Economics

XPrize to give $5 million to creator of cheap, fast COVID-19 testing Google and Amazon are backing it, among others. Shannon Connellan Mashable

Tech giants including Google and Amazon pledged support for a $5 million competition to accelerate cheap and fast COVID-19 testing in the U.S.

Jamie Dimon's warning for the U.S. economy — nobody knows what comes next More than four months into the coronavirus pandemic, the financial damage wrought by the outbreak has yet to fully register. Hugh Son CNBC

• The range of outcomes for the economy in the second half is incredibly wide: JPMorgan Chase sees no fewer than five different paths it can take.
• The bank has gotten more pessimistic, seeing unemployment in its default “base” scenario hitting nearly 11% by the end of this year, 4.3% worse than when it made the same forecast in April.

Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 17, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

CLICK HERE - UN - Principles for Responsible Banking

reuters.com - by Matthew Green - September 22, 2019

Banks with more than $47 trillion in assets, or a third of the global industry, adopted new U.N.-backed “responsible banking” principles to fight climate change on Sunday that would shift their loan books away from fossil fuels.

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Citigroup (C.N) and Barclays (BARC.L) were among 130 banks to join the new framework on the eve of a United Nations summit in New York aimed at pushing companies and governments to act quickly to avert catastrophic global warming.

“These principles mean banks have to consider the impact of their loans on society – not just on their portfolio,” Simone Dettling, banking team lead for the Geneva-based United Nations Environment Finance Initiative, told Reuters.

This satellite image provided by NASA shows the fires in Brazil on Aug. 20, 2019. As fires raged in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government on Thursday denounced international critics who say President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb widespread deforestation. (NASA via AP)

apnews.com - by MARCELO SILVA de SOUSA - August 23, 2019

Amid global concern about raging fires in the Amazon, Brazil’s government complained Thursday that it is being targeted in smear campaign by critics who contend President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb widespread deforestation.

The threat to what some call “the lungs of the planet” has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who has described Brazil’s rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development and who traded Twitter jabs on Thursday with France’s president over the fires.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the wildfires an international crisis and said the leaders of the Group of 7 nations should hold urgent discussions about them at their summit in France this weekend.