Washington Post: Business

Carmakers from Tokyo to Detroit are slashing production. PlayStations are getting harder to find in stores. Even aluminum producers warn of a potential downturn ahead. All have one thing in common: an abrupt and cascading global shortage of semiconductors.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share

The investment by Quality Control could help some content creators avoid copyright strikes while playing songs on stream.

The change is the result of a pledge President Biden made to reduce the burden on those who say they have been forced to choose between staying healthy or getting a paycheck during the pandemic.

Two programs in Michigan will be devoted to creating new units and other support services.

A growing genre was flourishing just as white-collar workers went into quarantine. Authors consider how — or if — Zoom will fit into fiction.

Viruses mutate all the time, including the novel coronavirus that’s caused the global Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the changes have no apparent effect. But recent variants that have emerged in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil are causing particular concern.

Space enthusiasts, including NASA, see enormous benefit in the shift — a new era of space exploration that will usher in a more capable and efficient space industry. But the changing dynamic also has left NASA with an uncertain role.

The ban, which also affects Facebook subsidiary Instagram, extends a series of actions in recent years to sharply limit the ability of the nation’s military, called the Tatmadaw, to use the platforms in any way, including through paid advertising.

Nine vaccines have proved effective at protecting people from developing symptoms of Covid-19, the disease that can result from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Less is known about how well the various inoculations prevent people from getting an asymptomatic infection or passing the virus on to others.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy faces the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The Postal Service is battling financial and service crises caused by years of mail declines worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.