Italy now deadliest covid-19 country
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Italy surpassed those in China, where the outbreak started. As of Thursday, there have been 3,405 deaths in Italy, compared to 3,245 recorded in China. Sources: BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Guardian and Reuters.
US travel warning
The US government has told American citizens not to travel internationally and those already abroad to return home or face the possibility of being stranded outside the country. Sources: Associated Press, CNN, Financial Times, NBC News and Politico.
California extends ‘stay at home’ rules
The governor of California has ordered all of the state’s 40m residents to stay at home, except for essential trips. Restrictions had previously only been in place in the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas. Sources: AFP, BBC, CNBC, NPR and Sacramento Bee.
G7 summit to be virtual
Donald Trump cancelled the in-person G7 meeting at Camp David in June, replacing it with a video conference among the leaders of the world’s largest economies. Sources: Associated Press, CNBC and Reuters.
Covid-19 economic injections
Europe: The European Central Bank announced a €750bn stimulus package, per the BBC and Politico, bringing the total amount of rescue plans across the continent to €1.7trn, per The Guardian. UK: The Bank of England cut interest rates to a record low and unveiled £200bn in quantitative easing, per CityAM, The Guardian and Sky News. US: Senate Republicans proposed $1trn in fiscal stimulus, including cash payments of $1,200 to taxpayers earning $75,000 or less a year, per the Financial Times, The Guardian and Reuters.
Netherlands has enough toilet paper: PM
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said the country has a sufficient stock of toilet paper, per Reuters. While visiting a supermarket, he stated: “We can all poop for 10 years.” (As far as Delano knows, Luxembourg has a good supply too.)
Netflix throttling European picture resolution
The streaming giant Netflix has agreed to reduce the quality of its videos in Europe to ease pressure on internet networks at the urging of the European Commission. Sources: BBC, Bloomberg and Politico.
Microsoft Teams vs Slack
With the covid-19 telecommuting jump, Slack, a work chat app provider, said it added 7,000 new paying customers the previous quarter, its biggest gain ever. Microsoft said it had 44m individual users this week, compared to 20m average daily users in November. Sources: Financial Times, The Register, Techcrunch and Venturebeat.
Home delivery
Researchers found the coronavirus that causes covid-19 can survive on copper surfaces for just 4 hours, on cardboard delivery boxes for about a day, and on stainless steel and plastic for at least 3 days, per The Economist and MIT Technology Review.
Cancer drug firm’s virtual roadshow
Innocare Pharma, a Chinese biotech firm developing cancer drugs, raised $289m in a Hong Kong IPO that was 312 times oversubscribed among retail investors, per the South China Morning Post. Unusually, the company conducted its investor meetings online, per Bloomberg and DealStreetAsia.
Crowdstrike surges
Shares in the computer security outfit Crowdstrike shot up 20% in afterhours trading, after it recorded a 92% jump in subscriptions and issued a rosy 2021 forecast, even though it posted a net loss. Sources: CNBC, Marketwatch and Seeking Alpha.
India executes bus attackers
India hung four men convicted of raping and killing a 23 year old women on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, per ABC News, BBC and Reuters.
Weinstein starts prison sentence
Harvey Weinstein, the film producer convicted of rape, began his 23 year sentence at a maximum security prison in New York state. Sources: Associated Press, CNN and NBC News.
Here are 10 (non-coronavirus) science & technology stories you may have missed
Orbiting infrastructure: SpaceX launched another 60 Starlink satellites this week, bringing the total in the future broadband internet network to roughly 350, per CNN and Space.com. Astronomy: Researchers identified 139 “minor planets” (which are neither planets nor comets) outside Neptune’s orbit, per NBC News. Philosophy: “At the North Pole, 24 time zones collide at a single point, rendering them meaningless,” per Scientific American. “It’s simultaneously all of Earth’s time zones and none of them.” Social media: Tiktok, the Chinese-owned short-video-sharing app popular with teens, “instructed moderators to suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled for the platform,” per The Intercept. Computer security: Popular VPN and ad-blocking apps have “been secretly collecting data from millions of people”, per Buzzfeed News. Cyber problems: Computer security researchers checking large ships and offshore oil platforms “discovered a litany of security blunders and vulnerabilities – including one set that would have let them take full control of a rig at sea,“ per The Register. Nature: A recent study found that bird nests are an incredible feat of mechanical engineering, per the New York Times. Archaeology: A 9th century Chinese noblewoman was apparently buried with a donkey that “may have served as her steed during polo matches in the royal court,” per Science magazine. Archaeology: Researchers found the remains of what’s been dubbed a “wonderchicken”, a 66.7m-66.8m year old predecessor of the duck, per the BBC and The Guardian. Artificial humour: This academic programmed a robot to be a standup comic, per IEEE Spectrum.
Sharing is caring
A physical therapist set up a public exchange in southern California that asks people to “share your toilet paper”, per the San Diego Union-Tribune.
How some dishes get named after different places
Chicken Kiev is actually from Russia and baked Alaska was created in New York City, but Peking duck really is from Beijing, per National Geographic.
Cute animal photos
Bored Panda, one of my favourite ways to waste time on the internet, has pictures of 40 cats sleeping in funny places, a golden retriever puppy with a birth defect that makes her look a bit like a unicorn, and an albino squirrel.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald