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What to watch for today
The English Premier League holds emergency talks. Representatives from 20 clubs will discuss over a conference call how to complete the soccer season, which is currently suspended until Apr. 4 but is widely expected to be pushed further back.
Ford shuts its European factories. The American car maker begins a weeks-long suspension of production facilities across the continent, joining a dozen other major automakers that had already halted production or are about to in coming days.
Narendra Modi addresses India. The prime minister will outline the government’s plan to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Separately, Portugal’s cabinet ministers will meet to decide on outbreak mitigation measures.
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China reported zero local infections. Marking a major threshold in the country’s fight against the coronavirus, health authorities recorded no new locally transmitted cases the previous day. But there is still a risk of a second wave of infections as imported cases creep up, and work and travel restrictions are slowly lifted.
The European Central Bank announced a massive bond buying program. The €750 billion ($820 billion) emergency purchase scheme was announced after an unscheduled meeting yesterday, and will last until the “crisis phase” of the pandemic is over.
The US Senate overwhelmingly passed the relief bill. President Donald Trump signed into law the $100 billion bipartisan plan, which provides paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, free testing, and increased funding for food and medical aid. Meanwhile, lawmakers are crafting another package that could include direct cash handouts and cost $1 trillion.
Australia cut rates to a record low of 0.25%. The country’s central bank made the emergency reduction of a quarter of a percentage point in an attempt to protect the economy from the global fallout. Separately, Qantas announced it would ground all its international flights starting later this month until at least the end of May, and put two-thirds of its staff on leave.
The World Health Organization warned against using the term “Chinese virus.” An official called out Trump for continuing to use the phrase, saying it could lead to racial profiling. The contention over what to call the virus underscores the fraught geopolitics of the pandemic.
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IVF extras. PGT is a controversial add-on to fertility care that screens embryos for potential abnormalities. Some clinicians think it is indicative of a larger trend of expensive IVF add-on procedures that are ineffective at best. Learn more in this week’s deep dive into the business of fertility.
Reading this from bed? It’s better than being all hunched over at your kitchen table.
Quartz daily obsession
Trolls are as old as the internet. For most of the web’s history, we’ve written off their online provocations and abuse as harmless pranks—despite a mounting toll of suicides and intense trauma. But after the US presidential election in 2016, when state-sponsored armies of agitators began wielding anonymous comments as political weapons, their tactics stopped being so funny. Ignore the bait and read the Quartz Daily Obsession.
Matters of debate
Nationalize the airlines. Deregulation of the industry has been a colossal failure and it’s time to reverse course.
The US should lift its sanctions on Iran. It would provide some reprieve as the country reels from the pandemic.
For many, true isolation is impossible. If you live with a vulnerable person, you have to figure out a way to safely co-exist.
Surprising discoveries
People transformed Little Free Libraries into tiny pantries. Some kind strangers filled the neighborhood book exchange boxes with canned food and other staples.
Researchers may have discovered the oldest known bird relative. The nearly complete fossil of a fowl’s skull found on the Dutch-Belgian border could be the ancestor of every chicken.
Even funerals are being livestreamed. As the coronavirus crisis escalates, mourners in the US are saying their farewells via a video feed.
A Scottish brewery is making hand sanitizer. BrewDog will give away the product to help with shortages.
Only one stock on the FTSE 100 is up for the year. It’s online grocery company Ocado Group.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, Little Free Pantries, and repurposed distilleries to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Mary Hui and edited by Isabella Steger.