Tag: Reflect

Categories
Entertainment

Sunken ‘Jungle Cruise’ Gross sales Replicate Hollywood’s Delta Variant Troubles

Sunken ‘Jungle Cruise’ Sales Reflect Hollywood’s Delta Variant Troubles

LOS ANGELES – As Disney’s playful “Jungle Cruise” demonstrated over the weekend, the cinema visit remains interrupted, with the delta variant, instant streaming availability and muddy reviews all pushing ticket sales down.

Any other takeout would be de-Nile.

Jungle Cruise, a comedic adventure that cost at least $ 200 million to make and an additional $ 100 million to commercialize, raised approximately $ 34 million in 4,310 theaters in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore, including Thursday night previews checkout data. The PG-13 film starring Emily Blunt as the British version of Indiana Jones and Dwayne Johnson as the funny skipper on a river boat grossed an additional $ 28 million overseas.

“The market is currently vulnerable,” said David A. Gross, who heads Franchise Entertainment Research, in an email. “There is Covid, there is simultaneous streaming, there is piracy, there is the nature of the films themselves – different factors for each film. Simultaneous streaming seems to reduce the overall revenue of a film in all windows. “

Over the weekend, “Jungle Cruise” also arrived on streaming service Disney +, where subscribers (more than 100 million worldwide) can watch the film (and have permanent access to it) for an additional charge of $ 30. Disney said that Jungle Cruise generated approximately $ 30 million from worldwide sales of Disney + Premium Access. For comparison: “Black Widow”, the latest Marvel spectacle, collected around 60 million US dollars in the first three days of availability on Disney + Premium Access.

Scarlett Johansson, who played the superassassin Black Widow in eight films, sued Disney Thursday, claiming that the simultaneous opening of “Black Widow” on Disney + “dramatically” reduced box office revenues, costing her tens of millions of dollars in compensation . Her lawsuit drew a glowing response from Disney.

Daily business briefing

Updated

July 30, 2021, 7:43 p.m. ET

“Jungle Cruise” had what it takes to be a box-office hit. Mr. Johnson is perhaps the financially strongest movie star in the world, someone who can fill seats with the mere presence of a theater tent. Mrs. Blunt is not lazy in this department either; Her most recent film, A Quiet Place Part II (Paramount), was a huge hit in May, raising about $ 48 million in North American theaters in the first three days and eventually about $ 300 million worldwide.

In addition, “Jungle Cruise” was based on a classic Disney theme park ride, gave it built-in audience awareness, and got Disney’s unrivaled marketing machinery going. Disney justified a king’s ransom for the film in hopes that it could become the next “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a five-film franchise (also based on a Disneyland ride) that sells for $ 4.5 billion the box office and created a merchandising bonanza.

At the beginning of the summer, Hollywood, citing the introduction of vaccines and the pent-up demand, had high hopes for a box office spike. Instead, a few films have been successful – particularly those like “A Quiet Place Part II” and “F9”, which hit theaters exclusively in June – and a parade of others has disappointed, including “Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins”. In the Heights ”,“ Old ”and“ Black Widow ”.

In particular, Mr. Gross criticized the “Jungle Cruise” concept. Action adventure as a genre has struggled over the past decade, he noted, although the series “Jumanji” (Sony) and “Jurassic World” (Universal) were exceptions. Overall, “Jungle Cruise” received lukewarm reviews, with some critics finding the film’s computer-generated effects cartoonish and not believable.

Audiences seemed to disagree, giving Jungle Cruise an A-minus rating in CinemaScore’s exit polls.

In a statement on Sunday, Disney said, “We continue to focus on giving consumers choice in these unprecedented times, and it is clear that fans and families will appreciate the opportunity to make choices about how to enjoy Disney’s world-class storytelling dearest want to enjoy. ”

With the ongoing coronavirus threat around the world, Disney noted, “Markets are open to varying degrees and not all exhibitors are currently open. Most markets also have capacity restrictions. ”According to Comscore, around 85 percent of theaters in North America are open.

Categories
Entertainment

Asian Composers Replicate on Careers in Western Classical Music

Asian Composers Reflect on Careers in Western Classical Music

Asian composers who write in Western classical musical forms, like symphonies and operas, tend to have a few things in common. Many learned European styles from an early age, and finished their studies at conservatories there or in the United States. And many later found themselves relegated to programming ghettos like Lunar New Year concerts. (One recent study found that works by Asian composers make up only about 2 percent of American orchestral performances planned for the coming season.)

At times, the music of Asian composers has been misunderstood or exoticized; they have been subjected to simple errors such as, in the case of Huang Ruo, who was born in China, repeated misspellings of his name.

For all their shared experiences, each of these artists has a unique story. Here, five of them provide a small sampling of the lessons, struggles and triumphs of composers who were born in Asia and made a career for themselves in Western classical music. These are edited excerpts from interviews with them.

Music is my language. To me “West” and “East” are just ways of talking — or like ways of cooking. I’m a chef, and sometimes I find my recipe is like my orchestrations. It would be so boring if you asked me to cook in one style. Eastern and Western, then, have for me become a unique recipe in which one plus one equals one.

I am in a very special zone historically. I’m 63, and part of the first generation of Eastern composers after the Cultural Revolution to deal with Western forms. But it’s just like rosemary, butter and vegetables. You can cook this way, that way — and that’s why the same orchestras sound so different, from Debussy to Stravinsky to myself.

I’m lucky. When I came to the United States as a student, my teachers and classmates gave me enormous encouragement to discover myself. And I learned so much from John Cage. After this, it felt so easy to compose. And when people approach me for commissions, I re-approach them about what I’m thinking about. I remember when Kurt Masur asked me to write something for the New York Philharmonic — the Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra — I said, “Can I write something for water?” He said, “As long as you don’t flood our orchestra.”

Yes, we often are misunderstood. It’s like when you cook beautiful black bean with chili sauce and chocolate. They may say, “Hey, this is a little strange.” But you explain why, and that can be very interesting. Thank God I love to talk. And there has been progress for us. I am the first Eastern composer to be the dean of a Western conservatory, at Bard. That’s like a Chinese chef becoming the chef of an Italian restaurant. That’s the future: a different way of approaching color, boundary-less, a unity of the soul.

One thing about composers like Tan Dun: They came out of the Cultural Revolution, after a door had closed for so many years. So there was so much focus on what China was doing, a lot of curiosity — curiosity rather than active racism. Our generation — I’m 44 — is so different.

We learn Western music with such rigorous systems. And we do not close our ears to different traditions or styles; that attitude determines early on that you don’t have that kind of boundary, or ownership. But you still hear those conversation topics about “East meets West.” It’s so tiring. East has been meeting West for thousands of years; if we’re always still just meeting, that’s a problem.

Programming Chinese composers around Lunar New Year is in general very problematic. Do we need to celebrate the culture? Yes. Do we need to celebrate the tradition? Absolutely. But it can be part of the main subscription series, or a yearlong series. Then you can really tell stories, not just group people by a country.

My name does not give me ownership of Chinese culture. There are so many things I don’t know. There are so many burdens and fights — as the woman, the woman of color, the Chinese woman — that I decided to fight nothing and just create my own stuff. I told myself that if I had a great body of work, that would speak to what a Chinese woman can do.

I never wanted to be pigeonholed, to be a reduced representation. I wanted to always open that Pandora’s box of messiness — and I encourage others to celebrate messiness, the unclean narrative of your life. Every immigrant has her own path; your work should absolutely be reflective of that. So if I’m a spokesperson, it’s for my own voice. And through that particular voice, I hope there is something that resonates.

When I left China, it was a time of economic and cultural reform. I’m glad I came to the United States, but I do have a little bit of guilt. I probably could have done more there. At the time, my ambition was to try to learn Western music and become the best composer, pianist and conductor I could be. I was fortunate to work with many fantastic musicians and meet Leonard Bernstein, who took me under his wing for five years. Now, at 65, when someone asks me if I consider myself a Chinese or American composer, I say, in the most humble way, “100 percent both.” I feel well-versed in both cultures.

Occasionally, there has been racism and misunderstanding, but that is inevitable. Would that be different if there were more Asian people running orchestras? Maybe. My response has just been to try to produce the best music I can. I wrote an opera for San Francisco Opera — “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which they’re reviving. It’s based on a very popular Chinese story, and when I worked on it with David Henry Hwang, we asked ourselves: “Is this for a Western audience or Asian audience?” We decided first and foremost it should just be good, and it had to be touching. Good art should transcend.

Years ago, I wrote an orchestral piece, “H’un (Lacerations),” which premiered at the 92nd Street Y in New York. It is about my recollections growing up during the Cultural Revolution, and is thus sonically harsh and dramatic, with no melody. My mother was there, and she said it brought back a lot of painful memories. I was also sitting next to an old Jewish woman, and after I took a bow onstage, she leaned over and said, “If you changed the title to ‘Auschwitz,’ this would be just as appropriate.” That was the highest compliment.

The Korea of my childhood and adolescence was a very different place from what it is today. In the 1960s, it was an impoverished developing country, devastated by colonialism and by the Korean War, and until the late 1980s, there was a military dictatorship in place. In order to develop as a composer, one had to go abroad, as there didn’t exist an infrastructure for new music. Now 60, and having lived for 35 years in Europe, it remains important for me to contribute to the contemporary music scene in Asia.

When I moved to Germany, there was a tendency to put composers in certain boxes, with all the aesthetic turf wars back then. Since I was neither interested in joining any camp or fashionable avant-garde or other trends, fulfilling exotic expectations, or assumptions of how a woman should or should not compose, I had to start a career in other countries while still living in Germany. Prejudices such as viewing an Asian composer or performing musician only through “sociological” lenses are still relatively common in various countries, but times are changing. Of course, there exist prejudices and complacency in the whole world, including in Asia. Perhaps the only remedy to this apparently, and sadly, all-too-human impulse is try to retain a sense of wonder and attempt to find distance to oneself.

I have worked in different countries for decades, and have felt a need to stay curious about different musical cultures, traditions and genres. I believe in multiple identities and think that without curiosity, any musical style or culture atrophies and risks becoming a museum: Art has always thrived when there has been cross-fertilization.

At the same time, one should be wary of the danger of exoticism and superficial cultural appropriation. I think that a contemporary composer needs to study different cultures, traditions and genres, but make use of those influences in a selective, historically conscious and self-critical manner.

When people heard I came from China, they would often say, “Does your music sound like Tan Dun?” I don’t think they meant any harm, but it shows a certain ignorance. I tried to explain that China is a big country, and we all speak with our own voice.

I started as an instrumental composer, and a lot of those works got programmed at Asian-themed or Lunar New Year concerts. I didn’t notice at first, but you begin to see patterns. I don’t feel my work has any less quality than my other colleagues who are not minority composers, but for conductors, programmers and artistic directors, it doesn’t seem to come to their mind that you can naturally program an Asian composer’s work next to Beethoven or Tchaikovsky.

That’s one of the reasons I turned to opera. I thought, there must be no opera company having a themed season devoted to Asian composers. So finally, I got to be programmed next to “Fidelio” and “Madama Butterfly.” That was my revenge. Also, I’ve wanted to write on subjects that reflect Asian or Asian American topics, to really share these stories. In this case it is actually me making the choice.

Someone once told me I speak English with an accent. I said, “Otherwise, how would you know that’s me speaking?” I feel the same way as a composer. I want to have my own originality, to speak with my own accent — with my love of Western musical styles, but also this heritage I carry of Chinese culture.

Without coming to the United States, I would be a different composer. If I went to Europe instead, I would also be very different. But I feel I made the right decision, and at 44 I fully embrace who I am today, and where I am as well.

Categories
World News

Japan’s Various Olympic Stars Mirror a Nation That’s Altering (Slowly)

Japan’s Diverse Olympic Stars Reflect a Country That’s Changing (Slowly)

But Tokyo itself remains remarkably monochromatic. According to the city government, only about 4 percent of residents were born outside Japan – about twice as many as in the country. (In contrast, more than 35 percent of London and New York residents were born abroad.)

Marie Nakagawa, a former Senegalese-Japanese model, said she felt like a “foreigner” who grew up in Japan. Even today, she regularly endures shouts from men saying she is a doorbell for Ms. Osaka, whose advocacy for racial justice has forced the country to confront a problem that many here think does not apply to her.

Basics of the Summer Olympics

“I hear experts say all the time that things have changed since Naomi Osaka, but the tyrants are still the same,” Ms. Nakagawa said. “You weren’t reeducated.”

In 2019, when Ms. Osaka won her second Grand Slam at the Australian Open, Nissin featured her pale skin and brown hair in a marketing cartoon, leading to whitewash allegations.

“It’s obvious that I’m tanned,” Ms. Osaka replied. Nissin apologized.

Takeshi Fujiwara, a sprinter who specializes in the 400 meters, grew up in El Salvador, where his Japanese name raised his eyebrows. His mother is from there and his father is Japanese. Even after Mr. Fujiwara took part in the Olympic Games in Athens for El Salvador, the whispers about his nationality continued.

In 2013 he switched his loyalty to Japan and moved to his father’s homeland. The greeting was not immediate, he said, even if people commented positively on his “macho-macho” muscles.

“When I came to Japan, I thought, ‘Hey, I’m here in my country.’ They said, ‘Hey, where are you from?’ ”Said Mr. Fujiwara. “It’s gotten better, but we’re still a long way from a place where multiracial Japanese are considered normal.”

Categories
Health

People Replicate on How the Pandemic Has Modified Them

Americans Reflect on How the Pandemic Has Changed Them

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how our journalism comes together.

The pandemic has changed our reality. To better understand this transformation, Elizabeth Dias and Audra DS Burch, the National Desk correspondent, recently spoke to people across the country about her own experiences. They made a call to readers online, conducted interviews to hear from a number of voices, and collected these reports in the Who We Are Now article. Ms. Dias and Ms. Burch shared what they have learned in their reporting and how they have changed during this time. Read a slightly edited excerpt below.

How did this story come about?

ELIZABETH DAYS Last year, I reported on the mental crisis that sparked the pandemic. People everywhere have faced mortality and the deepest questions people have about life, death and suffering. National Desk Editor Jia Lynn Yang and I talk a lot about what it all means, and this story grew from one of those conversations to a collaboration with Audra and our image editor, Heather Casey. The subject of transformation is deeply spiritual and we wanted to hear from people who are now living differently and can share these stories with us.

How did you work with photography for this story?

DAYS It was a collaboration from the start. Art can give a voice to moments in our lives when words fail. The pictures and words together offer readers a journey to reflect on their own lives.

What did you look for in your appeal to readers?

AUDRA DS BURCH We tried to frame the questions in such a way that people are forced to think in obvious and not-so-obvious ways about what this year means to them. I think even the exercise of responding to the callout was a journey in its own right. Some people clearly struggled with who they had become in a year and when they came out of the “darkness” what they wanted for themselves. I can’t tell you how many people thanked us for investigating what caused the pandemic. Probably in the middle of reading the entries, I remember thinking, in a way, this really felt like a public service.

What did you find most interesting about the answers?

DAYS So many people found the reflection process enormously difficult or even impossible. It showed me how difficult it is to face, let alone change, feelings, and how little collective language there is to talk about these deep issues. Realizing that helped me think about how this story could help readers in this process.

BURCH I think I was most surprised by the bookends, the people willing to share their deepest thoughts and experiences on one end of the spectrum, and the people who – even though they were attending – were clearly in some sort of private hold pattern and unwilling or unable to come to terms with the emotional or spiritual toll of the pandemic.

Were there certain topics that you kept hearing?

DAYS So many people struggled with their homeland and wanted to get back to the core of who they are and where they come from. Time and again, people reassessed their most important relationships, where they want to live and how they want to be in the world.

What changes do you think we will see as a result of this time?

DAYS The most honest answer is I don’t know. I hope we can remember the common humanity revealed this year and help each other on this journey. But it is also true that the clarity that comes with intense suffering often tarnishes over time – it is one reason we made this story to name the transformation that is visible at this moment.

BURCH I think the big challenge is how long we can hold on to the clarity that such an event brought and how long the truths we discovered this year will shape our lives.

Was there anything that you thought of a lot while working on this story?

BURCH I thought of death. Much. One of the people I interviewed for the story was Joelle Wright-Terry. She is a Covid survivor. Her husband died of Covid last April. Your story stayed with me. I have thought many times about how it must feel when your family is knocked down by this virus and the ongoing trauma of loss.

DAYS I have thought many times about narratives of the apocalypse and awakening in spiritual literature and how closely they are intertwined with suffering. There were so many times that beings had to die to be reborn, like the phoenix, the old bird that went up in flames and then rose from the ashes.

How have you changed personally during this time?

DAYS One of the most amazing things about all of these interviews was hearing echoes of my feelings in the stories of so many other people with so many different life experiences, from anger to loneliness to newfound strength. It helped me feel less alone and took courage.

BURCH The process of working on this story had its own convenience. I also saw myself in so many of the stories told, from fear to helplessness to feeling not tied down as we trudged through the pandemic month after month.

Categories
Business

Massive Banks Replicate Nation’s Lopsided Financial Restoration: Stay Updates

Big Banks Reflect Nation’s Lopsided Economic Recovery: Live Updates

Folgendes müssen Sie wissen:

Die größten Banken des Landes haben alle ihre Finanzergebnisse für das vergangene Jahr veröffentlicht, und die Daten spiegeln die seltsame wirtschaftliche Situation der Biden-Regierung wider. Teile der Wirtschaft boomt, andere stehen still und die Aussichten sind noch ungewiss.

Einerseits floriert das Kerngeschäft der Wall Street:

  • Das Handelsgeschäft von Goldman Sachs verzeichnete den höchsten Jahresumsatz seit zehn Jahren, was der Bank geholfen hat, ihren Gewinn im vierten Quartal mehr als zu verdoppeln.

  • JPMorgan Chase und Morgan Stanley meldeten nach einem großen Jahr für Anleiheemissionen, Börsengänge und M. & A ebenfalls große Sprünge in ihren Investmentbanking- und Handelseinheiten. Angebote.

Andere Banken mit großen Konsumentenkreditgeschäften erging es jedoch nicht so gut, da die Bank of America, Citigroup und Wells Fargo hinsichtlich des Gewinnwachstums hinterherhinken. Die niedrigen Zinssätze, die Unternehmen dazu veranlassten, Schulden aufzunehmen, haben den Zinsüberschuss der Banken für Konsumentenkredite beeinträchtigt, der für die meisten Kreditgeber in ihren jüngsten Ergebnissen gegenüber dem Vorjahr gesunken ist.

Nur wenige Bankchefs scheinen zu glauben, dass sich die auf die Wall Street ausgerichteten Unternehmen in diesem Jahr ebenfalls entwickeln werden, aber die Sorgen um die Main Street-Einheiten scheinen weniger akut als im letzten Jahr.

Im vierten Quartal gab JPMorgan Chase Reserven im Wert von fast 3 Milliarden US-Dollar frei, die es zum Schutz vor Kreditausfällen aufgebaut hatte, während die Bank of America, Citigroup und Wells Fargo im gleichen Zeitraum zusammen 2 Milliarden US-Dollar freisetzten.

Im Laufe des gesamten Jahres haben diese vier Banken ihre Rückstellungen für Kreditverluste immer noch um rund 50 Milliarden US-Dollar aufgestockt, ein Zeichen dafür, dass sie weiterhin vor einer möglichen Ausfallwelle geschützt sind. In der Zwischenzeit ist die Kreditnachfrage gering und die Einlagen häufen sich.

Was haben die Banken mit all dem Geld vor? “Wir haben so viel Kapital, dass wir es nicht verwenden können”, sagte Jamie Dimon von JPMorgan gegenüber Investoren. Der Bargeldstapel der Bank hat sich im vergangenen Jahr auf über 500 Milliarden US-Dollar verdoppelt.

Bei anderen Banken ist es ähnlich, und jetzt, da sie von den Aufsichtsbehörden für die Wiederaufnahme von Aktienrückkäufen freigegeben wurden, “werden wir aggressiv und konsequent zurückkaufen”, sagte James Gorman, CEO von Morgan Stanley.

Von FactSet befragte Analysten gehen davon aus, dass die sechs größten Banken in diesem Jahr Aktien im Wert von fast 70 Milliarden US-Dollar zurückkaufen werden, gegenüber 18 Milliarden US-Dollar im Vorjahr.

Anerkennung…Mladen Antonov / Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

Sie wissen, dass es schlecht ist, wenn James Bond immer noch nicht aus dem Haus kommen kann.

“No Time to Die”, der 25. Film in der Bond-Reihe, wurde am späten Donnerstag zum dritten Mal verschoben, das sicherste Zeichen dafür, dass Hollywood nicht glaubt, dass die Massen bereit sein werden, bald in die Kinos zurückzukehren. Laut Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wird der 250-Millionen-Dollar-Film nun am 8. Oktober in die Kinos kommen.

Es war geplant, im vergangenen April zu debütieren. Als das Coronavirus weiter anstieg, wurde dieser Plan für ein Debüt im November aufgegeben. Zuletzt war der erwartete Blockbuster für eine Landung am 2. April festgelegt worden.

Die Studios, die besorgt waren, die Impfbemühungen in den USA voranzutreiben, haben bereits (wieder) große Filme verschoben. Universal und Amblin Entertainment zum Beispiel haben “Bios” mit Tom Hanks auf einer postapokalyptischen Erde vom 16. April auf den 13. August verschoben.

Aber der Rückzug von „No Time to Die“ könnte dazu führen, dass weitere Dominosteine ​​fallen. Es war der erste Megafilm, der für die Zeit nach der Impfung geplant war. Diese Auszeichnung geht jetzt an das Marvel-Prequel „Black Widow“ (7. Mai), gefolgt von der neuesten Ausgabe von Universal „Fast & Furious“ (28. Mai). Das Problem: Niemand ist besonders bemüht, den Markt zu testen, indem er zuerst geht – besonders nicht nach dem, was mit Christopher Nolans „Tenet“ passiert ist.

Warner Bros. hatte im September mit der Veröffentlichung von „Tenet“ versucht, den Kinobesuch anzukurbeln, obwohl viele Theater noch geschlossen waren und andere nur über eine begrenzte Kapazität verfügten. Der Film sammelte weltweit 363 Millionen US-Dollar, eine unter den gegebenen Umständen sehr respektable Summe, die Hollywood dennoch enttäuschte. (Mr. Nolans Filme sammeln normalerweise mehr als das Doppelte dieser Menge.)

In jüngerer Zeit hat „Wonder Woman 1984“ weltweit anämische 143 Millionen US-Dollar eingespielt, wobei die sofortige Online-Verfügbarkeit in den USA den Ticketverkauf unterbot und die Angst vor dem wiederauflebenden Virus untergrub.

Kurz nachdem MGM den neuen Termin für “No Time to Die” angekündigt hatte, mischte Sony Pictures seinen Zeitplan und brachte “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” vom 11. Juni auf den 11. November und “Morbius” mit Jared Leto als Marvel-Pseudovampir 21. Januar 2022, ab 8. Oktober, wo es mit einem bestimmten britischen Superspion konkurriert hätte.

Fannie Mae und Freddie Mac meldeten Hypothekenausfälle nach dem Hurrikan Harvey in Texas im Jahr 2017, ein Zeichen dafür, dass extremes Wetter ein Problem für den Immobilienmarkt darstellt.Anerkennung…Eric Thayer für die New York Times

Am Vorabend der Amtseinführung von Präsident Biden gab die Bundesanstalt für Wohnungswesen eine stille Ankündigung ab, die Bände über die Änderungen der Finanzregulierung spricht. Die Agentur, die Fannie Mae und Freddie Mac beaufsichtigt, bat um Beiträge zum Risikomanagement des Klimawandels und stellte fest, dass eine „wachsende Zahl von Forschungsarbeiten“ zur Bedrohung der Wirtschaft durch extremes Wetter durchgeführt wurde.

Das Timing sieht verdächtig aus, ist aber zufällig, sagten Vertreter der Agentur gegenüber DealBook. Es mag wie eine Kehrtwende der Agentur von Mark Calabria erscheinen, einem libertären Ökonomen, der von einem Präsidenten ernannt wurde, der die Klimawissenschaft entlassen hat. Aber der Umzug sollte einer neuen, grünen Regierung nicht gefallen, betonten sie. Extremwetter ist ein offensichtliches Problem für den Immobilienmarkt, wie Fannie und Freddie nach dem Hurrikan Harvey in Texas im Jahr 2017 mit Hypothekenausfällen feststellten. Herr Kalabrien hat seit langem ein Forschungs- und Datenteam aufgebaut, dem bald ein Umweltökonom angehören soll .

Der Wechsel im Weißen Haus könnte mächtige neue Partner bringen. Die Kandidatin für das Finanzministerium, Janet Yellen, sagte, sie werde “jemanden auf sehr hoher Ebene” ernennen, um einen Hub im Finanzministerium zu schaffen, der sich auf den Klimawandel und die Risiken des Finanzsystems konzentriert. Viele der anderen Nominierten von Herrn Biden verfügen über grüne Referenzen und bilden „das größte Team von Experten für Klimawandel, das jemals im Weißen Haus versammelt wurde“.

Der Schritt steht im Einklang mit einer grundlegenden Änderung der Einstellung der Finanzaufsichtsbehörden zum Risiko. sagte Mark Zandi, Moody’s Chefökonom. Die Commodity Futures Trading Commission und die Federal Reserve haben sich in jüngsten Berichten mit Klimarisiken befasst. Angesichts der Prioritäten der neuen Verwaltung können die Agenturen jetzt schnell auf Klimaschutzinitiativen reagieren.

“Wir haben einen dieser seltenen Momente der Hoffnung”, sagte Tim Mohin vom Start-up Persefoni für die Kohlenstoffbilanzierung, der über 30 Jahre lang gesehen hat, dass Klimarisiken von einem Randbegriff zum Mainstream übergehen und in der Regierung und bei Unternehmen wie Apple und China an Nachhaltigkeit arbeiten Intel. “Es gibt keinen Grund, langsam zu fahren.”

Die britische Dienstleistungsbranche, einschließlich des Tourismus, ging im Januar laut dem jüngsten Indexbericht der Einkaufsmanager von IHS Markit stark zurück.Anerkennung…Will Oliver / EPA, über Shutterstock

  • Die Aktien fielen am Freitag, und die Wall Street verzeichnete einen Rekordwert, da die Daten zeigten, dass sich die Wirtschaft in Europa aufgrund von Pandemiebeschränkungen abschwächt.

  • Der S & P 500 fiel im frühen Handel um rund ein halbes Prozent. In Europa fiel die Benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 um 1 Prozent, was zu einem zweiten wöchentlichen Rückgang in Folge führte, während der FTSE 100 in Großbritannien um 0,6 Prozent fiel. Die meisten Indizes in Asien gingen ebenfalls zurück.

  • Neue Daten zeigten eine anhaltende Verlangsamung der europäischen Volkswirtschaften. Laut den Einkaufsmanagerindizes von IHS Markit war die britische Dienstleistungsbranche im Januar stark rückläufig, während das deutsche verarbeitende Gewerbe und die französische Dienstleistungsbranche ebenfalls stärker schrumpften als von Ökonomen prognostiziert.

  • Die Anteile an Cineworld, der Muttergesellschaft von Regal Cinemas, der zweitgrößten Kinokette in den USA, fielen im Londoner Handel, nachdem das Erscheinungsdatum von „No Time to Die“, dem 25. Film in der James Bond-Reihe, verzögert wurde drittes Mal am späten Donnerstag. Die Aktien von AMC Entertainment, der größten US-amerikanischen Theaterkette, fielen im US-Handel um mehr als 3 Prozent.

  • Intel fiel um mehr als 4 Prozent, nachdem der neue Geschäftsführer Patrick Gelsinger am Donnerstag angekündigt hatte, dass das Unternehmen seine Chips weiterhin intern herstellen werde. Er sagte auch, er wolle, dass das Unternehmen seine Position als “unbestrittener Marktführer in der Prozesstechnologie” wiedererlangt. Einige Analysten haben vorgeschlagen, dass Intel sein Fertigungsgeschäft in einem stärkeren Wettbewerb ausgliedern sollte. Die Aktien von AMD, einem Wettbewerber, stiegen um mehr als 3 Prozent.

  • IBM ging um fast 10 Prozent zurück, nachdem das Unternehmen bekannt gegeben hatte, dass der Umsatz in allen Geschäftsbereichen, einschließlich Cloud-Software, gesunken ist.

  • Siemens, das große deutsche Fertigungs- und Maschinenbauunternehmen, legte um mehr als 5 Prozent zu, nachdem das Unternehmen dank der wirtschaftlichen Erholung in China ein besser als erwartetes Ergebnis erzielt hatte.

Ein Loon-Ballon über Neuseeland im Jahr 2013. Ziel des Projekts war es, unterversorgte Teile der Welt mit einem drahtlosen Mobilfunksignal zu versorgen.Anerkennung…John Shenk über die European Pressphoto Agency

Loon, eine bekannte Tochtergesellschaft von Googles Muttergesellschaft Alphabet, die Heißluftballons verwenden wollte, um die Mobilfunkverbindung in entlegene Teile der Welt zu bringen, wird geschlossen.

Fast ein Jahrzehnt nach Beginn des Projekts sagte Alphabet am Donnerstag, dass es Loon den Stecker gezogen habe, weil es keinen Weg gesehen habe, die Kosten für die Schaffung eines nachhaltigen Geschäfts zu senken, berichtet Daisuke Wakabayashi von der New York Times. Loon war eines der am meisten gehypten „Moonshot“ -Technologieprojekte, die aus Alphabets Forschungslabor X hervorgegangen sind.

Die Idee hinter Loon war es, Mobilfunkverbindungen in entfernte Teile der Welt zu bringen, in denen der Aufbau eines traditionellen Mobilfunknetzes zu schwierig und zu kostspielig wäre. Alphabet bewarb die Technologie als einen potenziell vielversprechenden Weg, um nicht nur den “nächsten Milliarden” Verbrauchern, sondern auch den “letzten Milliarden” Internet-Konnektivität zu bieten.

Google begann 2011 mit der Arbeit an Loon und begann 2013 mit einem öffentlichen Test. Loon wurde 2018 eine eigenständige Tochtergesellschaft, einige Jahre nachdem Google eine Holdinggesellschaft namens Alphabet geworden war. Im April 2019 akzeptierte das Unternehmen eine Investition von 125 Millionen US-Dollar von einer SoftBank-Einheit namens HAPSMobile, um den Einsatz von „Höhenfahrzeugen“ zur Bereitstellung von Internetverbindungen voranzutreiben.

Im vergangenen Jahr wurde der erste kommerzielle Einsatz der Technologie mit Telkom Kenia angekündigt, um eine 4G-LTE-Netzwerkverbindung zu einem fast 31.000 Quadratmeilen großen Gebiet in Zentral- und Westkenia, einschließlich der Hauptstadt Nairobi, bereitzustellen. Zuvor waren die Ballons nur in Notsituationen eingesetzt worden, beispielsweise nachdem der Hurrikan Maria das Mobilfunknetz von Puerto Rico ausgeschaltet hatte.

Laut einem Bericht von November in The Information hatte Loon jedoch langsam kein Geld mehr und sich an Alphabet gewandt, um sein Geschäft liquide zu halten, während er einen anderen Investor für das Projekt suchte.