Airlines and airports are offering the tests as a way for travelers whose results are negative to avoid quarantines at their destinations, and to revive travelers’ faith in flying.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks at a White House press conference.
Reuters
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said any bipartisan stimulus agreement would include another round of $1,200 checks for Americans.
"We have reached an agreement that if there is a deal, there are direct payments similar to last time that are in the package," he said of talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Millions of $1,200 federal checks were sent to individuals earlier this spring.
A stimulus deal would likely carry a price tag that's $1.5 trillion or above, and its unclear that Senate Republicans long resistant to spending would back a plan of that size.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday evening that any stimulus agreement will contain a second round of $1,200 direct payments to American taxpayers.
In an interview on Fox Business, Mnuchin reiterated the Trump administration's opposition to the $2.2 trillion economic aid plan that Democrats are pressing for and said they prioritized getting people back to work instead.
But the Treasury secretary said an agreement was struck with Speaker Nancy Pelosi that an economic relief package will include federal checks for individuals.
"We have reached an agreement that if there is a deal, there are direct payments similar to last time that are in the package," he said.
Mnuchin also said the White House was seeking to provide more federal aid to small businesses, schools, and additional funds to coronavirus testing and tracing as well.
"If there is a fair compromise, we're prepared to do it," he said, adding, "there are a lot of areas where we have an agreement on."
Mnuchin's comments signal that the White House may be making progress with Democrats on another economic aid package. On Wednesday, he met with Pelosi on Capitol Hill for the first time since talks collapsed in August. The pair have been negotiating for four days.
Still, if a last-minute deal is reached between Democrats and the White House, it's unclear whether Republicans in the Senate would back a plan likely carrying a price tag that's $1.5 trillion or above.
Many GOP senators oppose spending proposals that grow the federal debt. Lawmakers have approved over $3 trillion in federal aid since the pandemic began devastating the economy in the spring.
A "skinny" relief plan from Republicans including only $300 billion in new spending sparked significant opposition within their party earlier this month. It omitted stimulus payments to keep its cost down.
Democrats initially prepared a Wednesday evening House vote on their $2.2 trillion spending package. But they pushed it back until Thursday in hope of allowing more time for an agreement with the White House, CNN reported. It's unlikely the Democratic plan will become law given staunch GOP opposition.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tore into the Democratic plan on Wednesday, saying it was "outlandish" and the amount was "too high."
In March, Congress and Trump approved $1,200 stimulus checks for many American adults plus an additional $500 per child under the age of 17 through the CARES Act. Individuals qualified for a full payment when they earned below $75,000 a year. For married couples, the threshold was $150,000.
Trump has long backed sending another wave of direct payments.
The US is now mostly reporting 700 thousand to 1 million tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections (probably close to 1%), so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly (or take actions to push down the number of new infections).
There were 715,182 test results reported over the last 24 hours.
There were 44,391 positive tests.
Over 23,000 Americans died from COVID in September. See the graph on US Daily Deaths here.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
The dashed line is the June low.
Note that there were very few tests available in March and April, and many cases were missed (the percent positive was very high - see first graph). By June, the percent positive had dropped below 5%.
If people stay vigilant, the number of cases might drop to the June low towards the end of October (that would still be a large number of new cases, but progress).
Red Bull has laid off around 50 people in recent weeks and named a new CMO in Ken Turner, reports Patrick Coffee.
The employees affected were mostly in its culture marketing teams that oversaw projects tying the energy drink brand to hip-hop music and breakdancing culture.
The shakeup follows the firings of North America CEO Stefan Kozak and CMO Amy Taylor after leaks of an employee letter urging more support for Black Lives Matter and a racially offensive slide from a company meeting.
It's not just brand promotions — creators make money off their online success in a number of ways, report Amanda Perelli, Sydney Bradley, and Dan Whateley.
From ads on videos to selling merchandise, and earning revenue through affiliate marketing, creators have several potential revenue streams across platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Molson Coors is making Topo Chico its third hard seltzer launch of 2020 under a deal with Coca-Cola, reports Alex Bitter.
Topo Chico's "really strong following," stemming from its origins as a brand popular in Texas and Mexico, will help it grow across the US, Molson Coors CMO Michelle St. Jacques told Business Insider.
Beverage companies have piled onto hard seltzer, and St. Jacques said that the company's strategy, which includes expanding into the category, "still holds true despite the pandemic."
Moderator Chris Wallace tried to keep order during the debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
The first 2020 presidential debate was a chaotic mess filled with yelling, constant interruptions, and unintelligible cross-talk.
Melissa Petro, a New York-based freelance writer with two small children, says that next time around, we should give the job of moderator to a mother — "assuming there's one out there with some room on her plate."
Mothers know how to confront bullies, institute moral behavior in others, and lead by example, she writes.
We need a grown-up in the room — and studies show that women's participation in peace negotiations leads to more successful outcomes.
Thirty minutes into the exchange between President Trump and Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, I fell asleep on the sofa, a pile of unfolded laundry at my feet.
As the mother of two children under three — our second born just weeks before our toddler's daycare was shuttered as New Yorkers were ordered to "shelter in place" — this is a typical scenario: It's hard to stay awake through a favorite TV program, let alone what is being described as "a shambolic shout fest, with scarcely a single morsel of substance to be found."
From what I saw, this analysis sounds accurate: Instead of a constructive dialogue, two grown men — bidding for control of what was once a powerful nation — interrupted one another and volleyed personal attacks.
For his part, Biden tried to address the American people and present his plan to lead the nation out of an unprecedented public health crisis and the worst economic downturn since the Great depression, while Trump lobbed unfounded accusations and made-up statistics, displayed his racism, and stoked division between moderate Democrats and the Progressive Left.
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News lost control within minutes.
After convivially welcoming all and explaining the rules, both candidates spoke for their allotted two minutes before the debate devolved into what Wallace called "open discussion." Wallace struggled to regain an appearance of authority, admonishing the president for speaking over Biden and disregarding the rules. The awkward exchange repeated throughout the night, Wallace rebuking the president, who'd respond with something along the lines of "nu uh, I did not!" and "he did it first!"
Writer Melissa Petro is a mom of two.
Melissa Petro
You know, the kind of retorts you'd expect from a badly behaved preschooler — not a 74-year-old man. And certainly not the president.
I imagine mothers across America, if not passed out from exhaustion, poised on the edge of their seat, all but jumping through their TV screen to intervene just as we would if we witnessed a squabble in a sandbox. It made me think: Next debate, we ought to hand the job of moderator over to a mother — assuming there's one out there with some room on her plate.
Moms know how to deal with bullies.
Temper tantrums. Not listening. Poor impulse control. President Trump is incoherent but speaks vigorously, much like my toddler desperately negotiating one last story before bedtime or adamantly refusing to eat anything other than green Jell-O for lunch.
When he snatches a toy from his playmate's hands, then cries victim as his friend takes it back, or insists he didn't hit his sister when I literally just saw him do it, my son isn't being a manipulative little jerk; he's being a typical 3-year-old, still learning social conventions and moral behavior, and developmentally incapable of moral beliefs.
Children display these traits because their communication skills are limited, and they have immature egos. What's your excuse, Trump?
Moms know a lot about instituting moral behavior in others.
Had a mom been last night's moderator, instead of the night descending into madness, I imagine she'd have brought the discussion back to the issues at hand.
One pressing issue: In a consequential number of American homes, it has become the mother's job — in addition to her paid work and other unpaid responsibilities — to keep our families safe during a global pandemic and somehow replicate what is being lost with the closure of schools, libraries and community centers.
I am one of four moms wrangling a pod of four toddlers plus the baby four days a week, tasked with a professional educator's job of socializing my neighbors' children along with my own. Moms like me across America are teaching the next generation the social conventions that President Trump seems to lack, along with everything else kids typically gain from in-person social encounters.
It's rewarding work, but it's also exhausting — and it is repugnant to think this hard work is necessary as a consequence of our president's incompetence.
Last night's debate failed to hold President Trump accountable.
While other nations heeded scientists' advice and took the COVID-19 pandemic seriously — shutting down nonessential businesses, and ordering citizens to shelter in place — Trump lied to Americans, and downplayed the threat.
Leaders of other countries mandated masks, conducted mass testing and instituted contact tracing to contain the situation so that their schools could safely reopen in the fall. By contrast, our leader repeatedly undermined experts, said COVID-19 would go away on its own, and asked why we couldn't just inject ourselves with disinfectant. It's a great question when asked by a 4-year old; it's terrifying coming from the Chief of State.
I vividly recall how, during the 2016 debate, he skulked behind then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, attacking her in ways that only a man can attack a woman, that smug sneer on his face. His demeanor is triggering, particular for women and others who've grown up in chaotic homes or experienced abuse.
After a long day with my kids, perhaps my disengaging last night was a much-needed if not inadvertent act of self care. Day after day, my toddler tests me, and I frequently lose my temper — and so I sympathize when Biden capitulates to Trump's taunts.
Last night, Biden called Trump a "clown," and said "you are the worst president in American history." When Biden said "Will you just shut up, man," I realize he was only being human. Still, as a mother, I cringed. So much for modeling kindness and respect.
We need a moderator who will keep the focus — not get caught in the fray.
The risk in allowing the next debate to turn into mayhem is that it alienates both sides, and the pandemic is already expected to suppress voter turnout. We can't let that happen — not when nothing short of our children's futures is at stake.
Black children and families are in particular peril. Last night Biden cited a horrific statistic to argue that President Trump has not been good for Black Americans: 1 in 1,000 Black Americans have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. We need a moderator who takes that seriously, as opposed to Wallace who said "I'm going to ask a question about race. If you wanna respond about something else, you can." A mother would say something more along the lines of, "Oh no, mister, you are going to answer that question" and then withhold dessert until they do.
President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in their first 2020 presidential campaign debate held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, September 29, 2020.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor who moderated the first presidential debate on Tuesday night called the event a "terrible missed opportunity," The New York Times reported.
President Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted both the Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Wallace throughout the 90-minute debate.
The debate garnered criticism and worry from both domestic and international observers.
Chris Wallace called the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden a "terrible missed opportunity," The New York Times reported.
"I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did," Wallace, a "Fox News Sunday" anchor who moderated the debate said.
The debate between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Biden was a chaotic and tense 90-minute affair, with Trump relentlessly talking over and insulting Biden, prompting the former vice president to scold Trump within the first 20 minutes of the debate.
"I'm just disappointed with the results. For me, but much more importantly, I'm disappointed for the country, because it could have been a much more useful evening than it turned out to be," Wallace told The Times about the debate.
The debate garnered criticism and worry from both domestic and international watchers.
France's Le Monde described it as "worrying for American democracy," and The Guardian in the UK called the debate "a national humiliation."
Wallace was incredulous in his interview with The Times: "I guess I didn't realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president's strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate."
Wallace said that while he initially thought Trump directly speaking to Biden was setting the stage for an actual debate, he grew more alarmed as Trump refused to back down.
"If I didn't try to seize control of the debate — which I don't know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks," he told the newspaper.
Wallace said he did the best he could and advised the moderators for the upcoming debates to "be quicker to realize what's going on than I was. I didn't have that advance warning."
The US is now mostly reporting over 700,000 tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections, so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly (or take actions to push down the number of new infections).
There were 744,476 test results reported over the last 24 hours.
There were 36,947 positive tests.
Over 22,000 Americans have died from COVID so far in September. See the graph on US Daily Deaths here.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
The dashed line is the June low.
Note that there were very few tests available in March and April, and many cases were missed (the percent positive was very high - see first graph). By June, the percent positive had dropped below 5%.
If people stay vigilant, the number of cases might drop to the June low some time in October (that would still be a large number of new cases, but progress).
Tuesday:
• At 9:00 AM ET: S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Index for July. The consensus is for a 3.8% year-over-year increase in the Comp 20 index for July.
House Democrats unveiled a new $2.2 trillion stimulus plan that includes reviving the $600 federal unemployment benefits until the end of January and additional stimulus checks.
It also includes funds for education, coronavirus testing, and contact tracing.
State aid and federal unemployment benefits form two areas of friction between Republicans and Democrats.
Relief negotiations have been deadlocked since early August.
House Democrats unveiled late on Monday a new $2.2 trillion stimulus plan which includes reviving $600 federal unemployment benefits and a second round of stimulus checks for millions of American taxpayers.
The new proposal — still named the Heroes Act — comes after House Democrats passed a $3.4 trillion spending package in May. It initially formed the basis of their coronavirus relief negotiations with Republicans, though they have lowered their demands and now insist on at least $2.2 trillion in new spending.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she aimed to bring Republicans back to the negotiating table with the new proposal.
"Democrats are making good on our promise to compromise with this updated bill, which is necessary to address the immediate health and economic crisis facing America's working families right now," she said in a letter to members of her caucus.
Here are several of the package's provisions:
$600 federal unemployment benefits until January 31, retroactive from Sept. 6.
Another round of $1,200 direct payments, plus $500 per dependent.
$436 billion in additional assistance to state and local governments.
Reinstating the Payroll Protection Program to aid small businesses as well as nonprofits and restaurants.
$225 billion in funds to help schools.
$75 billion for coronavirus testing and contact tracing.
$50 billion in emergency rental assistance, half of what Democrats initially sought.
Many components of the last major economic stimulus law, the CARES Act, expired over the summer, and Congress hasn't implemented other relief measures since.
Through an executive order in August, Trump implemented a Lost Wages Assistance program that drew $44 billion in disaster relief funding from the Federal Emergency Management Administration to cover a $300 federal supplement to state unemployment benefits.
That federal money is drying up, though FEMA guaranteed six weeks of funding to approved states through Sept. 5, roughly the same date that a new $600 federal benefit could take effect under the new stimulus proposal.
Both chambers of chambers of Congress would need to approve the Democratic plan so it reaches President Donald Trump's desk for his signature. But that prospect is highly uncertain given Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked on further coronavirus relief measures.
Negotiations in August stalled amid fierce disagreements over the amount of federal spending needed to prop up the economy. Unemployment benefits and state aid are still two areas of major friction between both parties.
A "skinny" $650 billion stimulus package from the GOP was blocked by Democrats earlier this month, who dismissed it as "emaciated" and inadequate to address the twin public health and economic crises.
Many economists have urged Congress to approve another relief package to keep people and businesses afloat through the pandemic and prevent the economy from backsliding. But the prospect of a Supreme Court nomination battle in the coming weeks has drained hopes of a package before Americans cast their ballots in November.
Elon Musk appeared to confirm on Monday that the US-based electric-vehicle company is planning to eventually design and manufacture new and differing car models at Gigafactory Shanghai and Berlin.
This comes as Musk recently presented at Tesla's "Battery Day" on September 22 that he expects a $25,000 "fully autonomous electric vehicle" to hit the automobile market in roughly three years.
The comment gives us a glimpse at how Musk envisions the two factories functioning and fitting into Tesla's roadmap of the design and manufacturing of future products.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that the US-based electric vehicle company is eventually planning to manufacture two new and differing car models at its Gigafactories abroad.
"Both will do original cars," Musk said in response to a tweet about the Gigafactories in Shanghai and Berlin and their respective design factories.
Musk's remark expands the understanding of what Tesla's eventual roadmap is for its expanded supply chain, and hints that Tesla is planning to both design and manufacture news models in those two locations.
Musk also confirmed that the $25,000, "fully autonomous" vehicle he teased during last week's Battery Day event won't be a low-cost version of a current vehicle. "We aren't cutting the price of Model 3 to $25k," Musk tweeted. The cheapest version of the Model 3 now starts at $35,000.
"We're confident that long term, we can design and manufacture a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle," Musk said at Battery Day. "This has always been our dream, from the beginning of the company." He estimated that the goal is for the cheaper car, which would be Tesla's least expensive yet, to be ready in around three years.
Musk made the announcement in November that he planned to build a Gigafactory in Berlin, stating that the first European location would be home to both an engineering and design center, according to CNBC.
In January, Car and Driver reported that Musk said that Tesla planned to build a new design studio in China where it would produce the Model 3.
Business Insider reported in August that Musk said that it's "highly likely" Tesla will eventually create a smaller version of the Cybertruck, which is about the size of the bigger versions of the Ford F-150. It could be marketed overseas where vehicle and road policies have led to a relatively weaker demand for large-sized trucks.
Tesla plans to construct the originally announced Cybertruck by the end of 2021 at Gigafactory Austin.
"We're really, fundamentally making this truck as a North American ass-kicker, basically," Musk said in an interview with Automotive News. "The goal is to kick the most amount of ass possible with this truck."
Aside from the Cybertruck and yet-to-be-named $25,000 vehicle, Tesla is also working to launch the Tesla Semi and an all-new Roadster.
Click on graph for larger image.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
Click on graph for larger image.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
Click on graph for larger image.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
Click on graph for larger image.
The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported.
