versions of the same molecule might have different effects when ingested.
“Then it becomes important to be able to make only the mirror image of a drug that has the desired physiological effect,” he said during the news conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
One tragic example of this principle was the drug thalidomide, approved for treating morning sickness and other conditions in the 1950s. It was withdrawn when it was found to cause disabilities in babies.
Thalidomide medication contained two mirror versions of the same chemical compound mixed in together. One of these versions damaged the developing foetus.
David MacMillan, 53, was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, and is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Benjamin List, also 53, is from Frankfurt, Germany. He is a professor at the University of Cologne and the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research.
Their work focused on catalysts, substances that can speed up chemical reactions without becoming part of the final product.
While at Harvard University in the late 1990s, David MacMillan had been working with metal catalysts. But the types used in his research were rarely taken up by industry. The problem was that, while the oxygen-free and moisture-free conditions demanded by some metal catalysts were possible to achieve in the lab, this was much more difficult at large scales.
David MacMillan began designing simple organic molecules (chemicals that contain carbon and hydrogen bonded together) which could do the same job as metals, but were not destroyed by moisture.
Meanwhile, Benjamin List was working towards a similar goal. He had been able to show that a simple amino acid called proline could act as a highly effective catalyst. It was also cheap and environmentally-friendly.
Prof. Somfai, who works at Sweden’s Lund University, said List and MacMillan had “rationalized their findings” in such a simple way that it was immediately appreciated by the scientific community”.
He added: “This resulted in a ‘gold rush’ – or an explosion – in this area… It’s easy to design new things given this easy explanation.”
The Nobel Committee said the technique had “taken molecular construction to an entirely new level”.
The Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel founded the prizes in his will, written a year before his death in 1896.
A total of 187 individuals have received the chemistry prize since it was first awarded in 1901.
Only seven of these laureates have been women. One person, the British biochemist Frederick Sanger, won the prize twice – in 1958 and 1980.
The country that has had most chemistry laureates is the United States, with 72 winners. Germany and the UK share second place with 34 laureates each.
Technology has impacted almost every area of our lives, from the way we cook our food to the cars we drive. So it makes sense that it would also have a significant impact on the hiring process.
A good thing about technology is how it’s changed the employee recruitment process. In the last decade, these technological advances have made it so recruiters no longer have to have job postings on many different sites and hope for the best. Once they have a candidate profile, they can put it on multiple platforms with a push of a button.
This may leave you wondering how exactly has technology changed the way people are applying for jobs. One of the significant changes is there is a good chance you won’t even see the applicant. If it’s a remote job, there’s a good chance you’ll never even know what they look like.
Recruitment Marketing Technology: Impact on Hiring
Recruitment marketing companies not only post on different social media sites but also build your company a career page. The career page is a crucial way to answer the question of “why?” for potential candidates. Not only do they help find the right type of applicants, but they also help weed out applicants that aren’t a good fit.
Social media is now one of the best ways to get people interested in your jobs. You can use targeted ads to gain their interest, then include a link that will take them to your career page. With over 3.5 million people using social media, it makes sense that companies should utilize its potential.
Speeds Up The Screening Process
Going through all of the applications and resumes that flooded in from job applicants used to take hours and sometimes even days. With new technology such as the applicant tracking system, it helps companies sort through potential employees, ranging them and then keeping them for future positions if any become available.
When using artificial intelligence to help screen applicants, you can set up what you are looking for as well as what you don’t want in an applicant. This helps to filter out individuals who don’t meet your minimum requirements, and you don’t have to waste valuable time interviewing them. Another considerable benefit of using this type of approach is it can eliminate potential bias during the recruitment process.
Online Interviewing
Depending on how you look at it, this can be either good or bad. Some people find the interview process extremely stressful and it causes them anxiety, and not being able to see the other party may make things worse. On the other hand, using the phone or online meeting software can cut down on having to travel, and you won’t have to waste both your and your applicant’s time. Not that long ago, people had to sit in offices sometimes for hours waiting for their turn, now they just have to pick up the phone.
Fast Response Times
If you remember, about a decade ago, you had to place ads in the local newspaper to get job applicants. Not only would it take a while for people to know you were hiring, but it also took a long time for the entire process. They would then either come to your office or call to find out if there was still an opening. Then they have to fill out the application, bring it back, and wait to see if you call. All of that was pretty stressful.
Only placing ads in local papers limited your search area, and you likely missed out on many qualified candidates. With technology, potential employees can now search for a job, look at their career profile, apply, and then get screened in a matter of days. Long gone are the weeks and possibly months of waiting to hire someone. Technology has also made it so companies can search all over for qualified applicants.
There is no question that the more advanced we become, the more we have to adapt to the changes in technology. You can do this by becoming more familiar with artificial technology and keeping up with changes on the horizon. The more information you have, the better. But on the flip side, sometimes more data leads to more confusion.
There’s no doubt finding jobs has become much easier in the last 10 years, thanks to advances in technology. These changes are helping human resource teams function easier so that they can find the right candidates for available positions. The future is clear on one thing for sure: as time continues, the way we do things will keep changing.
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have been hit by an outage lasting several hours.
All three services are owned by Facebook and could not be accessed over the web or smartphone apps.
Downdetector, which tracks outages, logged tens of thousands of outage reports for all three platforms from around the world.
Facebook’s chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer has tweeted his “sincere apologies” to those affected.
“We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible,” he wrote.
Some people also reported problems using Facebook’s virtual reality headset platform, Oculus, and apps which require Facebook logins were affected, including Pokémon Go.
An outage of this scale for such a long time is rare.
Another disruption in 2019 left Facebook and its other apps mostly inaccessible across the world for more than 14 hours.
As yet there has been no official reason given for the problem. But online network experts speculated it may involve an error with DNS, or the domain name system, for Facebook sites.
DNS is often compared to an address book or phone book for the internet, pointing web browsers to the computer system which serves the website they are looking for.
Several other tech companies, including Reddit and Twitter, have poked fun at the social media giant’s predicament – prompting responses from the affected apps.
The disruption comes the day after an interview with a former Facebook employee who leaked documents about the company.
On October 3, Frances Haugen told CBS news that Facebook had prioritized “growth over safety”.
On October 5, Frances Haugen will testify before a Senate subcommittee in a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online”, about the company’s research into Instagram’s effect on the mental health of young users.
Several world leaders have denied wrongdoing after featuring in the Pandora Papers, a huge leak of financial documents from offshore companies.
The 12 million files constitute the biggest such leak in history.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein are among some 35 current and former leaders linked to the files.
Both have issued statements saying they have done nothing wrong.
Jordan’s royal palace said it was “not unusual nor improper” that King Abdullah owned property abroad.
Leaked documents show King Abdullah secretly spent more than £70 million ($100 million) on a property empire in the UK and US since taking power in 1999.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile questioned the reliability of the “unsubstantiated” information, after it detailed hidden wealth linked to President Putin and members of his inner circle.
The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC, which has been working with more than 140 media organizations on its biggest ever global investigation.
Other leaders linked to the leak include:
Czech PM Andrej Babis, who allegedly failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for £12 million in the south of France;
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who – along with six members of his family – has been linked to 13 offshore companies;
Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman, who is accused of selling a copper and iron mine in an environmentally sensitive area to a childhood friend;
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, whose family and close associates have allegedly been secretly involved in property deals in the UK worth more than £400 million.
In a tweet thread, the Czech prime minister said the allegations are an attempt to influence elections scheduled for this week and insisted he has “never done anything wrong or illegal”.
president Kenyatta said the investigation “will go a long way in enhancing the financial transparency and openness that we require in Kenya and around the globe”, and promised to “respond comprehensively” to the leak once he returned from a state visit abroad.
The Pandora Papers show no evidence that the Kenyatta family stole or hid state assets in their offshore companies.
A statement from President Piñera’s office said he denied taking part in or having any information on the sale of the Dominga mining project.
The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC which has led one of the biggest ever global investigations.
More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet.
Heat, cold and touch are crucial for experiencing the world around us and for our own survival.
How our bodies actually do it had been one of the great mysteries of biology.
Thomas Perlman, from the Nobel Prize Committee, said: “It was a very important and profound discovery.”
Prof. David Julius’s breakthrough, at the University of California, San Francisco, came from investigating the burning pain we feel from eating a hot chilli pepper.
He experimented with the source of a chilli’s heat – the chemical capsaicin.
He discovered the specific type of receptor (a part of our cells that detects the world around them) that responded to capsaicin.
Further tests showed the receptor was responding to heat and kicked in at “painful” temperatures. This is what happens, for example, if you burn your hand on a cup of coffee.
The discovery led to a flurry of other temperature-sensors being discovered. Prof. David Julius and Prof. Ardem Patapoutian found one that could detect cold.
Meanwhile, Prof. Patapoutian, working at the Scripps Research institute, was also poking cells in a dish.
Those experiments led to the discovery of a different type of receptor that was activated in response to mechanical force or touch.
When you walk along a beach and feel the sand under your feet – it is these receptors that are sending signals to the brain.
Prof. Patapoutian actually missed multiple attempts by the Nobel Prize committee to let him know he was a winner. His phone was set to do-not-disturb so the flurry of phone calls from Sweden (at 02:00 California time) went unanswered.
“They somehow got to my 94 year old father who lives in Los Angeles and he was able to call me and wake me up and tell me the news, which was ended up being a fantastic way to find out,” he said.
These touch and temperature sensors have since been shown to have a wide role in the body and in some diseases.
The first heat sensor (called TRPV1) is also involved in chronic pain and how our body regulates its core temperature. The touch receptor (PIEZ02) has multiple roles, from urinating to blood pressure.
The Prize Committee said their work had “allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us.”
It added: “This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.”
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian will share the 10 million Swedish kronor prize.
Grabbing an opportunity to earn free money is not something new. People save in banks to earn interest and always go for sign-up bonuses. Similarly, the cryptocurrency sector has several options for people to earn. According to Dave Abner, who is the global development head at the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, the first 6 months of 2021 have seen a breakthrough in crypto innovations.
Currently, joint efforts are in place in Washington DC and all over the world to develop laws and regulations to increase safety for crypto investors, according to an article by NextAdvisor magazine.
Undoubtedly, cryptocurrency has become the trendiest way to make money these days. Advertisements about how to make money with crypto are all over the news and even tech and finance websites. Whichever page you open or whoever you talk to, whether friends or family, this is the topic. The attention on crypto is great, and because of this demand, obtaining digital currencies is expensive.
With this widespread interest comes many ways crypto investors can use to get free crypto. Unbelievable, right? Well, if you don’t believe it, try one of these six options to earn free crypto.
Crypto Credit Card Rewards
For the past few years, the crypto and fintech worlds have begun to merge. Every other month, we see an innovative startup that offers a debit or credit card that gives cashback rewards in the form of crypto. These crypto rewards are free. Isn’t that what we all want to hear?
With a more traditional bank credit card, you would get, for example, 2% back on purchases using a credit card. Crypto rewards work the same way; all you need is to use a crypto credit card to charge for your purchases, and they will give you cashback rewards in the form of a percentage. For instance, crypto. com gives 10% back on Airbnb. Furthermore, you may get other benefits including no annual fee and zero ATM withdrawal fees, according to the same website.
Sign-up Bonuses
Many crypto exchanges give sign-up bonuses for using their services. This is purely to entice potential clients and beat the tough competition. If this sounds appealing to you, it is advisable to pay attention to all the terms and conditions because sometimes you might be asked to give personal information to get the bonuses, which can be risky. Experts encourage caution because even fraudsters and insecure websites will attempt to lure you with very attractive sign-up bonuses.
According to Hustler Money Blog, almost every crypto platform has a sign-up bonus for new clients. Lolli has a $10 sign-up bonus on any coin, while crypto. com gives a $50 welcome offer. BlockFi offers $10 for joining, and Celsius has a $20 welcome offer in Bitcoin, to mention a few. New investors who are eager to join reputable platforms get the best sign-up bonuses.
Crypto Staking
Staking is the process through which different kinds of cryptocurrencies are put to work. The investors in staking are rewarded in return. Crypto investors stake applicable coins like ETH, Cosmos, and Tezos on the new ETH2 upgrade.
According to the article ‘’What Is Staking?’’ on coinbase.com, the crypto earns rewards for investors once the blockchain puts it to work through a process called proof of stake, which is a “consensus mechanism.” Simply put, this is a method for verification without the involvement of a payment processor or a bank as a broker.
The proof of work is only available with some cryptos such as Ethereum. However, there are many additional coins that qualify, so investors need to check if their coin qualifies for a staking program.
Saving Crypto to Earn Interest
Yield farming is becoming a lucrative option to earn cryptocurrency passively. From a crypto professional’s point of view, the crypto savings platforms are competing to give a high annual percentage yield (APY) to attract more investors. For instance, YouHodler gives up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, altcoins, and stablecoins, while BlockFi, Gemini, and Binance also have competitive rates as well.
Investors are required to open an account with a crypto savings platform of their choice, deposit the crypto they would like to save, and start earning immediately. As seen on different websites, the payouts are done differently. Some pay anytime, while others pay weekly or monthly. According to experts, these are some of the considerations to make on top of the APY rate.
Airdrop Projects
Airdrops offer a very attractive way to earn crypto. You will regularly hear about them on different cryptocurrency websites. So, how does it work? According to many airdrop websites, the method involves giving away the website’s native crypto to help in forming a community of users to boost awareness and adoption.
There are many ways to earn big money with airdrops according to the Airdrop Alert website. These methods include joining as many airdrop projects as possible, participating in holder airdrops, and doing airdrop referrals among others. Experts strongly believe that airdrop projects will grow in the coming years due to their effectiveness in promoting upcoming cryptos and increasing the availability of willing participants.
Receive Crypto Donations
Sometimes, it is good to be creative especially when you are dealing with cryptocurrency. Creating something like an innovative donation page or maybe a facility on your blog or website will entice people to donate a few USDs worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USDC among other cryptos.
If you have a good reason such as creating helpful text and video content on crypto, big platforms can help you set up a donation checkout page. Coinbase, for instance, lets you create a donation checkout page that you can share with friends, relatives, clients, and crypto enthusiasts to receive donations.
Conclusion
Many crypto enthusiasts have earned good money through these crypto-earning opportunities, and undoubtedly, you can too. Everyone would like to get free cryptocurrency. It does not take much to get crypto using these methods; this is why they are being referred to as free. Use options like airdrops, credit card rewards, staking, and more, and watch as your cryptocurrency grows.
This year the world’s most renowned architecture award for skyscrapers, the Emporis Skyscraper Award, goes to One Barangaroo in Sydney. For the first time in the more than 20 year-long history of the awards, the prestigious trophy goes to Australia. One Barangaroo is a 890-foot-tall skyscraper, designed by British architect WilkinsonEyre and is the tallest building in Sydney, offering spectacular views of Sydney Harbor and the city’s iconic Opera House.
Photo credit: Sergius Kirsch (CoStar Group)
Like every year, the winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award was selected by an international jury of architectural experts from over 300 skyscrapers that were completed in 2020 with a minimum height of 100 meters. For more than 20 years, the renowned award has been awarded by Emporis (www.emporis.com), the international provider of building data, and is an indispensable part of the international architecture scene.
According to the jury, the extravagant design of One Barangaroo’s exterior façade was the deciding factor for the building coming in at first place. It is inspired by natural shapes and resembles three petals rising slightly twisted into the sky. The magnificent tower stands on a four-story high podium, the outer walls of which are decorated with a mantle of marble. In addition to a casino, apartments and restaurants, the building also houses a luxury six-star hotel owned by the Crown Resort Group, Australia’s largest entertainment conglomerate and developer of One Barangaroo.
Second place was awarded to TELUS Sky in Calgary which has become the city’s third tallest building. The tower is named after its tenant “Telus Communications” a Canadian telecommunications company. TELUS Sky stands out because of its extraordinary structure and façade: it has a rectangular base and with rising height the floor plates gradually reduce in size, creating small terraces and balconies. The façade is illuminated at night by a public art LED lighting installation which has been designed by Canadian artist Douglas Coupland. The installation is also accompanied by a smartphone app with live information about the ongoing light performance.
Photo credit: Sergius Kirsch (CoStar Group)
In third place is One Vanderbilt in New York City. The skyscraper, designed by Kohn Pedersen and Fox, is located near Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and combines state-of-the-art office space with direct connections to one of the city’s largest transport hubs. The striking features of the tower are the four visually clearly separated modules which combined give the building an asymmetrical, distinctive shape, making it one of New York’s latest eye-catchers in the Manhattan skyline.
Photo credit: Sergius Kirsch (CoStar Group)
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was a turbulent and challenging year that also had a strong impact on the construction industry; the total number of skyscrapers completed in 2020 fell by 20% in comparison to the previous year. Nevertheless, the top 10 buildings selected for the Emporis Skyscraper Awards clearly show that many impressive skyscrapers were completed despite the difficult conditions faced by owners, developers, construction companies and architects. In the coming year strong growth is expected to return which underlines the resilience of the construction industry and makes the jury very optimistic for the candidates of next year’s award.
Whether someone is suffering from fertility problems like low ovarian reserves, PCOS, or unexplained fertility, there isn’t always a clear-cut answer regarding suitable treatment options.
Though IVF and IUI cycles might work for many, these aren’t always successful avenues for every person hoping to conceive. Often, a person is left searching for different solutions to combat their infertility issues – for example, donor eggs are commonly considered as an alternative.
However, many people wonder how complicated using an egg donor will be. They ask themselves questions like, “Is affordable donor egg treatment a possibility?” or “How thoroughly are potential donors screened?”
Thankfully, there are positive answers to quandaries like these.
When someone uses frozen donor eggs to conceive, they’ll receive many benefits which might not be possible with other fertility solutions.
Are You a Suitable Candidate for Frozen Donor Eggs?
Before leaping at the opportunity to use a frozen egg donor to start your family, it’s worth considering if you’d make an ideal candidate for the process.
Luckily, there aren’t many who wouldn’t benefit from this treatment!
Not only is egg donation an optimal solution for those who haven’t been successful during traditional IVF or IUI cycles, but it can also be a helpful alternative for people battling conditions and symptoms like:
One reason prospective parents may lean towards using a fresh egg donor instead of frozen is wanting a personal connection with their donor. They believe they’ll have more trust if they can meet their donor in person.
On the contrary, there’s nothing to fear when using quality donor eggs from a respected frozen egg bank.
Before a potential donor can begin their egg collection process, they’ll undergo a comprehensive screening examination. This includes various tests like background checks, psychological evaluations, drug screenings, and general health tests.
During this evaluation stage, clinics also collect information regarding the donor’s educational, family, and professional background.
Many of the results obtained during this process are made available to hopeful parents. In this way, they have an abundance of facts to help them make their decision and the peace of mind that comes from knowing their potential donor underwent detailed screenings before their eggs were collected.
The Benefits of a Frozen Donor Egg Cycle
Some individuals might ask – “Why would I choose a frozen egg donor if a fresh donation is possible?”
There are several reasons why selecting frozen donor eggs instead of fresh is an advantageous fertility treatment decision. Some of these include:
Low Costs
Unfortunately, overcoming infertility often comes with high costs which aren’t usually covered by insurance.
In the argument between fresh vs. frozen donor eggs, many people appreciate how much less they’ll spend on a frozen egg donation cycle than a fresh cycle. In fact, they often save thousands of dollars in comparison.
Further, reputable donor egg companies like Donor Egg Bank USA also provide various financial payment plans to suit the unique needs of all families, including LGBTQIA+.
High Success Rates
In decades past, fresh donor eggs were the optimal choice regarding egg donation success rates. Today, the success rates of fresh and frozen donor eggs nearly equal each other.
While labs previously froze collected eggs using slow-freeze technology which often led to ice crystal formation and cellular damage, vitrified eggs are exposed to advanced cryoprotectants before freezing to protect them during storage and thawing.
Flexible Start Times
During a fresh donor egg cycle, the donor and recipient’s reproductive cycles must be synchronized to ensure correct timing for collection and transfer. Unfortunately, this can be a challenge which sometimes leads to cycle cancellations.
Alternatively, since frozen donor eggs have already been collected, prospective parents have more flexibility when choosing a cycle start date.
Creating New Opportunities to Build a Family with Egg Donation
When you dream of having a baby, but your faced with one negative pregnancy test after another, don’t lose hope. Even if the situation seems impossible, other options – like frozen egg donation – are always available.
No matter how hard things might seem, remember your answer could be right around the corner.
Molnupiravir, an experimental drug for severe Covid developed by Merck, cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by about half, interim clinical trial results suggest.
The tablet was given twice a day to patients recently diagnosed with the disease.
Merck said its results were so positive that outside monitors had asked to stop the trial early.
The drug-maker said it would apply for emergency use authorization for the drug in the US in the next two weeks.
Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said the results were “very good news”, but urged caution until theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) had reviewed the data.
If authorized by regulators, molnupiravir would be the first oral antiviral medication for Covid-19.
Molnupiravir, which was originally developed to treat influenza, is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, preventing it from spreading in the body.
An analysis of 775 patients in the study found:
7.3% of those given molnupiravir were hospitalized
that compares with 14.1% of patients who were given a placebo or dummy pill
there were no deaths in the molnupiravir group, but eight patients who were given a placebo in the trial later died of Covid
The data was published in a press release and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Unlike most Covid vaccines, which target the spike protein on the outside of the virus, the treatment works by targeting an enzyme the virus uses to make copies of itself.
Merck said that should make it equally effective against new variants of the virus as it evolves in the future.
Trial results suggest molnupiravir needs to be taken early after symptoms develop to have an effect. An earlier study in patients who had already been hospitalized with severe Covid was halted after disappointing results.
Merck is the first company to report trial results of a pill to treat Covid, but other companies are working on similar treatments. Its US rival Pfizer has recently started late-stage trials of two different antiviral tablets, while Swiss company Roche is working on a similar medication.
The company has said it expects to produce 10 million courses of molnupiravir by the end of 2021. The US government has already agreed to buy $1.2 billion worth of the drug if it receives approval from the regulatory body, the FDA.
Merck said it is in ongoing discussion with other countries and has also agreed licensing deals with a number of generic manufacturers to supply the treatment to low and middle-income countries.
North Korea has claimed that it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile called Hwasong-8 on September 28.
According to state media, the new missile was one of the “five most important” new weapons systems laid out in its five-year military development plan.
The North Koreans called the missile a “strategic weapon”, which usually means it has nuclear capabilities.
The launch is another indication of Pyongyang’s growing weapons technology amid strict sanctions.
“The development of this weapons system…[has increased] the nation’s capabilities for self-defense in every way,” North Korean state news outlet KCNA said.
The latest launch also saw North Korea introducing missile fuel ampoule for the first time.
This is a technology that allows missiles to be pre-fuelled and then sent to the field in canisters. This means it could potentially stay launch-ready for years.
The launch also marked North Korea’s third missile test this month. It has already revealed a new type of cruise missile, as a well as a new train-launched ballistic missile system.
The event came as its North Korean envoy Kim Song defended his country’s right to develop weapons at the annual UN General Assembly in New York.
Kim Song said North Korea was “building up our national defense in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard the security and peace of the country”.
Hypersonic missiles are much faster and more agile than normal ones, making them much harder for missile defense systems to intercept.
North Korea joins a small pool of countries, including the US, Russia, China and India, in attempting to develop the weapons. In July, Russia announced that it had successfully launched a hypersonic missile which reached a speed of 8659.88km/h (5381mph) from a frigate in the White Sea.
KCNA said the test launch confirmed the “navigational control and stability of the missile”.
In this quick Q&A session the Head of Sales for Enness Global, Toby Johncox, talks to Jordan Williams of Artorius about some of the advice he gives High Net Worth individuals (HNW) in terms of understanding and managing their wealth.
How does someone begin to organise their financial affairs?
The key thing is actually to ascertain and understand what it is you’ve got within your estate. So first of all, understanding what assets you have, where they’re held, and who’s actually in charge of those assets. When we’re working with families who come to us and ask exactly that same question, the first thing that we do is understand what their asset position looks like today, and what their objectives are for the future. And we then build a consolidated report whereby all the information relating to their estate can be captured. And by having that understanding of what you’ve got today, one can then analyse and assess concentration of risk, look at whether the mandates that you’ve got within your investment portfolios are appropriate to your circumstances, whether they’re actually going to achieve your stated objectives. So, first and foremost, it’s about understanding what you’ve got and what you want to achieve.
There is no one size fits all solution for this. Every family is different, every family is going to have a different objective as to what they want to achieve with their wealth. And so certainly, when families come to us, it’s our role to probe, in a nice way, to understand what it is they’re trying to achieve with their wealth, and understanding whether the measures they’ve got in place, are appropriate. Absolutely key to that is working with their existing advisors. And what we find is that with our involvement we work in collaboration and bring the team of advisors together. Because, so often, someone might have their tax advisor, their accountant, lawyer, and trusted mortgage brokers, but very rarely do they talk to each other. And so they have separate conversations with each of these advisors. But the key about how to start and organise their affairs, it’s about bringing all their advisors together to help devise a plan for the future.
What should I be investing in and where should I invest?
There is no one size fits all and everyone is different. What might be right and suitable for one client is not going to be right and suitable for another. So it’s about understanding what it is the client is trying to achieve, what they’re worth, what their investment horizon and what their risk profile is, what their return objectives are. Once we’ve ascertained that, then we can actually go about devising what the right investment strategy is.
What is the best way to monitor your wealth?
There are certainly the benefits that families have derived from having consolidated reporting across their affairs. Typically wealthy families will get portfolio evaluations and statements from their banks and other traditional wealth managers. But they’re in isolation, they’re just in relation to that particular relationship. But by having a consolidated report, that brings in all their different investment portfolios, and not just investment assets, but their property holdings and their holdings in yachts, and jets, and art and fine wine, and their depositions and other liabilities. Bringing all of that together into a consolidated report is a great way of actually understanding what the client’s overall wealth is on a month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter basis:
understanding their movements
understanding how different investments are performing
how investments are performing according to specific benchmarks that have been created
understanding the fees that the clients are paying
Having that oversight over your wealth leads to better decision making. And makes other key family members more informed about their wealth position.
There’s the monitoring side, which is having everything in one place in an easy-to-read format. But equally, taking the time to monitor. Ultra high net worth global citizens don’t have the time to go through bank statements, look through portfolios even if their different advisors are sharing those monthly with them. So it’s critical to have someone that can look after everything in one place.
It’s about optimising the positions that you have. And by identifying what savings can be made, identifying an investment strategy that might work better for you. So are you in the right investment strategy for what you’re trying to achieve. And by moving into something that’s more appropriate, hopefully, will enhance returns. So, again, you can’t do that if you’re not looking at things as a whole. If you’re doing it piecemeal it’s not going to be as effective.
What is the situation regarding London property?
It’s a really interesting time to buy real estate, but it’s still about buying the right property, the right real estate. The London residential market still has huge appeal to many. London still is, obviously, a global city, which has many attractions, and we’re still seeing people moving to the UK to send their kids to school here, wanting to start up businesses here. And I think the London property market has shown over many, many years to be resilient.
There have been undoubted challenges to the market, and numerous tax changes that have taken place; uncertainty over Brexit, uncertainty over changing government risk, but it has shown to be resilient. But it all goes back to buying quality. And if you’re buying the right property in the right location, and you can understand what the correct price is, there are still opportunities out there. I think things are changing in terms of what people want, undoubtedly people are going to want more outside space or access to local parks and other amenities. But I definitely think there are opportunities out there. And there are places in London which are still incredibly popular whereas some of the areas which had significant new build, they’re shown to be less popular now.
There are still very good value mortgage rates available to international clients, the dollar versus the pound still remains a good exchange so that makes it a really interesting time for people to buy real estate. But it’s buying quality that’s going to see good appreciation in the longer term.
Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have won the federal election over outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party.
SPD leader Olaf Scholz said he had a clear mandate to form a government, while his conservative rival Armin Laschet remains determined to fight on.
The two parties have governed together for years.
However, Olaf Scholz says it is time for a new coalition with the Greens and liberals.
Preliminary results gave SPD a narrow election win over the conservatives who suffered their worst-ever performance.
The Greens and pro-business FDP attracted the most support from the under-30s, in an election dominated by climate change and by differing proposals on how to tackle it. The Greens made history with almost 15% of the vote, even though it was well short of their ambitions.
It was the tightest race in years, bringing an end to the post-war domination of the two big parties – Olaf Scholz’s SPD and his rival’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Exit polls predicted a dead heat, but this election was unpredictable from the start, and the result was never going to be the end of the story. For one thing, the outgoing chancellor is going nowhere until the coalition is formed – and that may have to wait until Christmas.
The main parties want a new government in place by the time Germany takes over the leadership of the G7 group of nations in January.
The next chancellor’s task is to lead Europe’s foremost economy over the next four years, with climate change at the top of voters’ agenda.
Olaf Scholz’s SPD supporters greeted him in raptures, but it was only later when his party edged into the lead that he told a TV audience the voters had given him the job of forming a “good, pragmatic government for Germany”.
His conservative rival has dug in, arguing it was about forging a coalition, not about getting “an arithmetic majority”. Winner doesn’t take all, in other words.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak did not gloss over the defeat but said that was not the point: “In the end the question is going to be can you create a genuine project for the future?”
“Two maybe-chancellors and two kingmakers” – was one of the headlines summing up Sunday night’s rather scrappy result, but that is what it looked like.
Because it’s not just the Social Democrat and conservative leaders fighting for power. The two kingmakers are open to offers and planning to talk to each other to explore common ground.
Together the liberals and the Greens make up over quarter of the vote and would carry both of the big parties over the line.
They may be more popular with younger voters than any other parties, but it would take some skill to bring them under the same roof.
On September 27, a Greens spokesman said it was no big secret that they were not close to the liberals.
Greens leader Annalena Baerbock wants to loosen Germany’s debt brake that stops a big jump in public debt. FDP leader Christian Lindner has little time for her party’s “ideas of tax hikes, or softening the debt brake”.
So of all the possible coalitions, the Greens and the liberals feature in the two that are most likely to form.
One is the so-called traffic-light coalition, made up of the parties’ colors – red (SPD), yellow (FDP) and the Greens – or there’s the Jamaica alternative, black (CDU), yellow (FDP) and the Greens.
It is the first time that Germany is facing a three-way coalition, but this country has entered a new political era and the talking is yet to begin.
Beyond the four mainstream parties, it was a bad night for the radical left and a patchy night for the far right.
Left-wing Die Linke fell below the 5% threshold required to get into parliament but survived because it secured three direct mandates.
Although the far-right AfD’s share of the vote appears to have slipped nationally, it’s set be the largest party in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia.
With social events back on the calendar, it’s a good time to review host and hostess gift etiquette. It’s best practice to provide a thank you gift when someone hosts you for dinner or an event to show your appreciation for their effort and consideration.
Here are some simple thank you gifts to show gratitude to your gracious host.
A Bouquet of Flowers
A bouquet of flowers is a traditional, affordable thank you gift that adequately conveys your gratitude for being invited to an event. Better yet, it’s the perfect last-minute gift if you’re grabbing something on the way. If you show up without a gift, you can always use a flower delivery service to deliver the bouquet with a gracious note the day after the event.
Shades of yellow, pink, coral, and peach are the best shades for thank you flowers as they symbolize friendship and gratitude. However, if you know your host well or perceive their floral preferences, something more customized will be greatly appreciated.
Cooking Oils
Culinary offerings are a trusted go-to for host gifts, especially for dinner parties and holidays. Gourmet cooking oils are a fabulous culinary gift that’s unique and flavorful. There are endless cooking oil blends online as well as many DIY elevated cooking oil options you can try at home.
If you’re looking for something to pair with your gift of cooking oils, consider a gourmet vinegar option and a loaf of fresh-baked French bread.
Delicious Cookies
Cookies and candies are another delicious option for a host or hostess gift. Be sure to let your host know whether they’re meant to be shared or enjoyed in private.
While Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite, you can elevate this gift by purchasing cookies from a gourmet bakery. Macarons are the latest trend in delectable host gifts and look beautiful when wrapped and presented.
Seasonal Candles
Candles are another simple yet elegant host gift that’s easy to procure as a last-minute option. If you attend many events, you can even stock up on some nice candles for those spontaneous dinner parties and gatherings.
If you have time to plan, choose a seasonal or personalized candle for a more meaningful approach. Homesick candles are a unique take on the candle-making business, with scents representing different parts of the world. For example, the Iowa candle smells like vanilla, bourbon, cream, and praline, while New York City smells like citrus, jasmine, bergamot, and concrete.
Handmade Soap and Lotion
As one tends to wash their hands frequently while making and preparing a meal, offering those hands some TLC makes for a great host or hostess gift. Offer your host some luxurious homemade soaps and hand lotion from a local maker. Opt for something with rejuvenating ingredients, like shea butter for moisture.
If you’re purchasing lotion, opt for something all-natural and free of artificial fragrances. Cheap commercial hand lotions tend to have additives that irritate sensitive skin.
Homemade Preserves
Finally, take a traditional, charming approach by giving the gift of homemade preserves: jams, jellies, pickles, honey, etc. Keep in mind that these don’t have to be made in your home; you can purchase them from a local farmers market.
Preserves are a nice edible offering that pairs well with a variety of dishes. Jellies and jams could be used for baked goods, toast, charcuterie boards, and marinades. Pickles also work well on a deli platter, charcuterie board, or with a traditional roast dinner.
Host gifts are meant to be subtle and discreet as a simple thank you for the invitation. These host and hostess gifts are simple but practical and elegant, and will convey your gratitude without detracting attention from the event.
In the modern world, many people resort to investing to ensure a comfortable future for themselves without worries about income. In difficult financial situations, an alternative solution may also be loans, such as those from Payday Depot.
Nevertheless, investments are salvation in case of unforeseen circumstances, as they give passive income. However, there is a huge number of ways to invest today. How can a novice find a suitable one? What can a specialist do to bring their income from investments to a new level? Read on to find out!
Top-5 Ways of Investment
The success of an investment portfolio depends on the degree of its diversification. That is why it is so important to balance your portfolio and correctly allocate assets to minimize risks. Here are some relatively safe investment options for you to consider.
High Yield Savings Accounts
This investment type gives an income approximately 20 times greater than a regular savings account. It is considered the safest since banks with such offers are protected by the FDIC. The risk of such investments is almost zero – you can lose only if the inflation percentage is higher than the percentage of the account rate.
Government Bond Funds
It is the most legal and the least risky investment option since it is under the total influence of internal state movements. GBFs provide the investors with more income than high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit, yet are subject to the risks of inflation and rate fluctuations.
Short-Term Corporate Bond Funds
In many cases, when it comes to private enterprises, we can talk about big money circulating there. A lot of companies issue securities, the income for which sometimes exceeds the benefits from those of state-owned companies. However, there is also a greater risk associated with the former. All the factors that threaten a company may affect the investors’ capital. Therefore, this option requires more experience, but if successful, it shall bring more income.
Dividend Funds
As practice shows, with dividend stocks, you can make both long-term and short-term profits. The income from dividends is associated with a somewhat greater risk since such investments require an understanding of the organizations’ activities and mission. Therefore, this investment method is suitable for more experienced investors.
Nasdaq-100 Index Funds
Investments in index funds provide access to the most technologically advanced companies globally. Therefore, with investments in this field, your portfolio is automatically diversified. Nasdaq-100 represents the top organizations that have proven themselves to be the most successful on the market. This is a great option for experienced investors who can analyze the market masterfully.
Start Diversifying Your Portfolio for High Returns
In this article, we have highlighted the main areas of secure investments suitable for both novice and experienced investors. The main success criteria of an investment portfolio is a high degree of diversification, so go ahead and start improving yours now!
