In a year plagued by widespread layoffs, Amazon is bucking the trend. As of October, the company added 427,300 employees, increasing its workforce to 1.2 million, according to a report by the New York Times. This year, Amazon added roughly 1,400 people a day.
US president-elect Joe Biden’s pick for treasury secretary, economist and former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, has been vocal about her support for carbon taxing.
Whether or not you should travel this Thanksgiving, or even gather at all, comes down to a risk assessment. The truth is, however, that most of us aren’t great at this kind of computation, especially when our judgment is clouded by overriding desire to see loved ones.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed our relationship with fast food. Recent financial disclosures and earnings calls from some of the world’s largest quick-service restaurant companies give us a detailed idea of how they are adapting as a result.
This is tough to swallow. A traditional Thanksgiving dinner for an eight-person family—the turkey, the stuffing, the hours of oven time—is as harmful to the planet as a three-hour car trip.
The members of the 117th Congress make up a number of firsts, including the election of the first two openly gay, Black men. New Mexico became the first state to elect all women of color to the House of Representatives, and 25-year-old Madison Cawthorn will join as the youngest member of congress since 1797. We’ve gathered the demographics of the new cohort. See for yourself how congress’s representation in the upcoming session compares to the last and how well it will reflect the diverse country it serves.
As a global super power, the US has important ties to countries around the world. It’s natural, then, that presidential candidate Joe Biden and president Donald Trump have been talking about those connections on the campaign trail.
Workers hit hard by Covid-19 layoffs may be in for another blow: automation.
In American politics, the candidate who raises the most money nearly always wins. And these votes aren’t cheap. US elections are often some of the most expensive in the world. Less than a month before voting day, both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and president Donald Trump, have already spent over $350 million each on their presidential campaigns.
If you’ve tried buying an exercise bike in recent months, you may have ridden into some trouble.
No other country has an arrangement quite like the US electoral college. That makes it difficult for non-Americans (and, truthfully, many Americans) to understand. It’s why US political pundits are always talking about Ohio and Florida, and what the iconic red-blue election night map really means.
Disney’s Mulan tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing no one.
After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, thousands of people fled the island. The exact headcount, and how many of those moves were temporary or permanent, is hard to nail down. Budget data from cell phone records, federal aid requests, school enrollments, and other indicators tell a story of mass migration. Florida, especially the Orlando area, was by far the top landing spot. New York City and Philadelphia, both with strong existing Puerto Rican communities, were also popular.
Family inheritances will be an increasingly large part of lifetime income for Gen X and Millenials in the UK.
Researchers and pharmaceutical companies around the globe are racing to find an effective coronavirus vaccine. Speed is important. An immunization is likely necessary for any significant return to normality.
Employees at about half of mid-size American companies, and nearly all Fortune 500 firms, participate in some form of mandatory diversity training. It’s a shame it doesn’t work.
As restrictions on movement slowly lift across the world, people are stepping out—to commute, protest, and convene—on to streets visibly changed by the coronavirus pandemic. As cities grapple with the unique transportation challenge of keeping their citizens apart, Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to reimagine our roads.
As communities around the world are starting to open up, many people are hoping to spend time with friends and loved ones they haven’t seen for months of lockdown. There’s no way to eliminate the risk of spreading Covid-19 during those visits. But to help decide who it’s safer to spend time with, an Oxford sociologist asks you to consider the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
As the UK relaxes its stay-at-home rules, a new study reveals how people spent their time indoors. The Office of National Statistics surveyed Brits about their day-to-day lives in March 2020. Country-wide, the data show an uptick in socializing and sleeping, and a significant drop in travel.
From mid-March until recently, most movie theaters around the world were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2 are hard to interpret. Many health experts agree that the tests, which search a blood sample for signs of past infection, are key to reopening the economy, calculating the true death rate of Covid-19, and estimating how close we may be to “herd immunity.”
For governments and researchers seeking ways to control the spread of Covid-19, mobile-phone data is valuable. Tracking the virus and restricting the movement of those infected has been important in reducing cases globally. Using location data from mobile phones can facilitate those initiatives.
