More than a month after Tara Reade publicly accused Joe Biden, of sexually assaulting her in 1993, CNN has published just two news reports on the allegations. By comparison, the network has published more than 10 times as many news items on Tara Reid, the C-list actress best known for her role in the American Pie and Sharknado franchises. Their first story covering the Tara Reade allegations, was April 17, more than three weeks after Reade recounted her story in a podcast interview.
Contrast this with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who came forward with her accusation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. CNN published more than 400 items on its website related to the allegations.
Since Reade’s allegation was made public, Biden has been interviewed multiple times on major media networks, including twice by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. He has yet to be asked about the accusation. So far, his only public response has been a denial in a statement from a campaign official.
CNN’s second article on Reade’s allegation, published April 25, concerns the existence of potentially corroborating evidence for Reade’s claim—a CNN broadcast of Larry King Live from August 1993 in which Reade’s mother called into the program to ask for advice on how to handle the “problems” her daughter experienced while “working for a prominent senator.” CNN wasn’t even the first media outlet to uncover the clip from its own archives.
Business Insider on Monday published an interview with a former neighbor of Reade’s, Lynda LaCasse, who recalled discussing the details of the alleged assault with Reade at the time.”This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it,” said LaCasse, who supports Biden for president.
Reply to this email and let us know, do you think CNN will survive long-term? ! want to know what you think.
Volvo’s Polestar Electric car to focus on Safety
Electric cars don’t crash the same way as the traditional automobile, built with an internal-combustion engine. EVs are different specifically in where their powertrain parts are located in the vehicle. Polestar, Volvo Cars’ electric vehicle brand, used some smart engineering solutions in its Tesla Model 3 competitor, the Polestar 2.
Polestar designed the 2 to include the battery pack in the car’s structure. Not only does this provide a stiffer body structure, but it also minimizes the chance of damage. EV batteries are a different ballgame in a crash, and if they catch fire, they don’t burn like gasoline. It’s important to keep the battery protected at all costs, which is also why Polestar included an aluminum case for the battery and designed the battery to automatically disconnect from the rest of the vehicle in the event of a crash.
The whole setup reduces noise and vibration too. So, the Polestar 2 should be safe, quiet, and comfortable.
They’ve also incorporated technology they call SPOC. SPOC stands for Severe Partial Offset Crash and refers to an aluminum block housed in the front of the firewall on either side of the car. In the event of a frontal crash, the SPOC Block minimizes the chance of anything from the car’s exterior crashing through into the interior, which should protect both occupants and, once again, the battery. There are even inner-side airbags in the front seats to further help protect passengers.
When it comes to lower-speed safety, Polestar has the latest advanced driver assistance system, Pilot Assist. It can accelerate, brake and provide steering assistance at speeds up to 81 mph. The Polestar 2 gets a new function that will allow the system to work with GPS to provide acceleration based on the car’s position. Also, no need to anticipate problems with cold weather with this system; every 2 comes with a heated radar cover.
Production of the Polestar 2 began last month in China and deliveries will first start in Europe then China. Volvo’s EV should make its way to the US by the end of this year with a starting price of $59,900.
Tech
“Performance was strong during the first two months of the quarter, but then in March we experienced a significant slowdown in ad revenues,”
That’s how Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat described the quarter in Tuesday’s earnings announcement. She added, “We are sharpening our focus on executing more efficiently, while continuing to invest in our long-term opportunities.”
“Executing more efficeintly means cutting cost. That combined with revenues which, after removing traffic-acquisition costs, grew to $33.7 billion from $29.48 billion in the year-ago period. Lower costs applied to growing revenues is a good thing, long-term.
Google’s profits were damaged even more than expected as the COVID-19 pandemic caused that “significant slowdown in ad revenues.” Parent company Alphabet Inc reported first-quarter earnings of $6.84 billion, or $9.87 a share, compared with $6.66 billion, or $9.50 a share, in the year-ago period, though the 2019 results took a hit from a large fine levied by the European Commission.
Though $33.8 billion of Google’s total quarterly revenue of $41.16 billion came from advertising, a reflection of its continued reliance on a battered market, there is a silver lining. Sales from Google Cloud and YouTube continued to surge, underscoring versatility in the company’s overall product line — YouTube ad revenue increased 33.4% to $4.04 billion from $3.03 billion a year ago, while Google Cloud sales grew to $2.78 billion from $1.83 billion.
The stock was up 8.2% in after hours trading.
New Era for OIL
As the novel coronavirus pandemic crushed global economies, the energy industry took a particularly hard hit, made much worse by an oil price war between OPEC+ countries of Saudi Arabia and Russia. With all that, oil storage was overwhelmed, which sent West Texas Intermediate crude price well below zero, sending shockwaves through global markets. The energy sector has some big decisions to make. International collaboration is needed stabilize markets and that’s not easy to get or keep in place.
A report this week from the World Economic Forum posted “the crisis offers an opportunity to consider a new energy order to enable the energy transition in a sustainable way.” Critics of fossil fuels may have needed a global pandemic to get people to look at alternative fuels.
“Though this is the worst possible way to begin a decade, the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse of oil prices also offer an opportunity to consider unorthodox intervention in the energy markets and global collaboration to support the recovery phase once the acute crisis subsides,” states the World Economic Forum. “This giant reset grants us the option to launch aggressive, forward-thinking and long-term strategies leading to a diversified, secure, and reliable energy system that will ultimately support the future growth of the world economy in a sustainable and equitable way.”
Already, the COVID-19 pandemic and oil price crisis has fostered previously unseen levels of cooperation and collaboration between OPEC and the G20 international forum for governments and central banks. Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States, three petroleum powers that have not historically played nice, were able to reach a deal to mitigate the oil price crash, which “sets a precedent for future collaboration for global energy security and economic growth.” This could be pivotal for the development of meaningful policy and alliances for a global energy transition. “While the impact of this alignment in the short term has been low and insufficient,” says the World Economic Forum, “the medium- and long-term effects could be substantial.”
We all knew that the end of oil was coming. Even Saudi Aramco admitted that they expect peak oil by midcentury. If there were ever a time to change that tune, it’s now.
Epidemiologist Tattoo
It’s not every day that the face of a chief epidemiologist is inked as a tattoo. But then it’s not every country that has tackled the coronavirus pandemic like Sweden.
64-year-old Anders Tegnell was an unknown civil servant at the Public Health Agency but has become the face of Sweden’s strategy to keep schools, restaurants and businesses open during the COVID-19 outbreak. Now the 64-year-old has name recognition on the streets and has been immortalized as a tattoo.
Sweden strategy has not been to stop the virus but to slow the spread enough for the healthcare system to cope. It has not been based on bans but instead on voluntary measures emphasizing social distancing and good hygiene. Even though the plan has prompted some skepticism from policy-makers overseas, around three-quarters of Swedes have expressed high or very high confidence in the Public Health Agency, a survey from Novus showed this month.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s popularity has also surged and more than six out of 10 people have confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.
“I came up with the idea because I believe in our strategy and I believe that the authorities can’t make us stay at home,” said tattoo artist Zashay Rissanen Tastas as he inked Tegnell’s face onto Agerblad. “If we keep our distance it’s probably going to be fine.”
Apparently, this is a very Swedish thing to do, and we will see soon enough if they were right.