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GE is splitting into three companies

GE is splitting into three companies

GE will grow to be separate, publicly traded companies for its aviation, healthcare and energy organizations. The corporation reported it hopes to spin off the health care small business to shareholders in early 2023 and that the separation of its renewable electricity and electric power organization will arise in early 2024, Heal Me Healthy.

Shares of GE (GE) surged as much as 17{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} in premarket trading on the information ahead of retreating to about a 6{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} get in early investing immediately after the open up. The inventory was presently up extra than 25{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} in 2021 before the spin-off announcement.

“By creating three business-major, world wide community businesses, each can reward from greater target, tailored funds allocation, and strategic overall flexibility to travel lengthy-term advancement and price for prospects, investors and staff members,” explained CEO Larry Culp in a push release.

“We are placing our know-how know-how, leadership, and world arrive at to get the job done to much better serve our clients,” he included.

Since Culp took in excess of GE in 2018, he has offered off property and restructured the small business in get to cut charges and lower GE’s large personal debt pile. In 2016 it bought its appliance organization to Chinese family products company Haier for $5.4 billion. GE even shed the legendary light-weight bulb device in 2020.
Whilst those goods have been what designed GE very well recognised to the common purchaser around the globe, it was the firm’s mighty GE Funds unit that produced it a company powerhouse, offering financing for companies big and compact. In March of this calendar year it closed the textbooks on GE Money as a standalone unit with the sale of its plane leasing arm.

The organization expects 1-time expenditures involved with the split, like separation spend, of about $2 billion. Following the spinoffs, the aviation-concentrated business will keep the GE title. Culp expects to remain as CEO and chairman of that company, though he will also serve as non-executive chairman of the healthcare business. The new, smaller sized GE will retain a 19.9{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} stake in that company.

Collapse of a huge

Just one of the most storied brands in company historical past, GE has struggled since the 2008 economical disaster proved to be a human body blow to GE Cash, and immediately after the company built a disastrous bet on the fossil gasoline market when the world was turning towards renewable and cleaner energy methods. The organization has been advertising off belongings to very clear its great financial debt load. But it typically identified itself promoting these belongings for a fraction of what it experienced paid for them.
In December GE agreed to fork out $200 million to settle fees by the Securities and Exchange Fee that it experienced misled shareholders about the deterioration of its insurance coverage and electrical power firms in the a long time prior to its inventory selling price imploded.

Despite the fact that GE’s shares have have attained floor so far 12 months, they have essentially matched the improvement in the wide US stock current market as a result of Monday’s close. And the inventory is far down below the toughness it when experienced its glory days.

GE misled investors before its stock imploded, SEC says
At its top in early 2001, its inventory was worthy of much more than $500 billion, which built GE 1 of the most worthwhile firms on the world at that time. Now what is remaining of the enterprise is truly worth $119 billion, or only 23{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of that former value. Just a couple months in advance of Culp joined the corporation, GE was kicked out of the Dow. And in July it completed a reverse 1-for-8 stock break up to help its sagging cost.

By splitting into three companies it believes it will be in a position to optimize value with no a bygone conglomerate composition.

“Currently is a defining second for GE, and we are all set,” explained Culp. “The momentum we have designed places us in a posture of strength to get this remarkable subsequent move in GE’s transformation and realize the full possible of each individual of our companies.”

But in executing so, GE, what was at the time a person the most effective and powerful conglomerates in record, is officially waving goodbye to a huge behemoth that dominated energy, lights, aviation, tv, radio, audio, appliances, finance and wellbeing treatment.

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Today’s Business and Markets News: Live Updates

ImageRandal K. Quarles

Randal K. Quarles, a Federal Reserve governor who spent four years overseeing bank supervision, will step down from the Fed in December — opening an additional seat that will allow the Biden administration to reshape the central bank’s leadership.

Mr. Quarles’ role as vice chair for supervision expired in October, but his term as governor was set to last until early 2032. The Trump appointee was widely expected to stay on until his time as head of the Financial Stability Board, a global monitoring and standard-setting body, ended in December. It was an open question whether he would stay after that.

“I intend to resign my position as a governor of the Federal Reserve during or around the last week of December of this year,” Mr. Quarles wrote in a letter the Fed released on Monday.

The announcement that he will step down is likely to be greeted warmly by Democrats, many of whom have been critical of Mr. Quarles’s push to relax some post-crisis financial regulations. Many Democrats have been calling for the administration to nominate a diverse set of leaders to the central bank.

President Biden already has one open spot on the central bank’s seven-person Board of Governors to fill, and will have another when Richard H. Clarida, the Fed’s vice chair, sees his term as governor expire early next year. This will give the administration at least three open spots. Jerome H. Powell’s term as the Fed’s chair is also scheduled to expire early next year.

It is not clear when Mr. Biden will announce his central bank nominees, including whether he plans to reappoint Mr. Powell. He last week said that the decision would come “fairly quickly.”

Credit…Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With stocks on a tear in India, the parent company of Paytm, a leading digital payments app, went public on Monday with hopes of becoming the country’s largest initial public offering.

The company, One97 Communications, aims to raise about $2.5 billion in a three-day offer that ends on Wednesday. It has already drawn huge institutional investors like Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Texas teachers’ pension fund and the University of Cambridge, which have invested more than $1 billion.

Founded in 2010, Paytm started as a payments transfer business. It now allows users to send money to friends, buy small items like coffee or clothing, and finance big-ticket items like cars.

All but ubiquitous in India’s biggest cities, Paytm now commands more than 40 percent of India’s digital payments market. The company has yet to turn a profit, but it is benefiting from a surge of interest from foreign and Indian investors looking for a stake in India’s surging internet economy. The I.P.O. could value the company at $20 billion.

“Paytm is evolving into a marketplace in itself,” said Amit Khurana, an analyst with Dolat Capital in Mumbai.

“There is a lot of appetite to allocate money to this kind of model because it’s seen as the business of the future.”

Investors, in general, have been increasingly bullish on the Indian economy’s recovery from the devastating impacts of the pandemic and a series of lockdowns that slashed industrial activity and consumer spending sharply.

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has steadily cut interest rates, encouraging banks to lend more and consumers — particularly young, savvy online shoppers — to spend more.

“We are now in a sweet spot, where the bank recovery is coinciding with the demographic transition, which in turn is coinciding with the digital revolution,” said Madhavan Narayanan, an economist in India. “All these three are making the sun and the moon and the stars align for young India.”

With coronavirus infections in India low and foot traffic returning to brick-and-mortar stores, newly sanitation-sensitized shoppers may prefer to scan QR codes rather than handle cash.

The pandemic has helped a trend in India toward a cashless economy that began with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden demonetization in 2016. The policy, meant to tamp down on money laundering, involved banning the most widely circulated currency notes, wiping out families’ savings and shuttering businesses overnight. But five years later, it appears to have also created some winners, digital payments companies like Paytm among them.

Competition is heating up. Google offers Google Pay. India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, began a joint venture with Facebook last year to offer digital payments over WhatsApp, India’s most popular messaging service.

Paytm’s share offering is the latest in a series of oversubscribed I.P.O.s in recent months, among a bevy of so-called unicorns backed by e-commerce giants like China’s Alibaba and its financial affiliate, Ant.

Institutional and foreign investors also flocked to the initial public offering of India’s food delivery app, Zomato, in July, which was oversubscribed by 38 times the available shares.

In an August report, the Reserve Bank of India predicted that 2021 “could well turn out to be India’s year of the initial public offering.”

Paytm’s push to become India’s biggest initial public offering has overshadowed another sizable offering. The parent company of online beauty products retailer Nykaa was publicly listed on Monday, seeking a $7.4 billion valuation.

Sameer Yasir contributed reporting.

The United States reopened its borders for fully vaccinated travelers from dozens of countries on Monday, ending more than 18 months of restrictions on international travel that left families separated from loved ones and cost the global travel industry hundreds of billions of dollars in tourism revenue.

Under the new rules, fully vaccinated travelers will be allowed to enter the U.S. if they can show proof of vaccination and a negative coronavirus test taken within three calendar days of travel. Unvaccinated Americans and children under the age of 18 are exempt from the requirement, but must take a test within one day of travel.

The shift has come in time for the holiday season, when the beleaguered tourism industry is eagerly awaiting an influx in international visitors, especially in popular big-city destinations like New York, Los Angeles and Miami. The extended ban on travel from 33 countries — including European Union members, China, India and Iran — devastated the sector and resulted in losses of nearly $300 billion in visitor spending and more than one million American jobs, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

“It is a monumental day for travelers, for the communities and businesses that rely on international visitation, and for the U.S. economy overall,” said Roger Dow, the association’s president and chief executive officer.

At Miami International Airport, a major hub for travel to and from South and Central America, Natalia Vitorini, a 28-year-old student living in Miami, waited for her parents to get off the morning’s first arriving flight from São Paulo, Brazil, with her 3-week-old son.

Her mother, Debora Vitorini, and her husband, Sergio, arrived a little after 6 a.m. The last time they had seen each other was in March 2020. “I was waiting for the border to open so my mom can come to see my baby,” Natalia Vitorini said.

And thousands of Canadians — “snowbirds,” typically retirees — are already on their way to Florida, Arizona and California, among other warm destinations, with campers and boats in tow.

“We’re ready to enjoy what the United States has to offer,” said Wayne Peters of Kelowna, British Columbia, who is about to embark on a 1,520-mile journey south to Yuma, Ariz., with his wife for five months of hiking, golfing and playing pickle ball.

Delta Air Lines said that many of its international flights on Monday were fully booked. The carrier’s first flight into the United States under the looser restrictions, DL106, arrived from São Paulo, Brazil in Atlanta on Monday, just before 10 a.m. Eastern time. By the end of Monday, Delta expects to fly 139 mostly full planes from 38 countries into the U.S.

Hotels across the country, particularly those in cities, also felt the impact of the reopening announcement, with increased bookings and interest over the holiday season. Hyatt, the hotel group, said that approximately 50 percent of its bookings by international travelers to the U.S. for the week of Nov. 8 came after the date was announced in mid-October, with travelers flocking to top cities.

The chef Daniel Boulud, who owns several restaurants in New York City, said that customers from overseas had already started to call for reservations or to go on a waiting list.

He added that while his restaurants were already “quite busy,” buoyed by domestic tourism and a trickle of international visitors, “the faucet was not open for tourism yet.” International tourists, he said, will bring necessary foot traffic, in particular to his restaurants near the Theater District.

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British Airways and Virgin Atlantic celebrated the re-opening of the United States border for fully vaccinated international travelers, by taking off simultaneously from Heathrow Airport in London.CreditCredit…Alex Ingram for The New York Times

Many of the airplanes departing for the United States over the coming weeks will be full of travelers reuniting with family and friends after more than a year apart. Felicity Fowler, a retired homeopath from London, missed the birth of her grandson. He was born in New York in April; she hasn’t seen her daughter, his mother, since February 2020.

“It’s been emotional torture to be so far away from my girl at a time when she has needed me the most,” she said in an interview. “We need to make up for lost time.”

Credit…Annice Lyn/Getty Images

Shares of several drug makers in Asia fell sharply on Monday in response to Pfizer’s announcement that its antiviral drug was highly effective in treating Covid-19.

CanSino Biologics, the Chinese maker of a Covid-19 vaccine, dropped by 17 percent during trading in Hong Kong. Shanghai Fosun, which has marketing rights in greater China for the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, saw its Hong Kong shares drop by 7 percent before rebounding somewhat to end 2 percent lower.

WuXi Biologics of China, which is developing Covid vaccines and antibodies, fell by 9 percent in Hong Kong. And shares of Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi & Co., which is also developing a Covid treatment drug, dropped 6 percent in Tokyo.

Pfizer said Friday that when its new pill was given within three days of the start of Covid symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths were reduced by 89 percent. The company said it planned to submit the drug for Food and Drug Administration approval as soon as possible. A panel of experts had recommended not enrolling any more candidates in the trial because it had already shown such effectiveness, the company said.

Credit…Jan Haas/Picture-Alliance/DPA, via Associated Press

Deep Nishar, a former top investor at SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund, is joining General Catalyst, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm known for its successful bets on start-ups including Airbnb and Snap.

Mr. Nishar said last month that he would leave SoftBank by the end of 2021, ending a six-year stint at the Japanese tech conglomerate. He is the latest senior executive to leave the Vision Fund, which struggled after soured bets on WeWork and other companies; at least four others have left in the past two years.

SoftBank’s founder and chief executive, Masayoshi Son, hired Mr. Nishar to rebuild the firm’s presence in the United States after it was forced to scale back when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Mr. Nishar, who previously worked at Google and LinkedIn, made successful investments in companies such as Guardant Health, which uses big data to detect and treat cancer early. Shares of Guardant, which went public in 2018, now trade at more than five times their initial price.

In an interview, Mr. Nishar, 52, said he was proud of what he has helped build at the SoftBank fund. “Four years ago, no one believed you could build a $100 billion investment platform,” he said. Mr. Nishar and Mr. Son remain close, he added, saying the two men “continue to talk every day.”

At General Catalyst, which was founded in Massachusetts and has been building its Silicon Valley presence, Mr. Nishar will both invest in start-ups and help the firm build its own companies. In addition to Airbnb, General Catalyst was an early investor in Warby Parker and helped build the travel search engine Kayak. The firm was also one of the earliest investors in Stripe, the financial technology firm that raised private funding earlier this year at a $95 billion valuation. Stripe’s I.P.O. is widely expected to be among the largest in history.

Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst’s managing partner who is based in San Francisco, said he had tried to recruit Mr. Nishar in 2015, before Mr. Nishar joined SoftBank. Mr. Taneja said he wanted to bring Mr. Nishar on board to help the firm go after big, broad ideas that cut across fields, including those at the intersection of technology, health care and life sciences.

Over years of long walks around Silicon Valley, Mr. Taneja finally succeeded in wooing Mr. Nishar, who will start his new job in January.

Credit…Tristan Spinski for The New York Times

Last winter was warmer than average, which led to relatively low residential energy bills. Even if the coming winter is not severe, heating costs could rise to levels not seen a decade.

Several factors — lower global fuel inventories, incentives for producers to let prices rise and a mismatch between supply and demand as economies emerge from the pandemic — may combine to push bills higher, The New York Times’s Talmon Joseph Smith reports.

After plunging during the pandemic as the global economy slowed, energy prices have been climbing. Natural gas, used to heat almost half of U.S. households, has roughly doubled in price since this time last year. The price of crude oil — which strongly affects the 10 percent of households that rely on heating oil and propane during the winter — has soared by similarly eye-popping levels.

And those costs are being quickly passed through to consumers, who have become accustomed to cheaper energy prices in recent years and find themselves with growing concerns about inflation this year.

Credit…Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated Press

Monday

  • Facebook whistle-blower: Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager, will testify at a European Parliament hearing. In previous appearances before American and British lawmakers, Haugen called for stronger regulations for Facebook, which recently renamed itself Meta.

  • Roblox earnings: The popular online gaming platform, which went public in March, recently suffered an outage that lasted several days.

  • AMC earnings: The world’s largest movie theater chain could be the latest business to report rising fortunes as Americans return to prepandemic life. In a sign that movie theaters may be on the rebound, the sci-fi film “Dune” recently surpassed $300 million at the worldwide box office.

Tuesday

  • Rivian I.P.O. pricing: The electric truck maker backed by Amazon and Ford Motor is closer to pricing an initial public offering that could value it at more than $60 billion. If Rivian prices its I.P.O. on Tuesday, it would begin trading Wednesday.

Wednesday

  • Consumer Price Index: The Labor Department will release inflation data for October. Costs for everything from food to furniture have been climbing fast as strong demand and supply chain snarls have pushed prices higher.

  • Disney earnings: The Walt Disney Company, the world’s largest entertainment company, will report its fiscal full year and fourth quarter earnings after the market closes.

Thursday

  • Singles Day: The online shopping event created by the e-commerce giant Alibaba kicks off. China reported slower economic growth last month, though retail sales have been a bright spot.

Friday

  • Warby Parker earnings: The direct-to-consumer eyewear company will announce earnings for its third quarter, the company’s first report since it went public in September.

The Biden administration last week set Jan. 4 as the deadline for companies with 100 or more employees to mandate Covid vaccinations or enact weekly testing of workers. The mandate, in the works for some time, quickly faced legal challenges, and on Saturday, a federal appeals panel temporarily blocked the measure.

The court, in a two-page order, directed the Biden administration to respond by 5 p.m. Monday to a request for a permanent injunction.

The administration is “prepared to defend” the rules, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said on Sunday. “The president and the administration wouldn’t have put these requirements in place if they didn’t think that they were appropriate and necessary,” Dr. Murthy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Dr. Murthy pointed to the nation’s history as precedent: George Washington required troops to be inoculated against smallpox in 1777. The mandate would allow for medical or religious exemptions, and companies that fail to comply may be fined.

One coalition of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and several states filed a petition on Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana, arguing that the administration overstepped its authority.

On Saturday, a panel of the court temporarily blocked the new mandate, writing “the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate.”

The stay does not have immediate impact, as the first major deadline in the rule is Dec. 5, when companies with at least 100 employees must require unvaccinated employees to wear masks indoors.

Credit…Sarah Rice for The New York Times

In Indianapolis, eviction courts are packed as judges make their way through a monthslong backlog of cases. In Detroit, advocates are rushing to knock on the doors of tenants facing possible eviction. In Gainesville, Fla., landlords are filing evictions at a rapid pace as displaced tenants resort to relatives’ couches for places to sleep or seek cheaper rents outside the city.

It is not the sudden surge of evictions that tenants and advocates feared after the Supreme Court ruled in August that President Biden’s extension of the eviction moratorium was unconstitutional.

Instead, what’s emerging is a more gradual eviction crisis that is increasingly hitting communities across the country, especially those where the distribution of federal rental assistance has been slow, and where tenants have few protections.

While the number of eviction filings remained at nearly half of prepandemic averages during the first two weeks of October, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, in the 31 cities and six states it tracks, the filings are also increasing.

In the first two weeks of September, just after the moratorium ended, eviction filings increased by 10 percent from the first two weeks of August. In the first two weeks of October, evictions increased by nearly 14 percent from the first two weeks of the previous month.

“In places that don’t have protections, these numbers are increasing pretty quickly,” said Peter Hepburn, a researcher at the Eviction Lab. “And we don’t know where the ceiling is.”

Gene Sperling, the economist overseeing the Biden administration’s pandemic relief programs, credited the $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance set aside by Congress last winter with mitigating the problem. More than two million payments have been made — nearly a million in August and September alone.

Some jurisdictions have used part of the money to introduce programs that provide alternatives to eviction or legal assistance for tenants. Just over 37 percent of all renters in the country live in places that still have local eviction bans or are postponing eviction judgments pending rental assistance, according to the Urban Institute.

But elsewhere, limited renter protections and limits in the distribution of rental assistance are spurring the increase in evictions.

“No one should be sleeping well at night when there are still way too many painful, avoidable evictions,” said Mr. Sperling.

The true extent of the crisis facing tenants is understated by the available numbers on eviction, housing advocates and experts say. “The eviction avalanche is absolutely here across the country,” said Katie Goldstein, a housing justice campaign director with the Center for Popular Democracy.

  • SoftBank on Monday reported a net loss of $3.5 billion in the last quarter, reflecting the impact of China’s regulatory crackdown on its investments. The Japanese tech conglomerate recorded a $10 billion hit to its Vision Fund caused by declines in the share prices of its portfolio companies.

  • Elon Musk polled his Twitter followers over the weekend about whether he should sell 10 percent of his stake in Tesla, his electric car company, with a majority voting “yes.” Mr. Musk may have already been compelled to sell a sizable portion of his Tesla shares: He holds nearly 23 million stock options awarded in 2012 that have since vested and will expire in August. And it’s likely that much of his 2012 options don’t qualify for a preferential tax treatment. Tesla shares were down about 4 percent in premarket trading on Monday.

  • Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate run by Warren Buffett, on Saturday reported a sharp decrease in earnings in the third quarter, reflecting the turmoil in financial markets and the broader slowdown in U.S. economic growth. Profits fell by two-thirds to $10 billion, down from $30 billion in the same three months of 2020, when the economy was still in the process of reopening from pandemic shutdowns.

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Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 508 new cases, three more deaths; expands eligibility for booster shots; U.S. COP26 delegate tests positive

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

5:45 p.m.: In a gathering with more than 20,000 people from nearly every country in the world, one of the biggest major international summits since the pandemic began, a COVID-19 outbreak was always going to be a danger. So far, organizers have not revealed the number of positive COVID-19 …

GLASGOW, Scotland — In a gathering with more than 20,000 people from nearly every country in the world, one of the biggest major international summits since the pandemic began, a COVID-19 outbreak was always going to be a danger.

So far, organizers have not revealed the number of positive COVID-19 test results. But on Saturday, the State Department confirmed that a member of the U.S. delegation had tested positive. Earlier, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles tested positive days after arriving in Scotland.

The State Department statement Saturday declined to identify the person but said the official had been fully vaccinated and was quarantining. The statement also said John Kerry, the U.S. presidential envoy for climate change who is leading the negotiations at the summit, had received several negative COVID-19 results, including daily lateral flow tests and a PCR test, since the delegate tested positive.

Asked this week about the number of positive tests at the conference, Alok Sharma, the British president of the talks, said the numbers were lower than in the rest of Scotland. “At this point, we’re comfortable where we are,” he said.

5:23 p.m.: Winter is coming, COVID-19 is accelerating at an alarming pace in Colorado and the state’s 43 rural hospitals continue to struggle through debilitating staff shortages.

Employees have left small-town health care facilities complaining of burnout, and now that vaccine mandates are in place, some have quit over being forced to receive the shot.

In one rural hospital, a pharmacist and a business office employee died of COVID-19 within a week of one another, leaving co-workers at Holyoke’s Melissa Memorial Hospital grief stricken and overworked as those positions remain unfilled.

“They died very tragically,” said MMH CEO Cathy Harshbarger. “Both required a lot of support and medical care. We had to ship them out to other hospitals for care. We’re stretched to the max.”

Holyoke, about three hours northeast of Denver, has a population of 2,200 people.

MMH has run a help wanted ad in the Holyoke Enterprise for 10 openings including a dietary cook, a paramedic and an EMT. The hospital has a separate ad for an executive director to lead its hospital foundation.

“More and more my employees are asking, ‘Why am I in health care?’ ” said Harshbarger.

5:20 p.m.: A month ago the coronavirus seemed headed for a long winter’s nap in masked and well-vaccinated California. Gov. Gavin Newsom boasted that the Golden State “continues to lead the nation” as the only state to reach the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s yellow “moderate” tier of community virus transmission.

But COVID-19 cases aren’t falling in California anymore. They have climbed back up to the CDC’s blood-red “high” level of virus transmission as the highly contagious delta variant continues to wreak havoc.

Meanwhile, the virus has gone quiet in Deep South states that abandoned mask orders, opposed vaccine mandates, posted lower vaccination rates and saw larger outbreaks over the summer. California’s case rate is now well above Texas’ and double Florida’s, which along with the rest of the Gulf Coast are down to the CDC’s orange “substantial” transmission level.

“There are early indications that the decline in the delta surge at the national level in the U.S. has ended,” said Ali H. Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, which runs a widely followed model projecting the course of the pandemic. Currently, 19 states have increasing transmission, including several like California “that had previously appeared to have been declining.”

And while much of the Golden State’s current coronavirus woes are driven by virus spread in the less-vaccinated and restricted inland counties, the Bay Area hasn’t been immune. Most Bay Area counties that hoped to reach the yellow moderate level by now remain stubbornly stuck in orange. Marin and Santa Cruz counties, which had reached the yellow level, are back up to orange. San Francisco is the only county in yellow.

4:20 p.m.: A federal appeals panel in Louisiana has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s new safety regulations directing businesses with more than 100 workers to require their employees to get vaccinations against the coronavirus by early January.

The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted a temporary stay to a group of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and several Republican-led states that had filed a joint petition in court, arguing the administration had overstepped its authority.

Numerous Republican-led states have filed legal challenges against the new rule, among them Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah.

4:04 p.m.: A Rhode Island man who federal prosecutors said used stolen identities to obtain more than $450,000 in pandemic-related unemployment assistance was arrested in Michigan, authorities said.

Dquintz Alexander, 34, of Cranston, Rhode Island, was indicted and charged in federal court in Boston on five counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

As the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy in March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which among other things created a temporary federal unemployment insurance program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. The program granted unemployment insurance benefits to people who lost their jobs or were unable to work because of the coronavirus.

The pandemic unemployment program, which is administered by each state, lowered the barriers to collecting benefits, and the usual security methods intended to prevent fraud were not able to keep up with security breaches. Last year in California, an underground internet bazaar that specialized in selling stolen accounts and data had for-sale ads for filched unemployment insurance claims in the state that had been approved and offered benefits worth $17,550.

2:31 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting 50 new cases of COVID-19 and 51 recoveries.

The active confirmed case count now sits at 476 across the province.

Health officials say 13 people are currently in hospital, with eight in intensive care.

Twenty-two of the new cases were identified in the Moncton region.

Sixty per cent of the new cases are in people who are unvaccinated against the disease.

Officials also say nearly 86 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 92.8 per cent have received their first dose of a vaccine.

1:30 p.m.: Quebec is reporting 688 new cases of COVID-19 today and four deaths attributed to the virus.

Health officials say COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by 11 to 229, while the number of people in intensive care declined by six to 51.

The seven-day average for new cases stands at 561.

Of the latest reported infections, 409 were among people who were either unvaccinated or who had only received a first dose within the past two weeks.

Quebec says another 6,869 vaccine doses have been administered, most of which were given in the past 24 hours.

The province’s public health institute says about 91 per cent of Quebecers aged 12 and older have received at least one dose, while 87 per cent are considered fully vaccinated with two shots.

12 p.m.: Ukraine’s health ministry on Saturday reported a one-day record of 793 deaths from COVID-19.

Ukraine has been inundated by coronavirus infections in recent weeks, putting the country’s underfunded medical system under severe strain.

The ministry said 25,063 new infections had been tallied over the past day; a record 27,377 were reported on Thursday.

Although four different coronavirus vaccines are available in Ukraine, only 17.9 per cent of the country’s 41 million people have been fully vaccinated, the second-lowest rate in Europe after Armenia.

11:25 a.m.: Nearly two years of being caged in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic has some snowbirds anxiously waiting in their motorhomes and trailers in southern Alberta.

The Eight Flags Campground in the small windswept town of Milk River, 18 kilometres from the Canada-United States border crossing at Coutts, is full of shiny, large RVs.

It’s in anticipation of land and sea border crossings reopening Monday for fully vaccinated Canadians. Such crossings were closed to non-essential travel at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

10:45 a.m.: An Independent member of Ontario’s legislature has apologized for a post in which he used names and photos of people who had died to suggest without evidence that they had died due to COVID-19 vaccination.

Randy Hillier, who represents Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, has frequently posted COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories throughout the pandemic.

In one recent social media post, he used an array of photos from news articles about what he believed to be the sudden and unexplained deaths of young people and called on police to investigate links to vaccines.

Family members of some of those people told various media outlets that they were angered by Hillier’s post and denied his allegations, while the legislature unanimously passed a motion last month condemning him.

Hillier shared an apology Friday night saying he has removed that post and offering sincere regrets for further distress his actions caused the grieving families.

Public Health Ontario says all deaths following vaccination that are reported to public health units are thoroughly investigated, and it has so far determined in one case that vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia was a cause of death in someone who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

There are seven other reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination that meet the provincial surveillance definition. In four, the adverse events were found to have possibly contributed to the death but were not the underlying cause, and in the remaining three the vaccine was not a cause of death.

Public Health Ontario says another 30 deaths following COVID-19 vaccination that have been reported to public health units are “persons under investigation.” They don’t meet the provincial surveillance definition, but investigations are underway.

“Preliminary information suggests that these events occurred in individuals with multiple co-morbidities which may be related to the cause of death,” a recent Public Health Ontario report said. “There has been no association with the vaccine identified at this time.”

Health officials say the approved vaccines are effective and safe.

10:20 a.m. (updated): Ontario is reporting 508 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths in the province in its latest daily count.

In Ontario, 203 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 — 151 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 52 are fully vaccinated.

The province also says due to data cleanup, three deaths were removed from the overall count.

10 a.m.: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will miss Sunday’s game at Kansas City after being placed in the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol. Because he is considered unvaccinated, he must stay isolated for at least 10 days.

Here’s an explanation of the NFL’s protocols and a breakdown of Rodgers’ case.

9:20 a.m.: I live in a world where Mike McCarthy kept his job as my boss for 13 years. I don’t trust authority.

If Aaron Rodgers had just said that, maybe the rest would have been an easier ride. But then again, he may be the greatest quarterback in the biggest pro sports league of a country where at least 775,000 people have died during the pandemic, and Friday he spent 45 minutes pumping out the kind of misinformation that can get people killed. You know what that means? Rodgers could be president, one day.

All grim, tight-faced jokes aside, the Green Bay Packers great has had himself a week. Rodgers contracted COVID, it turned out he wasn’t vaccinated, and Friday he went on former punter and current shouty bro Pat McAfee’s Sirius XM show and delivered almost every anti-vaccine talking point you can imagine.

Read the column from the Star’s Bruce Arthur.

8:40 a.m. Unvaccinated people in Austria who also haven’t had COVID-19 will no longer be allowed to enter restaurants, hotels and hair salons or attend public events larger than 25 people under new rules that take effect Monday, the government said.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg outlined the rules Friday night after a meeting with state-level leaders to discuss the country’s response to rapidly rising coronavirus cases.

“It is simply our responsibility to protect the people in our country,” Schallenberg told reporters, noting the case numbers and increasingly full hospital intensive care units.

7:30 a.m.: You can almost forget about the ongoing collective nightmare of the pandemic when you’re sipping a mojito in the pink twilight on the edge of the undulating Atlantic, and a long arc of surf foams over the distant reef, and a soft breeze rustles the palm fronds and laps against your sun-tender skin.

But you can’t.

For despite having to navigate a whole bureaucracy of attestations and electronic paperwork to embark abroad these days, there’s no guarantee the people around you are COVID-free. You hope everyone is vaccinated. But you can’t be sure. And even then, it’s still possible to get infected.

Yet after almost two years living with the coronavirus, we are experiencing a cautious re-emergence. And the door is open to vacation again.

Travel is back, but is pandemic tourism fun? Read the story by the Star’s Alex Ballingall.

7:15 a.m. Russia’s COVID-19 cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections that has persisted for more than a month.

The national coronavirus task force on Saturday reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day, exceeding the previous daily record of 40,993 from Oct. 31. The task force said 1,188 people with COVID-19 died, just seven fewer than the daily death record reported Thursday.

Officials cite Russia’s low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September. The task force reported about 57.2 million full-course vaccinations, or less than 40{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the country’s 146 million people.

7 a.m. Several groups of high-risk Ontarians will be eligible to book COVID-19 booster shots starting this morning at 8 a.m.

An additional 2.75 million people become eligible for boosters today, following the quarter of a million people already eligible who include certain immunocompromised individuals and residents of long-term care and retirement homes.

Starting today, people can book an appointment for a booster dose if they are aged 70 and older, health-care workers or essential caregivers in congregate settings, people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of Janssen, and First Nations, Inuit and Metis adults and their non-Indigenous household members.

They can make appointments that are at least six months after their second dose. Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says evidence suggests that’s when immunity starts to wane.

Dr. Kieran Moore says those groups of people are at an increased risk of waning immunity and greater risk of exposure and serious illness.

Ontario officials say the protection from two doses is still very high for the general population after six months, especially against severe illness and death, so a booster dose would provide additional protection against more mild illness.

The province is planning to eventually offer booster doses to everyone, and is eyeing early 2022 to start the broader rollout.

6:45 a.m.: The United States is steadily chipping away at vaccine hesitancy and driving down COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to the point that schools, governments and corporations are lifting mask restrictions yet again.

Nearly 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated and the nation’s over-65 population, which bore the brunt of the pandemic when it started nearly two years ago, is enthusiastically embracing vaccines.

Nearly 98{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the over-65 population has received at least one COVID-19 shot and more than 25{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of them have gotten boosters, just weeks after they were authorized. The improving metrics could get a boost from President Joe Biden’s workplace mandate unveiled Thursday and the launch of COVID-19 shots in elementary-age students.

6:30 a.m. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Friday he sought alternative treatments instead of the NFL-endorsed COVID-19 vaccinations because he is allergic to an ingredient in two of the FDA-approved shots.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s “Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers said: “I’m not an anti-vax, flat-earther. I have an allergy to an ingredient that’s in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long-term immunization protocol to protect myself and I’m very proud of the research that went into that.”

Rodgers, who turns 38 on Dec. 2, did not say what ingredient he was allergic to, or how he knows he is allergic.

Rodgers, who has been tested daily as part of NFL protocols for the unvaccinated, found out he contracted COVID-19 on Wednesday. The reigning NFL MVP said he didn’t feel well on Thursday but was much better on Friday.

6 a.m. Monday’s reopening of the Canada-U.S. land border is sparking a mixed reaction among Canadian business leaders: They’re excited that people and not just goods will be crossing the border again but are wary of remaining red tape.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada say the Canadian requirement for returning travellers to provide a recent, negative molecular test is an unnecessary obstacle to kick-starting business travel and tourism.

They say proof of vaccination is all that should be needed and the test requirement should be scrapped.

They argue that the continued testing requirement is too cumbersome for Canadian business travellers wanting a quick visit to an American destination, and too expensive for families who want a vacation or reunion with loved ones.

“If we believe, as we should, that being fully vaccinated is the best way of minimizing risk, we should be trusting the vaccination systems. We should be monitoring what’s taking place in terms of outbreaks in the two countries,” chamber president Perrin Beatty said in an interview.

5:45 a.m. As Ontario slowly creeps toward the goal of having 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated against COVID-19, new data shows vaccine rates are stubbornly lagging in some neighbourhoods and among groups of people across the province.

The latest numbers from non-profit research group ICES, formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, out Friday, show there are still stark differences hiding behind the overall vaccination rate.

“There is a huge range, with some areas hovering around 50 per cent of the population fully vaccinated and some areas as high as 90 per cent,” said Dr. Jeff Kwong, lead of the Populations and Public Health Research Program at ICES.

“The risk of outbreaks in these areas with low vaccination coverage is worrisome. It means there is a lot of fuel for a fire to burn.”

Read the full story from the Star’s Megan Ogilvie and May Warren here.

5:30 a.m. Eleven patients died Saturday after a fire broke out in a hospital’s COVID-19 ward in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said.

An official told New Delhi Television that around 17 patients were in the ward when the fire broke out. The remaining patients have been moved to a COVID-19 ward in another hospital, district collector Rajendra Bhosle said.

While the fire has since been brought under control, the cause was not immediately clear, he added, saying officials will carry out an investigation.

The former chief minister of the state, Devendra Fadnavis, took to Twitter to express his condolences and called for “strict action” against those responsible.

Such incidents are not uncommon in India. In May, when the country was battling a devastating surge in coronavirus cases, a fire in a COVID-19 ward in western India killed at least 18 patients.

Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment often cause deaths in India.

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From fashion editors to influencers: what today’s fashion journalists need to know

Like most industries, the smartphone has disrupted the style environment and editorial shoots that employed to be observed solely on the webpages of a shiny journal are now far too on our personalised screens. Irrespective of whether we’re scrolling by way of social media or next a manner influencer’s YouTube channel, we are consuming manner media in an solely distinctive way.

We’ve moved from the major display screen to the modest and today’s trend journalist needs to know how to showcase the most recent season’s kinds by an Instagram Tale. So says Nande Sulelo, head of STADIO School of fashion’s media section that delivers the pretty most up-to-date in ‘fashion media’ coaching by means of its Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Style with specialisation in Manner Media.

“Today’s style journalist is no longer pigeon-holed into operating for a magazine or brand they have a huge array of options accessible to them, many thanks to the explosion of digital media. This could imply representing a brand’s label on-line by becoming their social media manager, or even starting up their own trend platform, therefore turning into an influencer on their own who curates their personal stories,” says Sulelo.

“So even nevertheless our media might have altered, the entire world of trend remains as relevant now as it did at the height of the magazine era and is still a very remarkable job alternative.”

It could be explained that vogue is the purest sense of relevance and amongst the most adaptable industries it is the epitome of remaining present and captures the moment’s Zeitgeist. Fashion is news, it is constantly switching and is an embodiment of our occasions.

From the 1800s, when trend was reserved for the decide on handful of, to existing working day when we are now carrying tech – it is never ever static. Fashion journalists need to as a result evolve and consistently reinvent on their own to make it in the quickly-paced and energised fashion media globe, thinks Sulelo.

It is crucial then to select an establishment that will finest posture the vogue journalists-to-be for the realistic globe of work.

“A author who can just take a sterling photograph can hold the audience of a website whilst a trend reporter who can implement make-up and edit visual information will usually have a long record of makes waiting around to collaborate. In truth, collaboration is at the coronary heart of every thing that the style journalist does. It necessitates distinct skillsets and is why our degrees prepare pupils to be vogue reporters, stylists, photographers, filmmakers, trend marketers and makeup artists all in 1 curriculum,” claims Sulelo.

Collaboration between college students was most recently found through STADIO’s partnership with the Open Home windows Institute. Teaming up its make-up and style style students with the latter’s photographers and established designers, they manufactured outstanding items of trend art that had been just lately showcased at the STADIO Faculty of Fashion’s Open Working day held on the 16th of Oct at the Randburg campus.

“Working with other individuals is a main ingredient of being a style journalist and is element of the Manner Media degree teaching. This specialisation encourages collaborative tactics so that college students can build their own models, suggests Sulelo.

“They need to have to know how to integrate with new groups of individuals, from stylists to photographers, and generate magic jointly. In the actual world of operate, regardless of whether you are an influencer oneself or a brand supervisor, you will be performing with new sets of people today all the time and enabling collaborations – not to mention making a financial institution of contacts – is as a result a crucial element of our Manner Media curriculum.”

Want to go on this conversation on The Media On-line platforms? Remark on Twitter @MediaTMO or on our Fb page. Send us your tips, opinions, contributions or tip-offs via e-mail to glenda.nevill@cybersmart.co.za.

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Today’s coronavirus news: Dutch join Belgians in restoring restrictions amid surging cases; Ontario reporting 331 new cases; international flights to return to regional airports

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

4:11 p.m.: Brazil’s seven-day total for deaths from COVID-19 has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, according to online research website Our World in Data.

In the seven days through Nov. 1 the nation recorded 2,188 deaths — a level unseen since April 2020 — amid increasingly widespread vaccination.

After a sluggish start, Latin America’s largest nation has now fully vaccinated more than half its population. That share is even higher in some large cities, such as Sao Paulo, where virtually 100 per cent of the adult population has had at least one shot and more than 90 per cent are fully vaccinated.

That has put the nation’s number of virus deaths on a downward trend for four months. The nation’s current daily toll is just one-tenth the gruesome peak witnessed in April 2021; that surge triggered the formation of a Senate committee to investigate the government’s handling of the pandemic.

After six months of hearings, the committee last week recommended President Jair Bolsonaro and dozens of others face criminal charges. Its nearly 1,300-page report drew attention to his government’s delayed response to pharmaceutical companies’ offers to sell millions of vaccines, as well as Bolsonaro’s insistent touting of dubious, unproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine.

Brazil has recorded about 609,000 deaths, the world’s second-highest total after that of the U.S.

4:05 p.m.: The Saskatchewan government says the province’s fourth wave is waning as COVID-19 cases decline, but health officials say hospitals are still under significant pressure.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, says it will take four to six weeks to see hospitals return to sustainable levels — and that’s only if people remain vigilant by getting vaccinated and reducing their gathering sizes. The province is reporting 107 new cases, down from the peak of 650 cases reported five weeks ago.

According to the province’s website, active cases are down 121 on Tuesday to 1,829,the lowest since late August. Hospitalizations, which have reduced somewhat in recent weeks, are unchanged at 222.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority says it’s too early to tell if the drop in cases numbers is a trend.

Shahab says there are rural areas in the province where 30 to 40 per cent of the population remains unvaccinated, which is enough to drive more substantive waves.

3:30 p.m.: Faced with sharply rising coronavirus cases, the caretaker prime minister of the Netherlands said Tuesday that the Dutch government is reinstituting an order to wear face masks in public places like stores and libraries and mandating an extension for the use of COVID-19 passes.

COVID-19 cases have increased rapidly in the Netherlands for weeks. The country’s public health institute reported Tuesday that confirmed infections rose 39 per cent compared to the week before and hospital admissions were up 31 per cent. The upward trend began soon after the government ended most remaining lockdown restrictions in late September.

“It won’t surprise anybody that we again have a tough message this evening,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a nationally televised press conference. He urged people to socially distance, work from home at least half the time, and to avoid travel to busy places and during the morning and evening rush hours.

As part of the new restrictions, students will have to wear face masks at school when they walk between classes. The new mask rules and requirements for COVID passes to be shown at more public locations, including museums and theme parks, are set to come into force on Saturday.

Earlier Tuesday, the Dutch health council advised the government to begin giving vaccine booster shots to everyone age 60 and older and to nursing home residents. The health council said it was seeing indications that COVID-19 protection was waning among older people.

Just under 80 per cent of adults in the Netherlands are fully vaccinated. A week ago, neighbouring Belgium also ratcheted up its COVID-19 restrictions amid a spike in infections.

3:27 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting 40 new cases of COVID-19 today and one more death attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health officials say a person in their 80s in the Campbellton region is the 118th resident to die of the disease since the start of the pandemic. They say more than 85 per cent of people 12 and up are fully vaccinated and 92.7 per cent have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Chief medical officer Dr. Jennifer Russell said today in a statement that vaccination and so-called circuit-breaker measures are reducing transmission and allowing recoveries to outpace the number of new daily cases. Officials are reporting 75 more recoveries today, adding that New Brunswick has 470 active cases.

New Brunswick’s government says a strike involving public servants is reducing testing capacity and as a result, certain people such as long-term care residents and people who need a test for travel are being prioritized.

2:50 p.m. A Calgary pastor and his brother are appealing sanctions they received for violating Alberta’s COVID-19 rules.

Justice Adam Germain issued the sanctions for civil contempt last month for Pastor Artur Pawlowski and his brother Dawid Pawlowski, which included stiff fines, periods of probation and paying Alberta Health Services costs.

The two men, as part of their probation, were also ordered to include in any public speeches that criticize COVID-19 measures a reference to the fact their views are contradicted by the majority of scientific opinion.

In their appeal, the two argue that the punishments are unreasonable, excessive and violate their Charter rights by forcing them to give opinions which are not their own.

They have already filed appeals of their convictions for civil contempt.

Artur Pawlowski was fined $23,000 and Dawid Pawlowski $10,000 plus an additional $20,000 in costs to Alberta Health Services for holding church services that flouted rules on masking and physical distancing.

2:05 p.m. An Alberta member of the legislature says she is outraged after COVID-19 protesters came to her house on the weekend and hung up a noose.

Tracy Allard calls the threats and intimidation inexcusable and says her private life and her family are out of bounds to protesters.

Allard made the comments on her Facebook page where she described what happened at her home in Grande Prairie, Alberta on Sunday.

She says it began with a small group of protesters that soon grew to 30, prompting police to be called.

Allard says the protesters left behind a crude wooden gallows, with a noose, and the words “No to masks. End the gov’t. Hang ‘em all.”

Last summer, then-health minister Tyler Shandro and his family were publicly harassed at a Canada Day event by protesters upset by COVID-19 public health restrictions.

2 p.m. Dancing and karaoke will again be allowed in Quebec bars after the province Tuesday announced an end to several health measures introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The requirement for high school students to wear masks in the classroom and a recommendation for employers to favour remote working are among the other restrictions that will be lifted as of Nov. 15.

Health Minister Christian Dubé says a high vaccination rate among Quebecers aged 12 to 17 — 86 per cent are fully vaccinated — means masks won’t be obligatory in class but will still be required in hallways and on school transit.

1:45 p.m. The ghost light that has illuminated the stage of the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto for the last year and a half will finally be turned off and put away as the theatre reopens, Mirvish Productions announced Tuesday.

Performances of the hit musical “Come From Away” will begin again in December.

The announcement comes after Ontario lifted some pandemic health measures on Oct. 25, allowing for most indoor settings that require proof of vaccination to operate at full capacity.

Performances of the successful musical ran for three years before the shows were abruptly halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

1:30 p.m. International air traffic will be returning to more regional airports soon, after flights were restricted for most of the year as part of the government’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a news conference Tuesday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said airports at eight mid-sized cities can reopen their runways to planes from across the border as of Nov. 30.

The airports range from Victoria to St. John’s, N.L. The other six are in Waterloo and Hamilton in Ontario, Abbotsford and Kelowna in British Columbia, as well as Saskatoon and Regina.

“I’m pleased that increased vaccination levels have allowed us to safely reopen these additional Canadian airports to international passenger flights,” Alghabra said on the tarmac at Waterloo International Airport.

“This move will help ensure travellers are able to access more regional airports for their international travels this winter, while continuing to support our government’s measured approach to reopening our borders.”

1 p.m. Nova Scotia is reporting 11 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. Officials have identified five cases in the Halifax area, four in the province’s eastern zone and two in the northern zone.

With 16 recoveries, there are a total of 161 active infections in the province. Officials say eight people are currently in hospital in the province with coronavirus. According to provincial data, 83.3 per cent of the province’s population has received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 78.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Since Aug. 1, officials say there have been 1,528 positive COVID-19 cases and seven deaths.

12:45 p.m. Pfizer Inc. (PFE) posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings Tuesday, and boosted its full-year profit forecast while lifting its vaccine sales estimate to around $36 billion (U.S.).

Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in September were pegged at $1.34 per share, an 86 per cent increase from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $1.09. Group revenues, Pfizer said, nearly doubled from last year to $24.1 billion, again topping analysts’ estimates of an $22.71 billion tally. Around $13 billion of the topline came from vaccine sales, Pfizer said.

Looking into the final months of the year Pfizer said its sees adjusted earnings in the region of $4.13 to $4.18 per share, up from its prior forecast of $3.95 to $4.05 per share, on improved revenues of between $81 billion and $82 billion.

12:27 p.m. (updated) Low COVID-19 transmission, high testing capacity and a declining number of new cases in Prince Edward Island are allowing the province to ease restrictions, chief medical officer Dr. Heather Morrison said Tuesday.

Effective immediately, private gatherings are limited to 50 people, up from 20, Morrison told reporters. The government is also dropping restrictions around capacity and distancing for organized events that require proof of vaccination, she added.

“The downward trend of cases in Canada and the Atlantic region is encouraging,” Morrison said. “The easing of some measures is a positive sign that we are able to move in the right direction.

“We are moving toward the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The province’s proof-of-vaccination application for smartphones is expected to launch in the coming days, Morrison said.

Prince Edward Island has four active reported cases of COVID-19 and has reported a total of 319 infections since the onset of the pandemic.

11:50 a.m. Quebec is reporting 490 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and six more deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

Health officials say hospitalizations rose by six, to 250, after 22 people entered hospital and 16 were discharged.

The number of people in intensive care rose by four, to 71.

Health workers administered an additional 10,759 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 10,063 in the previous 24 hours.

The province’s public health institute says about 90.6 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received at least one vaccine dose and 87.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Quebec has 4,497 active reported cases of COVID-19.

11:15 a.m. Unvaccinated teenagers have been more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than unvaccinated adults in Los Angeles County, officials said.

The trend illustrates how a group less likely to have been vaccinated in the nation’s most populous county is playing an outsize role in continuing transmission of the Delta variant.

“The highest case rates have been among unvaccinated teens, who were eight times more likely than vaccinated teens to test positive for COVID and are important drivers of transmission across our communities,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a recent briefing.

Previously, health officials had noted that it was younger adults who were most likely to contract the coronavirus.

11 a.m. Pop-up and community clinics are open for walk-ins for both first or second doses, as well as appointments.

In an effort to boost vaccine rates and increase access to vaccines, York Region Public Health is hosting a series of walk-in, pop-up and community vaccination clinics.

Clinics are offering Pfizer for those 12-years (born in 2009) and older and Moderna to those 25-years and older.

10:41 a.m. Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann will return to the bench against Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday after missing four games with the coronavirus.

Bayern said Nagelsmann took charge of a training session on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he had to step aside hours before the team’s last Champions League game. Bayern initially cited a “flu-like infection” and said a day later that Nagelsmann tested positive for the coronavirus.

10:19 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 331 COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths, according to its latest report released Tuesday morning.

Ontario has administered 13,774 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,535,918 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,504,396 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 88.3 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 77.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

9:35 a.m. A “mystifying” COVID-19 outbreak among fully vaccinated adult rec hockey players in York Region has led to calls for a full investigation.

The virus spread like wildfire among players in adult leagues earlier this month — with 15 confirmed cases and one 75-year-old’s death — and has raised a spiderweb of concerns about indoor sport safety, vaccine verification and dangers that might be lurking in the air, especially in hockey rinks and older facilities.

“It’s certainly eyebrow raising — not at all what one would expect,’ said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. “It’s mystifying and really worth investigating: genotypes, ring testing, vaccination verification, full contact tracing … We want to find the smoking gun.”

Furness said the outbreak is “disquieting” for a number of reasons.

“Is this an early warning for a new variant? That’s unlikely … but you want to know. Is this a change in the epidemiology of COVID? Do we have a big blind spot? What’s going on?”

8:32 a.m. Romania reported a record daily number of 591 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday amid a persistently low vaccination rate and a wave of coronavirus infections that has overwhelmed the country’s ailing health care system.

Only 37 per cent of adults in Romania, a European Union member with around 19 million people, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to an EU average of 75 per cent. Within the 27-nation EU, only Bulgaria has a smaller share of its population vaccinated.

Romanian authorities said Tuesday that 541 of the 591 people who had died of COVID-19 since the day before were unvaccinated.

The unfolding disaster prompted authorities to impose tighter restrictions starting last week. Vaccination certificates are required for many day-to-day activities, such as going to the gym, the cinema or a shopping mall. For everyone, there is a 10 p.m. curfew.

8:15 a.m. Nearly two dozen Hamilton businesses were charged for alleged COVID-19 violations last week, despite no change in the city’s level of enforcement.

During the city’s COVID-19 update Monday, Emergency Operations Centre director Jason Thorne said bylaw officers have been conducting the “same level” of pandemic-related enforcement over the past few weeks. That includes both reactive and proactive enforcement.

Thorne noted that bylaw has shifted their focus from education to enforcement, as current COVID rules and regulations “have been in place for some time,” and both patrons and businesses “should be well aware of them.”

Twenty-two businesses were charged last week, according to the city’s online enforcement list, which is updated weekly.

7:25 a.m. Air Canada reported a loss of $640 million in its latest quarter as its operating revenue nearly tripled compared with a year ago as the airline ramped up capacity.

The airline says the loss amounted to $1.79 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of $685 million or $2.31 per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $2.10 billion, up from $757 million in the same quarter last year.

Air Canada increased its capacity in the quarter as measured by available seat miles by 87 per cent compared with the third quarter of 2020, however it was still down 66 per cent when compared with the third quarter of 2019.

6:40 a.m.: Mayor John Tory tweeted early Tuesday morning that 84 per cent of eligible Torontonians have now received two doses of the vaccine.

“I want to thank everyone who has stepped up to get vaccinated and all involved in the #TeamToronto effort that has administered more than 4.9 million doses of the vaccine so far,” Tory wrote in his tweet.

6:15 a.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said Monday that the state of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is a “mixed bag” entering the holiday season and that Americans should get their vaccine booster shots as soon as they are eligible.

More than 64 million U.S. adults are not vaccinated, and the Biden administration is preparing for significant resistance from parents as vaccines become available to children ages 5 to 11 this week.

“It’s a mixed bag,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told McClatchy in an interview. “I feel good that the cases, the hospitalizations and the deaths are coming down. I’m still concerned that we have 64 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not been vaccinated.

“So it’s a mixed feeling in reaction to where things are,” he added. “It’s good news that we’re continuing to come down. It’s a bit frustrating when we have so many people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not.”

Those who are vaccinated can plan to celebrate the holidays with a greater sense of normalcy, he said.

6:11 a.m.: According to the Peel board, 519 full-time teachers took a sick leave for three months or longer in the last school year, almost double the number of teachers who were on sick leave before the pandemic. And it’s not just Peel: at York Region District School Board, 711 teachers were on sick leave for three months or longer in the 2020-21 school year — an increase from 372 from 2018-19, before the pandemic.

At the Toronto District School Board, 808 elementary school teachers took a sick leave for three months or longer in the last school year — up from 388 in 2019-2020. GTA schools spent the majority of the second half of last school year learning online due to province-wide lockdowns amid rising COVID-19 cases. A similar increase in sick leaves, however, was not observed among secondary teachers at the TDSB.

It’s difficult to ascertain how many of those teachers went on sick leave for mental-health-related reasons, boards and teachers unions said, because the paperwork for long-term disability leave does not clearly distinguish between mental and physical ailments. But teachers continue to be absent at higher rates than before, both at the elementary and secondary level, and many of them due to stress.

Read the full story from the Star’s Nadine Yousif here.

6:10 a.m.: Hawaii remains among the most restrictive states for COVID-19 mandates, despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.

Various state and county rules have changed often, leaving some businesses, travellers and residents confused and frustrated.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said earlier this year that all restrictions would end once 70{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the population was fully vaccinated. But a surge of delta variant cases filled hospitals and extended rules to guard against COVID-19.

Now, case counts have dropped and about 83{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of eligible Hawaii residents are fully vaccinated. But many rules remain in place.

6:10 a.m.: Unvaccinated teenagers have been more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than unvaccinated adults in Los Angeles County, officials said.

The trend illustrates how a group less likely to have been vaccinated in the nation’s most populous county is playing an outsize role in continuing transmission of the highly contagious delta variant.

“The highest case rates have been among unvaccinated teens, who were eight times more likely than vaccinated teens to test positive for COVID and are important drivers of transmission across our communities,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a recent briefing.

Previously, health officials had noted that it was younger adults who were most likely to contract the coronavirus.

Not coincidentally, it’s young L.A. County residents who are least likely to be vaccinated. While 80{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of L.A. County residents eligible for vaccination have received at least one shot, only 70{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of 12- to 15-year-olds have done so, as have 76{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of those age 16 to 17. By comparison, 98{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of residents age 65 to 79 have received at least one shot.

6:07 a.m.: Elections Canada was curious to know how many Canadians believed in conspiracy theories in the lead up to the recent federal vote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had two years left in his minority mandate in August when he plunged the country into an election while a fourth wave of COVID-19 raged.

Protesters opposed to public health measures like masking and mandatory vaccinations staged demonstrations, some of them following Trudeau as he crisscrossed the country, hurling obscenities at him and, at one point, even gravel.

Months before triggering the vote, the federal agency in charge of running elections commissioned its first stand-alone survey into the level of trust Canadians had in the electoral process. That included finding out how many held a “conspiracy mindset.”

“Questions about conspiracies allow for a better understanding of what can trigger distrust toward electoral administration,” Elections Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier said in a statement, adding the “COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant social and economic changes, including in the realm of election administration.”

“Looking at mistrust in general also helps us better understand what sorts of information and communication approaches can be effective in instilling trust in elections.”

Conducted by the firm Leger over 10 days in April, the poll surveyed 2,500 Canadians online and through computer assisted interviewing technology.

It found a majority of respondents trusted Elections Canada and believed the voting system was “safe and reliable.”

When it came to conspiracy beliefs, the study, recently posted to a government website, reported 17 per cent believed the government was trying to cover up the link between vaccines and autism, and 30 per cent thought new drugs or technologies were being tested on people without their knowledge.

The research also found 40 per cent of respondents subscribed to thinking that certain big events have been the product of a “small group who secretly manipulate world events.”

6 a.m. Authorities in Beijing halted classes at 18 schools in one district after a teacher was infected with Covid-19, days before a key Communist Party meeting in the city.

6 a.m. Bulgaria reported record daily COVID-19 deaths. Infections in Thailand declined to a four-month low and new cases fell in Australia’s two most-populous states as both nations ease international border restrictions.

6 a.m. Japan plans to let business travellers and students enter the country but isn’t loosening curbs for tourists, Nikkei reported.

6 a.m.: Singapore expects 2,000 coronavirus deaths each year, even after achieving one of the world’s highest vaccination rates.

7:24 p.m. Monday: Close to 300 employees of WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, have been suspended for failing to meet the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy and may face termination if they do not comply.

The airline said Monday that “less than four per cent” of its 7,300 active employees, representing about 290 people, are being placed on a one-month unpaid leave of absence for not being fully vaccinated. The company warned that those who do not comply with its vaccination mandate “may face termination of employment.”

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Logility Partners with FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Preparing Students to Take on Today’s Supply Chain Challenges

ATLANTA–(Enterprise WIRE)–Logility, Inc., a leader in offer chain innovation powering the sustainable and resilient enterprise, is expanding its partnership with the Fashion Institute of Design and style & Merchandising (FIDM) to give college students an within look into merchandise lifecycle management (PLM) and source chain execution.

Applying the Logility® Digital Offer Chain System, which leverages synthetic intelligence (AI), equipment learning (ML) and automation to consistently feeling, analyze and update activity in the digital provide chain, FIDM learners get palms-on practical experience learning how to develop products assortments, produce tech packs, resource elements, examine various costing possibilities, and much more. Logility a short while ago added on to the encounter, enabling college students to dive more, mastering how to resource vendors, issue invest in orders and even keep track of get the job done-in-course of action and inbound shipments. With Logility’s help, extra than 400 FIDM learners will graduate every yr with true world provide chain knowledge, giving them a leg-up on the level of competition when making use of for employment.

“Beyond creative eyesight and structure skill, our students should completely comprehend the business enterprise side of manner and how a products is designed conclude-to-end in purchase to produce a profitable job for them selves,” claimed Barbara Bundy, Vice President of Instruction at FIDM. “Giving pupils accessibility to Logility’s Electronic Source Chain Platform and genuine-entire world instruction is a experienced gamechanger.”

FIDM and Logility’s partnership commenced in 2017 and has considering the fact that expanded to include extra technology applications. Logility has gifted FIDM with 500 software package licenses for learners. Mark Burstein, Logility EVP & Sector Principal, worked with FIDM professors to detect use-situations and produce curriculum.

“The style source chain has always been sophisticated and at instances risky, incorporate COVID-19 to the blend, and pre-existing troubles have been made exponentially extra tricky,” said Burstein. “That’s why it is so significant for learners to get exposure to these problems early on and create their source chain understanding. We are honored to function alongside FIDM and assist the up coming technology of manner and merchandising professionals study to learn new know-how and unearth capabilities they will use in the course of their careers.”

For extra information about the Logility® Electronic Offer Chain Platform, stop by www.logility.com.

About FIDM

FIDM (Vogue Institute of Style & Merchandising) is an internationally acknowledged, accredited college or university with more than 70,000 graduates. A non-public establishment for specialized specialist education and learning, FIDM offers Affiliate of Arts, A.A. Qualified Designation, A.A. Highly developed Examine, Bachelor’s, and Master’s Degree applications created to enhance a variety of instructional backgrounds. The college or university is headquartered in downtown Los Angeles.

In a modern Forbes story, FIDM was on the list of greatest schools shaping the potential of vogue.

Graduates are employed by this sort of corporations as GUESS, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co., Walt Disney Enterprise and World-wide Brands Team.

Well known alumni of the college or university include: Trend designers Monique Lhuillier and Nick Verreos, Senior Director, Provide Chain & Sourcing Technique, Calvin Klein/PVH Corp., Archana Kalro, Operator/Designer of Karen Kane, Inc., Karen Kane, Co- President and CMO for Savage X Fenty, Natalie Guzman, Vice President of Layout for Goal Shops, Melanie Owen, Oscar-nominated costume designer for Mank, Trish Summerville, Costume Designer for films this sort of as Clueless, Mona May, Founder & CEO of BeautyBlender, Rea Ann Silva, CEO of John Paul Mitchell Programs, Michaeline DeJoria, and Digital Influencer/Founder, Chriselle, Inc. and Bümo, Chriselle Lim.

FIDM has filmed thoroughly with the television display, “Project Runway” and other reveals include things like: “Project Runway: Under the Gunn”, “Design School” on HGTV, and MTV’s “The Hills,” starring FIDM pupil, Lauren Conrad.

About Logility

Accelerating the digital sustainable offer chain, Logility aids providers seize new options, sense and reply to shifting market dynamics and a lot more profitably take care of their elaborate world-wide organizations. The Logility® Digital Source Chain System leverages an progressive blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art analytics to automate arranging, accelerate cycle moments, increase precision, boost functioning efficiency, split down organization silos and deliver increased visibility. Logility’s SaaS-based platform transforms product sales and functions preparing (S&OP) and integrated business arranging (IBP) procedures need, inventory and replenishment planning global sourcing high quality and compliance management products existence cycle management offer and inventory optimization production planning and scheduling retail products preparing, assortment and allocation. Logility buyers include Significant Loads, Husqvarna Team, Parker Hannifin, Sonoco Solutions and Crimson Wing Shoe Corporation. Logility is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software program, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMSWA). To understand how Logility can aid you make smarter selections a lot quicker, go to www.logility.com.

Forward-On the lookout Statements

This press launch is made up of ahead-looking statements that are topic to considerable dangers and uncertainties. There are a range of variables that could bring about genuine effects or overall performance to differ materially from what is anticipated by statements designed herein. These elements include things like, but are not constrained to, continuing U.S. and world wide economic uncertainty and the timing and diploma of small business restoration the irregular sample of the Company’s revenues dependence on distinct industry segments or prospects competitive pressures market place acceptance of the Company’s products and solutions and companies technological complexity undetected software package glitches opportunity solution liability or warranty claims hazards affiliated with new solution improvement the difficulties and risks connected with integration of acquired item strains, businesses and solutions uncertainty about the viability and efficiency of strategic alliances American Program, Inc.’s capacity to satisfy in a well timed manner all Securities and Exchange Fee (SEC) demanded filings and the prerequisites of Segment 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the policies and polices adopted under that Portion as nicely as a quantity of other threat components that could impact the Company’s foreseeable future overall performance. For more information about risks the Organization and American Program could knowledge as effectively as other information and facts, you should refer to American Computer software, Inc.’s present Form 10-K and other experiences and documents subsequently submitted with the SEC. For extra data, speak to: Kevin Liu, American Software package, Inc., (626) 657-0013 or e mail kliu@amsoftware.com.

Logility® is a registered trademark of Logility, Inc. Other products described in this document are registered, trademarked or provider marked by their respective owners.