Friday 22 October 2021

COVID-19: Case rates among schoolchildren in England hit new record high, latest figures show - Sky News

  1. COVID-19: Case rates among schoolchildren in England hit new record high, latest figures show  Sky News
  2. UK Covid cases could hit 100000 a day - BBC Newsnight  BBC News
  3. What is plan B and will it happen? The government's winter Covid goals explained  The Times
  4. COVID-19: UK records another 52,009 cases and 115 virus-related deaths, latest daily figures show  Sky News
  5. What are my rights if I think I should be shielding?  ITV News
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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US surgeons test pig kidney transplant in a human - BBC News

  1. US surgeons test pig kidney transplant in a human  BBC News
  2. Pig kidney successfully transplanted into human body in world first  Metro.co.uk
  3. US surgeons successfully transplant pig kidney to human: 'Worked immediately!'  Daily Express
  4. Gravitas: These doctors planted a pig's kidney into a human  WION
  5. Pig kidney successfully connected to human body in world first  Telegraph.co.uk
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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Battlefield 2042 Gameplay Trailer | First Look At New Specialists - GameSpot

  1. Battlefield 2042 Gameplay Trailer | First Look At New Specialists  GameSpot
  2. DICE doubles down on Specialists with response to Battlefield 2042 beta feedback  Eurogamer.net
  3. Battlefield 2042 - Official New Specialists Trailer  IGN
  4. DICE affirms that Battlefield 2042's specialists are here to stay  PC Gamer
  5. 21 Things Every Battlefield Player Should Know  GameSpot
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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‘Sunny Is Just As Smart’: Condoleezza Rice’s ‘Brazenly Condescending’ Back and Forth with ‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Called Out by Viewers



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Merkel urges EU and Poland to ease tension over rule of law dispute - Financial Times

  1. Merkel urges EU and Poland to ease tension over rule of law dispute  Financial Times
  2. EU summit: Respect the club rules, Poland told  BBC News
  3. EU summit to load pressure on Poland over rule of law  The Independent
  4. Angela Merkel plays peacemaker in push against 'Polexit'  The Times
  5. Poland’s ‘Russian roulette’ with the EU  POLITICO Europe
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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TIME’s NFT Community Initiative, TIMEPieces, Announces its First-Ever Artist-in-Residence Program

Today, TIMEPieces, a recently launched web3 community initiative from TIME, announced that 12-year old NFT digital artist Nyla Hayes would serve as its first-ever “Artist-in-Residence.”

Nyla Hayes is the creator of the Long Neckie Collection, which features diverse women with elongated necks inspired by her favorite dinosaur, the Brontosaurus. She is the founder of NFT Children’s Day and was featured in the latest issue of TIME for Kids, whose cover story explored NFT’s in an age-appropriate way, and also recently featured a TIME article on Teen Artists within the NFT space.
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Created to provide artists with the essentials needed to advance their careers through NFTs, TIMEPieces will select an Artist-in-Residence quarterly to develop an intimate, focused collection of art in addition to the larger initiatives featured in the Build a Better Future Genesis Collection which included 40 artists and 4,676 pieces.

These Artist-in-Residence collections will continue to allow TIME to bring art on to the blockchain that marries the artist’s signature style with a renowned TIME franchise. This extends TIME’s nearly 100-year tradition of highlighting great artists and photographers of a given era while leading the brand into new innovative spaces—in this case NFT’s and Web3.

Artists will receive the opportunity to release/drop their work to the TIMEPieces community of collectors and maintain an ongoing and direct relationship with them, engage with artistic peers and leaders in the field—both NFT and traditional—as well as reach new audiences through TIME’s global readership.

Keith A. Grossman, President, TIME stated: “Since launching Long Neckie Ladies, Nyla has inspired many individuals within the NFT community and established herself as a leader amongst the next generation of emerging artists. We are thrilled to announce her as our first Artist-in-Residence for TIMEPieces and are excited to see how she applies her talent to our brand.”

The theme for Nyla’s collection will be announced on Thursday, November 11th, 2021 and the art revealed Wednesday, November 16th on time.com/timepieces. Minting will take place on Thursday, November 17th at nft.time.com.



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Huawei’s Nova 9 is its latest smartphone to launch globally sans Google - The Verge

  1. Huawei’s Nova 9 is its latest smartphone to launch globally sans Google  The Verge
  2. Huawei is back: 50 megapixel Nova 9 is its first phone to launch in over a year  Digital Camera World
  3. Where in the world is the Huawei P50? | Mixed Signals  Tech Advisor
  4. Huawei Nova 9 announced as a Pixel 6 rival with two big issues  TechRadar
  5. Huawei nova 9 launches in Europe with a €499 price tag - comments  GSMArena.com
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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Brian Laundrie search: Attention shifts to parents after human remains found



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Facebook Oversight Board Rebukes Company Over VIP Rules

Facebook Inc.’s Oversight Board said the social media company hadn’t been “fully forthcoming” about internal rules that allowed some high-profile users to be exempt from content restrictions and said it will make recommendations on how to change the system.

In the first of its quarterly transparency reports published Thursday, the board said that on some occasions, Facebook “failed to provide relevant information to the Board,” and in other instances the information it did provide was incomplete.

For example, when Facebook referred the case involving former President Donald Trump to the board, it didn’t mention its internal “cross-check system” that allowed for a different set of rules for high-profile users. Facebook only mentioned cross-check, or XCheck, to the board when asked whether Trump’s page or account had been subject to ordinary content moderation processes.

Read more: Another Facebook Whistleblower Just Testified in British Parliament. Here’s What to Know

The cross-check system was disclosed in recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal, based in part on documents from a whistle-blower. The Journal described how the cross-check system, originally intended to be a quality-control measure for a select few high-profile users and designed to avoid public relations backlash over famous people who mistakenly have their posts taken down, had ballooned to include millions of accounts.

The Oversight Board said it will undertake a review of the cross-check system and make suggestions on how to improve it. As part of the process, Facebook has agreed to share with the board relevant documents about the cross-check system as reported in the Wall Street Journal.



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5 veterans on an advisory board to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema quit in protest, calling her 'one of the principal obstacles to progress'



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‘Did Her Eyes Change Colors or Am I Tripping?’: Ciara’s Beauty Post Comes to a Screeching Halt After Fans Get Distracted By Her Eyes



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A billionaire who supported Trump in 2020 says he talks to Joe Manchin every week and urges him to 'stay tough'



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‘I’m Not Going to Leave You Alone’: Karl-Anthony Towns Reveals How Jordyn Woods Helped Him Deal with the Death of His Mom



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Bosses tell Boris Johnson: Act now to avoid tougher Covid restrictions - Evening Standard

  1. Bosses tell Boris Johnson: Act now to avoid tougher Covid restrictions  Evening Standard
  2. Boris Johnson is acting too slowly on the virus – again – but will he be blamed?  The Independent
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Cleo Smith: $1m reward offered for information about four-year-old girl missing from Australian coastal town - Sky News

  1. Cleo Smith: $1m reward offered for information about four-year-old girl missing from Australian coastal town  Sky News
  2. Cleo Smith: Mark McGowan offers $1million reward for missing Carnarvon girl  Daily Mail
  3. Cleo Smith missing update: Madeleine McCann-style abduction fears with girl, 4, ‘likely snatched from tent...  The Sun
  4. Mark McGowan to make important announcement on missing Cleo  MSN UK
  5. Cleo's mum makes desperate plea for her little girl's return, asking 'My princess, where are you?'  Daily Mail
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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Jack Grealish in agreement with Allan Saint-Maximin after Steve Bruce's Newcastle departure - Chronicle Live

  1. Jack Grealish in agreement with Allan Saint-Maximin after Steve Bruce's Newcastle departure  Chronicle Live
  2. Newcastle SACK Steve Bruce For... ROONEY?!  HITC Sport
  3. Manchester United fans comment on Newcastle United sacking Steve Bruce - Very interesting  The Mag
  4. Newcastle: Steve Bruce inherited a defensive wall and left a pile of bricks in a joyless spell  Daily Mail
  5. Jose Mourinho delivers blunt verdict on vacant Newcastle job  Chronicle Live
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The shipping crisis in California is now so bad that officials should consider declaring a state of emergency, the head of the California Trucking Association says



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How Will Blue America Live With Covid?


By Ross Douthat from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3C09lyI

Thursday 21 October 2021

how much does a drone cost

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Mistake made by county court could lead to mistrial in Ahmaud Arbery case



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Kyrsten Sinema's possible long game



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Evergrande $2.6bn property unit deal collapses

Evergrande rival Hopson Development was set to a buy a £2.6bn stake in the firm before the deal collapsed.

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Live Liverpool weather updates as 'tornado' hits Widnes - Liverpool Echo

  1. Live Liverpool weather updates as 'tornado' hits Widnes  Liverpool Echo
  2. UK weather: ‘TORNADO’ hits Britain with trees sent crashing to the ground and brick walls destroyed in hug...  The Sun
  3. Video footage of Widnes 'tornado' hitting housing estate  Runcorn and Widnes World
  4. Widnes 'tornado' leaves walls collapsed and debris everywhere  Cheshire Live
  5. Widnes tornado leaves trail of destruction in street  Liverpool Echo
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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Samsung will now let you design your own Galaxy Z Flip 3 - The Verge

  1. Samsung will now let you design your own Galaxy Z Flip 3  The Verge
  2. Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 live blog: what on earth is coming?  TechRadar
  3. After today, Samsung has ruined its Galaxy Unpacked events for good  SamMobile
  4. Galaxy Z Flip3 Bespoke Edition: Official Launch Film | Samsung  Samsung
  5. Latest Galaxy Watch 4 update brings new watch faces, gesture controls, and enhanced fall detection  XDA Developers
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


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Parkland shooter pleads guilty to 17 counts of murder - The Guardian

  1. Parkland shooter pleads guilty to 17 counts of murder  The Guardian
  2. Nikolas Cruz: Parkland gunman pleads guilty to murdering 17  BBC News
  3. Parkland school massacre victims reach $25 mln settlement with district -media  Reuters
  4. Parkland victims' families reach $25 million settlement with school district 3 years after massacre  The Washington Post
  5. Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to 17 counts of murder in 2018 Parkland school shooting  NBC News
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Schools and Pediatricians Will Be Key to Biden’s Childhood Vaccine Rollout

The White House outlined its COVID-19 plan to vaccinate younger children which would focus on smaller doses administered with smaller needles if the shots are authorized by regulators.

“We will be ready to get shots in arms,” President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said Wednesday during a White House briefing on the plan, which includes supporting vaccination by primary care doctors and in pharmacies and schools.

The U.S. has ordered enough supply to vaccinate all kids 5 to 11, the White House said in a statement Wednesday.

The vaccination campaign for kids would differ from the one targeting adults and children 12 and older in that it will enlist pediatricians to work with parents, rather than utilizing mass inoculation sites. The vials and needles used to administer doses also will be smaller, the White House said.
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The shots will be available at more than 25,000 doctors’ offices and primary care sites, as well as children’s hospitals and pharmacies.

“The administration will work with states and local partners to make vaccination sites available at schools and other trusted community-based sites across the country,” according to the White House statement.

The doses, which are one-third the strength of the regular dose given to those 12 and up, will be shipped in smaller configurations more easily stored at a typical pediatrician’s office, the White House said. It will be possible to store them for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures and 6 months at ultra-cold temperatures.

The Department of Health and Human Services will also launch an education campaign about the kids’ vaccine.

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration ahead of an advisory panel meeting set for Oct. 26 that could help pave the way for kids ages 5 to 11 could get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the first week in November.

Vaccinating kids could could provide a boost both to Biden’s political fortunes and and public-health goals. Reaching children younger than age 12 would be a crucial step toward ending the pandemic, insulating them from the worst risks of COVID and further shrinking the pool of Americans vulnerable to spreading the virus.

Public approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, and other issues including Afghanistan and his economic agenda, has been falling. Many parents, including the suburban voters Democrats need to keep control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, are eagerly anticipating a vaccine for children. It could also help working parents return to their offices and boost the travel sector with more families finally able to be fully inoculated.

The White House outlined its Covid-19 plan to vaccinate younger children which would focus on smaller doses administered with smaller needles if the shots are authorized by regulators.

“We will be ready to get shots in arms,” President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said Wednesday during a White House briefing on the plan, which stresses the use of supporting school-based vaccine clinics.

The U.S. has ordered enough supply to vaccinate all kids 5 to 11, the White House said in a statement Wednesday.

The vaccination campaign for kids would differ from the one targeting adults and children 12 and older in that it will enlist pediatricians to work with parents, rather than utilizing mass inoculation sites. The vials and needles used to administer doses also will be smaller, the White House said.

The shots will be available at more than 25,000 doctors’ offices and primary care sites, as well as children’s hospitals and pharmacies.

“The administration will work with states and local partners to make vaccination sites available at schools and other trusted community-based sites across the country,” according to the White House statement.

The doses, which are one-third the strength of the regular dose given to those 12 and up, will be shipped in smaller configurations more easily stored at a typical pediatrician’s office, the White House said. It will be possible to store them for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures and 6 months at ultra-cold temperatures.

The Department of Health and Human Services will also launch an education campaign about the kids’ vaccine.

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration ahead of an advisory panel meeting set for Oct. 26 that could help pave the way for kids ages 5 to 11 could get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the first week in November.

Vaccinating kids could could provide a boost both to Biden’s political fortunes and and public-health goals. Reaching children younger than age 12 would be a crucial step toward ending the pandemic, insulating them from the worst risks of COVID and further shrinking the pool of Americans vulnerable to spreading the virus.

Public approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, and other issues including Afghanistan and his economic agenda, has been falling. Many parents, including the suburban voters Democrats need to keep control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, are eagerly anticipating a vaccine for children. It could also help working parents return to their offices and boost the travel sector with more families finally able to be fully inoculated.



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'Black Hawk Down' pilot Durant enters Alabama Senate race



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Lloyds to close 48 branches including two in Gloucestershire - 178 jobs at risk - Gloucestershire Live

  1. Lloyds to close 48 branches including two in Gloucestershire - 178 jobs at risk  Gloucestershire Live
  2. Lloyds Bank and Halifax to close 48 branches – see the full list...  The Sun
  3. Lloyds and Halifax to close 48 branches at a loss of 178 jobs - see full list  The Mirror
  4. Lloyds to close 48 branches including one in Somerset - 178 jobs at risk  Somerset Live
  5. 48 more Lloyds Bank and Halifax branches to close  Evening Standard
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Morocco bans UK flights due to Covid cases rising

Several airlines have been told by the Moroccan government that flights will be suspended.

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Morocco bans UK flights due to Covid cases rising - BBC News

  1. Morocco bans UK flights due to Covid cases rising  BBC News
  2. EasyJet cancels flights as Med holiday destination BANS Brits due to soaring Covid cases...  The Sun
  3. Morocco bans British visitors due to soaring Covid rates  The Independent
  4. Morocco to ban flights to and from UK over rising Covid rates  The Guardian
  5. Ryanair, EasyJet and TUI set to cancel flights to popular holiday destination  Birmingham Live
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Business Travel’s Demise Could Have Far-Reaching Consequences

In 2019, Jason Henrichs took 46 flights for business, traveling to cities where he stayed at hotels, dined at local restaurants, and sometimes even visited tourist attractions like the Liberty Bell.

In 2020, he took just three flights.

The traveling life has its perks—Henrichs, the CEO of Alloy Labs, a consortium of community banks, has Executive Platinum status on American Airlines, Gold Elite status at Marriott, and membership in not one but three private airport lounges. He has 350,000 miles, which he can use to fly his whole family across the world for free.

But forced to stay at home during the pandemic, Henrichs got a taste of a life where he sees his family more, and is just as effective at work. He’s even been able to convince banking colleagues who have long been averse to giving up in-person meetings to move online. The talks he once flew across the country to deliver to boards of directors are more frequently streamed online now, and so are the meetings that would have lasted in a bank over 2 or 3 days but now are spread out over short Microsoft Teams huddles over 2 or 3 weeks. And lo and behold, he and his colleagues are getting more done.
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“This isn’t about just reducing expense. This is about increasing effectiveness,” says Henrichs, who says he’ll likely travel once a month, rather than once a week, after the pandemic.

United Airlines planes in storage at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sept. 11, 2020.
Lucy Hewett—The New York Times/ReduxUnited Airlines planes in storage at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sept. 11, 2020.

Tens of thousands of road warriors like Henrichs—and their employers—are coming to a similar conclusion, which is going to cause a reckoning for the already-battered leisure and hospitality sector. U.S. companies’ travel budgets declined by 90% or more in 2020, according to Deloitte Insights. Even if the pandemic ebbs, companies looking to become more environmentally sustainable won’t likely go back to the same volume of travel as before; corporations like Zurich Insurance Group AG, Bain & Company, and S&P Global have announced plans to cut business travel emissions in the next few years, with Zurich aiming to reduce emissions by as much as 70% by next year.

This could mean big losses for airlines, hotels, rental car companies, and other industries catering to corporate travelers. Business travelers make up 12% of airline passengers but 75% of revenues on certain flights. They brought in steady revenue to hotels when they attended conferences and events and then stayed a few extra days to vacation with their families.

Some executives predict that business travel will return to 85% of pre-pandemic levels, says Lindsey Roeschke, managing director for travel and hospitality analysis at Morning Consult. She considers that an optimistic take. “Even if I’m wrong, and we do see a return to those levels,” she says, “that’s still a massive loss for the industry as a whole.”

The hospitality industry is feeling it. During the pandemic, rental car companies like Hertz, hotels like the Fairmont in San Jose, and international airlines including Aeromexico, Virgin Atlantic, and LATAM all filed for bankruptcy protection. Government supports that kept the U.S. airline industry afloat ended September 30. The hotel industry is expected to earn $59 billion less in business travel revenue this year compared to 2019, according to the American Hotel and Lobby Association. Airlines are expected to lose $51.8 billion in 2021 alone.

“We’ve been burning cash for 18 months,” says Dave Harvey, vice president of Southwest Business. And now the government support has ended. “We’re all flying naked at this point in the fourth quarter.”

It can be hard to picture those losses in terms of billions of dollars. But it may be easier to picture the ripple effects—businesses closed, workers laid off, airlines canceling flights—of hundreds of thousands of Jason Henrichses traveling less.

Waiting chairs are wrapped in plastic near a train platform at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2020.
Tom Brenner—ReutersWaiting chairs are wrapped in plastic near a train platform at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2020.

The ripple effects of fewer business travelers

One of Henrichs’ favorite business travel destinations was Boston; he and his family lived there years ago, so he still had friends he could grab dinner with after a day of meetings. He’d stay near Back Bay, say, at the Marriott Copley Place, and wake up early to go for a long run by the Charles River before work.

He hasn’t been there since October of 2019.

Some of the places where he used to meet friends are now gone. He’d get dinner at Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square, or oysters at Island Creek, but both are now closed permanently after negotiations broke down between the restaurant owners and the real estate group that owned the properties.

He usually flies American Airlines, but since the pandemic, that airline has dropped some routes and is considering where else to cut. American is facing staffing shortages after furloughing flight attendants and offering buyouts to pilots during the pandemic; it has about 16,000 fewer employees than it did in 2019.

Henrichs stays mostly at Marriott hotels because it’s where he has elite status. Boston’s flagship Marriott, at Copley Place downtown, laid off 230 employees in September. Overall, Marriott hotels in the U.S. and Canada had a 45% occupancy rate for the three months ending June 30, compared to 80% in the same period in 2019, according to earnings reports. At least four Marriotts in New York City have closed permanently since the beginning of the pandemic.

It’s not just big companies that are struggling. Elizabeth Morales was a housekeeper at the Boston Copley Place for 26 years until she was sent home in March 2020 because of the pandemic. The company kept telling her they’d call her back when it got busier, until September of 2020, when it called her and hundreds of others and said their positions had been terminated. “It was really hard for me,” says Morales, 51, who supports her elderly parents. She applied for 30 jobs before she found a new one only a few months ago. Unite Here Local 26 organized a boycott of the Marriott, alleging the hotel is contracting out operations to companies who pay workers less.

Ironically, cuts like this could also make travel less pleasant for everyone when they return to travel. Business travelers subsidized other travelers, to some degree, so as they disappear, airlines are figuring out how to cut costs. They’re cutting routes to cities that people visited primarily for business, routing more flights through hubs, and talking a lot about efficiency. These cost savings also mean fewer available pilots and other flight crew, so weather delays and maintenance issues can trigger a huge chain of delays, as they did last week when Southwest canceled about a quarter of its flights after weather problems in Florida disrupted its network. Other airlines may see similar issues, especially if travel gets busier during the holidays. “We’re concerned about the holiday travel season—they say we’re going to fly more during the winter than we did in the summer, but we’re worried they don’t have the ability to fly that many planes,” says Capt. Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Assn., which represents American Airlines pilots. (American did not return a request for comment, citing the quiet period before the company reports earnings on Oct. 21.)

Henrichs has already noticed the changes. On a recent trip to Harrisburg in August, Henrichs was told on a Friday, after weather delays and mechanical issues had grounded his plane, that the airline couldn’t get him home until Tuesday. (American cut a number of flights this summer because of weather, mechanical issues, and staffing shortages.) Rather than wait around, he rented a car and drove to Philadelphia, where he hoped to get on a plane the next day, only to find that Marriott’s website had crashed and the hotel where he thought he’d made a reservation was actually sold out. He went door to door until he found a vacancy at the Homeaway Suites, but by then it was 11 p.m. and there were no nearby restaurants open, so his dinner was a Bud Light and a bag of chips. He got home the next day. “The system has become less resilient,” he says.

Luggage carts outside Hong Kong International Airport on Jan. 26, 2021.
Paul Yeung—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesLuggage carts outside Hong Kong International Airport on Jan. 26, 2021.

Some companies still think business travel will return

Some hospitality companies contest the idea that business travel won’t come back. “We are optimistic that we’ve turned a corner,” Anthony Capuano, Marriott’s CEO, said on an August earnings call, although special corporate bookings were down 45% compared to the same period in 2019. On a recent earnings call, Delta said it expected business travel to be back to 60% volume by the end of this year, and potentially 80-100% by the following year.

Southwest Airlines has actually doubled down on business travel during the pandemic, adding 18 airports, dozens of sales staff, and making it easier for corporations to book flights through their own travel systems

“There’s a pent up demand for face-to-face business meetings, conferences, events, networking—people are just starved for that,” says Harvey, of Southwest Business. Southwest is hoping to capture those travelers by attracting companies who want to pay lower fares but still want to travel, he says. He also argues that since companies have more remote employees now, there’s a new class of business travelers who have to fly to headquarters a few times a year.

But even people who have spent decades on the road say that the pandemic has made them realize that technology has finally made it feasible to have good communication without traveling. Tina Perkins, who has worked for Epic Systems, a Madison, Wisc.-based electronic medical records company, for 20 years, says she loved traveling to a new city once or twice a month to help hospitals implement Epic software. But “I have been sort of shocked at how we have been able to adapt,” she says. “We are as effective in this hybrid world, which was surprising having done some things one way for such a long period of time.” She says she’ll likely travel once every 4-6 weeks going forward, rather than once every 2-4 weeks. Other Epic travelers have made the switch too; employees now take, in total, about 1,000 trips a month, down from 3,500 before the pandemic.

An aerial view of rental cars parked at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on May 20, 2020.
Mario Tama—Getty ImagesAn aerial view of rental cars parked at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on May 20, 2020.

The hotels and airlines that figure out how to make their model work without business travelers are going to be in the best position going forward, says Anthony Jackson, the U.S. Airlines Subsector leader at Deloitte. During the last recession, airlines expanded their premium economy seats to attract economy travelers who were willing to pay for an upgrade but not first class, and cost-conscious business travelers. Now, airlines will likely further expand premium economy, in part to give travelers still worried about COVID-19 a way to pay for more elbow room, says Alan Lewis, managing director for L.E.K. Consulting. Delta said October 13 that it actually made a profit in the three months that ended Sept 30, and that premium cabin seats drove much of that recovery. Business travel is still less than 50% recovered, the company said.

Like airlines, hotels are going to have to think up new ways to attract traveler money, says Roeschke, of Morning Consult. They might decide to try and lure digital nomads who don’t have to pay rent anymore and are traveling around the country as they work. Or they may offer “bleisure” – business leisure – packages to people who want to work and vacation all in one trip.

That may attract travelers like Henrichs, who still has to make some work trips. On his last business trip before the pandemic, Henrichs attended a weeklong conference of the American Banking Association in Orlando. Since his in-laws live near-by, he used miles to fly his wife and kids down to Orlando, too. They rented an Airbnb near the conference, and he commuted back and forth via Lyft. Still, the American Banking Assn. is holding the same conference this year in Tampa, but neither Henrichs nor his family are attending.

There is a silver lining to Henrichs traveling less frequently though; he says he’s spending more locally. He and his family are going out to local restaurants and checking out neighborhoods and businesses he would have been too burned out to try back in the days when he was always on the road. He hopes this will lead to a resurgence of stores on Main Street, the type of places that business travelers might not have deigned to visit.

“Normally, I travel so much that by the time I get home, I want to eat at home,” he says. “Now, I’m home plenty. So eating out can be fun again.”

 

 



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Jan. 6 House Committee Votes Unanimously to Hold Steve Bannon in Contempt

(WASHINGTON) — A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously Tuesday to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony.

Still defending his supporters who broke into the Capitol that day, Trump has aggressively tried to block the committee’s work by directing Bannon and others not to answer questions in the probe. Trump has also filed a lawsuit to try to prevent Congress from obtaining former White House documents.

But lawmakers have made clear they will not back down as they gather facts and testimony about the attack involving Trump’s supporters that left dozens of police officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
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The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that Bannon “stands alone in his complete defiance of our subpoena” and the panel will not take no for an answer.

He said that while Bannon may be “willing to be a martyr to the disgraceful cause of whitewashing what happened on January 6th — of demonstrating his complete loyalty to the former president,” the contempt vote is a warning to other witnesses.

“We won’t be deterred. We won’t be distracted. And we won’t be delayed,” Thompson said.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.,, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., listen as the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol meets to hold Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump's allies in contempt, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.
J. Scott Applewhite—APRep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.,, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., listen as the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol meets to hold Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s allies in contempt, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.

The Tuesday evening vote sends the contempt resolution to the full House, which is expected to vote on the measure Thursday. House approval would send the matter to the Justice Department, which would then decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Bannon.

The contempt resolution asserts that the former Trump aide and podcast host has no legal standing to rebuff the committee — even as Trump’s lawyer has argued that Bannon should not disclose information because it is protected by the privilege of the former president’s office. The committee noted that Bannon, fired from his White House job in 2017, was a private citizen when he spoke to Trump ahead of the attack. And Trump has not asserted any such executive privilege claims to the panel itself, lawmakers said.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney — one of just two Republicans on the committee, and a rare GOP critic of Trump — said Bannon and Trump’s privilege arguments suggest the former president was “personally involved” in the planning and execution of the day’s events.

“We will get to the bottom of that,” Cheney said.

The committee says it is pursuing Bannon’s testimony because of his reported communications with Trump ahead of the siege, his efforts to get the former president to focus on the congressional certification of the vote Jan. 6 and his comments on Jan. 5 that “all hell is going to break loose” the next day.

Bannon “appears to have had multiple roles relevant to this investigation, including his role in constructing and participating in the ‘stop the steal’ public relations effort that motivated the attack” and “his efforts to plan political and other activity in advance of January 6th,” the committee wrote in the resolution recommending contempt.

The Biden White House has also rejected Bannon’s claims, with Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su writing Bannon’s lawyer this week to say that “at this point we are not aware of any basis for your client’s refusal to appear for a deposition.” Biden’s judgment that executive privilege is not justified, Su wrote, “applies to your client’s deposition testimony and to any documents your client may possess.”

Asked last week if the Justice Department should prosecute those who refuse to testify, Biden said yes. But the Justice Department quickly pushed back, with a spokesman saying the department would make its own decisions.

While Bannon has said he needs a court order before complying with his subpoena, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former White House and Pentagon aide Kashyap Patel have been negotiating with the committee. The panel has also subpoenaed more than a dozen people who helped plan Trump rallies ahead of the siege, and some of them are already turning over documents and giving testimony.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said all the other witnesses who were subpoenaed are “either complying or acting in good faith as opposed to just blowing us off,” as Bannon has.

The committee is also conducting voluntary closed-door interviews with other witnesses who have come forward or immediately complied with their requests.

For some of the witnesses, Raskin said, “it’s a privilege and really an opportunity for them to begin to make amends, if they were involved in these events.” Some of them “feel terrible about the role they played,” he said.

Still, there could be more contempt votes to come.

“I won’t go into details in terms of the back and forth, but I’ll just say our patience is not infinite,” said Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the panel’s other Republican, about some of the witness negotiations.

The vote came a day after Trump sued the committee and the National Archives to fight the release of documents the committee has requested. Trump’s lawsuit, filed after Biden said he’d allow the documents’ release, claims that the panel’s August request was overly broad and a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.”

Trump’s suit seeks to invalidate the entirety of the congressional request, calling it overly broad, unduly burdensome and a challenge to separation of powers. It requests a court injunction to bar the archivist from producing the documents.

The Biden administration, in clearing the documents for release, said the violent siege of the Capitol more than nine months ago was such an extraordinary circumstance that it merited waiving the privilege that usually protects White House communications.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Zeke Miller, Nomaan Merchant and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.



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