March, 2020

• 18 March

  European car sales suffer worst start to year since 2013

  

  Bloomberg Car sales in Europe are off to their worst start to a year since 2013 and are poised to deteriorate further after automakers across the region shuttered plants to counter the coronavirus pandemic. Passenger registrations declined 7.2% in February after a similar drop in January, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Even those figures may be the best ...

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• 18 March

  BMW’s hopes for growth crushed by coronavirus

  

  Bloomberg BMW AG abandoned hopes for another record year in sales due to the coronavirus outbreak, predicting deliveries in 2020 will be “significantly below” last year’s levels and profitability at its weakest for years. The maker of the 7 Series luxury sedan announced shorter shifts and flexible working for employees. It didn’t provide details on any plant closures that have ...

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• 18 March

  Hospital workers in US make masks from office supplies

  

  Bloomberg Hospital workers in Washington state have been making protective medical gear out of office supplies and other run-of-the-mill materials as they deal with a severe shortage of equipment needed to care for patients who may have Covid-19. Among the supplies coming in handy: clear vinyl sheets. “We are very close to being out of face shields,” said Becca Bartles, ...

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• 18 March

  Facebook to pay workers $1,000 bonus

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is paying all of its 45,000 employees an extra $1,000 to help manage expenses during the Covid-19 outbreak. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the decision in a memo to workers, earlier reported by The Information. The bonus applies to the social network’s full-time employees, who as of now can’t come into the office for health and ...

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• 18 March

  China guts US press corps in Beijing with mass expulsions

  

  Bloomberg China took the unprecedented step of expelling more than a dozen US journalists from three American newspapers, escalating a wider battle with the Trump administration as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to drag the global economy into a recession. China’s foreign ministry said US reporters at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post must hand in their ...

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• 18 March

  Europe shuts borders in desperate effort to stop coronavirus

  

  Bloomberg European Union (EU) leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. The restrictions will apply to all non-EU citizens and last for an initial 30 days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after a video conference with ...

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• 18 March

  Putin’s aides shocked by his presidential power play

  

  Bloomberg Vladimir Putin’s surprise move to allow himself to remain as president until 2036 caught even many Kremlin insiders off guard, leaving some feeling deceived by his motivation for changing the constitution. His sudden reversal — approving a plan that he’d long publicly resisted — was a blow to some senior officials’ hopes that he would find a more elegant ...

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• 18 March

  Three-state win gives Biden edge over Sanders

  

  Bloomberg Joe Biden’s decisive victories in Florida, Illinois and Arizona effectively put the Democratic nomination out of reach for Bernie Sanders. The former vice president won all three states by wide enough margins that he now has a majority of all delegates pledged so far, and more than half of the almost 2,000 he needs to secure the nomination at ...

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• 18 March

  Johnson’s Brexit faces delay amid virus risk

  

  Bloomberg Remember Brexit? Hundreds of trade negotiators from the UK and European Union were due to meet in London on Wednesday to hammer out a trade deal. With those discussions now delayed because of the coronavirus, it’s increasingly likely Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have to postpone Britain’s final break with the bloc at the end of this year, something ...

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• 18 March

  Trump loyalists take lead in intelligence community

  

  At a moment when Americans have new appreciation for the government professionals who protect against global threats, the Trump administration is weighing cuts in funding and staff for the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), created after September 11, 2001, to shield the homeland from attack. The debate about trimming the NCTC, as it’s known, is part of a broader examination ...

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