On Sunday, 3 May, Venezuelan security arrested dozens of people involved in a plot to abduct President Nicolás Maduro. The pre-dawn incursion included an attempted beach landing led by two former American special force members at the port city of La Guaira. Eight of the invaders were killed. Later that Sunday, Jordan Goudreau, a U.S. citizen and former Green Beret...
COVID-19: NOT AS DANGEROUS AS TOXIC AIR AND FATTY FOODS
As reported in the Trends Journal, compared to air pollution, COVID-19 paled as a killer in China, where the coronavirus first emerged. With slightly over 4,600 Chinese succumbing to the virus pandemic, it is important to note that more than 1.5 million Chinese die every year from environmental pollution, according to a worldwide study by 40 scientists published in 2017...
NOTES FROM THE FRONT LINES
Social distancing tech booms. Wearable devices that measure athletes’ performances are being tweaked and redeployed to factory floors to tell workers when they violate social distance norms. For example, when people wearing chip-based devices from Kinexon come within a certain distance of each other, the devices emit an audible alarm and record how long the proximity lasted. Yet, the devices...
WORLD’S LARGEST BREWER RECORDS DOUBLE-DIGIT APRIL DECLINE
Anheuser Busch Inbev, which makes one out of every four beers drunk in the world, reported a 32-percent global sales decline in April, compared with just a 9.3 drop in the year’s first quarter. The company warned that the second quarter’s results will be “materially worse” than the first’s, in which AB Inbev lost $2.25 billion. U.S. sales have bucked...
COAL USE FALLS MOST SINCE WORLD WAR II
Factories shuttered amid the worldwide economic lockdown have put global coal usage on track to fall to its lowest level in more than 70 years, with prices touching a four-year low. The plunge has been especially pronounced in Europe, where the U.K. recently went a record-breaking 24 days without using any coal at all. In April, the Netherlands took in...
INTERNET AD REVENUES CLIMB, CONFOUNDING EXPECTATIONS
Facebook and Google reported stronger-than-expected ad sales in this year’s first quarter. Analysts had expected sales to plummet as businesses closed or scaled back activity during the global economic paralysis. Three-quarters of advertisers and media buyers expected the media market to be worse than that of the Great Recession, according to a March survey by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, with...
RENEWABLE ENERGY ONLY FUEL FORECAST TO GROW THIS YEAR
Worldwide energy demand could shrink as much as 6 percent this year, according to the International Energy Agency, which cited a “staggering decline across all the fuels… except renewables,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. As demand for other fuel sources withered, renewable power’s market grew during 2020’s first quarter. The drop in energy use will drop global carbon...
AFRICA
The sudden absence of tourists has halted income for 8,000 workers who depend on visitors to Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, a home for the continent’s endangered species. The loss of tourists is coupled with national and local governments’ need to cut costs while dedicating resources to coping with the virus. As a result, many park rangers have lost their...
MIDDLE EAST
Oil Price Crash Stalls Saudi Reforms The plans of Saudi Arabia’s ruling prince to wean the country’s economy from oil and modernize some aspects of its society have been blocked by the unprecedented oil price crash this year. The country is a welfare state with almost half the population receiving a monthly stipend. Electricity, gasoline, and food are subsidized. Post-secondary...
ASIA
Turkey Gambles Interest Rate Cuts Against Currency Stability Turkey’s central bank has cut its key interest rate for the eighth time in less than a year. The 1-percentage point cut was twice as deep as analysts expected and puts the new rate at 8.75 percent. The cut supports president Recip Erdoğan’s strategy of using cheap money to defend the nation’s...