NEWS BRIEF: Week of June 19, 2017
Catch up on current events with these news highlights from this past week.
BUSINESS
Inside Travis Kalanick’s Resignation as Uber’s C.E.O.
During a trip to Chicago on Tuesday, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was paid a surprise visit by “two of Uber’s venture capitalists–Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton of the Silicon Valley firm Benchmark, which is one of Uber’s biggest shareholders–who presented Mr. Kalanick with a list of demands, including his resignation before the end of the day…The corporate drama that unfolded in the hotel was anything but sudden. It was the culmination of several months in which nearly all of Mr. Kalanick’s support base turned against him. One by one, executives, board members, investors and even close friends slowly fell away as Uber became embroiled in a seemingly ceaseless series of legal and ethical scandals, according to interviews with more than a dozen Uber insiders, former employees, investors and others, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.”
HEALTH
Ebola virus burial teams ‘saved thousands of lives’
“New research suggests Red Cross volunteers who helped bury most of the bodies of Ebola victims in West Africa could have prevented more than 10,000 cases of the deadly disease. More than 28,000 people were infected with Ebola in 2014-2015. Of those, 11,310 people died. The worst affected countries were Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. A major part of the response was ensuring the safe burials of people who had died of Ebola. The bodies of victims were particularly toxic.
POLITICS
The Better Care Reconciliation Act: the Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, explained
On Thursday, “Senate Republicans revealed the Better Care Reconciliation Act, their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.” Broadly speaking, “the bill would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program…It would rework the individual market so that enrollees get less financial help to purchase less generous health insurance with higher deductibles.” The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to release an analysis detailing how extensive the cuts to the Medicaid program will be by early next week.
TECHNOLOGY
With the advent of ride sharing and self-driving vehicles, the entire model of car ownership is being upended, and the business of ride sharing may take on some new forms. “Los Angeles-based Faraday Future envisions selling subscriptions to a vehicle–for instance, allowing people to use it for a certain number of hours a day, on a regular schedule for a fixed price. Other companies are experimenting with the idea of allowing drivers to access more than just one kind of vehicle through a subscription–so, a driver might choose a compact model one day but a minivan another day if she needed more passenger space. Chief Executive Elon Musk has hinted that he’s preparing to create a network of Tesla owners that could rent out their self-driving cars to make money. Already, some drivers are testing this idea using other services that let them market their cars, something like Airbnb rentals on wheels.”
WORLD
How Qatar is shrugging off partial Arab embargo… for now
It’s been over two weeks since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and others cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar for allegedly funding terrorism and destabilizing the Middle East. Panic rippled through the small Gulf state; there was a rush to buy food, people lined up at banks, and stock prices slumped. However, Qatar is finding new ways around the sanctions imposed by its neighbors. Read how the country’s isolations is affecting oil and gas, food suppliers, migrant workers, flight routes, and the World Cup,
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