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Monday, November 29, 2021
A new variant of coronavirus has popped up - omicron. It was first identified in South Africa and initially appeared to have milder symptoms than other strains of the virus, based on observations of a small group of patients. Scientists don't know yet if it can infect people who have already recovered from a previous infection or people who have been vaccinated, though the UK claims it has caused breakthrough infections in vaccinated people. What is unique about this latest variant is the number of mutations it has - it has the most mutations out of those seen so far. Black Friday shoppers were up almost 50% from last year, when the pandemic caused many to stay at home. But that's still down around 20% from the year before that, which means many people are still buying online. A drawback from this is the high rate of returns, significantly higher on online purchases than in brick-and-mortar stores. The seemingly "free" returns are far from free, costing retailers a large portion of the original cost of the product, only to have many of them end up in landfill. Companies are working to reduce this through online tools, but in the meantime, liquidators are picking up some of the slack, buying returns from shipping companies, and sending them off to discount stores.
Thursday, December 2, 2021
Inflation is still on the rise, and the Federal Reserve now believes that it is not going away anytime soon. New variants of COVID-19 are popping up, threatening to exacerbate the already strained supply chain and hiking up prices. Many people have seen the price of fresh produce go up - but the farmers say that their profits aren't going up. In fact, they're going down. The middle men who transfer all of the food are seeing higher costs because of a shortage of truck drivers and ships, so they are transferring the cost to farmers and consumers. White rhinos were on the brink of extinction. While the northern species is still down to just two female members, southern white rhinos have been restored to thousands, largely thanks to the work of a nature reserve in their native habitat of South Africa. But they are still constantly under the threat of illegal poachers there, who shoot them for their horns. A few dozen of them were recently transferred to a safer park in Rwanda, where the national park hosting them also hopes to draw more tourists with the new animals.
Friday, December 3, 2021
Tensions are ramping up in the European country of Ukraine. It borders both Russia and several NATO countries, and the country is heavily divided over the two opposing sides. Some Ukrainians want to join Russia; others want to join the EU. The latest argument is over Russian troop movements on Ukraine's western border. NATO officials say that the magnitude of the force is sufficient to invade Ukraine and that Russian propaganda is displaying similar tactics as those seen just before the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in 2014. Russia for its part claims that it is simply trying to protect itself against NATO advances, and the US says that it is prepared to levy new sanctions against the Communist nation if it does not back down. The 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to kick off in Beijing in just a few months, and there is already controversy over it. The first is COVID-19; while China claims its strict safety measures are effective at preventing the disease, the Omicron variant is causing new concern around the world. The second is the increasing allegations of human rights abuses against the Communist regime. Events like the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai have raised new concerns and several countries are considering diplomatic boycotts of the winter games. In Major League Baseball, a lockout has occurred for the first time since 1994. That means players can't use team facilities until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. The old one just expired, and the Players' Union and owners have failed to reach a new agreement, both sides accusing the other of failing to compromise. If a new deal is not reached, the lockout could have an impact on the 2022 season, which begins spring training in February of next year.
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