Nationwide baby formula shortage worsens - May 9, 2022

Comcast, AT&T and Verizon are among 20 internet providers that partnered with the Biden administration to offer high-speed internet to millions of unconnected households through the bipartisan infrastructure law. The Affordable Connectivity Program aims to provide at least 100 Megabytes per second of speed for no more than $30 to the 48 million eligible Americans. Administration officials said Latino Americans are 15% less likely to have high-speed internet and roughly 35% of all people living on Tribal lands lack access to broadband services. Although efforts to close the digital divide have increased in recent years, roughly 19 million Americans still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. Electric-grid operations across the country are warning of potential blackouts as power-generating capacity is struggling to meet demand with companies attempting to transition to green energy sources. In California, heatwaves, wildfires and drought may force the state to fall short of energy demands by 1,700 megawatts, enough to power over a million California homes. In the UK, renewable energy developers are facing delays of up to 10 years to connect new capacity to the electricity grid. Inflation and supply chain shortages continue to slow the pace developers can get components needed to build renewable energy farms, heightening the risk of outages this summer. The Biden administration announced new sanctions targeting Russian state-controlled media and banking executives while G7 nations committed to phase out imports of Russian oil in the West’s latest attempt to condemn Moscow for its war against Ukraine. The sanctions will remove American advertising dollars from “funding Russian propaganda” and force the networks to domestically source broadcast technologies. Previously imposed sanctions against Russia already took a major toll on the country’s economy, but officials intend these sanctions to change the “strategic calculus of the target.” As nurses’ salaries, overtime and bonuses skyrocket