- WorldQuartz
Six days into the lockdown, here’s how much air quality has improved in major Indian cities
Indians cities are breathing easy. Air quality in Delhi, notorious for being the worst in the world, is in “healthy zone” thanks to the nationwide, 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. Other metropolitan and tier-2 cities, too, are witnessing a similar trend.
689689 reactions - BusinessBloomberg
Paying $4.79 a Gallon, California Didn’t Get the Cheap Gas Memo
(Bloomberg) -- At least there’s this: The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has fallen below $2 for the first time in four years.That’s average -- which California is not. As crude oil prices have tanked, depressed by the coronavirus pandemic and the market-share war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, at least a dozen service stations in the Golden State are charging more than $4, according to the tracker GasBuddy. One unnamed location in Santa Clara, near the heart of Silicon Valley, was on Monday demanding the most that GasBuddy’s research found in the state: $4.79.According to AAA, only Hawaii has higher average prices than California, at $3.36 versus $3.06. That compared to the lowest of 95 cents at one outlet in Oklahoma and another in Wisconsin, according to GasBuddy. Meanwhile, in New York, just five stations are asking more than $3 and neighboring Connecticut doesn’t have a posting at more than $2.99, GasBuddy found -- though suburban Connecticut residents will tell you they’ve seen signs for $3-plus.The U.S. has always been a very mixed market when it comes to gasoline, with different taxes and smog-control regulations in different states. Another thing California and Hawaii have in common: They’re nowhere close to the shale formations producing most of the nation’s crude. In contrast, Texas -- home of the oil-rich Permian Basin and almost a third of the country’s fuel refining capacity -- boasts pump prices averaging about $1.75.But wherever you are filling up, with the U.S. benchmark crude fetching just about $20 a barrel on the futures market -- near the lowest level in 18 years -- you should expect to see downward pressure at the pump, even in California.“There’s clearly going to be a drop,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the energy security and climate change program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Local supply and demand will play a role in the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s going to be regionally influenced because some people are more compliant with the shelter-in-place orders than others.”In California, there have been mitigating factors. An explosion late last month at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Los Angeles-area refinery prompted wholesale gasoline prices in Southern California to jump at the time the most in seven weeks.“And then Covid happened,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “California has a lot of catching up to do.”It will always lag, though, price-wise. California adopted the nation’s cleanest fuel formulas in the 1990s in a bid to reduce its infamous smog. The side effect was cutting the state off from the national fuel market. Few refineries outside the state make the California-grade gasoline.For all that, average gasoline prices actually declined more in California last week than nationally -- 14 cents compared with 10 cents. De Haan said prices along the West Coast could fall as much as $1 a gallon over the next month.“The West Coast without a doubt has the most distance for average prices to fall,” he said. How low, nobody knows.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- WorldReuters
Exclusive: Japan businessman paid $8.2 million by Tokyo Olympics bid lobbied figure at center of French corruption probe
TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - A businessman who received millions of dollars for his work on Tokyo's successful campaign to host the 2020 Olympics, which was postponed last week due to the coronavirus, said he played a key role in securing the support of a former Olympics powerbroker suspected by French prosecutors of taking bribes to help Japan's bid. Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive at the advertising agency Dentsu Inc, was paid $8.2 million by the committee that spearheaded Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Games, according to financial records reviewed by Reuters. Takahashi told Reuters his work included lobbying International Olympic Committee members like Lamine Diack, the ex-Olympics powerbroker, and that he gave Diack gifts, including digital cameras and a Seiko watch.
- U.S.Business Insider
Fauci says that lifting lockdowns is 'a matter of weeks' and depends on the availability of 15-minute coronavirus testing
"If we need to push the date forward, we will push the date forward," Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN Sunday.
- U.S.Variety
Twitter Requires Fox News’ Laura Ingraham to Delete Post With ‘Misleading’ Coronavirus Claims
Twitter, stepping up its enforcement of misleading and harmful coronavirus-related claims, required Fox News host Laura Ingraham to delete a tweet from 10 days ago that misrepresented details of an unproven treatment for coronavirus. In the now-deleted tweet from March 20, Ingraham, host of the cable network's "The Ingraham Angle," wrote, "Lenox Hill [Hospital] in […]
- HealthGood Morning America
I’m 28. My boyfriend and I both tested positive for COVID-19. Here's my message
A 28-year-old who said she and her boyfriend tested positive for the novel coronavirus is speaking out in hopes to remind the public that young, healthy adults are still at risk. Noemi Orofino and her boyfriend Julian, 31, are now in recovery after fighting the COVID-19 virus, the new respiratory illness in which hundreds of thousands have been diagnosed globally, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Orofino, who works in fashion, began documenting her journey on Instagram after revealing she was positive.
- CelebrityYahoo Lifestyle
Elizabeth Hurley shares sexy photo while in 'lockdown' with family: 'Finally washed my hair, put on some makeup'
The 54-year-old told fans she's quarantining in the countryside with family members and friends, some of whom are high-risk.
