Mike Allen

Thank you for subscribing!Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everydayCatch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen Des Moines news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des MoinesThank you for subscribing!Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin CitiesThank you for subscribing!Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa BayThank you for subscribing!Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios CharlotteThank you for subscribing!Thank you for subscribing!The pandemic exposed how workplaces across America are inhospitable to parents. I realized it because a couple employees were brave enough to reach out."To help those employees, PursueCare bumped up its contribution to employees' flexible spending accounts in order to cover child care expenses.

Thank you for subscribing!Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios DenverThank you for subscribing!Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des MoinesThank you for subscribing!Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Minneapolis-St. What's happening: New data from the Bank of Russia show the country now receives more euros than dollars for its exports to China, with the share of goods purchased in euros rising from 0.3% at the start of 2014 (and just 1.3% in the second quarter of 2018) to nearly 51% at the end of Q1 this year. Why it matters: The euro is the dollar's strongest competitor, making up the second largest percentage of global currency reserves — 20% of central bank holdings versus around 60% for the dollar, according to the IMF.Combined with recent efforts by EU policymakers to provide wide-ranging fiscal stimulus and release pan-European bonds, efforts by Russia and China to increase the euro's use could make the continental currency a serious challenger to the dollar. Goldman Sachs currency strategists have pointed to the rising value of gold as evidence that the U.S. could be "debasing" its currency and creating “real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.”Instead of dollars, many central banks have increased purchases of gold, especially those in China, Russia, India and Turkey in recent years, with 2018 and 2019 the first and second highest years for annual purchases on record.

The big picture: The plan calls for net-zero U.S. emissions by 2050, net-zero power-sector emissions by 2040, and a zero-emissions requirement for 100% of light-duty vehicle sales by 2035, among other targets. Royal Dutch Shell said this morning that it plans to write down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion as the pandemic lowers its oil and natural gas price forecasts. , Shell is giving us a message about stranded assets, just like BP did a few weeks ago," he writes.“Just a few years ago, few within the oil and gas industry would even countenance ideas of climate risk, peak demand, stranded assets, liquidation business models and so on. The state of play: A federal appeals court ruled in September that the developers of the PennEast Pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey couldn’t use federal law to seize land controlled by the state to build the project, citing the 11th Amendment protecting states’ rights.

U. S. video conferencing company Zoom issued a statement on Thursday acknowledging that the Chinese government requested that it suspend the accounts of several U.S.- and Hong Kong-based Chinese activists for holding events commemorating the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Zoom claims that it only took action because the Chinese government informed the company that "this activity is illegal in China" and that meeting metadata showed "a significant number of mainland China participants. : Zoom said that it will no longer allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China, and that it is working on technology that will allow it to remove or block participants based on geography. The bottom line: The statement indicates that Zoom is agreeing to China's demands to construct an in-company censorship apparatus to prevent mainland users from accessing sensitive meetings.