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Washington diary: falling under the Nationals’ spell

The baseball team’s victory in the World Series reflects the city’s wider resurgence




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Nationalism is a side effect of coronavirus

The pushback against globalisation will come from protectionists, national-security hawks and greens




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National Grid looks to UK retail investors




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National Grid RPI-linked 10-year sterling retail bond

Corporate bond links income and capital to inflation




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Nationwide launches cash Isa prize draw

As interest rates fall, more savings banks rely on the lure of cash prizes




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Latest National Savings & Investments rates

Current rates from the state-owned savings bank




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Coronavirus: US business leaders call for co-ordinated approach — as it happened

The number of US deaths attributed to Covid-19 surpassed 45,000 on Friday, while the rate of new cases remained flat

Read more




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Instagram ‘pods’ game the algorithm by coordinating likes and comments on millions of posts

Researchers at NYU have identified hundreds of groups of Instagram users, some with thousands of members, that systematically exchange likes and comments in order to game the service’s algorithms and boost visibility. In the process, they also trained machine learning agents to identify whether a post has been juiced in this way. “Pods,” as they’ve […]




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Facebook to add gift cards, jobs and donation tools to its COVID-19 Community Help hub

Facebook is expanding its Community Help hub to better serve local communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The hub has already seen significant usage by those requesting food, supplies and information about local resources, as well as use by volunteers and groups willing to lend a hand. Now, Facebook is adding more features to the hub […]




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: State of the nation

The US Republican party rallies behind Donald Trump




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Facebook to add gift cards, jobs and donation tools to its COVID-19 Community Help hub

Facebook is expanding its Community Help hub to better serve local communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The hub has already seen significant usage by those requesting food, supplies and information about local resources, as well as use by volunteers and groups willing to lend a hand. Now, Facebook is adding more features to the hub […]




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A nation standing together, in isolation 

The coronavirus crisis brought out the best in Britons, but underlying divides persist




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Y Combinator graduate H1 closes on $12.9 million for its professional healthcare database

Just months after graduating from Y Combinator, H1 Insights, the LinkedIn for the healthcare industry, has raised $12.9 million in a new round of funding. “It’s a better way to connect the ecosystem,” says co-founder Ariel Katz. The company already has more than 8 million profiles for healthcare professionals in its database and is generating […]




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Amazon worker-activists form international organization to demand change in warehouses

Amazon workers across the world are formalizing their activism with the creation of the Amazon Workers International. Its first action is a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon Director of UK Customer Fulfillment Stefano Perego in which the group demands the company makes permanent certain steps Amazon has implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic. […]




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Nine senators — including Warren and Sanders — pen open letter to Amazon about worker firings

A group of nine Senators led by Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren penned an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this week, seeking more information about recent employee firings. The statement cites the terminations of four employees who were vocally critical of the company’s policies pertaining to both COVID-19 and climate change. Cosigned by Bernie […]




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Emirates-owned Dnata threatens to pull out of Australia

Catering and ground-handling company excluded from Canberra’s coronavirus support scheme




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Cockroach Labs scores $86.6M Series D as scalable database resonates

Cockroach Labs, the NYC enterprise database company, announced an $86.6 million Series D funding round today. The company was in no mood to talk valuations, but was happy to have a big chunk of money to help build on its recent success and ride out the current economic malaise. Altimeter Capital and Bond co-led the […]




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Bucket, A Travel Planner That Automatically Creates Recommendation Lists, Expands Nationwide

Early Facebook employee and longtime travel aficionado Julia Lam began studying consumer travel habits over a year ago to see how people planned their vacations and business trips. What she found was that people were often using a mess of Chrome tabs and text files. So she started Bucket with former Facebook engineer John Sichi […]




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Crisis, what crisis? The US needs Nato as much as ever

Quitting Europe would see Washington deliver to Beijing its most important strategic ambition




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National action cannot fix a global pandemic

US, China and Europe must work together to defeat coronavirus




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Utah tech magnates create new Silicon Slopes Venture Fund to boost startups in the state

Those looking outside of Silicon Valley as a potential hub for their startup might want to take a gander at Utah, at least that’s the kind of trend the new Silicon Slopes Venture Fund hopes to create. The newly formed fund, put together by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith, Omniture and Domo founder Josh James and […]




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Private-equity backed companies dominate lowest depths of junk

Two-thirds of companies with lowly ratings from Moody’s were bought by PE groups




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Google ditched tipping feature for donating money to sites

Leaked images obtained by TechCrunch reveal that Google considered and designed a feature that would let people donate money to websites to help support news publishers, bloggers and musicians. But Google scrapped the idea and chose not to build out the product, despite these kinds of businesses and creators often struggling to earn revenue. Last […]




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DDG Wolff: Reliance on international trade for food security likely to grow

Food security is increasingly dependent on international trade, making it critical to keep trade in food flowing, WTO Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff noted on 30 April. In remarks delivered on his behalf by WTO Agriculture Division Director Edwini Kessie at the “Trade Dialogues on Food” webinar, he said that, on balance, governments have been quick to recognize the value of international trade for global food security during the COVID-19 crisis and are taking concrete action to protect the global food supply chain from disruption. His remarks are below:




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Canada donates CAD 90,000 to help developing countries participate in international trade

Canada has contributed over CAD 90,000 (approximately CHF 60,000) in 2020 to enhance the trading capacities of developing countries and least-developed countries (LDCs). This donation to the WTO’s DDA Global Trust Fund will finance training workshops and seminars for government officials, with the aim of deepening their understanding of current trade issues and challenges and improving their negotiating skill-set.




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EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2020 explores the changing U.S. energy mix through 2050 as consumption grows more slowly than production, particularly of oil, natural gas, and renewables, resulting in increasing exports and relatively stable CO2 emissions

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released updated projections of future U.S. energy production and use in its Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020) today.




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Media Advisory: EIA presents alternative policy scenarios to the AEO2020

EIA will present results from four alternative policy scenarios to the Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020) published in an Issue in Focus article. The article and the presentation will examine the potential effects of a range of alternative energy policies on the future U.S. electric power sector through 2050.




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Elevated U.S. natural gas working inventories puts downward pressure on prices

Henry Hub natural gas spot prices averaged $2.02 per million British thermal units in January according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Typically, January natural gas prices are among the highest of the year; however, warmer-than-normal January temperatures across much of the northern hemisphere contributed to the lowest average January spot price in many years. After beginning 2018 and 2019 with low U.S. working natural gas inventories, EIA forecasted that normal winter temperatures in the first quarter of 2020, along with production growth, would bring total inventories back over the five-year average this winter. So far this winter, temperatures have actually been warmer than normal, and EIA estimates that in January there were 18% fewer heating degree days in the United States than the prior ten-year average. As a result of reduced space heating demand, U.S. natural gas working inventories ended January 9% above the five-year average, higher than previously forecasted. In its February Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA forecasts that at the close of the April-October injection season, working inventories will reach almost 4.1 trillion cubic feet on October 31, which would be the highest end-of-October inventory record on level. Expecting inventories to remain elevated as winter heating season winds down, EIA forecasts that Henry Hub natural gas prices will average $2.21 per million British thermal units in 2020, down from $2.57 per million British thermal units in 2019. In 2021, EIA expects natural gas prices to increase, reaching an average annual price of $2.53 per million British thermal units.




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U.S. monthly natural gas production expected to decline through 2020

The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that U.S. dry natural gas production will average 95.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2020, up 3% from 2019. However, EIA expects monthly production to generally decline through 2020, falling from an estimated 96.3 billion cubic feet per day in January to 92.3 billion cubic feet per day in December. Most of the decline in production will occur in the Appalachian and Permian regions. In the Appalachian region, low natural gas prices are discouraging drilling for natural gas. In the Permian, low oil prices are expected to reduce the associated production of natural gas from wells drilled to produce oil. In its March Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA forecasts that U.S. dry natural gas production will average 92.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2021, down 3% from 2020. This would be the first decline in average annual natural gas production since 2016.




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New international standards for audit reports are game-changing - 20 Jan

After three years in development, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has released a set of standards that are game-changing for shareholders and the profession, says PwC.




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Australian National Committee for UN Women welcomes partnership with PwC Australia - 17 Feb

PwC Australia is delighted to announce a partnership with The Australian National Committee for UN Women in a joint effort to promote gender equality.




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AEO2020: Alternative Policies - Varying Residential Solar Photovoltaic Utility Rate Structure




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AEO2020: Alternative Renewables Cost Cases




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AEO2020: Alternative Policies - Carbon Fee Cases




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AEO2020: Alternative Policies - 50% Carbon-Free Generation by 2050




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Facebook to add gift cards, jobs and donation tools to its COVID-19 Community Help hub

Facebook is expanding its Community Help hub to better serve local communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The hub has already seen significant usage by those requesting food, supplies and information about local resources, as well as use by volunteers and groups willing to lend a hand. Now, Facebook is adding more features to the hub […]





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For alternative meat manufacturer Beyond Meat, fast food chains giveth and taketh away

Beyond Meat, the publicly traded producer of plant-based protein replacements for meat, is currently giving other companies in the alternative meat space an education in just how finicky appealing to consumer tastes can be. On the same day that the Canadian Tim Hortons restaurant chain is dropping Beyond Meat products from its menus, the company […]




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Cliqz pulls the plug on a European anti-tracking alternative to Google search

Cliqz, a Munch-based anti-tracking browser with private search baked in that has sought to offer a local alternative to Google powered by its own search index, is shutting down — claiming this arm of its business has been blindsided by the coronavirus crisis. Today was not great. We closed parts of @cliqz & our dream […]




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McDonald's Is Set to Lose $3.4 Billion in Value After the CEO Was Fired Over a Relationship With a Subordinate

McDonald's on Friday fired its CEO, Steve Easterbrook, for violating its policy of having a relationship with an employee.



  • News and Trends

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Yelp Adds GoFundMe Donation Button for Struggling Local Businesses

Look for the "Donate" option on the web and in the app to help support restaurant, nightlife, beauty and fitness operators.




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Maxine Peake claims Northern actors still face discrimination for their accents

Maxine Peake has claimed Northern actors still face discrimination for their accents and end up being cast as servants because they are seen as uneducated.




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Coronation Street's Katie McGlynn joins Hollyoak's Steph Waring

She is nominated for her first ever NTA in the category of Serial Drama Performance for her portrayal of Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street. 




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Coronation Street star Peter Ash cosies up to his girlfriend Amy as they arrive in London for NTAs

The actor, 34, who plays Gemma Winter's brother Paul Foreman, cut a casual figure as he headed to the star-studded ceremony, which will take place at the O2 Arena.




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Jacqueline Jossa and Gabby Allen will come face to face at the National Television Awards

Gabby Allen risked a run-in with Jacqueline Jossa at the National Television Awards on Tuesday after being accused of having an affair with her husband.




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NTAs 2020: Montana Brown leaves little to the imagination

Montana Brown certainly didn't disappoint when she attended the National Television Awards 2020 at London's O2 Arena on Tuesday night, donning a daring dress for the occasion.




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NTAs 2020: Coronation Street's Alison King appears to be escorted out of the ceremony

It appears Alison King may have indulged in one glass too many at this year's event, as she was seemingly escorted out of the ceremony at 9pm Tuesday evening.




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Coronation Street's Katie McGlynn admits she's keen to replace Michelle Keegan in Our Girl

Katie McGlynn has said she is willing to replace Michelle Keegan in Our Girl, after the actress, 32, stepped down from the role to spend more time with her family.




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Billie Faiers and Ferne McCann reveal they SWAPPED dresses during the National Television Awards  

One stunning ballgown just wasn't enough for Billie Faiers and Ferne McCann as the pair revealed they swapped dresses during the National Television Awards.




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Katie McGlynn to become face of online betting company Mecca Bingo after quitting Coronation Street 

The actress, 26, who quit her role on the cobbles as Sinead Tinker last year, revealed the news on her Instagram account.