PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that those aged 65 and older will need to present proof of a COVID-19 booster shot from mid-December for health passes that give access to restaurants, trains and planes to remain valid.
Besides, the third shot, so far available only for people older than 65 and the vulnerable, will from early December also be available for the 50-64 age group, Macron said in a televised address.
“Since the end of summer, a campaign has been launched to protect people over 65 as well as the most fragile among us. Today we must accelerate,” Macron said.
“If you have been vaccinated more than six months ago, I call on you to book an appointment for a booster shot. From December 15, you will need to show proof of a booster shot to extend the validity of your health pass.”
The health pass is required to enter restaurants and bars, to go to the gym or a conference, and for long-distance train and plane journeys. Macron also urged those not yet vaccinated to do so. “To those not yet vaccinated: Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated to protect yourselves. Get vaccinated to live normally,” the president said. “We are not done yet with the pandemic.”
Macron said Europe was seeing a fifth wave of coronavirus infections and that in France there had been an alarming rise in the number of COVID-19 hospital patients and in the spread of cases.
France registered 12,476 new confirmed infections on Tuesday, the highest level since Sept. 8, health ministry data showed. Macron’s last major televised speech was on July 12 at the start of a fourth wave of infections. He announced then that the COVID-19 health pass was extended to a wide list of venues, which led to a big increase in vaccination rates. NN: Bark BARK BARK BARK
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices edged up on Tuesday as the U.S. lifting of travel restrictions and more signs of a global post-pandemic recovery boosted the demand outlook, while supply remained tight. The rally came ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) release of oil and gasoline price predictions in its Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), which U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has said it would use to determine whether to release oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The price of Brent has gained over 60% this year and hit a three-year high of $86.70 on Oct. 25, supported by recovering demand and supply restraint by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+. “The (Biden) administration has said they will use data from (EIA’s STEO) report to decide what to do about high energy prices that they blame on OPEC+,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. OPEC+ added 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to global supply at last week’s OPEC+ meeting. President Biden wanted them to add more. OPEC+ is scheduled to add 400,000 bpd a month through June 2022, Yawger said. In its October STEO report, EIA projected WTI would average $68.48 per barrel in 2021 and $68.24 in 2022, while retail regular grade gasoline would average $2.97 per gallon in 2021 and $2.90 in 2022. Global oil spare production capacity could diminish next year as air passengers return to the skies, removing an important cushion that the market is currently enjoying, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said. Travelers took off for the United States again, while the passage of Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill and better-than-expected Chinese exports helped paint a picture of a recovering global economy. “With the re-opening of U.S. borders for vaccinated travelers, jet fuel demand ought to receive a healthy … boost,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) said global demand for oil in November was already nearly back to pre-pandemic levels of 100 million bpd, following last year’s collapse. NN: The United States Energy Information Administration revised its oil demand outlook upwards for both 2021 and 2022, with demand rising 60,000 and 130,000 barrels per day respectively. These are minscule increases… And they do not take into account the shutdown i see coming after the super spreader holidays….
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. producer prices increased solidly in October, driven by surging costs for gasoline and motor vehicle retailing, suggesting that high inflation could persist for a while amid tight supply chains related to the pandemic. The producer price index for final demand rose 0.6% last month after climbing 0.5% in September, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.
In the 12 months through October, the PPI increased 8.6% after a similar gain in September.
“The acceleration in U.S. inflation may not fade as quickly as previously thought, particularly for businesses because of the global supply-chain issues,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
“Elevated inflation is turning up the heat on the Federal Reserve but they haven’t shown signs of buckling as they will stomach higher inflation to get the labor market back to full employment quickly.”
More than 60% of the increase in the PPI last month was due to a 1.2% rise in the prices of goods, which followed a 1.3% jump in September. A 6.7% surge in gasoline prices accounted for a third of the rise in goods prices. There were increases in the prices of diesel, gas and jet fuel as well as plastic resins. Wholesale food prices dipped 0.1% as the cost of beef and veal tumbled 10.3%. Prices for light motor trucks fell as the government introduced new-model-year passenger cars and light motor trucks into the PPI. Services gained 0.2% last month after a similar rise in September. An 8.9% jump in margins for automobiles and parts retailing accounted for more than 80% of the increase in services. The cost of transportation and warehousing services jumped 1.7%. There were also increases in the wholesale prices of apparel, footwear, truck transportation of freight, food and alcohol retailing, hospital outpatient care as well as machinery, equipment parts and supplies. But portfolio management fees fell. Excluding the volatile food, energy and trade services components, producer prices shot up 0.4%. The so-called core PPI gained 0.1% in September. In the 12 months through October, the core PPI rose 6.2%. That followed a 5.9% advance in September.
NN: Further proof the FED has got its head so far up its ass that they gas themselves when they fart. Allowing to inflation run like this with rates on zero is nothing short of criminal
COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen significantly in the Inland Empire and Central Valley, bringing new concerns about whether the shift represents a precursor to a wider spike in COVID-19 in California as the winter holidays approach. Across the state, both cases and hospitalizations hit a plateau after months of decline. Hospitalizations have remained fairly flat in some areas with relatively high vaccination rates, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County. But in some areas with lower vaccination rates, such as Riverside, San Bernardino and Fresno counties, conditions are deteriorating, with hospitalizations up by more than 20% in recent weeks. And even some places with relatively high vaccination rates are seeing COVID-19 hospitalizations tick upward; in Orange County, COVID-19 hospitalizations are up by 16% since Halloween.
Health officials have been warning about a potential new rise in COVID-19 in California as seniors who got their shots last winter — and haven’t received a booster shot — may start to see their immunity wane, leaving them exposed to greater risk for infection and hospitalization, and as people gather indoors more as the weather cools and the holidays approach.
Demand for booster shots has fallen below expectation in California. And each infected Californian is increasingly spreading the coronavirus to more people; as of Saturday, computer models estimated that every infected Californian was spreading the virus on average to 0.96 other people; if that number rises above 1, that will set the stage for further growth of the pandemic. “COVID cases are beginning to rise. Winter months [mean] people indoors and more possibilities for spread,” Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted Tuesday morning. “Keep your immunity up,” he added. “Get your booster.” Officials are hopeful that strict vaccination requirements in some of California’s most populated areas will help slow the spread of cases in the winter. In Los Angeles, a new city rule generally requiring patrons to show proof of full vaccination to enter venues like indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, and hair and nail salons went into effect Monday, but won’t be enforced until after Thanksgiving. Only weeks ago, officials in the San Joaquin Valley were optimistic that trends were headed in the right direction. But now, officials say hospitals in Fresno County, the most populous county in the region, “really have never left the crisis,” said Dan Lynch, director of the Central California Emergency Medical Services Agency. “The bigger hospitals are probably between 110% to 130% of normal capacity. And they are all holding ICU patients, again, back in their emergency departments,” Lynch said. “We’re seeing the hospital emergency departments overwhelmed.” Most hospitals have been forced to postpone scheduled surgeries, and some patients needing specialty care may need to be referred to other parts of California, officials said. Many of the COVID-19 patients needing hospitalization are unvaccinated people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, said Fresno County interim health officer Dr. Rais Vohra. Fresno County on Wednesday was forced to reimplement a measure to no longer automatically transport all 9-1-1 patients to emergency rooms, a policy it had ended on Oct. 22 because officials thought the region’s surge of the Delta variant was fading. “If you asked me two weeks ago what I thought would happen, I really thought that we were going to have a nice, relaxing November,” Vohra said. Now, “it’s been very humbling just because this pandemic keeps throwing us curveballs and this November plateau is really keeping us very busy.” Of California’s five regions as defined by the state Department of Public Health, the San Joaquin Valley has the worst COVID-19 hospitalization rate, with 25 COVID-19 hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents; followed by rural Northern California, which has a rate of 16 and the Greater Sacramento area, with a rate of 14. The statewide rate is 10, and the two most populous regions have rates below that: Southern California’s rate is 8, while the Bay Area’s is 4. Some experts believe it’s a sign of concern when COVID-19 hospitalization rates are 5 or greater for every 100,000 residents. Within Southern California’s most populated areas, the Inland Empire has the worst COVID-19 hospitalization rates, with San Bernardino and Riverside counties reporting respective rates of 14 and 11. San Diego County is reporting 8; Orange County, 7; L.A. County, 6 and Ventura County, 4.
Since mid-October, COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen by more than 27% in both San Bernardino and Fresno counties; while in Riverside County, numbers are up by 21% over the last two weeks.
While health officials have largely been optimistic that the state’s relatively high level of vaccine coverage will keep conditions from deteriorating to the devastating extent seen last fall and winter, the turning of the calendar carries a host of additional risks. Colder weather, even in normally balmy parts of California, will increasingly push people to gather indoors — where the risk of coronavirus transmission is higher. There’s also an apparent seasonality to the coronavirus itself, which makes it easier to spread when temperatures fall. A packed slate of holidays will also entice people to travel and gather, possibly to an extent not seen since the pandemic began. Add it all up, and you have a potent recipe for another potential coronavirus resurgence. It’s already happening in other parts of the nation. “Even in highly vaccinated places like New Hampshire and Vermont, you can see how these northern most tiers of counties are starting to develop outbreaks and more transmission, as is Alaska,” Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert, said recently at a campus forum. The biggest concentration of coronavirus cases has expanded from Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and Wyoming, and is spreading farther south, through Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. States with both low vaccination rates, like Wyoming, where only 44.4% of residents are fully vaccinated, are seeing among the nation’s highest case rates, as are several states with vaccination rates similar to California’s 61.8%, such as Colorado (62.1%), New Mexico (62.5%) and Minnesota (61.6%), Rutherford said. That’s why Colorado, New Mexico and Minnesota could be warning signs of California’s future, Rutherford said. Those three states have weekly coronavirus case rates that are triple to what California is reporting now; Wyoming’s is more than 3½ times worse than California’s. Rutherford said, relatively speaking, L.A., Orange and Ventura counties are doing well, but warned that San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have a fairly high level of cases. These factors all suggest that it is urgent that unvaccinated people get their shots, including children age 5 to 11 who just became eligible last week, Rutherford said. People who have recovered from COVID-19 still need to get immunized, too; a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 survivors who remained unvaccinated were five times more likely to get a new coronavirus infection compared with fully vaccinated people who had never been infected.
Despite approval ratings in the toilet, President Biden and his administration are reportedly exploring the closure of yet another pipeline in a bid to shift the US away from fossil fuels and appease environmental activists. The move – shutting down the Line 5 pipeline which links Superior, WI to Sarnia, Ontario, would cost tens of thousands of US jobs, billions of dollars in economic activity, and further exacerbate energy shortages and price increases hitting lower-income Americans the hardest, according to a Thursday letter from 13 House Republicans led by Rep. Bob Latta
According to the letter, the closure would affect workers across “Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the region,” and would place the environment at greater risk “due to additional trucks operating on roadways carrying hazardous materials.” Line 5 is part of a network of oil pipes which move approximately 540,000 barrels per day from western Canada to Escanaba, Michigan.
“Furthermore, as we enter the winter months and temperatures drop across the Midwest, the termination of Line 5 will undoubtedly further exacerbate shortages and price increases in home heating fuels like natural gas and propane at a time when Americans are already facing rapidly rising energy prices, steep home heating costs, global supply shortages, and skyrocketing gas prices.”
JUST IN: White House is studying shutting down Line 5 pipeline.
Impact: Millions of Americans could face even higher energy bills this winter if the Biden closes a gas and oil pipeline running through Michigan, a group of Midwest lawmakers have warned.pic.twitter.com/bnrqPrK121
This comes less than two weeks after the White House begged OPEC to increase oil production amid ‘supply issues’ and soaring energy prices.
NN: One of the things i learned early on is the market is mightier then anyone. Biden is a confused old man being manipulated by some very very stupid people with a hidden agenda. Oil will make it to market. I have seen them use railroad cars and semi trucks to move crude. And at $80 a barrel crude you could make money filling up 55 gallon drums on the back of pickup trucks. The democrats caving into the progressive ( liberal lefties) is leaving their voter base behind as recent elections clearly demonstrated. Reality is $5.00 a gallon gasoline will cost them the election. I leaned that people may not know what they are paying a kilowatt for electricity. But they sure as hell know what a gallon gasoline costs…. Its the most advertised consumer price i know, And the global economy is still built on and and run on fossil fuel. And here is a news flash it will take 50 years for that to change and several things not invented yet.
(Reuters) – California should extend the life of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to meet state climate goals, a report by academics and a consulting company said on Monday. The report by researchers at Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and LucidCatalyst, LLC said delaying closure of the plant to 2025 would reduce California’s carbon emissions from power plants by more than 10% from 2017 levels, reduce dependency on natural gas, and save up to $21 billion in power system costs. The Diablo Canyon plant generates about 8% of California’s in-state electricity and 15% of its carbon-free power. Keeping it open to 2045 could save up to $21 billion in power system costs and spare 90,000 acres of land from use for energy production, it said. Starting in 2016, utility PG&E decided to allow the licenses for two reactors at Diablo Canyon to expire in 2024 and 2025, which would close the last nuclear power plant in the country’s most populous state. The move came amid public concerns about earthquakes, nuclear waste and the use of water to cool the plants. The planned closure also came with the belief that power generated by wind and solar energy would make up the lost electricity. But California struggled with rotating power outages in August 2020 during a heat wave; hydroelectric generation has sagged with droughts; and the switch to electric vehicles is likely to add stress to the grid. Steven Chu, a U.S. secretary of energy under former President Barack Obama, said that when Japan and Germany shut nuclear power plants in recent years it led to a rise in carbon emissions from fossil fuels. “In order to combat climate change in the best possible way, I think nuclear power … is something that we should really consider and ask PG&E to reconsider,” said Chu, now a Stanford physics professor. PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn pointed out the state’s legislature and regulators approved the plan to shut the plant. “Our focus therefore remains on safely and reliably operating the plant until the end” of its licenses, Hosn said. The 2,240 megawatt Diablo Canyon plant could also provide power for plants that desalinate ocean water for drinking water and agriculture, and to produce cleaner-burning hydrogen gas, the report said. It did not address how nuclear power proponents could convince PG&E and California politicians and regulators to complete the complicated process of keeping the plant open. But Jacopo Buongiorno, a report author and director of advanced nuclear energy systems at MIT, said the researchers have shared the results with some California officials. “We really hope that the debate starts now,” he said.
(Bloomberg) — A U.S. government report coming out Tuesday may determine whether the Biden Administration decides to release crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Administration officials will likely be looking for a significant revisions to price forecasts and the balance of supply and demand from from last month’s Short Term Energy Outlook before making a decision. Last month it predicted that oil and gasoline prices would start to fall at the end of this year and slide .further next year as the market returns to a surplus. The monthly report is watched closely by traders and policy makers. Since it was last published on October 13, U.S. benchmark crude oil briefly surged above $85 a barrel as global demand has recovered far more swiftly from the pandemic in contrast to energy production. NN: If Biden wants a chance in the midterm elections less then a year away he has got to get oil prices down. Two simple ways to do this.. Open up fracking and the pipelines he shut down by presidential decree. And release oil from the strategic stock pile. In a matter of weeks he will have cooked OPEC’s goose and pries will plunge….
Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Monday repeated his view that the current surge in inflation is largely “temporary” and will fade as supply-side pressures get resolved, but he also sounded less convinced by that story than before. “I had expected to see more progress by now,” Evans said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, adding that there are signs that inflationary pressures may be building more broadly, including increases in rents. “These developments deserve careful monitoring and present a greater upside risk to my inflation outlook than I had thought last summer.” That Evans, one of the Fed’s most dovish policymakers, is articulating a rising concern about inflation is notable, but perhaps not very surprising, given that measures of price increases have been running well above the Fed’s 2% goal for months. Economists expect October’s reading of the consumer price index, due out later this week, to be 5.8% higher than a year-earlier But Evans also noted that inflation expectations based on both surveys and financial market pricing also suggest that today’s outsized inflation is temporary. And, he said, while the unemployment rate is dropping quickly, a stronger labor market will likely draw back in some of the millions of workers who retired or otherwise left the labor market during the pandemic. NN: This asshole should stick with sausages down on the farm… Because he obviously does not know shit about inflation. Blinded by their egos
Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, public health figures showed on Monday, and doctors warned they will need to postpone scheduled operations in coming weeks to cope. The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 201.1, higher than a previous record of 197.6 in December last year, the figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Monday. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 4,782,546 from 4,767,033 a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by 33 to a total of 96,558. Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder called for more decisive action in view of the new peak in the incidence rate. More needs to be done “than a little compulsory testing in old people’s homes”, he told Deutschlandfunk radio. He called for tests to be offered free of charge again, vaccination centres to be reactivated and for states and the federal government to coordinate their strategies. Germany has abolished free testing to incentivise people to get shots. Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director at the DIVI association for intensive and emergency medicine, said an expected rise in coronavirus cases in coming weeks meant some scheduled operations would have to be postponed. “We will only be able to cope with the burden of all emergencies if savings are made somewhere else, though definitely not with surgical cancer treatments,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. Germany has already had to relocate some patients from regions with overburdened hospitals. The three German parties working to agree on a coalition government by early December will present proposals to combat a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country on Monday, daily newspaper Die Welt said.
Russia’s COVID death toll up by record 1,211
Moscow [Russia], November 9 Russia registered 39,160 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 39,400 the day before, bringing the cumulative total to 8,873,655, the federal response center said on Tuesday.”Over the past day, 39,160 COVID-19 cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 3,200 cases (8.2 per cent) without clinical symptoms,” the center said, adding that the rate of increase fell to 0.44 per cent. Moscow has the highest number of new cases with 5,287 infections, up from 4,982 the day before. The Russian capital is followed by the Moscow region with 2,818 cases, down from 3,429, and St. Petersburg with 2,680 cases, up from 2,597. The response center reported a new record of 1,211 deaths linked to the coronavirus, up from 1,190 the day before, bringing the country’s death toll to 249,215.In the same 24 hours, 32,036 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals across the country, up from 25,582 the day before, bringing the total to 7,619,596. (ANI/Sputnik)
Dutch hospitals urge new measures as COVID-19 cases near record
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A group of hospitals in the southern Dutch province of Limburg on Tuesday called for the government to take new measures to stem rising COVID-19 cases, saying they have no space or staff to handle more coronavirus patients. Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands, as in other parts of Europe, are approaching all-time highs despite adult vaccination levels around 85%. Last week Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government announced new measures to slow the spread of the virus, two months after scrapping social distancing rules. The new steps included the reintroduction of face masks in stores and broader use of the country’s proof-of-vaccination “corona pass”. However cases have continued to rise and the Netherlands’ Institute for Health (RIVM) is due to release new infection figures later on Tuesday that may pass the previous all-time high of 12,997 cases reported on Dec. 20.
“We are heading straight for a healthcare disaster and the whole system is becoming jammed,” the five hospitals in Limburg said in a letter to Rutte’s government. “We’re convinced the rest of the Netherlands will be following us shortly.”
They urged fresh measures including beginning immediately with booster vaccination shots for elderly and vulnerable patients. Rutte’s government has said it will offer booster shots to patients over the age of 60 once six months has passed since they were fully vaccinated. His government is due to announce whether it will take fresh measures at a news conference scheduled for Friday. NN: I remember when the Sputnik satellite was launched. I tuned into the signal with great excitement. Only to be sorely disappointed when all it did was broadcast the time. I find myself woefully unimpressed by the newest Sputnik this time the Russian vaccine… which information i have says it does not work. All i can say is something sure as shit is going array in Russia… As far as the rest of Europe i believe as your librarian the vaccines are wearing off and the new mutant is far more infectious…. So test your antibodies, get yourbooster shot and test your guests and build up your immunity system. I am horrified that the world is letting its guard down……. Its going to be a long winter.. BARK BARK BARK
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has committed 210 million pounds ($283 million) to help Rolls-Royce build the country’s first small modular nuclear reactor, part of a drive to reach net zero carbon emissions. Hitting this goal by 2050 will require a huge increase in low-carbon power generation such as wind, solar and nuclear, but large-scale new nuclear projects have struggled for funding. “Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further,” Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said. Britain also aims to increase the number clean technology jobs as part of its so-called green industrial revolution and said it is seeking to reduce reliance on fossil fuel amid a global spike in gas prices. This year’s dramatic gas price rise has seen several of Britain’s small energy suppliers go bust.
SMRs and can be made in factories, with parts small enough to be transported on trucks and barges and assembled much more quickly and cheaply than large-scale reactors.
The funding will enable the technology to take the next steps through Britain’s nuclear regulatory process, and help to identify sites where the mini nuclear plants could be deployed, the government said in a statement. Rolls Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited will invest 195 million pounds in Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle, across three years in the technology, Rolls Royce SMR said. Rolls-Royce Group will own approximately 80% of Rolls-Royce SMR on the completion of this equity raising, it added. “The (SMR) business could create up to 40,000 jobs, through UK deployment and export enabled growth,” Rolls Royce Chief Executive Warren East said in a statement. NN: Do you hear the cries and sobbing… The grennweeniee’s have locked themselves in the basement… They want zero emissions, well they got it. A nuke in every neighborhood…… I love… Thats what happens when you push things to far. I think its refereed to as unintended consequences. One of these plants the size of a football field replaces over 100 wind turbines. And they nuke day and night not just when the wind blows…….
