Goldman Sachs slashed its forecast for US economic activity in the second half of the year, pointing to sluggish consumer spending on services as well as the threats posed by the Covid-19 Delta variant. During the pandemic and the start of the recovery, Americans spent big on goods: Used car prices soared, as did prices…… MORE
Florida and Arkansas currently share a grim distinction when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus. Every one of the two state’s counties is now listed as having “high” levels of community transmission, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC lists high transmission in nearly every county…… MORE
Nobody was speaking about Anna Kiesenhofer ahead of the Tokyo 2020 women’s road race, but they certainly are now. The Austrian rider was considered a novice compared to her competitors, notably defending champion Anna van der Breggen, former Olympic bronze medalist Elisa Longo Borghini, Britain’s Lizzie Deignan, Germany’s Lisa Brennauer and former world title champion…… MORE
We may still be waiting to see who (if anyone) her character on “Insecure” ends up with, but in real life, Issa Rae is now a married woman. The star of the HBO show posted wedding pictures on her Instagram account from her intimate ceremony with longtime love Louis Diame, which was held in the…… MORE
Argentinian fencer Maria Belen Perez Maurice may have lost the chance of a medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, but she is definitely still winning at life. The 36-year-old will leave the Games with a ring, after accepting a surprise marriage proposal from her coach and partner. Perez Maurice was in the middle of…… MORE
President Joe Biden will agree Monday to formally conclude the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, another step toward winding down the two prolonged military engagements that began in the years following the September 11 terror attacks. Biden is expected to seal the agreement during Oval Office talks with Iraqi…… MORE
Four men have been charged in the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl in North Carolina, police said. The shooting happened Saturday night in Monroe, just outside Charlotte, the Monroe Police Department said in a statement on Facebook. Officers responding to a report of shots fired found the 13-year-old with a gunshot wound, police said.…… MORE
The Tokyo Olympics officially kicked off this weekend, and on the face of it, the ratings for Friday’s opening ceremony looked like a flop. According to early numbers, only 17 million people watched the opening ceremony on TV in the US. That’s down a sharp 36% from the Rio 2016 ceremony, which was itself the…… MORE
Provincetown, Massachusetts, has restored its indoor mask mandate after a cluster of Covid-19 cases that followed the Fourth of July holiday. The Provincetown Select Board and Board of Health adopted the mandate effective immediately during an emergency meeting Sunday, according to a Facebook post from Town Manager Alex Morse. The boards also voted to give…… MORE
As the Covid-19 pandemic swept the globe in early 2020, people around the world found themselves confined to their homes and limited to speaking to friends and loved ones via phone or video chat. But rather than helping alleviate isolation, this virtual contact was more likely to result in older people feeling lonely, according to…… MORE
Miranda Lambert fans in Atlanta got more than they bargained for at her concert on Saturday night (Jan. 20), when the singer and her band burst into a high-energy cover of the Joe Walsh classic “Rocky Mountain Way.” Lambert struts the stage and does the heavy song justice with a high-octane vocal performance, but the…