Over a month and a half before the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic, BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin met with his wife, BioNTech’s co-founder and chief medical officer Özlem Türeci, and together they agreed to redirect most of the company’s resources to developing a vaccine. Up until that point, BioNTech was little-known internationally and primarily focused on developing novel cancer treatments. The founders were confident in the potential of their mRNA technology, which they knew could trigger a powerful immune response. That confidence wasn’t necessarily shared by the broader medical community. No mRNA vaccine or treatment had ever been approved before. But the couple’s timely breakthrough was actually decades in the making. CNBC spoke with Şahin and Türeci about how they, along with Pfizer, created a Covid-19 vaccine using mRNA.
Driving Tours: Monte Cristallo, Dolomites, Italy
Late afternoon drive around Monte Cristallo from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina in Dolomites (Dolomite Alps in Italy).
Video timeline: 00:00 Cortina – Carbonin via Passo Cimabanche 18:20 Carbonin/Schluderbach – Misurina/Lago d’Antorno 28:40 Tre Cime (Drei Zinnen) 32:10 From Lake d’Antorno to Lake Misurina 37:00 From Misurina to Cortina via Passo Tre Croci
Front Page Views: WSJ Weekend Edition – OCT 23
Saturday Morning: News From London – OCT 23
Top news and stories from London.
Rome Walks: The Piazza Navona To Pantheon (4K)
Piazza Navona is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones, and hence it was known as “Circus Agonalis”.
The Pantheon is a former Roman temple and since the year 609 a Catholic church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated c. 126 AD.
History Of Berlin: The Brandenburg Gate (1790)
The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the temporary restoration of order during the Batavian Revolution.
Art: ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ By Abstract Expressionist Helen Frankenthaler
Alex Roediger, MoMA’s senior information coordinator, looks at Helen Frankenthaler’s “Jacob’s Ladder” (1957) with a painter’s eye, and finds that “more paint” isn’t always the key to making a dramatic statement—even in Abstract Expressionism.
Analysis: The Cargo Ship Congestion In Los Angeles
California’s Port of Los Angeles is struggling to keep up with the crush of cargo containers arriving at its terminals, creating one of the biggest choke points in the global supply-chain crisis. This exclusive aerial video illustrates the scope of the problem and the complexities of this process. Photo: Thomas C. Miller
Analysis: Can Businesses Do Well By Doing Good?
Today consumers want to buy more sustainable products, employees want to work for firms that share their values, and in the investment world, ESG funds are all the rage. How are companies responding to these shifting demands and can businesses really do well by doing good?
00:00 – Can companies do well by doing good? 00:50 – Environment and climate change 06:50 – Employee wellbeing 09:51 – Workforce diversity 15:50 – Ethical supply chains 19:26 – Environmental Social Governance
Read more of our business coverage: https://econ.st/2XfyBBX
Views: Diocletian’s Palace Ruins, Split, Croatia (4K)
Diocletian’s Palace is an ancient palace built for the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, which today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. While it is referred to as a “palace” because of its intended use as the retirement residence of Diocletian, the term can be misleading as the structure is massive and more resembles a large fortress: about half of it was for Diocletian’s personal use, and the rest housed the military garrison.
The complex was built on a peninsula six kilometres southwest from Salona, the former capital of Dalmatia, one of the largest cities of the late empire with 60,000 people and the birthplace of Diocletian. The terrain around Salona slopes gently seaward and is typical karst, consisting of low limestone ridges running east to west with marl in the clefts between them. Today the remains of the palace are part of the historic core of Split, which in 1979 was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
