TomTom has released its 2020 Traffic Index which highlights congestion levels in 416 cities in 57 countries. Continual increases in traffic congestion throughout the last decade were brought to an abrupt halt by the Covid-19 pandemic which has turned working patterns and …
Read More »Passing the Torch: Olympics Fall Out of Favor in Japan
According to a survey published by Kyodo News, the Japanese would rather pass the torch on the next Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in Tokyo starting July 23, 2021. 80 percent of respondents questioned in January said that they would …
Read More »Film Industry Faces Existential Crisis in Face of COVID-19
At an estimated total of $2.1 billion, the North American box office just had the worst year in more than three decades. With earnings down more than 80 percent from the previous year, movie theaters and the film industry have …
Read More »Where Coronavirus Vaccines Will Be Produced
According to data analytics company Airfinity, the U.S. has the capability to produce almost 4.7 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses up until the end of 2021. According to the findings published by Deutsche Welle, India also has a high capability to produce the vaccine …
Read More »2020’s Biggest Charitable Donations
Despite massively growing their fortunes, the amount billionaires donated to charitable causes remained at historic lows in 2020 according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy‘s annual ranking of the top charitable contributions from individuals and their foundations. There was one exception, however, …
Read More »Global Food Prices on the Uptick
After the wholesale price of food first saw a slump during the coronavirus pandemic, the global FAO Food Price Index showed a steep increase since the fall. Most recently, food around the world was 7.5 percent pricier than the 2014-2016 average, on …
Read More »Electric Cars Boost Metal Demand
Electric vehicles are quickly gaining traction in automotive markets around the world, with many countries expected to have the cleaner battery fueled cars outpace their traditional fossil fuel counterparts in sales in the very near future. New car companies, like Tesla …
Read More »Least Affordable Housing Markets
The rise in housing prices continues to outpace the increase in wages across many parts of the world. For many cities, modest gains made in median yearly wages have been overshadowed by significantly higher increases in the cost of housing for the …
Read More »How Did Stock Markets Perform in 2020?
Asian stock markets have finished 2020 strong, leaving behind European and U.S. counterparts in the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian countries were more successful on the whole to reign in the spread of infections and to avoid prolonged shutdowns, but the fact …
Read More »The Covid-19 Vaccination Race
As a result of early efforts to secure vaccine candidates, a quick approval progress by authorities and effective infrastructure for administration, some governments are already racing ahead in their efforts to start mass vaccination against Covid-19. Website “Our World in Data” has been …
Read More »The World’s Top Supercomputers
In June, Japanese supercomputer Fugaku zipped past all competitors to claim the top spot in the twice-annual ranking of the world’s most powerful computational machines released by research project Top500. Fugaku, which was developed by Fujitsu in cooperation with the federal Riken research …
Read More »The World’s Growing Appetite for Palm Oil
Highly criticized for its harmful impact on the environment, particularly by causing deforestation in the tropics and reducing biodiversity, palm oil remains the most consumed vegetable oil in the world and global appetite for it continues to grow. Nearly 30 million hectares …
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