Thursday, May 7, 2020
2:00 pm ET: Around the World in 90 Seconds
India reopens airspace to international flights so citizens can finally head home and refugees use Legos to build hand sanitizer dispensers. Here are your international coronavirus headlines.
— Megan Pratz
1:21 pm ET: Truckers Find Wide Open Roads, New Challenges During Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic is affecting businesses across industries, including truck drivers who are on the frontlines. Low shipping rates are hurting drivers and the problem does not end once truckers hit the road.
Charles Evans, a driver for the Tri-State Motor Transit, told Cheddar Thursday that truck drivers are facing unprecedented challenges, like just grabbing a bite to eat on the road. Read more...
— McKenzie Marshall
12:53 pm ET: U.S. Shelves Detailed Guide to Reopening Country: AP
The Trump administration has shelved a set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places during the still-raging pandemic. Those public places include mass transit, daycare centers, restaurants, and bars. The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was supposed to be published last Friday. A CDC employee tells The Associated Press that agency officials were told the report “would never see the light of day." The Trump administration has been closely controlling the CDC’s release of information during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more...
— The Associated Press
12:02 pm ET: Wall Street Rallies on Hopes for Slowing Economic Pain
Stocks climbed in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday as reports suggested that even though the economy is still getting walloped, at least conditions aren’t worsening as quickly as they had been.
The S&P 500 was up 1.2%, following up on similar gains in Europe. Oil prices also rose, but other areas of the market were more hesitant, including bonds and Asian stocks. Read more...
— The Associated Press
11:52 am ET: New Postmaster General as USPS Faces Potential Shutdown
President Donald Trump has tapped a key ally and GOP fundraiser to become the next postmaster general of the United States, even as the agency faces historic challenges.
Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who is leading the fundraising effort for the Republican convention in Charlotte this summer, is a longtime Trump donor. DeJoy has been tapped to replace outgoing Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, an Obama appointee who came into the position in 2015.
Trump had previously told reporters that the Postal Service must raise prices or risk being shut out of any coronavirus relief bill. Read more...
— J.D. Durkin
10:09 am ET: Stocks Open Higher as Acceleration of Economic Pain Eases
Stocks climbed in early trading on Wall Street Thursday as reports suggested that even though the economy is still suffering severely, the pace of pain may be decelerating. The S&P 500 rose 1.3%, following similar gains in Europe. The day’s headliner economic report showed another 3.2 million U.S. workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million. It’s a shocking number, but it’s also the fifth straight week of decline since hitting a peak in late March. Several companies including Lyft and PayPal said they were seeing some encouraging trends in their businesses. Read more...
— The Associated Press
10:05 am ET: With Another 3.2 Million Filings, Unemployment Total Hits 33 Million
Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades.
Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions of companies to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February when the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low of just 3.5%. Read more...
— The Associated Press
8:05 am ET: Need2Know: Challenge Trials, Shocking Shooting Video & Drive-Ins Return
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COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: A day after the vice president said the coronavirus task force could be disbanded, President Trump now says it will stay in place “indefinitely.” Tensions between the U.S. and China continue to rise with Beijing and Washington trading barbs over China’s response to the virus. Germany says its experiment in a phased-in reopening is working, and the country is ready for the second phase — though the entire EU is now forecast to see its deepest recession ever. And in a development NY Gov. Cuomo called “shocking,” the majority of new COVID hospital admissions in New York are coming from people who were sheltering at home. WASH POST
RACE FOR A VACCINE: The W.H.O. says that healthy volunteers may need to be deliberately exposed to the coronavirus in order to speed up the development of a vaccine. So-called “challenge trials” are ethically fraught when there’s no cure for a disease, because if the vaccine doesn’t work, the volunteers can potentially get very ill or even die. But some researchers say it could potentially shave months off the timeline, because they wouldn’t have to wait for the virus to infect healthy people on its own. BLOOMBERG
SHOCKING GEORGIA SHOOTING VIDEO: Calls are growing for authorities in Georgia to arrest two white men who shot and killed a black jogger in broad daylight in February. Lawyers for the victim, Ahmaud Arbery, released a video of the incident taken by a bystander. It shows Arbery jogging past a white pickup truck as a shot is fired, followed by two more as he struggles with one of the men. The men in the video say they thought he was a burglar. The DA has vowed to bring the case to a grand jury. NBC NEWS
BIBI SURVIVES AGAIN: Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could form a new government even though he’s under indictment. The decision clears the way for Netanyahu and his rival, Benny Gantz, to create a coalition government. It also saves Israeli voters from the prospect of a fourth presidential election in a year. AP
LAYOFF NATION: As expected, Uber announced major layoffs, becoming the latest Silicon Valley company to downsize amid the pandemic. Uber is cutting 3,700 jobs, about 14 percent of its workforce, in the biggest layoff at a tech firm so far this year. It comes as a new report showed private payrolls shed 20 million jobs in April. Tomorrow’s jobs report for April is likely to show the biggest loss in American history. OBSERVER
PELOTON CRUSHING IT: If any companies can be declared “winners” right now, Peloton is among them. After a bumpy IPO and that widely-mocked Christmas commercial, the maker of high-end stationary bikes is now firing on all cylinders. Peloton says its revenue for the first quarter was up 66 percent and now has 2.6 million paying members. So many people are “panic buying” the $2,250 bikes that the company currently has a backlog of orders. MARKETWATCH
RETURN OF THE DRIVE-IN: The drive-in movie theater is making a comeback. Tribeca Enterprises, IMAX and AT&T are teaming up on an initiative to release new and classic films onto huge outdoor screens at venues across the country this summer. Details are scarce, but the plan is to launch on June 25 at the few drive-in theaters still left, as well as other venues that are yet to be named. VARIETY
NEW GAGA RECORD: Lady Gaga’s delayed sixth studio album has a new release date: May 29. The album, titled Chromatica, was originally scheduled to be released a month ago, but got pushed back because of the pandemic. Gaga has been hard at work raising money for coronavirus relief efforts in the interim. EW
ADELE'S WEIGHT LOSS: After Adele posted an Instagram photo in which she looked noticeably thinner, a debate began on social media over whether it’s OK to compliment a person — specifically, a woman — for losing weight. The Grammy winner’s photo has already garnered more than 7 million likes. SEE IT
LEFTOVERS: YOU CAN'T EXPENSE THAT: Google had to update its internal policy to make it clear to employees that they can’t expense things like meals and gym equipment while working from home. Many Googlers have travel and event budgets that are going unused, but the company is belt-tightening and says even those unspent funds can’t be used to expense perks they’d normally receive at the office. CNBC
