The country’s leaders are hoping that they can put a floor under the economy, which expanded by 4% in the fourth quarter of last year, the slowest pace since the beginning of the Covid-19 recovery.

The videogame giant’s actions have come in the wake of pressure from investors, business partners and employees to address complaints over its handling of misconduct issues.

Hundreds of U.S.-listed companies are off more than 20% from highs. Many are in a bear market.

The chairman’s jet use also raised concerns, with some board members fearing he lacked credibility to fix what had come to be seen as the bank’s broken culture.

Very carefully, found Philadelphia’s Hahnemann hospital, which had to find a new caretaker for a patient’s decades-old device when it went bankrupt.

WHAT'S NEWS

Business & Finance

  • China’s leaders moved to kick-start an economy that saw slowing fourth-quarter growth and another drop in the birthrate, cutting two key interest rates in response to the impact of pandemic restrictions and a property-market slump.
  • Stocks in mainland China rose and Hong Kong stocks fell after Beijing’s rate cut, while U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
  • Activision has fired or pushed out dozens of employees and disciplined about 40 others since July as part of efforts to address allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct at the videogame giant.
  • Unilever said it wants to push further into health, beauty and hygiene products at the expense of slower-growing food brands after disclosing a $68 billion approach for Glaxo’s consumer-health business.
  • Airline CEOs said there could be significant flight disruptions when new 5G service goes live in the U.S. this week unless implementation within two miles of major airport runways is delayed.
  • BlackRock’s Fink defended his push for climate-friendly policies at the companies his firm invests in.
  • Activist investor Macellum renewed a push to get retailer Kohl’s to take action to boost its lagging stock price, including altering its board.

World-Wide

  • After punishing parts of the South with ice and snow over the weekend, a winter storm hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S., causing widespread travel disruption and knocking out power by Monday morning to more than 200,000 homes and businesses.
  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they were behind aerial attacks in the United Arab Emirates that killed three people, as intensifying fighting in a seven-year civil war spills out across the broader Middle East.
  • The Biden administration’s plan to buy and distribute 1 billion rapid Covid-19 tests is sending manufacturers and distributors racing to boost tight nationwide supplies.
  • As the White House seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, one of the biggest obstacles is Tehran’s demand that the U.S. provide a guarantee it won’t again quit the pact and reimpose sanctions, diplomats involved in talks in Austria say.