May, 2020

• 2 May

  Is Pentagon struggling to stay out of politics?

  

  Watching General Mark A Milley, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, on stage at the White House, he looks uncomfortable. And that’s as it should be. Milley’s job is to provide sound military advice to the president. But at a deeper level, his responsibility is to safeguard the independence and integrity of the armed forces. The last thing ...

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• 2 May

  Remdesivir trial misses an opportunity

  

  The big Covid-19 news was a promising result from a new study of remdesivir, an anti-viral produced by Gilead Sciences. But lost in all the discussion of how well the drug works — an earlier study found it wasn’t helpful — was a tragic failure: Gilead missed its one shot at getting vital information on specifically which patients the drug ...

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• 2 May

  And Exxon’s problem is strategic, not pandemic

  It’s been a week of milestones for Exxon Mobil Corp, and not in a good way. The oil major froze its dividend for the first time in 13 years and then, on May 1, announced its first quarterly loss in decades. Covid-19 plays a big part, obviously, but Exxon’s strategy is the big problem, particularly on its home turf. As ...

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• 2 May

  After Covid-19, US will need more immigrants

  President Donald Trump recently announced an executive order “temporarily suspending immigration to the United States.” It turns out that the new restrictions are narrower than this might suggest — which is a good thing. Immigration policy needs short-term adjustments and cries out for long-term reform, but broad or indefinite clampdowns certainly aren’t the answer. The president was describing the order ...

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• 2 May

  Here’s why Germany will never be Europe’s leader

  

  The timing is certainly awkward. The year 2020 was supposed to be the moment for Germany to show leadership, as it takes over, on July 1, the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, analogous to an upper house in the EU’s legislature. But now a virus has come along and thrown the world and the EU into ...

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• 2 May

  Coronavirus is not Trump’s Vietnam!

  

  Sentient humans like to benchmark their successes and failures. So it’s understandable that in trying to put the coronavirus’s toll in perspective, some Americans have fastened their eyes on one particular grim milestone: The 58,300+ deaths in the US from Covid-19 over the last three months have now surpassed US casualties from the Vietnam War (58,220 deaths recorded from 1956 ...

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• 2 May

  We’ve lost time in the race for a Covid-19 cure

  

  It’s been three months since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on its way to becoming a full-blown pandemic. Yet in spite of much hype around several existing drugs, we still haven’t found a proven, evidence-based treatment for Covid-19. The stakes are clearly high, with a vaccine at least a year ...

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• 2 May

  Tiny game studio finds Nintendo stardom through Sony’s obsolete device

  

  Bloomberg For Toru Kawakatsu, winning a 70-second spot on Nintendo Co.’s popular Direct showcase last month was the culmination of an unusual strategy many dismissed as quixotic. His four-person game studio, dubbed Petit Depotto, started work on an adventure game called Gnosia for the PlayStation Vita portable console back in 2015. The Vita was already ailing back then, and Sony ...

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• 2 May

  Twitter’s advertising business hit hard by impact of Covid-19

  

  Bloomberg Twitter Inc. has more users than ever, but its advertising business was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of the first quarter. The social-media company reported revenue of $808 million in the period, ahead of Wall Street estimates of $773 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares surged about 10% in early trading. From ...

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• 2 May

  Facebook signals online ad pain set to worsen

  

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s revenue held up better than expected in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the company warned that the worst of the slowdown in ad spending isn’t over, raising the prospect of a bigger hit across the digital-advertising market. Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner noted the “potential for an even more severe advertising industry contraction.” His ...

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