socialobserver: August 2021

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Social Security is projected to be insolvent a year earlier than previously forecast.

By BY ALAN RAPPEPORT AND MARGOT SANGER-KATZ from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3Dx0B4j

In a few pockets of Afghanistan, resistance fighters are still opposing the Taliban.

By BY SHARIF HASSAN AND JIM HUYLEBROEK from NYT World https://ift.tt/3DBUtaP

Teenage Lifeguard Killed in Lightning Strike: ‘It Was Like a Bomb’

By BY ASHLEY WONG from NYT New York https://ift.tt/38t4EAh

Huracanes y cambio climático: esto es lo que sabemos

By BY VERONICA PENNEY from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2WHlLfh

Reflections on Our Summer Reading Contest and Our Final Week of Winners

By BY NATALIE PROULX from NYT The Learning Network https://ift.tt/3ywJsnD

College Football Changes: More 2-Point Tries and a Crackdown on Stadium Gamesmanship

By BY ALAN BLINDER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3mOFiFx

This Is the Moment the Anti-Vaccine Movement Has Been Waiting for

By BY TARA HAELLE from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3jxvtcV

Bangladeshi manufacturers criticize the expansion of a deal to protect workers.

By BY ELIZABETH PATON from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3kIOkkr

There’s a Better Way to Stop Ransomware Attacks

By BY PAUL ROSENZWEIG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3BvP17Q

Revocatoria a Gavin Newsom: una guía para los votantes

By BY JILL COWAN AND SHAWN HUBLER from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/3jz4k9D

Governors DeSantis and Abbott, ‘Undermining Public Health’

By Unknown Author from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3kJnyIG

New top story from Time: Parent Company of Jessica Simpson Brand, Joe’s Jeans Files Bankruptcy as Retail Sinks

Sequential Brands Group Inc., the parent company of brands including the Jessica Simpson fashion collection and Joe’s Jeans, filed for bankruptcy protection after the apparel industry was upended by changing consumer habits and the coronavirus pandemic.

The owner and licensor of brands such as Gaiam yoga filed its Chapter 11 petition in Wilmington, Delaware with plans to hold an auction as part of a deal with so-called Term B lenders. Sequential listed debts of $435 million and assets of $443 million in court papers. The company said it has arranged a $150 million loan to help fund its reorganization. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

That loan and the rules for the proposed auction must be approved by the judge overseeing the case.

Sequential shares plunged as much as 62% to $4.59 after the filing, spurring a trading halt.

Retailers across the country have struggled with plunging revenues as Covid-19 precautions led to temporary shutdowns of physical stores and kept consumers at home. J. Crew Group Inc., Neiman Marcus Group LLC and J.C. Penney each filed for bankruptcy earlier in the pandemic.

Many retailers that carry Sequential’s brands were closed for part of last year, denting revenues. In late 2020, the company said it was considering a sale as part of a broad “exploration of strategic alternatives” in an effort to maximize shareholder value. The company unloaded its Heelys sneaker brand in April for $11 million.

In December, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Sequential with violating antifraud, reporting, books and records and internal controls provisions of federal securities laws related to goodwill accounting in 2016 and 2017.

Among the biggest owners of the company is Martha Stewart Family Limited Partnership with nearly 11%, according to court documents.

The case is Sequential Brands Group, Inc. 21-11194, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

Downed lines are making it hard for Entergy to restore power in Louisiana.

By BY IVAN PENN AND PETER EAVIS from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3kCTUFf

The U.S. faces a series of dilemmas in dealing with a Taliban government.

By BY MAX FISHER from NYT World https://ift.tt/3BpMjR9

New Jersey Woman Charged With Selling Fake Vaccine Cards on Instagram

By BY JONAH E. BROMWICH from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3mSTAVt

Hochul directs $65 million for the rollout of booster shots in New York, assuming federal regulators clear them.

By BY GRACE ASHFORD from NYT New York https://ift.tt/2WEXk1E

Players Apologize as Mets Try to Move On From Thumbs Down

By BY DAVID WALDSTEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3kJh4tk

Colm Toibin’s ‘The Magician’ Intimately Recaptures a Literary Giant

By BY DWIGHT GARNER from NYT Books https://ift.tt/3Bxk2Z1

A New Jersey woman is charged with selling hundreds of fake vaccine cards.

By BY JONAH E. BROMWICH from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3DBEf1p

Covid-related disruptions push the Patriots to release Cam Newton.

By BY BEN SHPIGEL AND KEN BELSON from NYT World https://ift.tt/2V5fbi4

Monday, August 30, 2021

New top story from Time: European Union Removes U.S. From Safe Travel List, Recommends Member States Reimpose Restrictions for American Tourists

(BRUSSELS) — The European Union recommended Monday that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infections there.

The decision by the European Council to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel reverses advice that it gave in June, when the bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travelers before the summer tourism season.

The guidance is nonbinding, however, and U.S. travelers should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent.

“Nonessential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed (…) is subject to temporary travel restriction,” the council said in a statement. “This is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on nonessential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travelers.”
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The EU also removed Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia from the list.

The EU has no unified COVID-19 tourism policy and national EU governments have the authority to decide whether they keep their borders open to U.S. tourists. Possible restrictions could include quarantines, further testing requirements upon arrival or even a total ban on all nonessential travel from the U.S.

More than 15 million Americans a year visited Europe before the coronavirus crisis, and new travel restrictions could cost Europe billions.

The recommendation doesn’t apply to Britain, which formally left the EU at the beginning of the year and opened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers from the U.S. earlier this month.

The United States remains on Britain’s “amber” travel list, meaning that fully vaccinated adults arriving from the U.S. to the U.K. don’t have to self-isolate. A COVID-19 test is required three days before arrival in the U.K. and another test is needed two days after arriving.

Meanwhile, the United States has yet to reopen its own borders to EU tourists, despite calls from the bloc for the Biden administration to lift its ban. Adalbert Jahnz, the European Commission spokesperson for home affairs, said Monday that the EU’s executive arm remained in discussions with the U.S. administration as both sides have so far failed to find a reciprocal approach.

In addition to the epidemiological criteria used to determine the countries for which restrictions should be lifted, the European Council said that “reciprocity should also be taken into account on a case by case basis.”

The European Council updates the safe travel list based on criteria relating to coronavirus infection levels. It gets reviewed every two weeks. The threshold for being on the EU list is having not more than 75 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days.

Last week in the U.S. new coronavirus cases averaged over 152,000 a day, turning the clock back to the end of January, and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was around 85,000, a number not seen since early February.

U.S. coronavirus deaths have been over 1,200 a day for several days, seven times higher than they were in early July.

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

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