Almost as soon as the coronavirus arrived in Europe, countries began turning inward, putting their own citizens’ needs first and ignoring pleas for help from their neighbors. European Union member states closed their borders for the first time in decades, and competed against each other for vital medical supplies, including ventilators. But the biggest rifts between the nations have opened up during recent negotiations over an economic rescue package, which pitted richer countries against...

Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images While Italy has received much of the attention due to the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, there’s another European nation that deserves a closer look: Germany. Germany has the fifth-most coronavirus cases in the world, but only a fraction of the death toll that has been seen in other countries. And the reason remains a mystery. “We don’t know the reason for the lower death rate,” Marieke Degen, deputy spokeswoman of Germany’s...

Tina Yuen The Honolulu City Council on Tuesday deferred a decision on a bill that would mandate the installation of fire sprinkler systems in more than 350 aging buildings on Oahu for a second time. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported the council's Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee deferred the measure as it awaits less stringent recommendations on the sprinkler systems. The Residential Fire Safety Advisory Committee panel, which consists of 15 members, may recommend that...

Enlarge Kauai Island Utility Cooperative's board of directors on Tuesday approved expenditures of up to $350,000 to conduct preliminary work for a project on the island's west side. According to a statement, the money will be used for preliminary surveying, engineering and permitting work for a proposed project that incorporates photovoltaic and pumped storage hydro technology. KIUC has already started initial work on the project, installing gauging equipment and performing required diversion...

Tina Yuen PBN Hawaii’s Big Island has become the first island within Hawaiian Electric Cos.’ service territories to reach its allocated customer grid-supply cap space. The island reached its cap space last week, less than a month before the end of the CGS program on Oct. 21. The CGS allows customers with a solar photovoltaic system to receive a credit of roughly 15 cents per kilowatt-hour for sending electricity back to grid. Hawaiian Electric’s CGS program replaced together with the customer...