Canada has contributed over CAD 90,000 (approximately CHF 60,000) in 2020 to enhance the trading capacities of developing countries and least-developed countries (LDCs). This donation to the WTO’s DDA Global Trust Fund will finance training workshops and seminars for government officials, with the aim of deepening their understanding of current trade issues and challenges and improving their negotiating skill-set.

The WTO Secretariat has published a new information note looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected e-commerce, including the implications for cross-border trade. It notes the increased use of e-commerce as consumers adapt to lockdowns and social distancing measures and draws attention to several challenges, such as the need to bridge the digital divide within and across countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has underlined the need for greater multilateral cooperation, including the need to improve the global trading system, Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff said on 7 May. Speaking at a webinar hosted by the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, DDG Wolff said trade will play an important role in Africa’s economic recovery from the crisis, particularly through increased intra-African trade.

This evening’s Square E3 press was…something. After more than an hour of Final Fantasy remasters, the publisher closed things out with far and away its most eagerly awaited game. Licensing some white hot IP, the RPG masters at Square are offering up their own take on Earth’s mightiest heroes. Bay Area-based Crystal Dynamics addressed what […]

November 2019 could mark when Nigeria (arguably) became Africa’s unofficial capital for fintech investment and digital finance startups. The month saw $360 million invested in Nigerian-focused payment ventures. That is equivalent to roughly one-third of all the startup VC raised for the entire continent in 2018, according to Partech stats. A notable trend-within-the-trend is that […]

Jack Dorsey announced in a series of tweets today that he is shifting $1 billion in his Square equity to create a fund dedicated to COVID-19 relief. The Twitter and Square CEO is calling the fund Start Small and posting a tally of disbursements and recipients in a public spreadsheet. Dorsey said in his announcement […]

We’ve spent so long asking tech to turn its attention to real-world problems. Let’s not complain when they do so now. 

Fintech companies have been lobbying for weeks to be able to participate in the U.S. government’s emergency lending program for small businesses. Now those efforts have paid off, as PayPal, Intuit and Square have all been approved to participate in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program, which provides aid in the form […]

In recent years, fintech’s revolution has felt like a rising tide. Behemoths like Stripe and Square edged out banks while newbies like Brex nonchalantly raised nine-figure rounds. Today, however, the state of the financial technology industry feels more wobbly — some healthy startups in the genre are faring better than ever, while others are feeling […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released updated projections of future U.S. energy production and use in its Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020) today.

While plenty of tech stocks have seen their market caps dive in the past month, Groupon has taken a harder hit than most. The company’s share price has dropped more than 70% in the past five weeks. The reckoning came for Groupon’s leadership today with both CEO Rich Williams and COO Steve Krenzer ousted. In […]

When Roger Lee, the co-founder of Human Interest, heard that San Francisco imposed shelter-in-place orders, he started blogging about layoff news and posting crowdsourced lists of employees who were laid off. His goal was to increase awareness about layoffs and give recruiters a place to search for candidates. However, one week and 40 startup layoffs […]

While global stay-at-home orders have been a blow to most companies, they’ve also created opportunities for businesses helping to keep people entertained. So if you’re a YouTube creator hoping to capture some additional eyeballs while everyone’s stuck at home, online video agency Butter Works has released an interactive report outlining the most promising topics for […]

We’ll admit it: Some of your Original Content podcast hosts are a little skeptical about improvised comedy. Of course, we can enjoy improv when it’s done well. It’s just that we’ve seen it done less well, often by friends who are so enthusiastic without being particularly funny. And our friends aside, live improv has rarely […]

The world has changed dramatically since May 2019 when we last surveyed venture capitalists about the trends they were seeing in media, entertainment and gaming. Since then, COVID-19 and the resulting physical distancing measures have created plenty of demand for companies helping to inform and entertain us as we’re stuck at home. At the same […]

“Waco,” a Paramount Network series that recently started streaming on Netflix, dramatizes the tragic real-life standoff between the FBI, the ATF and the Branch Davidians. A couple of your Original Content podcast hosts only had a fuzzy idea of what actually went down in Waco, Texas in 1993. And all of us were surprised by […]

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose to $2.58 a gallon on Monday. That's up 7 tenths of a penny from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose to $2.58 a gallon on Monday. That's up 7 tenths of a penny from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel rose to $3.08 a gallon on Monday. That's up a penny from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported continuing changes to the fuel mix for U.S. electricity generation. Over the past decade, the share of U.S. electricity generation supplied by natural gas-fired power plants increased from 23% of total generation in 2010 to an estimated 37% in 2019. This increase was offset by a reduction in the share of generation from coal-fired power plants from 46% in 2010 to an estimated 24% in 2019. EIA expects the share of coal generation to continue its decline to 21% in 2020, while natural gas's share of generation stabilize between 37% and 38% in 2020 and 2021 as renewable energy sources continue to gain market share. In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA estimated that the expected share of generation from renewable sources will increase from 17% in 2019 to 19% this year and to 22% in 2021. The increase in the renewables share is the result of an increase in electricity generation from wind and solar. The share of generation from hydropower is expected to remain the same through 2021.

In December 2019, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of other oil producers announced they were deepening the production cuts originally announced in December 2018. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that global oil production will rise in 2020 despite the cuts, as expected growth in non-OPEC crude oil production will offset OPEC's reduced output. Non-OPEC production will be driven by continued growth in the United States. Outside of the United States, growing crude oil production in Brazil, Norway, and Canada will also contribute to supply growth over the next 24 months. In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA reports that U.S. crude oil production in 2019 hit a record annual average of 12.2 million barrels per day. EIA forecasts U.S. production will reach 13.3 million barrels per day in 2020 and 13.7 million barrels per day in 2021. Most of the production growth occurs in the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.54 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.3 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.54 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.3 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $3.04 a gallon on Monday. That's down 2.7 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.51 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.51 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $3.01 a gallon on Monday. That's down 2.7 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.46 a gallon on Monday. That's down 5.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.46 a gallon on Monday. That's down 5.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.96 a gallon on Monday. That's down 5.4 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.42 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.6 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.42 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.6 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.91 a gallon on Monday. That's down 4.6 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.89 a gallon on Monday. That's down 2 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose to $2.47 a gallon on Monday. That's up 3.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose to $2.47 a gallon on Monday. That's up 3.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.88 a gallon on Monday. That's down 8 tenths of a penny from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.85 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.38 a gallon on Monday. That's down 4.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.38 a gallon on Monday. That's down 4.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.81 a gallon on Monday. That's down 3.7 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.25 a gallon on Monday. That's down 12.7 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.25 a gallon on Monday. That's down 12.7 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.73 a gallon on Monday. That's down 8.1 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.12 a gallon on Monday. That's down 12.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.12 a gallon on Monday. That's down 12.8 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.66 a gallon on Monday. That's down 7.4 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.01 a gallon on Monday. That's down 11 1/2 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline fell to $2.01 a gallon on Monday. That's down 11 1/2 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. average retail price for on-highway diesel fuel fell to $2.59 a gallon on Monday. That's down 7.3 cents from a week ago, based on the weekly price survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.