Los Angeles Dodgers Cody Bellinger and AJ Pollock bump elbows during Game 7 of the National League Championship Series Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, October 19, 2020:
COVID-19: THE NEXT 3 MONTHS
Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC presented two different narratives about what’s coming as the U.S. heads into winter. Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar painted an optimistic picture, telling Americans to “hang in there with us” as effective treatments and vaccines are “weeks away.” The next guest, Dr. Michael Osterholm, a leading infectious disease expert, acknowledged that the medical cavalry was coming, but said: “the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic.” NY TIMES
CLOSING ARGUMENTS
With just two more full weeks before Election Day, President Trump and Joe Biden are setting up their closing messages to voters. The president is jetting from rally to rally where he has been delivering a version of a stump speech -- complete with “lock them up” chants -- that many Republicans worry is doing little to bring in the independent voters he needs to close his polling gap with Biden. Meanwhile, the former VP has been hammering a message that he’s the better candidate for the economy -- the one area where Trump still holds an edge. The Biden camp is keeping a low profile this week ahead of Thursday’s final debate. NBC NEWS
FRANCE TERROR ATTACK
People in France took to the streets over the weekend to pay tribute to Samuel Paty, a history teacher who was murdered outside Paris after he reportedly showed his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a lesson. French officials say an 18-year-old Chechen refugee beheaded Paty on Friday near the school where he taught. The attacker was then killed by police. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the murder an “assasination” and an “Islamist terror attack.” EURONEWS
JACINDA WINS IN LANDSLIDE
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been reelected in a landslide victory that she is crediting to her administration’s coronavirus response, which has been held up around the world as the gold standard. Over the weekend, New Zealand reported a single new case of community transmission after going three weeks without any new cases. AP
UNITED STATES DEBT
The federal budget deficit skyrocketed to a record $3.1 trillion for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, with debt totaling 102 percent of the country’s GDP. That’s the first time debt has exceeded the size of the economy in at least 70 years. Government spending has soared during the pandemic, and the growing deficit is the main reason Senate Republicans have been skittish about signing on to another stimulus bill. NPR
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE CRISIS
The commercial real estate industry is in serious trouble as stores, theaters and hotels struggle to make enough money to pay their rents, and property owners are increasingly unable to meet their mortgage obligations. Brick-and-mortar retailers were already hurting before the pandemic, and with more going out of business every week -- combined with empty hotels, cinemas and malls -- the $15 trillion commercial real-estate market is under enormous pressure to avoid defaults and foreclosures. POLITICO
FALL CLASSIC
The L.A. Dodgers will face the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series -- a matchup that will feature the two teams with the best records in their leagues. Completing a stunning comeback, the Dodgers won Game 7 against the Braves in dramatic fashion after Cody Bellinger hit a go-ahead solo home run in the seventh inning to break open a tied game. Game 1 of the World Series is tomorrow night in Texas. LA TIMES
LIVE FROM NEW YORK...
Adele is set to host next weekend’s Saturday Night Live, the show announced, with musical guest H.E.R. The singer wrote on Instagram, confirming the news: “...if there was ever a time for any of us to jump head first into the deep end with our eyes closed and hope for the best it’s 2020 right?” VARIETY
SAVE OUR STAGES
The Foo Fighters played an all-acoustic set of their greatest hits at the empty Troubadour nightclub in Hollywood, part of the Save Our Stages virtual festival in support of independent music venues that are at risk of closing for good: WATCH
LEFTOVERS: GOT A ZEPTOSEC?
Scientists say they have measured the shortest unit of time ever: the time it takes a particle of light to cross a hydrogen molecule. That process takes 247 zeptoseconds, give or take. A zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second, surpassing the previous measurement of femtoseconds, which are a millionth of a billionth of a second. SCIENCE
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AT&T announced earlier today it is spinning off its media properties in WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery in a $43 billion deal.Scott Rostan, founder and CEO at Training The Street, joined Cheddar to talk about what the unwinding of the telecom giant's Time Warner media properties means for investors. "I think the investor sentiment is they're digesting the new information, and they're looking into the dividend, especially the reduction of the dividend," said Rostan, noting the transaction allows AT&T to focus on its core telecommunications business.
A 2021 report from UK Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up at least 2.5 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions. It's a problem that energy solutions company, Leclanché, is trying to solve. Founded in 1909, the company has been developing and producing batteries for more than 100 years. Today, Leclanché's lithium-ion battery is used to electrify not just ships, but also railroad locomotives, trucks, and specialty vehicles. Cheddar News spoke with Pierre Blanc, chief technology and industrial officer of Leclanché, to discuss.
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
"Sing 2" has overthrown "Spider-Man: No Way Home" as the number one film at the UK box office. The animated sequel brought in $8.1 million, in just its two first weekends. However, "No Way Home" is still on track to beat "Avatar" as the number one grossing movie of all time.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
