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How the Colonial Pipeline Turned a Important Artery for Gas

How the Colonial Pipeline Became a Vital Artery for Fuel

This gave them an enormous competitive advantage over the refineries on the east coast, which imported oil from abroad or by rail from North Dakota after the start of the shale boom. As the local refineries closed their doors, the Colonial Pipeline became increasingly important as a connection to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

The Midwest has its own pipelines from the Gulf Coast, but while the East Coast has closed refineries, the Midwest has opened some new plants and expanded others over the past 20 years to process Canadian oil, mostly from Alberta sands. California and the Pacific Northwest have sufficient refineries to process crude oil made in California and Alaska and South America.

Not much. The northeastern supply system is flexible and resilient.

Many hurricanes have damaged pipelines and refineries on the Gulf Coast in the past, and the east coast managed to handle this. The federal government stores millions of gallons of crude oil and refined products for emergencies. Refineries can import oil from Europe, Canada, and South America, although it can take up to two weeks for transatlantic cargo to arrive.

When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017 and damaged refineries, shipments from the Colonial Pipeline to the northeast were suspended for nearly two weeks. Port of New York gasoline prices rose rapidly by more than 25 percent, and the additional costs were passed on to motorists. It took over a month for prices to return to previous levels.

Hacking a large pipeline may not be a major problem for drivers, but it is a sign of the times. Criminal groups and even nations can threaten power lines, personal information, and even banks.

The group responsible for the pipeline attack, DarkSide, usually locks their victims’ data using encryption and threatens to release the data unless a ransom is paid. Colonial Pipeline did not say whether it paid a ransom or intended to do so.

“The unfortunate truth is that infrastructure today is so fragile that almost anyone who wants to get in can get in,” said Dan Schiappa, chief product officer of Sophos, a UK security software and hardware company. “Infrastructure is an easy and lucrative target for attackers.”

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Pipeline outage forces airways to think about different gasoline provides

Pipeline outage forces airlines to consider other fuel supplies

Holding tanks can be seen in the Charlotte Airport Delivery Facility of Colonial Pipeline in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, an undated photo.

Colonial pipeline | via Reuters

The cyberattack that forced the shutdown of the largest refined fuel pipeline in the country over the weekend triggered some route changes for American Airlines as it aims to save fuel at its second largest hub.

Colonial Pipeline Co., which operates the 5,500-mile-long pipeline from Houston, Texas, to Linden, New Jersey, has a goal of resuming operations by the end of the week but said the process would be gradual. According to the company, the pipeline serves seven airports directly.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is the busiest for Delta Air Lines, said it is reviewing other fuel suppliers but operations are not affected.

“Hartsfield-Jackson and its airline partners are in close communication with fuel suppliers and are taking steps to mitigate the effects of the colonial incident,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “ATL is currently coordinating with other suppliers to increase the airport’s fuel inventory.”

Delta declined to comment on the pipeline failure.

American Airlines said in a statement that the impact of the outage on its operations has so far been minor. Stopovers will be added for two long-haul flights from Charlotte Douglas Airport, the airline announced on Monday. A non-stop trip to Honolulu will stop at Dallas-Fort Worth International, where the fuel supply has not been interrupted. Customers there will convert their aircraft to a Boeing 777-300 to fly on to Hawaii.

A flight from Charlotte to London will stop in Boston for extra fuel. The changes are effective at least until May 14th.

Southwest Airlines flies extra-fuel aircraft at airports such as Nashville International Airport “to supplement local supplies.” Airlines can load more fuel on planes than is normally needed to avoid or reduce the need to refuel on the ground when supplies are limited.

“We are pleased to announce that Southwest’s operations have no impact,” said a spokesman.

American is also considering moving or refueling fuel at airports affected by the shortage, according to someone familiar with the matter.

United Airlines said it is working with airports “to understand the impact and our operations are not currently affected”.

Analysts have said the impact on the supply of jet fuel and other refined products like gasoline will depend on how long the outage lasts, especially as Memorial Day weekend approaches.

“We could probably do inventory for a week and then the problem would become acute,” said Rick Joswick, global head of oil analysis at S&P Global Platts. “Hopefully this will be resolved by then.”

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Helmut Jahn, ‘Conference-Busting’ Architect, Dies at 81

Helmut Jahn, ‘Convention-Busting’ Architect, Dies at 81

Helmut Jahn, a German-born architect who designed buildings around the world but was most influential in his adopted home of Chicago, where he designed an extravagant downtown home for the state government and the United Airlines terminal at O’Hare International Airport , died on Saturday in a traffic accident near the horse farm he lived on in St. Charles, Illinois. He was 81 years old.

His wife Deborah (lamp) Jahn confirmed the death. He had been riding a bike in the suburbs of Campton Hills when he was hit by two cars going in opposite directions. A press release from the local police authority said that Mr. Jahn could not brake at a stop sign.

A modernist who began a long flirtation with postmodernism in the 1970s, Mr. Jahn (pronounced “Yahn”) designed the Xerox Center, an elegant 45-story office tower with a glass and aluminum curtain wall, a rounded corner, and a two-story street front that billows inward and opened in Chicago’s Loop in 1980.

In 1982 Newsweek called Mr. Jahn the “Flash Gordon of American Architecture”. Three years later GQ showed it on its cover and wore a dashing Fedora with the headline “Helmut Jahn has a building complex”.

In the accompanying article, famous architect Philip Johnson called Mr. Jahn “a real genius” and “a comet that twinkles in the sky,” although he added, “I don’t know about him yet.”

By that time, construction of Mr. Jahn’s futuristic design of the State of Illinois Center – a government and retail complex – in the middle of the loop was almost complete. The facade is a mixture of reflective bluish-turquoise glass; Inside the circular atrium is a mix of salmon-colored and blue metal panels. Multi-colored granite lines the base.

In his 1985 New York Times review, architecture critic Paul Goldberger said that the “squat shape of the complex, tumbling around a corner in a 16-story curve, is part Pompidou Center, part Piranesi, and part kitsch revival 1950s. He added, “It is not surprising that even this relatively refined city has become breathless.”

The response to Mr. Jahn’s Chicago building ranged from “dazzling” to the critical observation that it “has nothing to do with anything else in all of Western civilization.”

Mr. Jahn had nothing against the criticism. “I’d rather people talk about buildings than say, ‘Well, that’s just another building I haven’t seen,” he told GQ.

In 1987 the United Terminal One opened, an extensive homage to the train stations of the 19th century. A riot of glass and exposed steel scaffolding, it has curves that allow for varying ceiling heights and black and white floors with red stitching.

Paul Gapp, the architecture critic of The Chicago Tribune, called it “one of the most aesthetically extraordinary terminals in the nation”. In The Times, Goldberger wrote that it was “the most ambitious effort in airport architecture” since Eero Saarinen’s designs for Dulles International Airport in Washington and the TWA Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Helmut Jahn was born on January 4, 1940 in Nuremberg and grew up in a nearby suburb. His father Wilhelm was a special educator. His mother, Lena (Werth) Jahn, was a housewife.

As a boy, Helmut loved drawing and painting, but aspired to become an airline pilot. “But he wasn’t very good at languages, which disqualified him as a pilot for Lufthansa,” said his wife, “so he decided on architecture because it involved a lot of drawing.”

After graduating from the Technical University in Munich, he obtained a master’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture. After graduating in 1967, he was hired by Gene Summers, formerly the right man of the modernist giant Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, at the venerable Chicago architecture firm CF Murphy Associates.

With Mr. Summers, Mr. Jahn helped design the new McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, replacing the one destroyed by fire in 1967. In 1973, when Mr. Summers left, Mr. Jahn became the company’s director of planning and design.

In 1974, the Kemper Arena (now Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City, Missouri, opened with a modernist design by Mr. Jahn that included a roof suspended from external steel trusses – not the traditional internal pillars – and offered unobstructed views . But five years later the roof collapsed in a rainstorm.

It was found that the failure was caused by the breakage of high-strength screws that helped hang the roof.

1981 Murphy Associates Murphy / Jahn; A year later, Mr. Jahn became president of the company and acquired it in 1983. In 2012 it was renamed Jahn.

Based on the design by the State of Illinois Center (which was renamed the James R. Thompson Center for the Republican Governor of Illinois who supported it), Mr. Jahn worked with Donald J. Trump to design a 150-story tower that that would have been the centerpiece of a mega-complex on the west side of Manhattan called Television City.

That plan never came to fruition, and the site later became a reduced development called Riverside South.

Jahn’s other Manhattan projects included the 70-story CitySpire in Midtown behind the city center and 425 Lexington Avenue, which architecture critic Carter Horsley dismissed in The City Review in 1987 for its “roto-rooted top” looked like a ” crushed slide for the unbridled upward thrust of the Chrysler Building just across 43rd Street “.

Other key designs by Mr. Jahn included designs for One Liberty Place, Philadelphia’s tallest building at the time of its completion in 1990; the Sony Center in Berlin (2000); Apartments in Warsaw (2013); and 50 West Street, a luxury condominium tower in Lower Manhattan.

Back in Chicago, he designed the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago (2011) with an elliptical 40-foot high dome that covers a 180-seat reading room and an underground automated storage and retrieval machine.

Critic Blair Kamin wrote in The Chicago Tribune, describing the library as a “blown-up marvel” that “students seem to love because it lets natural air in and clears them from the dimly lit reading rooms of the university.”

Mr. Jahn worked on drafts until the end of his life.

“He was so obsessed with doing his job,” said Ms. Jahn over the phone. “It was just a one-man show. He had so many ideas in mind. “

In addition to his wife, whom he met as an interior designer for McCormick Place, his son Evan, a partner in the company, Mr. Jahn, survived. two granddaughters; and a brother, Otmar.

Long after its completion, the 17-story Thompson Center was a valued historic property on Mr. Jahn’s résumé. Over the years, governors have talked about selling it to developers who might destroy it and build a new office tower.

“He was very upset about it,” said Ms. Jahn. “It was his hope to save it.”

Earlier this month, Governor JB Pritzker’s administration accelerated the process and sent developers a call for proposals to sell the building, which was deemed too costly to maintain.

Last year, Mr. Jahn suggested saving the building by adapting it to create new offices, a hotel and apartments, and adding an office tower on the southwest corner of West Randolph and North LaSalle Streets. He also suggested removing the building’s front doors and turning the huge atrium into a covered outdoor area.

“Not only would it take a long time to demolish and replace it would seek high density without considering the public benefits,” he wrote in his proposal. We don’t need larger buildings, but buildings that improve public space. “

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Tour Religion Hill and Tim McGraw’s $35 million personal island

Tour Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's $35 million private island

The Bahamian island of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw spent years and millions developing and is on the market for $ 35 million.

The country music power couple bought Goat Cay Island in 2003. It’s located in Exumas, a district of the Bahamas that consists of a chain of over 365 islands about 280 miles east of Miami.

An aerial view of the main residence on L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The area is also known as Goat Cay and is located in Exumas, Bahamas.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

Hill and McGraw renamed the paradise they came up with as L’ile d’Anges, which is French for Island of Angels. The couple turned a vacant 19.77-acre island into a resort-like property that includes a 6,517-square-foot main residence, two beaches, and hundreds of imported palm trees.

“This has been over 10 years of exercise,” said Edward de Mallet Morgan, the London-based luxury real estate agent and partner at Knight Frank, who is running the listing.

De Mallet Morgan declined to comment on its customers or even to confirm their identity. However, the property and its famous owners were featured in a 2017 cover story for Architectural Digest. The island also appears regularly on McGraw’s Instagram feed.

In a 2017 interview, Hill told the magazine: “We were all over the world and we really wanted to create a special place that we couldn’t find anywhere else.”

She went on to explain the challenge of developing a remote island.

“We wanted to build a house,” she said. “Little did we know we had to build everything else. We basically had to build a small town.”

McGraw added, “Every time we land the plane and go to the beach and go to the house, we turn to each other and say, ‘This is the best place in the world.’ “”

Here is a look into the tailor-made paradise:

The main residence in L’ile d’Anges consists of eight interconnected buildings.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The main residence consists of eight structures which de Mallet Morgan calls “pods”. The pods are connected by 5,000 square meters of thatched verandas and breezes.

The breeze path leads from the main house to a dining area next to the pool.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

Each of the four bedroom suites in the house stands alone in a capsule. There is also an owner’s suite with intricate beamed ceilings, glass accordion doors, and lush greenery.

The owner’s suite and terrace.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

Steps from the room’s king-size bed is a huge deck with a large bathtub on one side.

There is an outdoor bathtub on the terrace of the owner’s suite.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

There is a large white sun lounger on the other side.

From the sun lounger on the terrace of the owner’s suite you can enjoy a lush green view.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The living room has a wall of windows that disappears into the ceiling at the push of a button.

The living room with its glass wall opened up to the pool area.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The space opens to a sundeck with a built-in swimming pool surrounded by a row of ivory-colored lounge chairs, matching outdoor sofas, and a porch with an al fresco dining area.

A view of the pool area in L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The open kitchen of the chef has a wall of windows and another dining area of ​​the house.

The dining area in the open kitchen.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

In the showroom-worthy kitchen, an industrial double oven and hob by Wolf are on display, a wood-paneled ceiling and elegant cupboards.

Another look at the open kitchen.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The island has two beaches covered with powdery white sand.

One of the two white sand beaches of L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

At the end of a strip of beach there are two large white yurts with private bathrooms.

A stretch of beach with white yurts on the far right.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The sturdy tent-like structures are air-conditioned and include wooden decks.

Beachfront yurts with wooden decks are just steps from the water.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

One is set up as a bedroom while the other is a beach gym.

A look into the yurt on the beach, which is set up as a bedroom.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The 568 palm trees, perfectly scattered across the coast, were embarked from South Florida.

The island’s beaches include palm trees that have been transported to the island.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

In fact, most of the landscaped landscaping had to be imported.

The lawn and garden are adjacent to the main residence.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The tallest structure on the island is an observation tower connected to the main residence.

The lookout tower in L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

There is a large bell at the top and a spectacular panoramic view of the turquoise waters that surround L’ile d’Anges.

The view from the top of the observation tower.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

The island includes a dock and an adjacent loading ramp with a driveway that leads to the main residence.

The island’s dock and cargo area.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

L’ile d’Anges can also be reached by seaplane.

A seaplane floats on one of the beaches at L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

There are 6,000 square feet of additional structures on the island, including three waterfront villas, each with two suites for staff or guest accommodation.

There are three waterfront villas on L’ile d’Anges for staff and guests.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

Some of the features of L’ile d’Anges that cannot be seen in any marketing image are worth noting.

“Every modern convenience and service you need is provided, from waste treatment and disposal to a reverse osmosis system to provide fresh water,” said de Mallet Morgan.

These modern conveniences include: eight giant tanks that can hold 64,000 gallons of filtered drinking water, two mobile home-sized generators to power the entire island, two satellite dishes for TV service, and two other dishes with high-speed internet access. De Mallet Morgan said the redundant systems are necessary to provide seamless backup if a system fails.

There is a smoke-free incinerator for household waste and a small medical area with medicines, bandages and a defibrillator. The room is equipped in such a way that concierge doctors can be reached remotely via video conference in an emergency. Several large storage rooms hold a small fleet of wave runners, industrial-grade laundry facilities, backup equipment, pantries, and cold storage rooms.

An aerial view of L’ile d’Anges.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

When you add the cost of labor, infrastructure, landscaping, and general upkeep, maintaining a private island doesn’t come cheap.

“For islands this size, you’re probably talking about $ 1.5 million to $ 2 million a year, depending on your maintenance, your staff, and your level of utilization,” said de Mallet Morgan.

The pool area as night falls.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

“Today there is probably the highest demand for turnkey private islands that we have ever seen.”

Edward de Mallet Morgan

Partner, Knight Frank

Typically, realtors look at comparable home sales in the area to calculate value and come up with an asking price for a listing. However, according to de Mallet Morgan, pricing is a little more complicated for a private island like this one.

“It is not an exact science to calculate the value, but a combination of factors,” he said. “Typically, you start by understanding the initial cost of the island itself and then you add up all the development costs and consider the equivalent replacement costs to create the same thing. You then take into account the time and opportunity costs to add them up.”

The view from one of the three waterfront villas on the island.

Brett Davis / Knight Frank

De Mallet Morgan said there was a lot of interest in private islands following the Covid pandemic.

“The pandemic and everything related to it has really helped fuel interest and appetite for private islands and high quality real estate around the world,” he said.

“Today there is probably the highest demand for ‘turnkey’ private islands that we have ever seen in the Caribbean and Bahamas,” he said.

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Mexican Factories Accused of Labor Abuses, Testing U.S.M.C.A.

Mexican Factories Accused of Labor Abuses, Testing U.S.M.C.A.

WASHINGTON – The AFL-CIO and other groups on Monday filed a complaint with the Biden government over alleged labor law violations at a group of auto parts factories in Mexico. This will be an early test of the new North American trade agreement and its deals with OSH.

The complaint is focused on the Tridonex auto parts factories in the town of Matamoros, just across the border with Brownsville, Texas. The AFL-CIO said workers there had been harassed and fired for their efforts to organize with an independent union, SNITIS, instead of a company-controlled union. Susana Prieto Terrazas, a Mexican labor lawyer and SNITIS leader, was arrested and jailed last year in an episode that received a lot of attention.

The trade deal, the deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada, was negotiated by the Trump administration to replace the North American free trade agreement and went into effect last summer. While negotiated by a Republican government, the deal had significant input from Congressional Democrats, who controlled the House and insisted on stricter labor and environmental standards to vote for the pact, which required Congressional approval.

The trade pact called on Mexico to make profound changes to its work system, where bogus collective bargaining agreements, so-called protection agreements, concluded with no worker involvement and with low wages, were prevalent.

The complaint is placed under the trade agreement under a novel “rapid response” mechanism that enables complaints of labor violations to be filed against an individual factory and penalties to be imposed on that factory. The complaint was made by the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, SNITIS, and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

“USMCA is asking Mexico to end the protection union government and its corrupt dealings with employers,” said Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, in a statement using the acronym for the trade deal. “The ongoing harassment of Susana Prieto and SNITIS members is a textbook violation of the labor laws that Mexico is committed to complying with.”

The trade deal aims to improve working conditions and pay workers in Mexico, which proponents say would benefit American workers by discouraging factory owners from moving operations from the US to Mexico in search of cheaper labor. Enforcing the pact is one of the greatest trade challenges facing the Biden government.

Tridonex is a Philadelphia-based subsidiary of Cardone Industries and controlled by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, the AFL-CIO said. In 2016, Cardone announced plans to move its brakes division to Mexico and lay off more than 1,300 workers in Philadelphia. This is evident from news and public records.

The complaint contains several allegations of labor violations, including that workers were unable to elect their union leaders or ratify their collective agreement, and that more than 600 workers were dismissed by their employer for retaliation. She also accuses Tamaulipas State of denying workers the right to vote for the union they represent.

“There couldn’t be a clearer case,” said Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents Cardone employees in Philadelphia.

In a statement, Cardone said it was “obliged to conduct labor practices, cultivate constructive relationships with workers and fully respect the universal principle of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining”.

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“We are committed to fully complying with all applicable labor laws and regulations regarding our Tridonex facilities in Matamoros, Mexico,” the statement said. “Should an investigation be initiated to discuss this further, we would appreciate it and be fully transparent and responsive in handling all government information requests.”

The quick response mechanism in the trade agreement enables the United States to take action against a single factory in Mexico if workers there are denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. It was one of the provisions that the Democrats highlighted as an improvement on the final deal over the original version of the Trump administration’s trade deal.

If the United States decides there is enough evidence that workers’ rights are being denied, it would urge Mexico to conduct a review of the allegations. After this step, a panel could be set up to investigate the matter. As part of the quick response process, the factory could face fines and repeat offenders could even prevent their goods from entering the US.

Mexico approved a revision of its labor laws in 2019, but it will be rolled out gradually over several years, and implementation of the changes remains a major question mark.

A report released in December by an independent committee set up by the United States to monitor job changes said Mexico has made progress but significant obstacles remain. The report found that the protection contract system was still in place and that most unionized workers were still unable to democratically elect their leaders.

United Steelworkers’ director of international affairs and chairman of the board, Ben Davis, said the complaint filed Monday had “all elements of the structural problem we are facing over labor rights in Mexico.” The quick response mechanism is a way to hold companies accountable.

‘This is the first time we have had something like this in a trade agreement,’ he said, ‘and so we think it’s pretty important that it’s used, used effectively and hopefully something that we can apply. ” in other places. “

Democrats in Congress welcomed the complaint. “We expect and urge the Biden administration to use all available resources to take aggressive enforcement action in this case,” said Richard E. Neal from Massachusetts, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Earl Blumenauer from Oregon , Chairman of the panel’s trade subcommittee, said in a statement.

It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will react to the complaint. One administration official said the administration would “carefully examine” complaints about quick response mechanisms.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai was previously the chief trade adviser to the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In this post, she played a key role in the negotiations between the House Democrats and the Trump administration over the revision of the trade deal.

Ms. Tai has said enforcement of the agreement is a priority and the first meeting of the commission overseeing the pact – made up of Ms. Tai and her colleagues from Canada and Mexico – is due to take place next week for the Mexican embassy in Washington, according to a spokeswoman .

At a Senate hearing last month, Ms. Tai said there were “a number of concerns about Mexico’s compliance with USMCA commitments,” without giving details.

“We have done our best to use the most effective enforcement tools we know,” she said at another point in the hearing. “And they might not be perfect, but we won’t know how effective they’ll be if we don’t use them.”

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WHO classifies triple-mutant Covid variant from India as world well being danger

WHO classifies triple-mutant Covid variant from India as global health risk

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will attend a press conference at WHO headquarters on July 3, 2020, organized by the United Nations’ Association of Geneva Correspondents (ACANU) in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak caused by the novel coronavirus was organized in Geneva.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

A World Health Organization official said Monday that the highly contagious triple mutant variant of Covid widespread in India is being classified as a “worrying variant,” suggesting it has become a global health threat.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for Covid-19, said the agency would provide more details in its weekly status report on pandemic Tuesday, but added that the variant known as B.1.617 was found in preliminary studies to do more Spread more easily than the original virus and there is some evidence that it can evade vaccines.

“And as such, we classify this as a variant of the concern on a global scale,” she said during a press conference. “Although some preliminary studies show increased transferability, we need a lot more information about this virus variant in that line in all sublines. Therefore, we need to do more sequencing and targeted sequencing.”

A Covon-19 coronavirus patient rests in a banquet room temporarily converted into a Covid care center in New Delhi on May 10, 2021.

Arun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images

The WHO announced last week that it is closely tracking at least 10 coronavirus variants worldwide, including the B.1.617. The variant was previously called the “variant of interest” because more study was needed to fully understand its meaning, Van Kerkhove said.

“For everyone in the home, this means that any circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect and spread you, and anything to do with that is worrying,” she said on Monday. “So, all of us at home, no matter where we live, no matter what virus is circulating, we need to make sure we take all necessary measures to keep us from getting sick.”

A variant can be classified as “worrying” according to the WHO if it is found to be more contagious, more deadly and more resistant to current vaccines and treatments.

The international organization has already identified three other variants with the classification: B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in Great Britain and is currently the most widespread variant in the USA; B. 1.351, detected for the first time in South Africa, and the P.1 variant, detected for the first time in Brazil.

B.1.617 has three sub-lines, said Van Kerkhove, which are described in Tuesday’s management report.

Some believe the variant is behind the recent wave of infections in India.

The country averages 3,879 Covid deaths per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, although media reports suggest the official number is underestimated. Over the past seven days, an average of 391,000 new cases per day have been reported – an increase of about 4% from a week, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

The variant has since expanded to other countries, including the United States.

– CNBC’s Rich Mendez contributed to this report.

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Pipeline Hit by Ransomware Hopes to Restart by Finish of Week

Pipeline Shutdown Has Had Little Impact on Supplies So Far

An oil and gas pipeline system that had to be shut down on Friday after a ransomware attack is not expected to be “substantially” restored until the end of the week, the operator Colonial Pipeline announced on Monday.

“As this situation continues to flow and evolve, the colonial operations team is executing a plan that includes an incremental process that will make it easier to get back up and running gradually,” said a statement posted on its website. “This plan is based on a number of factors, security and compliance driving our operational decisions, and the goal of substantially restoring operational service by the end of the week.”

The company said it monitored its customers’ shipments and worked with shippers to move fuel.

The sudden shutdown of 5,500 miles of pipeline, which the company claims represents nearly half of the east coast’s fuel supply, was a worrying sign of weaknesses in the country’s energy infrastructure. The shutdown had raised concerns about fueling much of the pipeline across the country. As a result, gasoline futures prices had risen on Monday, and analysts said a longer shutdown could push them up even further – which could potentially impact the prices consumers pay for gasoline at the pump. Experts said several airports depend on the jet fuel pipeline, including those in Nashville, Baltimore-Washington, and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, NC, could have a tough time later in the week. Airports usually store enough jet fuel for three to five days of operation.

This is a developing story. Check for updates again.

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Each day U.S. knowledge on Might 10

Daily U.S. data on May 10

A man receives a shot of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination center on the beach in South Beach, Florida on May 9, 2021.

Eva Marie Uzcategui | AFP | Getty Images

The rate of average daily new Covid cases in the US fell below 41,000 over the weekend, a 30% decrease from two weeks ago and its lowest level since September, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country reported an average of 2 million vaccinations per day over the past week, a 40% decrease from the peak.

US Covid cases

The U.S. reports 40,800 new infections daily based on a 7-day average of data compiled by Johns Hopkins. That number is down 30% in the past 14 days and is down 43% from its last peak when the country recorded around 71,000 daily cases in mid-April. It’s also the lowest average since September 19.

US Covid deaths

The most recent 7-day average of daily deaths in the US is 667, well below the winter highs, as Johns Hopkins data shows.

US vaccine shots administered

After 2.3 million vaccinations given on Sunday, the national average over the past week is 2 million shots a day, according to the CDC. While the daily rate has shown some signs of stabilizing in the past few days, it has declined significantly from its high of 3.4 million shots a day on April 13th.

Some states have asked the federal government to reduce shipments of their assigned doses, according to The Associated Press. This is in stark contrast to the situation a few months ago when the demand for shots far exceeded the supply available across the country.

US percentage of the vaccinated population

Approximately 46% of Americans have received at least one dose, and more than a third are fully vaccinated.

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Gas Costs Rise After Oil Pipeline Is Hacked: Dwell Enterprise Updates

Colonial Pipeline fuel tanks in Woodbridge, N.J. The company’s pipeline carries nearly half the fuel supplies for the East Coast.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Colonial Pipeline/Via Reuters

Gasoline prices rose as much as 4.2 percent early on Monday after a major petroleum pipeline in the United States was shut down over the weekend because of a cyberattack. The pipeline’s operator, Colonial Pipeline, hasn’t said when it will reopen, raising concerns about the infrastructure that carries nearly half of the fuel supplies for the East Coast.

By 7:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, futures of gasoline for June delivery were up 1.7 percent but still at the highest level since late 2018. The instability is contained to prices that traders pay for gasoline, but may affect prices at the pump in the coming weeks.

“Should the pipeline be brought online at the start of the week, the impact on prices should be limited,” Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote in a note. “However, a prolonged shutdown (5 days or longer) is likely to send gasoline prices higher, which already trade close to a 7-year high.”

Oil prices also rose. Futures on West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, were up 0.6 percent to $65.29 a barrel, after climbing as much as 1.3 percent.

The increase in the price of gasoline and oil has added to what was already a boom in commodity prices. As economies from the United States to China have shown signs of strength, demand for raw materials to power industrial growth has risen. On Monday, iron ore futures rose as much as 10 percent and copper prices extended their record high.

A Bloomberg commodities index, which tracks the prices of 23 commodities from gold and oil to wheat and sugar, was at its highest level since mid-2015. Freeport-McMoRan, an American mining company, and United States Steel both rose more than 3 percent in premarket trading.

  • U.S. stocks were set to open slightly lower on Monday, futures indicated, pulling the S&P 500 back from a record high.

  • The benchmark stock index had risen on Friday after an unexpectedly weak jobs report tempered expectations about how soon the Federal Reserve would consider withdrawing some monetary stimulus.

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 was flat while the CAC 40 in France and DAX in Germany both fell 0.2 percent.

  • The British pound rose 0.8 percent against the U.S. dollar and 0.9 percent against the euro after the results of Thursday’s local elections were confirmed. The Scottish National Party, which is pushing for a second independence referendum, fell one seat short of gaining an outright majority in its Parliament. But it will still govern with the support of another pro-independence party.

  • The pound’s gains on Monday were as much about the weak dollar as the election results, Kit Juckes, a strategist at Société Générale, wrote in a note. “I don’t know anyone who thinks the risk of a second Scottish referendum has gone away.” The pound can rise against the dollar because the U.S. currency “remains under pressure from global economic optimism,” he added.

  • The pound was at $1.41, the highest since February.

Colonial Pipeline fuel tanks in Maryland. The company operates the largest petroleum pipeline between Texas and New York.Credit…Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock

The operator of the largest petroleum pipeline between Texas and New York, shut down after a ransomware attack, declined on Sunday to say when it would reopen.

While the shutdown has so far had little impact on supplies of gasoline, diesel or jet fuel, some energy analysts warned that a prolonged suspension could raise prices at the pump along the East Coast and leave some smaller airports scrambling for jet fuel, Clifford Krauss reports for The New York Times.

Colonial Pipeline, the pipeline operator, said on Sunday afternoon that it was developing “a system restart plan” and would restore service to some small lines between terminals and delivery points but “will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so.”

The company, which shut down the pipeline on Friday, has acknowledged that it was the victim of a ransomware attack by a criminal group, meaning that the hacker may hold the company’s data hostage until it pays a ransom. Colonial Pipeline, which is privately held, would not say whether it had paid a ransom. By failing to state a timeline for reopening on Sunday, the company renewed questions about whether the operations of the pipeline could still be in jeopardy.

The shutdown of the 5,500-mile pipeline was a troubling sign that the nation’s energy infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattacks from criminal groups or nations.

Energy experts predicted that traders would view the company’s announcement on Sunday as a sign that the pipeline would remain shut at least for a few days.

Experts said several airports that depend on the pipeline for jet fuel, including Nashville, Tenn.; Baltimore-Washington; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., could have a hard time later in the week. Airports generally store enough jet fuel for three to five days of operations.

White House officials held emergency meetings on the pipeline attack over the weekend. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a tweet that they are looking for ways to “mitigate potential disruptions to supply.”

A United Airlines vaccine clinic at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Employers are using on-site vaccinations to encourage workers to get shots.Credit…Scott Olson/Getty Images

As companies make plans to fully reopen their offices across the United States, they face a delicate decision. Many would like all employees to be vaccinated when they return, but in the face of legal and P.R. risks, few employers have gone so far as to require it.

Instead, they are hoping that encouragement and incentives will suffice, Gillian Friedman and Lauren Hirsch report for The New York Times.

Legally, companies seem largely in the clear. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance in December stating that employers are permitted to require employees to be vaccinated. But employers are still worried about litigation, in part because several states have proposed laws that would limit their ability to require vaccines.

“It would seem to me that employers are going to find themselves in a fairly strong position legally,” said Eric Feldman, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, “but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to get sued.”

So, companies are resorting to carrots over sticks. Darden offers hourly employees two hours of pay for each dose they receive. Target offers a $5 coupon to all customers and employees who receive their vaccination at a CVS at Target location. And many companies are hosting on-site clinics to make it easier to get vaccinated.

Others are experimenting with return-to-office policies that aren’t all or nothing. Salesforce will allow up to 100 fully vaccinated employees to volunteer to work together on designated floors of certain U.S. offices. Some companies are mandating the shots only for new hires.

A pop-up vaccination site in Miami Beach, Fla. Companies are debating vaccine mandates for their workers.Credit…Eva Marie Uzcategui/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Last week, the DealBook newsletter wrote about one of the most vexing issues facing boardrooms: Should companies mandate that employees get vaccinated before returning to the workplace? Many readers shared opinions, personal experiences and suggestions for handling this complex issue. Here is a small selection, edited for clarity:

  • “The way we’re doing it at our company is, if you submit a reason from your doctor or you have a religious belief or some other valid reason not to get the vaccination yet, you are required to be tested weekly and submit the results to H.R.” — Patricia Ripley, New York City

  • “We don’t know the long-term dangers of these vaccines. They may be bad or good. No one knows. Our employers should not be able to simply ignore any of our worries and concerns.” — Brandon Atchison, Verbena, Ala.

  • “I strongly support employer mandates. A few well-publicized firings will end the ‘hesitancy,’ but the firings must be backed up by classifying them as ‘for cause.’ That means no severance for executives and no unemployment for staff who refuse.” — Paul Levy, Carolina Beach, N.C.

  • “Individual rights are the cornerstone of American democracy — trampling them for the vaccine rollout is a dangerous precedent. People seem to forget that these ‘temporary changes’ end up as permanent, with the result that your employer can now compel greater access to your personal decision-making.” — Anonymous

  • “An unvaccinated person exposes everyone in the office, including visiting customers and clients, to the virus. Why should everyone else be jeopardized because of one person? Simply let unvaccinated people continue to work at home and suffer any consequences to their career paths that may result.” — Joseph Carlucci, White Plains, N.Y.

  • Norwegian Cruise Line is threatening to keep its ships out of Florida ports after the state enacted legislation that prohibits businesses from requiring proof of vaccination against the coronavirus in exchange for services. The company, which plans to have its first cruises available to the Caribbean and Europe this summer and fall, will offer trips with limited capacity and require all guests and crew members to be vaccinated on bookings through at least the end of October.

  • The operator of the largest petroleum pipeline between Texas and New York, which was shut down on Friday after a ransomware attack, would not give a timeline on Sunday on when it would reopen the pipeline. Colonial Pipeline, the pipeline operator, said on Sunday afternoon that it was developing “a system restart plan” and would restore service to some small lines between terminals and delivery points but “will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so.”

The Los Angeles area has the nation’s largest concentration of warehouses, contributing to some of the worst air pollution in the country.Credit…Philip Cheung for The New York Times

The South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California on Friday adopted a rule that would force about 3,000 of the largest warehouses in the area to slash emissions from the trucks that serve the site or take other measures to improve air quality, The New York Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports.

Southern California is home to the nation’s largest concentration of warehouses — a hub of thousands of mammoth structures, served by belching diesel trucks, that help feed America’s booming appetite for online shopping and also contribute to the worst air pollution in the country.

The rule sets a precedent for regulating the exploding e-commerce industry, which has grown even more during the pandemic and has led to a spectacular increase in warehouse construction.

The changes could also help spur a more rapid electrification of freight tucks, a significant step toward reducing emissions from transportation, the country’s biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The emissions are a major contributor to smog-causing nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter pollution, which are linked to health problems including respiratory conditions.

Empty platforms at the New Jersey Transit station in Secaucus in May.Credit…Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Before the pandemic, the trains of New Jersey Transit could be cattle-car crowded, with strangers pressed so closely against you that you could deduce their last meal. That level of forced intimacy now seems unimaginable.

After the outbreak, ridership on New Jersey trains, which in normal times averaged 95,000 weekday passengers, plummeted to 3,500 before stabilizing at about 17,500. A similar pattern held for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road lines: in February 2020, nearly 600,000 riders; two months later, fewer than 30,000.

For many months, the commuter parking lots were empty, the train stations closed, the coffee vendor gone. At night, the trains cutting through Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester or Wyandanch on Long Island or in Maplewood, N.J., were like passing ghost ships, their interior lights illuminating absence.

But in recent weeks, as more people have become vaccinated, New Jersey Transit and the M.T.A. have seen a slight uptick, to about a quarter of their normal ridership.

Perhaps this signals a gradual return to how things had been; or, perhaps, it is a harbinger of how things will be, given that many people now feel that they can work just as efficiently from home.

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Business

EU uncertain of U.S. plan to waive IP rights

EU doubtful of U.S. plan to waive IP rights

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference during the European Social Summit hosted by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union at the Palacio de Cristal in Porto.

JOSE COELHO | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – European leaders have doubts that surrendering intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, a recent US-backed proposal, is the way to go.

Instead, they criticized the US for not exporting Covid recordings.

“It’s not really about intellectual property rights. You can give the intellectual property to laboratories that don’t know how to make it (the vaccine) and they won’t be able to make it overnight,” said French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Friday ahead of a European meeting, according to CNBC translation.

In the meantime, Chancellor Angela Merkel also said: “I have already made it clear here that I do not believe that the release of patents is the solution to provide more people with vaccines.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday welcomed the US decision to support the vaccination patent exemption.

“It’s a good initiative, but I don’t think it’s enough,” he said in Porto, Portugal, while advocating expansion of production and distribution.

President Joe Biden surprised his European counterparts last week by announcing that the US government is in favor of abolishing intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines, citing the “exceptional circumstances” of the pandemic.

Health professionals, human rights groups and international medical charities believe that renouncing intellectual property rights is essential to urgently address the global vaccine shortage amid the pandemic and ultimately avoid prolongation of the health crisis. However, vaccine makers say this could disrupt the flow of raw materials while reducing investment by smaller biotech innovators in health research.

Today, 100% of vaccines made in the United States go to the American market.

Emmanuel Macron

French President

India and South Africa first submitted a joint proposal to the World Trade Organization in October to renounce intellectual property rights in Covid vaccines. Known as the TRIPS waiver, the proposal has been blocked by a handful of high-income nations such as the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the EU and – until last week – the US

France’s Macron insisted that the best way to increase global vaccination rates is for vaccine-producing countries to increase their exports.

“Today, Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines. Today, 100% of vaccines made in the United States go to the American market,” he said, adding that Europeans “are the most generous”. on that front.

The U.S. doesn’t have an outright export ban on Covid shots, but it does use laws to ensure that country-made vaccines are only shipped overseas if it is determined that there are sufficient doses to vaccinate the American people.

The latest data from the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, shows that of the 400 million cans so far made in the block, 200 million have been exported to 90 different countries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said that exporting vaccines “is currently the best way to address short-term shortages and shortages of vaccines around the world”.

“We should be open to this discussion. We should also look closely at the role of licensing, for example. These are important issues that need to be discussed. However, we should be aware of the fact that these are long-term issues.” “said von der Leyen during a speech on Saturday.