easy | Common News Update

Feb152021 by adminNo Comments

Bill Gates: Solving Covid easy compared with climate

Science

Fifty-one billion and zero - the two numbers Bill Gates says you need to know about climate.Solving climate change would be "the most amazing thing humanity has ever done", says the billionaire founder of Microsoft.By comparison, ending the pandemic is "very, very easy", he claims.Mr Gates's new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, is a guide to tackling global warming.Don't underestimate the scale of the challenge, he told me when we spoke last week. "We've never made a transition like we're talking about doing in the next 30 years. There is no precedent for this."Fifty-one billion is how many tonnes of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere each year.Net zero is where we need to get to. This means cutting emissions to a level where any remaining greenhouse gas rele...

Nov32020 by adminNo Comments

Trump admits losing would not be ‘easy’ as final votes cast in US election

World

Donald Trump has admitted losing the US presidency would not be "easy", as voters head to the polls in the final hours of a historic election.The Republican incumbent said he had not yet thought about a concession or victory speech, as he addressed party workers at their headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Meanwhile, Democrat challenger Joe Biden headed back to his home state of Pennsylvania in a last-ditch bid to win over enough people to turn the state blue and reap its 20 electoral college votes. Image: Joe Biden went back to his childhood home He was bullish about the prospect of success, writing a note on the living room wall of the home he grew up in Scranton: "From this house to the White House with the grace of God."Americans...

Sep32020 by adminNo Comments

It sure feels like the easy money has been made from the rally, PNC’s Amanda Agati says

Finance

PNC Financial's Amanda Agati is positioning for a challenging fall.Agati, the firm's chief investment strategist, questions whether the market can move meaningfully higher with uncertainty relating to the presidential election, the coronavirus' path and effectiveness of vaccine trials churning in the background."I don't know if I want to say — or go as far to say — that the easy money has been made. But it sure feels like that from where valuations are sitting in the neighborhood of 23 times forward P/E [price to earnings] on the S&P 500," she said on CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday.The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Wednesday, marking its 22nd record close of the year. It's now up more than 55% since the March 23 low."Many of the technical indicators relative...

Aug72020 by adminNo Comments

Some foreign workers were sent stimulus checks in error. Fixing the mistake won’t be easy

Finance

Cabania | iStock | Getty Images PlusWhen the U.S. government sent out urgent stimulus checks this spring, some people who had already died received money.Now it seems another ineligible group may be getting checks: foreign workers.Reports surfaced this week that a number of those recipients are now living in their home countries. Just how big the problem could be is unknown.To date, an estimated 160 million stimulus checks have been sent, according to the Treasury Department.More from Personal Finance:How negotiations over second $ 1,200 stimulus checks could shape upWhy you might not see cash from a payroll tax cutWhy IPOs like Rocket Companies can be a tricky play for investors"They were learning while doing," Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, sai...

Jul42020 by adminNo Comments

Coronavirus: Testing sewage an ‘easy win’

Science

A sewage-based coronavirus test could be an "easy win" that would pick up infection spikes up to 10 days earlier than with existing medical-based tests.Scientists led by UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are working on a standardised test to "count" the amount of coronavirus in a wastewater sample."The earlier you find [a signal], the earlier an intervention can happen," says lead researcher Dr Andrew Singer. "That means lives will be made much more liveable in the current crisis."Mapping infection through the sewers A network of scientists from universities including Newcastle, Bangor and Edinburgh have already teamed up with local water companies to collect samples of untreated sewage from treatment plants; the first stage ...