NY Times reporter tweets profane coronavirus message

President-elect Biden expected to call on governors to implement mask mandate

Will a mandate work? Rep. Michael Burgess gives his take on ‘Fox & Friends First.’

A New York Times reporter had a blunt message for her followers on Wednesday.

"My parents have not met my baby, I haven’t been home in a year, and I just canceled our planned tiny Thanksgiving," tweeted White House correspondent Katie Rogers. "Wear a f—–g mask."

Her tweet came amid a broader debate over whether people should be forced to wear masks as the U.S. wrestled with the coronavirus. 

The U.S. has recorded over 240,000 deaths and more than 10.3 million confirmed infections, with new cases soaring to all-time highs of well over 120,000 per day over the past week. 

Cases per day are on the rise in 49 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 39. A month ago, the U.S. was seeing about 730 COVID-19 deaths per day on average; that has now surpassed 970.

President-elect Joe Biden drew backlash Monday when he proposed working with state and local leaders to enact a nationwide mask mandate. But as Fox News reported on Wednesday, some state leaders are already indicating they won't comply.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Walmart to sell pet insurance as locked-down Americans adopt more animals

The pandemic has prodded millions of hunkered-down Americans into pet ownership — and Walmart wants to sell them insurance.

The largest retailer in the world said Thursday it has partnered with insurance provider Petplan, which offers a 10-percent discount on veterinary bills and is underwritten by Stamford, Connecticut-based XL Specialty Insurance Co.

Walmart’s push into the lucrative pet industry also includes a partnership with Rover, a pet-sitting and dog-walking service in what Walmart is describing as a one-stop shopping experience for pet owners — Walmart Pet Care — which had already included the ability to purchase pet medications at Walmart pharmacies.

“As adoption rates soar as a result of the pandemic and more people become pet owners, this was the perfect time to launch expanded services in Walmart Pet Care for our customers,” merchandising vice president Melody Richard said in a statement.

To entice Walmart customers to use the suite of services, Walmart is offering $20 gift cards for their first booking with Rover and another $20 after their fifth booking within six months.

Convincing customers to buy pet insurance could be more challenging, as 98 percent of pets are uninsured, according to Walmart.

Share this article:

Ghana Ex-Military Ruler Turned Democrat, Rawlings, Dies Age 73

Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on Twitter

Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who reinvented himself as a democrat after leading a military regime in the 1980s, has died, his political protege ex-President John Mahama, said on his Twitter page.

Rawlings, who led a junta from 1981 to 1992, later won presidential elections in 1992 and 1996. Despite coming to power through a military coup, he was credited for laying the groundwork for a democratic dispensation that’s among Africa’s most stable and competitive.

EARNINGS SUMMARY: Details of Fluor Corp. Q2 Earnings Report

Below are the earnings highlights for Fluor Corp. (FLR):

-Earnings: -$27 million in Q2 vs. -$393 million in the same period last year.
-Revenue: $4.09 billion in Q2 vs. $4.15 billion in the same period last year.

Pennsylvania Officials Ask Judge To Toss Trump’s Election Lawsuit

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Officials in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign seeking to prevent the state from certifying its presidential election results.

In a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, lawyers for the Pennsylvania secretary of state and seven counties of the state said the case should be tossed.

President-elect Joe Biden won the majority of the vote in all seven of the counties cited in the lawsuit and is up more than 53,000 votes in the state.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe; Editing by LeslieAdler)

RBA Expects Economy To Recover At Faster Than Expected Pace

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it expects the economy to recover over coming quarters at a faster than previously estimate pace.

However, the economy is likely to be noticeably smaller at the end of the forecast period than anticipated prior to the pandemic, partially because of a sharp slowing in population growth, the bank said in the Statement of Monetary Policy, released Friday.

Gross domestic product is forecast to grow 6 percent in the year ending June 2021 compared to the previous projection of 4 percent. At the same time, the outlook for the year ending June 2022 was retained at 4 percent.

The unemployment rate is expected to peak a little below 8 percent around the end of the year. This peak represents a very high level of spare capacity in the labor market, the bank noted.

The unemployment rate is expected to decline only gradually, to just above 6 percent by the end of 2022.

Both headline and trimmed mean inflation are forecast to bottom out below 1 percent in 2021, and reach 1.5 percent by end 2022.

According to RBA forecast, population growth will be 0.2 percent in 2020/21 and 0.4 percent in 2021/22. This was the slowest rate of population growth since the First World War.