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Extreme heat – Montréal is entering Response mode 1 of its Response plan
MONTRÉAL, July 10, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Following recommendations of the Direction régionale de santé publique (DRSP), the Organisation de sécurité civile de l'agglomération de Montréal is announcing that it is entering Response mode 1 of its Extreme heat special response plan as of today, July 10. This phased plan based on weather conditions and effects on residents' health provides for the implementation of measures to ensure the well-being and safety of residents. The Response mode, which began this morning, includes a joint door-to-door operation by the Service de sécurité incendie and the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal in an effort to reach the most vulnerable populations and provide prevention tips in certain priority sectors. In addition, water bottles will be distributed to the homeless. Aquatic facilitiesMontréal will extend the opening hours of several aquatic facilities, including splash pads, pools and wading pools, so that residents can have places to cool off. An online map (in French) is available to help people quickly locate the facilities that are open. Note that some boroughs have opened splash pads temporarily due to the heat wave. Beaches The opening of beaches and other public and private natural environments has been authorized by the Direction régionale
A third of Canada’s foodservice workforce is still out of work
TORONTO, July 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restaurants Canada is urging reforms to the federal wage subsidy that will better help foodservice businesses rehire workers as they continue to reopen and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. At least 400,000 people previously employed in the Canadian foodservice sector are still out of work, according to the results of the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada. This is still half of the jobs that the sector has lost since the start of the pandemic and a third of the foodservice industry’s workforce still not recovered. “Reforms to the federal wage subsidy are urgently needed to help foodservice businesses bring more Canadians back to work amid ongoing restrictions,” said David Lefebvre, Restaurants Canada Vice President, Federal and Quebec. “Forty-four per cent of restaurant operators who responded to our latest survey said they did not apply for the subsidy for at least one of their establishments because it would not meet the requirements.” Restaurants need reforms to the wage subsidy to rehire more Canadians Restaurants and other foodservice businesses are the fourth-largest source of private sector jobs in Canada. Collectively, the industry employs about 1.2 million people. At least this was the
Chamath Palihapitiya: Here's why you go short big tech stocks Facebook and Alphabet right...
Chamath Palihapitiya
Olivia Michael | CNBC
Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya on Friday laid out his bearish case for the social media giant as well as Google-parent Alphabet.
Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of investment firm Social Capital, said in a series of tweets that there are a handful of negative catalysts to drive these shares down over the next few years, including increased regulatory scrutiny, taxes and new product experiences.
"Big Tech's long term success is no longer about better products," Palihapitiya said in a Friday tweet. "They are incumbents and their success is now a multi-variate/multi-dimensional problem of competition, anti-trust, tax and regulatory multiplied by EVERY city, state, country and jurisdiction in which the operate."
Facebook and Alphabet have been relatively been a bright spot in a market that experienced unprecedented disruptions by the coronavirus pandemic. Shares of Facebook climbed 17% this year, while Alphabet gained more than 13%.
Investors piled into megacap technology companies this year for their insulation from the global health crisis. Thanks to the resilience of Big Tech, the Nasdaq Composite became the first major U.S. equity benchmark to hit a new record high.
Google ditched China cloud project over political tensions: report
Google recently ditched an effort to launch cloud computing services in China and other countries amid concerns about growing political tensions, according to a report.
The tech behemoth in May scrapped its “Isolated Region” project, in which Google planned to offer cloud services in “politically sensitive” countries that would be controlled by a government agency, local company or other third party, Bloomberg News reported.
The project reportedly would have paved the way for Google to grow its burgeoning cloud business in places with tough rules for companies that gather or process user data, such as China and the European Union.
But global tensions — such as the Trump administration’s national security sanctions against the Chinese telecom firm Huawei — created obstacles to the project’s success, as did the “fallout” from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg’s report.
The company had already put plans to bring the service to China on hold in January 2019 and shifted its focus to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the news service reported. Google has reportedly considered launching a limited version of its cloud platform in China since the project was shelved.
But a Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg that neither politics nor the pandemic led to Isolated Region’s demise. She also reportedly indicated that Google is not considering bringing cloud services to China, a country with about 900 million internet users.
“What we learned from customer conversations and input from government stakeholders in Europe and elsewhere is that other approaches we were actively pursuing offered better outcomes,” the Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg. “Google does not offer and has not offered cloud platform services inside China.”
CNB Community Bancorp, Inc. Reports Record Second Quarter 2020 Results
HILLSDALE, Mich., July 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CNB Community Bancorp, Inc. (OTC: CNBB), the parent company of County National Bank, today announced earnings for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. Earnings during the second quarter of 2020 totaled $2.8 million, an increase of $438,000 or 16.7% compared to the $2.4 million earned during the three months ended June 30, 2019. Basic earnings per share for CNB Community Bancorp, Inc. (the "Company") increased to $1.33 during the three months ended June 30, 2020, up $0.19 from $1.14 during the second quarter of 2019. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, the Company reported net income of $5.2 million, an increase of $523,000, or 11.3%, from the $4.6 million earned during the six months ended June 30, 2019. Basic earnings per share increased to $2.44 during the six months ended June 30, 2020, up $0.23 from $2.21 during the first six months of 2019. The annualized return on average assets (ROA) decreased to 1.36% for the three months ended June 30, 2020, slightly down from 1.37% for the three months ended June 30, 2019. The annualized return on average equity (ROE) increased to 16.9% for the current quarter,
