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Yahoo Lifes Korin Millerexplores how working parents are affected by thecoronaviruscrisis and offers expert input on how families address this issue.

Its weird when you recognize that, despite your best efforts, things arent even close to being equal in your household. While Im the primary breadwinner for our family, my work hours have been altered and cut during the pandemic while my husband works the same if not more hours than he did pre-pandemic.

To be fair, my husband is an essential worker, and he has to leave the house to work while I work from home. Our daycare closed with the pandemic so Im the sole caregiver for our three young kids who range in age from 15 months to 7 years for most of the day. Even though I get up at 4 a.m. to try to get all of my work done, Ive lost anywhere from one to two hours of work time a day since the pandemic hit.

I know Im lucky to be in a privileged position to have work when so many others dont, and Im thankful for that. And I know some people have been struggling with this reality way before the pandemic hit. Im also fortunate to have a partner who is also working and who is happy to care for our kids when hes home.

But our current arrangement is clearly unbalanced. In fact, Im writing this story at home while keeping tabs on my two older children the baby is napping. Meanwhile, my husband has two hands free at his job.

Im not the only mom struggling with the status quo. Smitten Kitchen founder Deb Perelman wrote an essay for The New York Times detailing how it can feel like working parents have to choose between having a kid or a job during the coronavirus pandemic. Womens health expert Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an ob-gyn in Texas, tells Yahoo Life shes also had to scale back her work hours lately, both due to the pandemics restrictions on her ability to provide proper, safe care to patients and the need to care for her children. She specifically cites having less access to babysitters, camps, and activities as an issue, along with trying to keep them safe by minimizing outings.

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New research shows that the pandemic-induced status quo has only widened the gender gap in work hours. Moms have reduced their work hours by about 5 percent while the work hours of dads have largely stayed the same.

The study, which was published in the journal Gender, Work and Organization in July analyzed data from approximately 60,000 households surveyed by the U.S. Current Population Survey. The studys researchers analyzed changes in the data from February to April in dual-earner heterosexual married households. Among other things, the researchers found that fathers hours didnt fall below 40 hours a week, suggesting that dads continued to put in a full workweek. Moms, on the other hand, lost about two hours of work a week.

The researchers found that the impact was greatest in moms who had elementary school-aged kids or younger. Why? Those kids need the most help and attention during the workday, study co-author William Scarborough, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Texas, tells Yahoo Life.

A lot, actually. While the new study focused on the actual numbers and not so much the why, Scarborough says there are a lot of theories behind whats happening.

The first is that, in heterosexual couples, kids de facto go to mom first, Scarborough says. This is probably reflective of ongoing gender inequalities mothers are doing the majority of caregiving, he says.

Study co-author Liana Christin Landivar, a sociologist and faculty affiliate at the University of Marylands Maryland Population Research Center, tells Yahoo Life that moms are also more likely to scale back at work than fathers, even under normal conditions, although its not entirely clear why. The pandemic has exacerbated these patterns, she says. With widespread childcare and school closures, someone has to provide the care. This has largely fallen to mothers.

Women often have no choice but to cut back their work hours, especially given that many need to do general caregiving, homeschooling and housework on top of their paid work, lead study author Caitlyn Collins, an assistant professor of sociology and of women, gender and sexuality studies at Washington University in St. Louis, tells Yahoo Life. Women more so than men tend to be burdened with these tasks, given prevailing cultural beliefs about who can and should care for children, she says.

The result, though, isnt great for women. Scarborough anticipates that moms may end up earning less over time and may eventually land in fewer leadership roles as a result. Black and Latinx women as a whole tend to work in less flexible jobs with reduced access to benefits and more on-side work requirements, Landivar says and this inequity can hit them especially hard. Overall, this creates a negative pattern, Scarborough says. This is really going to hurt womens work outcomes, we believe.

Scarborough says its crucial for families to even recognize that this is happening. We have this normative tendency for mothers to take on more than fathers, he says. I dont think most fathers want to undermine their partners work productivity, but we need to see these gender inequities and to respond to them.

Employers can also help out, Landivar says. Employers will need to provide generous flexibilities to working parents who are working under extraordinarily difficult circumstances and men should use these flexibilities to the extent they are available, she says. Expanded government investment in childcare and paid sick and caregiving leave will be critical for parents, especially mothers, to maintain work attachment amidst limited childcare availability and school closures and the resulting increased expectations of homeschooling.

Ultimately, Collins says, dads need to do more. Fathers have a right and a responsibility to participate equally in childcare and houseworkin good times and in COVID times, she says. This labor should not fall solely or mostly on women.

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

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A Citizens Academy planned by a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which will include scenario-based training and exercises, is spreading alarm among civil liberties and immigration rights organizations which question why the agency is devoting resources to providing civilians with firearms familiarization and instruction in targeted arrests. The program, set to begin in Chicago this fall as a pilot for nationwide implementation, will be run by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations branch, which is responsible for detaining and deporting immigrants. A memo from Robert Guadian, the director of ICE ERO's Chicago field office, which was obtained by Yahoo News, describes a six-week program (four-hour sessions held once a week) during which participants will gain insight into the many facets and responsibilities of ICE/ERO operations through, among other things, scenario-based training and exercises conducted in a safe and positive environment, including, but not limited to, defensive tactics, firearms familiarization, and targeted arrests.

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In life after COVID-19, the local restaurant scene may be no more than a KFC, McDonalds, Burger King and one or two overpriced craft cocktail bars serving tapas which somehow managed to survive the financial distress from the pandemic.

We have to have a bailout [of the restaurant industry], said celebrity chef and owner of restaurant Blue Dragon Ming Tsai onYahoo Finances The First Trade. I dont know if the government understands the severity of this problem. We may be left with just chain restaurants and fast-food restaurants if the government doesnt react.

With government assistance nowhere in sight, Tsai may not be too far off the mark as seen through a rising number of restaurant bankruptcies.

There have been eight bankruptcies of outright restaurant chains or operators of franchises since early April (graphic below). With each month that has passed, the filings have become prominent as restaurants struggle with weak traffic after being allowed to reopen by states, piles of debt and sky-high rent. The latest two high-profile names include childrens fun house Chuck E. Cheese and Wendys and Pizza Hut franchisee NPC International.

Chuck E. Cheese operates 555 locations in the U.S., which hang in the balance as it looks to restructure in courts. NPC International maintains a portfolio of 1,600 locations that also have a questionable post bankruptcy future.

Credit rating agency Fitch has warned more bankruptcies in the restaurant space wait in the wings.

Less frequent visits due to shifts in dining to delivery service or to increasingly popular healthier quick-service options will put more pressure on traffic at some brands at the same time the restaurants face increased competition from ready-to-cook meals available in supermarkets or via home delivery,' said Fitch director Lyle Margolis in a recent report.

Fitch warned that Checkers Drive-In Restaurants and Steak n Shake Operations are at risk of default. The Wall Street Journal reported in late June that Checkers had hired restructuring advisors to explore a potential restructuring.

Tsai thinks when its all said and done with the pandemic, some 50% of the countrys 1 million restaurants may no longer be open. His estimate is in line with others Yahoo Finance has talked with in recent months. All experts agree that fresh dine-in restrictions by states on fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections would be the final straw for small- to mid-size restaurants and even franchisees of well-known chains.

You dont know how long it lasts, the predictions are going to be unreliable for the next couple of quarters, said long-time Dennys CEO John Miller on the industry upheaval. There are PPP loans, Main Street lending, a number of programs to help people get through the difficult time. As long as it recovers as fast as the virus is arrested one way or another, then we believe certainly within a year to a year and a half, things could be in pretty good shape and not as damaging as people might believe at the moment. There will be some shakeout.

Brian Sozziis an editor-at-large and co-anchor ofThe First Tradeat Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter@BrianSozziand onLinkedIn.

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President Trump has called many things hoaxes over the years the investigation into his 2016 campaigns dealings with Russia, his impeachment, global warming but on Monday he called into question the existence of an epidemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

During a flurry of activity on his Twitter account, Trump retweeted a message from game show host Chuck Woolery that claimed everyone is lying about the coronavirus as part of a plot to sabotage the economy and hurt Trumps reelection campaign.

The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19, wrote Woolery in the message promoted by Trump. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think its all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. Im sick of it.

Asked about the retweet at a briefing later Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political.

A key problem keeping the economy from coming back is the 135,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, per tracking by Johns Hopkins University, which reported 61,352 new cases and 685 deaths on Saturday. Woolery didnt say whether he thought the death toll was faked. Florida set a record for most single-day cases of any state so far with more than 15,000 reported Saturday, the same day Walt Disney World reopened in Orlando. Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texas have all set record highs for daily deaths over the last week.

Trump sometimes uses hoax as an all-purpose denigration of opinions or facts he doesnt like. In February he called criticism of his administrations response to the coronavirus the Democrats new hoax, but he didnt quite deny the existence of the epidemic, as Woolery appeared to do in his tweet.

There is no obvious precedent for a president repeating criticism that a key agency in his own administration the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is lying, except for Trump himself, and the many times he has accused the FBI and the intelligence services of intentionally undermining him.

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Around the same time, Trumps former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who belongs to none of the categories Woolery said were telling outrageous lies about COVID-19, signified that he took the pandemic seriously. In an op-ed published on the CNBC website, Mulvaney wrote: I know it isnt popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country. My son was tested recently; we had to wait 5 to 7 days for results. My daughter wanted to get tested before visiting her grandparents, but was told she didnt qualify. That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic.

Trump also retweeted Woolerys statement There is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. Its worldwide and its overwhelming. BUT NO.

The mortality rate in children is lower from the virus, but theres still much researchers dont know about COVID-19, including the potential long-term effects on children and their ability to spread it to older, more vulnerable relatives and caregivers. Teachers unions say their members are reluctant to return to classrooms until the epidemic is under control.On Friday, the American Academy of Pediatrics hedged its initial plan for in-person schooling by releasing a statement that said, Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics and Science and community circumstances must guide decision-making.

Its accurate that other countries are planning to open schools in the fall, but they did a better job at suppressing the virus through testing, contact tracing and communicating the importance of masks than the U.S. government.

Trump has downplayed the deaths of Americans previously while in office, stating that the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria wasnt as high as multiple studies concluded after the White Houses slow response to the natural disaster was criticized.

3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, Trump said in September 2018, a year after the storm. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.

The official Hurricane Maria death toll, according to the Puerto Rican government, is 2,975. That number, calculated by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, is lower than that of a Harvard study, which put the number at 4,645. Either number would make Maria the deadliest natural disaster in the United States in over a century.

The president has consistently called the investigation into Russias influence on the 2016 election a hoax, but special counsel Robert Muellers team found evidence there was foreign interference and contact between Trump adviser Roger Stone and Russian intelligence officers.

We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel Stone among them, Mueller wrote Saturday in a Washington Post op-ed. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

Trump also called his impeachment over his attempts to pressure Ukraine into releasing damaging information on Joe Biden a hoax, although a majority of the House nearly every Democrat and Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a Republican turned independent voted to impeach him on counts of abuse of power and obstructing Congress. Every Democratic senator along with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah voted to convict on the abuse-of-power charge, but they fell short of the 67 votes needed to remove him from office, as the other 52 Republican senators supported the president.

Trump has repeatedly called global warming a hoax, at one point saying it was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. A vast majority of scientists believe that humans are causing climate change, and last month a Russian town within the Arctic Circle saw a record temperature of 100.4 degrees.

Cover thumbnail image: President Trump and hoaxes. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP, Getty Images [2])

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Bank earnings could reveal ugly-looking loan portfolios for the second quarter, but the industry hopes to champion its investment banking and cost-cutting efforts to squeeze out earnings.

Earnings season will kick off on Tuesday as JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC) report earnings before the market bell, covering the large U.S. banks performances through the three-month period ended June 30.

The upcoming [second quarter] earnings will be confusing, sloppy, and shocking for some banks, RBCs Gerard Cassidy wrote July 11. But our outlook is cautiously optimistic as we expect the economy to continue to gain momentum into the end of the year.

Earnings growth at the large banks will likely be hobbled by dramatic increases in loan loss reserves, as business struggles and job losses impair loan payments across the U.S. economy.

Lower interest rates have also compressed bank profitability, as the Federal Reserves rate cuts have spurred lower interest rates of both short and long durations.

KBW bank analyst Brian Kleinhanzl expects bank earnings to be down 24.9% year-over-year for the median bank this quarter.

[T]here are still open questions on the ultimate amount of credit losses that will be borne by the banks, and until there is greater certainty on that, we believe it will be difficult for banks to outperform the market, Kleinhanzl wrote July 1.

The bank industry has had a rough 2020 relative to the overall market, suffering steeper losses during late-Marchs tumultuous market tumble and a more tepid bounce back in the months following.

As of Monday afternoon, the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index (^BKX) was down over 34% year-to-date. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has effectively recovered its losses, and is now down only 1.5% year-to-date.

As banks brace for greater loan losses through those reserve builds, large U.S. banks with diversified revenue streams may look beyond the loan books to make money.

KBW and RBC noted that the companies with large investment banking divisions are poised for success in the second quarter, specifically highlighting JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs (GS), and Morgan Stanley (MS).

Capital markets were likely aided during the second quarter by the Federal Reserves liquidity interventions in a number of markets (such as municipal debt, corporate debt, U.S. Treasuries, U.S. dollar funding) that restored confidence among market-makers like the large investment banks.

We are expecting very strong trading results this quarter as credit spreads have compressed, bid-ask spreads remain wide, and trading activity remains high, Kleinhanzl wrote.

At RBC, Cassidy expects investment banking revenues to rise by 6.8% year-over-year among the largest U.S. banks, driven by higher gains specifically in debt capital markets.

Banks may also highlight cost-cutting in their earnings. Some banks are already trimming headcount; Bloomberg reported last week that Wells Fargo is planning thousands of job cuts.

The San Francisco-based bank, however, has been dealing with reputational and regulatory challenges over the past few years and will likely be the only large bank to announce a dividend cut in earnings this week. Due to the COVID-19 disruptions, the Federal Reserve has barred the largest U.S. banks from share buybacks through at least the third quarter, although banks are still allowed to pay out dividends.

But secular trends in the banking industry have pointed to reduced headcount well before the arrival of COVID-19. Wells Fargos banking analyst Mike Mayo has predicted that automation and the growth of mobile banking will lead to 200,000 job cuts over the next 10 years.

Brian Cheung is a reporter covering the Fed, economics, and banking for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter@bcheungz.

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Bank analysts warn of 'confusing, sloppy, and shocking' earnings as COVID-19 extends grip - Yahoo Finance

With the number of new cases of COVID-19 continuing to set records in the U.S. and deaths from the disease rising daily, public health officials and politicians have increasingly pinned their hopes on a vaccine to overcome the pandemic. Dr. Uch Blackstock, Yahoo News medical contributor and Advancing Health Equity CEO, explains the issues involved in developing a vaccine and how one might be deployed to the general public.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: So right now, we're at about 145 vaccines that are in development; about 21 are in clinical trials. But typically vaccines take several years to research and develop. Like, I think the mumps vaccine took about three to four years. And so this idea of developing a vaccine within less than a year's time but by the end of 2020 is really-- it's quite ambitious.

There are tons of ethical issues when it comes to vaccines, I mean, even starting from the research and development phase. So some of the research is done on cell lines that are actually fetal cell lines, so they're from fetuses, right? And so definitely there are a number of Catholic organizations that have come forward and expressed concern about this. And there may be some Americans that don't want to take a vaccine if it's derived from a fetal cell line.

Then also we know that HeLa cells-- they're cells derived from a black woman who lived in poverty, named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells were taken from her without her informed consent, and companies have made millions, if not billions, of dollars off those cells. And so we know that some of the research and development are also using HeLa cells as well.

And then, even moving into who is going to get the vaccine first, there are ethical issues there, right? So how are you going to prioritize who should get the vaccine first versus who is going to be the last person to get it? When President Trump came out with the Operation Warp Speed, there was some discussion about who would receive priority, but I think that the general consensus is that health care workers will definitely receive first priority as well as nursing home residents and people who are in these sort of congregate settings.

And then probably after that, people who are essential workers or first responders, like firefighters and police officers. And then probably the third group will probably eventually be the general public. The administration has specifically mentioned that they will make the vaccine available to vulnerable populations including populations who aren't able to afford to pay for it out of pocket.

But I think in thinking about these public-private partnerships that a lot of these vaccines are coming out of, I think many of them have made promises about ensuring that vulnerable populations receive the vaccine. Now, we'll see what happens, especially with billionaires, because we saw what happened with testing, that a lot of people that were affluent and politicians were able to get access to testing very early, when many other Americans could not.

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Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham are part of an effort to start a new racing series that will start in 2021 and be broadcast on CBS.

The news of the new series was first reported by the Sports Business Journal on Monday. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion driver and three-time Cup Series champion crew chief are two of four people on the board of the pending Superstar Racing Experience series.

The series has an agreement with CBS to air its six races next summer. The races will be on Saturday nights. NASCAR typically races on Sunday afternoons. From the SBJ:

A television strategy that will fit races into two-hour prime-time windows, presenting a contrast to NASCARs races that can run twice that long.

A focus on driver performance, rather than auto technology. Evernham will design the cars so that everyone races with the same equipment.

It will include racers and crew chiefs who are well known. Each race will have 12 drivers randomly matched with a crew chief.

It will feature racing under the lights at short tracks in the American heartland.

It is being positioned as an easier sale for sponsors that want to buy time on TV and at the event. They make one phone call to be integrated in all aspects of the broadcast and the event, George Pyne said.

Pyne is one of the other two people involved in the project. He used to work for NASCAR and was even its COO before he left early in 2006.

SRX is a series where the cars will be so evenly matched that talent instead of equipment will win the race, Stewart said in an SRX release. The competition will be intense, and thanks to the vision of such strong leaders in the sports and entertainment industry, millions will be able to watch live and in primetime on CBS.

Stewart is a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing in the Cup Series. His team won Sundays race at Kentucky as Cole Custer scored his first career win. Stewart is also the owner of the Eldora Speedway dirt track in Ohio. The track is one of the most famous dirt tracks in the country and hosts the NASCAR Truck Series for an annual event, though the COVID-19 pandemic has canceled it for the 2020 season.

Evernham was Jeff Gordons crew chief throughout the 1990s and the two formed one of the most prolific driver-crew chief pairings in modern NASCAR. He transitioned to the ownership side of NASCAR when Dodge entered NASCAR in 2001 and his Evernham Motorsports team was folded into another team during the 2007 season.

We are looking forward to teaming with Superstar Racing Experience to bring this exciting new auto racing series to CBS in primetime, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said. This innovative racing series will feature great drivers competing on short tracks and will provide viewers with unique, behind-the-scenes access, bringing fans closer to the action. With the backing from legends in the racing industry, the quality of the drivers and competition, and the atmosphere that short tracks will help to create, the Superstar Racing Experience is a great addition to our live summer sports programming that racing fans will embrace.

Ray Evernham at his 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

While the SBJ story says that the drivers in the series will be well known, none of those potential drivers were identified. It makes sense that drivers who are racing part-time in NASCAR or recently ended their NASCAR careers would be a part of the series. It would be logistically tough for any full-time NASCAR driver to compete in the series.

And its also tough to see how SRX could be a competitor to NASCAR, at least at any point in the short term. Its important to remember the AAF and XFLs forays into spring football. While the coronavirus pandemic shut the XFLs reboot down this spring, neither league was going to come close to rivaling the NFL had they been able to complete their seasons.

Completing its season in 2021 will be a victory for SRX given the current uncertainty in the sports world. And if the season does happen, racing fans will at least have the opportunity to watch more short track racing. That certainly wouldnt be a bad thing.

Nick Brombergis a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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(Bloomberg Opinion) -- China is building tens of thousands of 5G base stations every week.Whether it winstechnological dominance or not, domestic supply chains may be revived andallowthe countryto maintain and advance its positionas the factory floor of the world, even as Covid-19 forces a rethink in how globalization is done.

By the end of this year, China will have more thanhalf a million of these towers on its way to agoal of 5 million, a fast climbfrom around 200,000 already in use,enablingfaster communicationfor hundreds of millions of smartphone users. Bycomparison, South Koreahas a nearly 10% penetration rate for 5G usage, the highest globally. The much-smaller countryhad 115,000 such stations operatingas of April.

The towers arepart of a raftof projects that the State Council announced last week to boost industrial innovation underthe New Infrastructure campaignaimed at furthering the deep integration of the Internet of Things and the real economy. With an aim of spending $1.4 trillion by 2025, the aggressive buildup towarda more automated industrial landscapewill give China a renewedadvantagewhere it already dominates: manufacturing.

The coronavirus shut down factories and industrial sectors,triggering a rethink of supply chains away from China. What analysts arecalling peak globalization and the rise of factory automation could shift production to higher-cost countries inNorth America and Southeast Asia. It will take a while, but the global dependence on China will come down, the thinking goes. Still, with trade ravaged by Covid-19, other countries and telecom operators will struggle to match Chinas spending.For China,theres an opportunity toclear the way toforcefully implementits industrial policy agenda, without interference from criticism oversubsidies and unfair competition. The so-calledCentral Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission, headed by President Xi Jinping, has approved a three-year planto givestate-owned enterprises yet more sway in the economy.

Beijings ambitious programs are still in the construction phase. Macro base stations are the nuts and bolts of building out 5G networks, and will exceed their 4G predecessorsby almost 1.5 times. Capital expenditure could peak at $30 billion this year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts, up from $5 billion last year.Beijing wants more local governments and companies to getinvolved.Each station costs around 500,000 yuan ($71,361) and has a long value chain that includes electrical components, semiconductors, antennaunits and circuit boards. The vast number of companies spawned by the project are all contributing to Chinas push to get ahead.

For the industrial complex, the onset of 5G will enable greater connectivity between machines and much moredata transfer and collection. Fifth-generation technology is expected to have a big impactthrough increasinglyefficient and automated factory equipment, and tracking the movement of inventory and progress of production lines and assets. Manufacturingis expected to account for almost 40% of 5G-enabled industry output, according toBernsteinResearch analysts.

From sensors and data clouds, to chips and collaborative robots and computer-controlled machinery, a whole universe of little-known Chinese companies is coming to the fore. Memory chip maker Gigadevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc.has ridden the trend, as has Yonyou Network Technology Co., Chinas version of Salesforce.com Inc. For some of these companies, government subsidies are a significant part of earnings,as my colleague Shuli Ren has noted. Stock prices have surged in recent monthsfor firmslike Shennan Circuits Co., whichmakes printed circuit boards, and Maxscend Microelectronics Co., a manufacturer ofradio frequency chips.Someareseeing their market capitalization values balloon by billions of dollars asBeijing has upped the ante on new infrastructure.

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To be sure, it isnt hard to imagine a hinterland speckled with ghost towers and base stations in coming years as China's propensity to overbuild beyond any reasonable capacitykicks in. The past shows that questions ofquality will arise whentoo many sub-par manufacturers crop up, incentivized bythe states largesse. Nonetheless, thisis the technology of the not-so-distantfuture, and building up thebasic infrastructure isnt misguided.

As Covid-19 absorbs the worlds attention, Beijings steadyfocus on implementing this industrial policy may make Chinathe manufacturer of parts that most countries will need soon. In other words, it will yet again become the factory floor, masteringthe production of all things 5G.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal.

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Coca-Cola (KO) has figured out a way to save its highly profitable fountain soda business from becoming extinct at the germy hands of COVID-19.

The solution: QR codes and your smartphone.

Coca-Cola said Monday it has made its popular Freestyle soda machine which could be found at scores of fast-food restaurants such as Wendys and McDonalds and corporate offices completely contactless. By updating the machines software package, a consumer will be able to hold their camera up to the machines display which will auto-scan a QR code. That then connects to the cloud and brings the machines user interface direct to your smartphone. The drinker then selects from the full menu of options and hits pour.

No app download required.

All Coca-Cola beverage dispensers are safe with recommended care and cleaning, said Coca-Cola Freestyle Vice President and General Manager Chris Hellmann in a statement. But in these uncertain times, Coca-Cola is providing consumers a new option a touchless fountain experience. It has been exciting to see our team continue to innovate mostly from home to meet the evolving needs of customers and consumers. Our partners are doing everything they can to maintain a safe and hygienic dining environment, and were doing all we can to provide options for their guests to continue to pour the beverages they want on a platform they love.

New Coca-Cola Freestyle machine.

Released in 2009, the Coke Freestyle machine in many respects revolutionized fountain soda consumption by using technology to unlock almost endless drink options. In life before COVID-19, one would walk up to the Freestyle machine, select a drink by touching the screen and be on your merry way. But that exercise doesnt appear feasible for restaurants and businesses as they reopen from the pandemic touching a public computer screen right now isnt too different from touching a train station toilet seat. In many restaurants, for instance, the fountain machine remains closed.

That has required Coke to figure out a way to reinvent the user experiences so owners of the machines could continue to drive profits. Coke says its software upgrade for the machines which took only a few weeks will be pushed out to 10,000 machines later this summer. All of the Freestyle machines will receive the software upgrade by year end.

Brian Sozziis an editor-at-large and co-anchor ofThe First Tradeat Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter@BrianSozziand onLinkedIn.

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Two Lysol disinfectant sprays are effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to July 6, 2020 announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo: Lysol)

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved two Lysol Disinfectant Sprays that can effectively kill SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in just two minutes, the government agency announced Monday.

Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist are the first two disinfectants to be approved for their ability to kill the virus. In May, the CDC recommended that people clean homes with common EPA-registered household disinfectants, which were expected to kill SARS-CoV-2, harder to kill viruses and other types of coronaviruses. However, the EPAs new announcement names two products that are specifically effective against SARS-CoV-2.

These products are distinct because of how theyve been tested, an EPA spokesperson tells Yahoo Life. As SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, it has only recently become available for laboratory testing. These two products are the first for which EPA has completed its review of laboratory testing data confirming that the products are effective against SARS-CoV-2 when used according to the label directions. The spokesperson adds that users should allow the substance to remain wet on surfaces for two minutes before wiping clean.

EPA is committed to identifying new tools and providing accurate and up-to-date information to help the American public protect themselves and their families from the novel coronavirus, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a joint press release with Lysol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser. EPA's review of products tested against this virus marks an important milestone in President Trumps all of government approach to fighting the spread of COVID-19."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 is mainly spread person-to-person through the transmission of respiratory droplets when individuals are within six feet of one another. Droplets from sneezing, coughing or loud talking can jump into another persons mouth or nose or be inhaled through the lungs. Per the health agency, touching contaminated objects and then touching the mouth, nose or maybe the eyes is a less common route of transmission.

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In addition to cleaning product and hand sanitizer shortages, there is a popular movement to disinfect grocery store packages, prompted by a New England Journal of Medicine study showing that SARS-CoV-2 can linger for hours on surfaces like plastic and cardboard. However, both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration have cited lack of evidence to support transmission in that manner.

A complementary peer-reviewed study commissioned by Reckitt Benckiser and published in the American Journal of Infection Control indicated that Lysol products showed the effectiveness of well-known brands like Lysol products to combat COVID-19, indicating greater than 99.9 percent efficacy against SARS-CoV-2.

The Lysol products are effective at killing SARS-CoV-2 because they contain the active ingredient dimethyl benzyl ammonium saccharinate, which breaks open the virus and destroys it, Bill Wuest, Ph.D. an associate professor of chemistry at Emory University, tells Yahoo Life.

As of Tuesday, confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hit 2,966,409, according to ongoing data by Johns Hopkins University. And according to the New York Times, the World Health Organization announced that airborne transmission of the coronavirus incrowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings, cannot be ruled out.

For thelatest coronavirus news and updates, follow along athttps://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference theCDCs andWHOsresource guides.

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EPA approves first two cleaning sprays that kill the coronavirus in 2 minutes - Yahoo Lifestyle