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Didi's core ride hailing business is profitable, says president

Roughly 60% to 70% of Didi Chuxing's business has bounced back from the coronavirus crisis in China, says Jean Liu, president of the mobile app-based transportation firm.




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Plans to reopen US economy must 'talk about worker safety,' says AFL-CIO president

"If they don't feel safe, they're not going to go back to work,"AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka told CNBC.




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Here is how Dow, S&P do in the six months ahead of a presidential election

As the coronavirus dominates the news, it's easy to forget that a presidential election is six months away. Since 1990, here is how stocks have done in election run-up periods.




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Here's the 'big unknown' the Fed will have to square as it considers future rate cuts: Top economist

A look at global rates and recession risks with Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. With CNBC's Seema Mody and the Futures Now traders, Brian Stutland and Jim Iuorio, both at the CME.




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ECB has responded well to German court ruling, former ECB vice president says

Vitor Constancio, former vice president of the ECB, discusses the German constitutional court's ruling on the European Central Bank's bond-buying program.




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Didi is 'even more confident' about entering global markets now, says president

Didi Chuxing is now "even more confident and more committed" to the idea of entering global markets in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, says Jean Liu, president of the mobile app-based transportation firm.




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Humanitarian spaces for refugees may shrink amid virus crisis: ICRC president

We are "worried" that humanitarian spaces for refugees may shrink if coronavirus infections within refugee camps rise, says Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He says he also expects ICRC's funding to become "very problematic" with donor countries increasing spending on their own economies.




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Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary tests positive for coronavirus

Katie Miller, the Pence press secretary, also handled communications for the coronavirus task force. The news came a day after the revelation that a personal valet for President Trump tested positive.




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How the 2020 presidential candidates' Q4 fundraising numbers shape up

CNBC's Eamon Javers and political reporter Brian Schwartz join the "Power Lunch" team to break down the latest presidential campaign fundraising numbers.




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UFC President Dana White on coronavirus impact on sports

UFC President Dana White joins "Closing Bell" to talk about the latest developments in the business.




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UFC President Dana White says sports can resume but will 'lose a lot of money'

Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White said Tuesday he believes many sports leagues could resume competition but it would come at a price.




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Richmond Fed President: Negative rates not worth a try here

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss how soon the U.S. could reopen the economy and the recent unemployment data.




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Watch CNBC's full interview with Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, joins "Squawk Alley" to discuss the company's earnings and outlook for the business.




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Wife of Zimbabwe vice-president accused of trying to kill him

Marry Chiwenga accused of disconnecting Constantino Chiwenga’s life support machine

The wife of Zimbabwe’s vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga, has been accused of attempting to kill him by disconnecting his life support while he was undergoing treatment in hospital this year.

Marry Chiwenga, née Mubaiwa, was arrested at the weekend and appeared at Harare’s magistrates court on Monday where she was remanded in custody.

Continue reading...




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Zimbabwe's president appeals for help to end country's 'financial isolation'

Emmerson Mnangagwa makes passionate plea for support as he targets upper middle-income status by 2030

The president of Zimbabwe has appealed for help in pulling his debt-ridden country out of “financial isolation”.

Emmerson Mnangagwa made his passionate call for international funding after he failed to secure new loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, African Development Bank and the Paris Club due to outstanding foreign debts of $8bn (£6.2bn).

Related: Zimbabwe urged to prioritise children as record poverty causes food shortages

Continue reading...




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Colleges consider a tuition freeze amid pandemic

A growing number of schools are freezing tuition in hopes of attracting more students and families now struggling with the weight of a college tab.




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Ex-French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing accused of sexual harassment

German journalist alleges VGE repeatedly touched her bottom during interview

The former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has been accused of sexual harassment in a legal complaint lodged by a German journalist.

Ann-Kathrin Stracke claims VGE, as he is known, repeatedly touched her bottom during an interview at his office on Boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, at the end of 2018. She lodged a complaint on 10 March with the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

Continue reading...




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Live Nation president Joe Berchtold on outlook amid the pandemic

Joe Berchtold, president of Live Nation, joins "Squawk Alley" to discuss the company's outlook amid the coronavirus shutdown.




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Haiti FA president accused of sexually abusing young female players

  • Claims of abuse by Yves Jean-Bart at national centre
  • Jean-Bart denies all allegations made against him

The president of the Haitian football federation has been accused of sexually abusing young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.

Yves Jean-Bart, known as “Dadou”, the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football (FHF) since 2000, denies accusations that he coerced several players at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets into having sex. The alleged incidents are understood to have taken place within the last five years.

Continue reading...




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'I might have died if they hadn't rescued me': life inside the new hotels for the homeless

Coronavirus prompted an emergency operation to house rough sleepers in Travelodges and Holiday Inns. In many ways it has been a success – but what happens next?

To begin with, Clare Sutcliffe found the shift from sleeping in a doorway in Soho to a king-size bed in a central-London hotel very disorientating. After 15 months sleeping rough, she found it hard to relax and really believe she was in a safe space.

“The first couple of nights, I couldn’t sleep with the light off,” she says. “This might sound mad, but I was a bit scared. It was different; when you’re used to sleeping out in the open outside and then all of a sudden you’re in a bed, in a room, with a door that shuts.” When she arrived at the hotel five weeks ago, she was a skeletal six-and-a-half stone; since then, with three meals delivered to her room every day, her health has begun to improve.

Continue reading...




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The Arctic Circle: Inside the Antigua

You might be wondering what it was like to live inside a ship for two weeks as we explored western Spitsbergen. For a sense of our day-to-day inside lives, here are some pictures from inside the Antigua. Please keep in mind that it was HARD to take these particular shots, because all the spaces are small and strangely-shaped, no space on a ship is designed for easy photographing, and also, the ship is never, ever still. It's tricky to take in-focus pictures when the floor is moving!

See the door in the middle of this picture, with the circular window? Let's step inside.


First thing you encounter is the Very Narrow Corridor With Too Many Boots. In the picture below, it is way more tidy than normal. We didn't wear our outside shoes inside the Antigua, so every time you stepped in or out, you did the awkward and time-consuming boot-transition thing.


To the right are teeny bathrooms and the door to the engine room; to the left is the entrance to the kitchen, shown below. I didn't want to go in there and take pictures, because people were working hard in there, making our delicious meals. So I took this weird snap from the doorway.


Now let's walk straight ahead. To the left is the stairway down to our living quarters, but we're going straight on into what was the heart of the ship for me -- the lounge.


This is where we ate our meals and had social time. (The ship was fully heated inside.) Some people tried to work here sometimes, but in reality there was no practical work space for artists on the ship. We made do.

The lounge had a left table, a right table, and a higher, back table. The booth seats are so comfy, and were the scenes of many naps :o). Especially when the ship was moving so much that it was hard to keep upright.


The lounge includes this teeny, beautiful bar, with a service window into the kitchen.


The pole below is in fact one of the masts...


but we knew it as our notice board :o).


This is Janine climbing into a hole in the floor of the lounge, under some of the seats, to retrieve some of the food. Everything under your feet in a ship is a storage space, an outlet to the water system, or something!


Our food was delicious, warm, and plentiful at every single meal. Good thing, because we were spending hours outside every day -- sometimes 8-10 hours -- in below-freezing temperatures, so we were burning a lot of calories and needed a LOT of fuel. Here's some birthday cake.


Our chef, Piet, was a genius, and the kitchen staff beyond wonderful. No meal was ever repeated. We ate stews, pastas, foods of many cuisines, delectable desserts. Sometimes our guides would tell us to eat a good dinner, but not too much, because it would likely be rough later, and I would stuff myself full anyway, because it was too delicious not to :o).

Here are the beautiful people who kept us so well fed.


And now, ready to go downstairs?

The stairs were really narrow, and in a moving ship, you quickly learned to cling to the banister.


Welcome to our corridor, which I always found to be a little redrum, if you know what I mean.


Sometimes you'd arrive in the corridor and the rug would be up, the floor open and a man sticking out. I think there were water pipes down there or something. I'm sorry I don't have a picture!

My cabin, which I shared with my lovely roommate Dawn Jackson, was HUGE. Others had bunk beds in a veritable closet. We lucked out.

We kept it very tidy, as you can see. My bed is on the left.


In our defense re: the clutter, we were on the run practically every moment of every day (more about that in a later post). We did what we could :o).

In the picture, below, the head is behind the wall with the blue coat. I didn't take a picture of it. It was a tiny room with a toilet and shower.


Dawn could peek out through her porthole from her bed :o).


The picture below was from a day when we were full sailing (no engine, just sails) and the water was sloshing all the way up to our portholes. This was NOT an easy picture to take -- the floor was moving so much and it was hard not to fall over! I tried to wait until we were in the very trough of a wave, then snap the picture in that instant of lull, before the ship jumped up again.


So, that's pretty much our living space inside the ship. There are other interior spaces in the Antigua -- like the wheelhouse, for example, shown here from the outside...


But that was the space of the crew, staff, and guides, in addition to the ship's most important passenger, Nemo...


So I didn't take pictures in there. But I'll be telling you more about our crew and guides, and more about life on and off the Antigua...


very soon!





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IT WAS MUCH NICER WITH IT OUTSIDE




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CBDT gives clarification on residential status of individuals stuck in India due to COVID-19 outbreak

Clarification in respect of residency under section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) contains provisions relating to residency of a person. The status of an individual as to whether he is resident in India ...




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Poland postpones May 10 presidential election over Covid-19 fears

Poland's governing parties said on Wednesday they had agreed to postpone the country's May 10 presidential election after a failed attempt to hold it via a postal vote due to the coronavirus pandemic.




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Polish MPs permit postal ballot in delayed presidential election

Poland's parliament on Thursday passed legislation paving the way for a presidential election delayed by the coronavirus pandemic to go ahead via a postal ballot, a move the opposition said jeopardised democracy.




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Nazi defeat that ended WWII is a 'day of gratitude', President Steinmeier says

Germans feel "gratitude" for the Nazi defeat that ended World War II in Europe 75 years ago, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a landmark commemoration speech on Friday.




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Covid-19 in Madagascar: The president’s controversial ‘miracle cure’

Last month, the president of Madagascar and the country’s Institute for Applied Research launched Covid-Organics (CVO), a drink derived from the artemisia plant they claim can treat and prevent Covid-19. Now other countries in the region are beginning to import the herbal remedy, despite a lack of scientific research to back up its billing as a miracle cure for the coronavirus.  




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Republic of Congo's President Sassou-Nguesso: 'We've noticed a rise in the Covid-19 epidemic'

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 and RFI, the president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, discussed the Covid-19 pandemic in his country, as well as a controversial treatment developed in Madagascar that the Republic of Congo plans to use. He also talked about the economic consequences of the health crisis and asked for up to "$500 million" in aid from the IMF. Finally, he ruled out the release of two jailed political opponents, Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa, on health and humanitarian grounds.




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I Lost My Faith In President Mountain

Growing up, I was indoctrinated to believe that many of the Founding Fathers of America were real people that walked the earth, not just fairytales. But now as I've grown up, I'm starting to doubt it all.





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Taiwan’s vice president says 'possibility' that Covid-19 came from Chinese laboratory

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Taiwan's Vice President Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist by training, discussed his country's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, while criticising the response of China and the World Health Organization. Chen refused to rule out the "possibility" that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. He also expressed concern about a second wave of the virus appearing in autumn or winter.




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French ex-president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing faces sexual assault allegations

A German journalist has accused former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing of repeatedly grabbing her during an interview, and filed a sexual assault complaint with Paris prosecutors, according to French and German news reports.




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Look on the Bright Side










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please consider

Today on Toothpaste For Dinner: please consider


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Fireside Press Cancels Multiple Contracts

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

Last week, the SFWA Contracts Committee issued this advisory.
SFWA Contracts Committee Advisory on No-advance Contracts

Recently, SFWA's Contracts Committee was made aware of a situation in which a well-liked publisher canceled the publication of a number of books it had contracted to publish. The publisher said the decision was made because of "unexpected changes" at the company. The Committee has reviewed the contract in use, which lacked a provision for such a cancellation. The Committee believes that canceling a contracted book that satisfies the author’s obligations is at odds with the spirit of the contract. Making this situation worse is the fact that these were no-advance contracts. Because no advance was paid, the publisher could make this decision without financial penalties. The authors' books, were, in effect, put in limbo for many months and the authors received nothing but an apology. Besides depriving the authors of the ability to sell the books elsewhere during this delay and putting off any income from the books into the indefinite future, the authors careers suffer as a result.

Publishers of all sizes may find themselves unable to live up to their contractual commitments for a wide variety of reasons, some of which could not have been reasonably anticipated. Hence, the Contracts Committee urges writers to think carefully about signing a contract that provides no advance, or only a nominal advance, while tying up their work for a lengthy period of time. Critically, payment of an advance gives an indication the publisher actually has the financial resources to meet its obligations. Publishers who do not pay advances or pay only nominal advances should include language in their contracts specifying how they can cancel a book and what happens if they should cancel a book, including a specified amount of compensation to the author.

SFWA Contracts Committee
October 25, 2019

Legal Disclaimer: The contract alert should not be understood to be legal advice. The issues presented by contract law are complex. Authors should consult a competent attorney familiar with the business of publishing as well as contract law before signing any contract.
The publisher in question is Fireside Press.

The cancellations were first reported on October 8 by Jason Sanford in his Genre Grapevine column, and discussed on October 9 in Mike Glyer's File 770. Fireside publisher Pablo Defendini issued a statement on October 8, in which he revealed that the five canceled contracts were for manuscripts that were "unpublished and unannounced", and attributed the cancellations to disruptions caused by editorial departures.

Author Meg Elison, one of the canceled authors, did not find this to be a sufficient explanation...and she was livid.



A few days later, Defendini issued an apology. "I can see now how [the cancellation emails] read as callous, uncaring, and dismissive of the authors’ feelings," he wrote. "I’m very sorry for that....My behavior was not consistent with Fireside’s values, and I deeply regret it."

Beyond the Contracts Committee's general warning about no-advance contracts (and if you're part of the small press world, you know how common these are): multiple simultaneous contract cancellations are not frequent or normal, and can signal trouble beyond whatever the publisher offers as an explanation (if it explains at all). Ditto for a publisher that suddenly starts offering to revert rights on request.

Fireside's situation also highlights the risks of signing with a publisher that's essentially a one-person operation (as Defendini admits in his apology). With the best will in the world, the publisher can be sidelined by a single bad event (personal or professional), leading to glitches, errors, and delays in scheduling, payment, and more. Writer Beware's files are stuffed with such stories.

Troubled publishers do recover, or at least hang on. Month9, which canceled dozens of contracts in 2016, is still publishing, as is Permuted Press, which axed an undisclosed number of titles in 2015 (both publishers cited overstocked lists, though in both cases there were other issues as well). In the short term, though, if a publisher is or has been actively shedding writers, it's best to hold off on submitting until it's clearer what's going on.




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Ethical Considerations

turn it off!!




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President queries Tanzania coronavirus kits after goat test

Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.