Shortages

The CEO of Abbott Nutrition, the biggest supplier of baby formula in the U.S., has outlined six steps the company is taking to fix the nationwide shortage. Robert Ford , Abbot's chairman and CEO, apologized for the company's role in exacerbating the shortage an op-ed for The Washington Post. "The past few months have distressed us as they have you, and so I want to say: We're sorry to every family we've let down since our voluntary recall exacerbated our nation's baby formula shortage," he wrote. "I have high expectations of this company, and we fell short of them." Abbott's formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan—the largest in the country—has been closed since February after four babies who consumed powdered formula made at the plant were hospitalized with a rare bacterial infection and two died. The company's recall compounded supply chain disruptions related to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many parents scrambling to source formula products to feed their infants. … [Read more...] about Abbott CEO outlines six steps to end baby formula crisis

D uring the height of the pandemic, after getting fully vaccinated, I had to do a few cross-border flights. They were not fun at all, but confusing and exasperating. Check-ins, security checks, body scans, customs and immigration clearances, uploading vaccine certificates, and downloading apps for departure and arrival are time-consuming and, in many instances, complicated even for the tech-savvy. I remember my first transoceanic flight on an Air India Jumbo Jet, Emperor Ashoka, from the Santa Cruz airport in Bombay to the JFK airport in New York City. The aircraft had a Mughal décor and it felt like a flying palace. The exquisite sari-clad cabin crew, the smell of the newly furbished interiors and the ambience, the roar of the jets, and the food and drinks, all had mesmerising appeal. That was the heyday of air travel. Stylish, vibrant advertisements depicting beautiful sceneries and young people extolled the virtues of flying. I reminisce one of the airlines’ commercial … [Read more...] about Air pocket

Members of Military Engineers Services (MES) Builders Association of India have urged the government to provide them compensation for the unprecedented rise in the prices of construction materials. They said that around 400 families of contractors are facing financial hardships and are in dire need of government intervention to resolve their issues by price escalation. Addressing a press conference at BAI Visakhapatnam office here on Saturday, Chairman of MES Builders Association C. Bala Satish said that due to the pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war, construction industry has been badly affected. MES Builders take up all civil, electrical, fabrication, marine structures and number of contract works of the Army, Navy and Air Force. He said that the contractors are facing hardships to carry out their works due to unprecedented increase in prices of various commodities right from iron, cement, steel, sand, petrol, labour, from about 25 to 30 %. “We urge the Union government to … [Read more...] about Contractors hit by steep rise in construction material costs, says MES Builders Association

Many outlets belonging to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited have reportedly started to ration the sale of both petrol and diesel. And it is learnt the outlets belonging to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), may also follow suit in the next few days. But the pump owners confirm that the common man will not face any problem, as the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have reportedly instructed the outlets to ration or stop the supply to bulk purchasers such as APSRTC and industries. A fuel pump owner said that the OMCs were already making a loss to the tune of ₹28 per litre on diesel and ₹8 on petrol. The Russia-Ukraine war has seriously impacted the crude oil prices and they have gone up abnormally, he said. Because of this, the OMCs have increased the price per litre for industries by about 25%. Earlier, many industries used to buy fuel in bulk, including APSRTC, from the OMCs directly, but now owing to the increase in the rate … [Read more...] about ‘Rationing only for bulk purchasers’

VIENTIANE, May 22 (Vientiane Times/ANN): The Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Lao Fuel and Gas Association are urging members of the public to be frugal in their use of fuel and not to travel unnecessarily, so that enough reserves of petrol are available for use for farming and other essential activities. Careful use of fuel is the only way to resolve the current shortage, they say. Some farmers have complained that they are unable to cultivate their crops because of the petrol shortage and have called on the relevant parties to take speedy action to tackle the crisis. Head of the Lao Petroleum Enterprise branch in Khammuan province, Vongsone Phimmavongsa, updated reporters in the province about the local situation with regard to fuel supplies. Khammuan is one of many provinces suffering from a lack of fuel, he said, and pumps at some petrol stations have run dry, meaning that many motorists are unable to use their vehicles. In some areas, petrol stations are open … [Read more...] about Laos government advise public advised to avoid unnecessary travel, to save fuel for agriculture

COVID-19 could end up taking down two presidents—the one who was grossly incompetent , and the one who expected to ride a vaccine to victory over the coronavirus. In other words, Donald Trump might very well have been re-elected if he had handled COVID responsibly. And while Joe Biden’s been an improvement, the perception of his management of the pandemic isn’t great, and that could be his undoing. A New York Times analysis of Biden’s decline in the polls from the mid-50s to his current 42 percent reveals that the downward pressure started well before the messy August 2021 exit from Afghanistan took its toll . The slippage in Biden’s numbers, in fact, coincided with the rise of the more transmissible Delta variant and with it, a growing awareness among the public that the administration’s cheery declaration of a post-vaccine “summer of freedom” had turned into something quite different. Biden’s Independence Day celebration was “the domestic equivalent of Mission … [Read more...] about Biden Needs to Fix His COVID Screwups if He Wants to Win Re-Election in 2024